Jawahar Bangera

 I attended a workshop this weekend with Jawahar who i had never taken from. It was amazing. I will share a couple things he showed us this weekend.

When i was in sirsasana, i was directly across the room from Otelia, her pose was sorta hard to watch, it was crooked in a way that looked uncomfortable, anyway he told her she was doing the pose from the lumbar and had her come down, the next day as we were preparing for sirsasana he walked over to her and he told her  instead of having her hands cupped for her head, to press the palms together, when she went up...night and day, truly unbelievable!

 I am telling you, this pic below has absolutely nothing in common to what she had been doing...night and day! she said he told her it was for her shoulders, just wow

We did gomukasana work using the rope wall, he said if you are right handed when the right arm is the bottom arm its usually more difficult

top arm: fingers in rope thumb out 

 you must walk away to get the rope pull for the armpit/shoulder opening

 then walk a little toward wall to bring hand to back position 

bottom arm: thumb in rope fingers out, again use the pull of the rope

its nice to take top arm over once the bottom is complete, when you again do in the center of the room there is a noticeable improvement in the shoulders and firmness of the hand grasp

and then there was Virabhadrasana I

there is 1 bent leg and 1 bending leg, the front leg is bent the back leg is bending, the back leg must be straight the work of quadriceps just above the knee move back,  the initial turn comes from the outer hip of the back leg

even if the heel is on the floor, if the ankle of the back leg is turning out you need to be on the 5 year plan, in 5 years you will have the heel on the floor

Place block at the wall,  heel on block, the bone of the heel, crush the block as the front knee bends you should press more, every year come down 1/5 

to change legs - step the foot on the block forward beside the front foot, now move the front foot back to the block. When you look back at the block to step the front foot back, it looks like its about a mile away.  He said it shows you that you always decrease the distance, this teaches the tendency to shorten and short change the second side

 so many wonderful instructions and observations to absorb.

Roger Cole

I am in La Jolla for a 1 day workshop with Roger Cole, I have attended his class in Del Mar a few times but this is the first all day event i have been to. It was held at a studio which was not an Iyengar studio and he was brought in as part of their teacher training. It was really interesting watching him teach a room full of students who had never done Iyengar yoga, he had slides and spoke about BKS Iyengar leaving me even more grateful to have started a path of yoga in the sphere of such a genius, as Roger Cole explained his use of props to find integrity in the pose, alignment is a technique for equanimity.

The morning session was more active, several things stood out. watching people who had never done sarvangasana on support. He asked someone to demonstrate who regularly did the asana without support and who loved the asana. Then showed that her neck and shoulders looked good but the torso and legs were not straight so he put her on height and had her go back up to show, she said she felt she would fall over without him there, so interesting not just the alignment change but someone who does the pose and who is obviously flexible but finding and keeping the alignment made it so much more difficult for her.

 My favorite from the morning was Virabhadrasana I - him showing the tadasana pelvis being kept as the legs stepped apart, keeping 1 hand on the sit bone of the back leg side and 1 hand across the torso on the front hip bone keeping the same relationship of tadasana, raise the heel and bend the front leg keeping tadasana, he said almost everyone bent the back leg because the back leg wants to bend but the quadricep of the back leg must be engaged strongly to keep the leg straight, he said when the back leg bent it was like walking over to the wall outlet and pulling the plug, all the energy goes out of the pose.

The afternoon was restorative, he studies the physiology of relaxation so he had ekg's, eeg's, brain waves, heart rate graphs during a restorative practice... all of the science just made me more astounded at BKS Iyengar. He said he believed viparita karani was one of the most relaxing things a human could do from his perspective as a scientist, other forms of yoga do vip karani, it is in the ancient texts,  but only Iyengar yoga used the configuration with the pelvis supported in this way. Him explaining inversions triggering the blood pressure sensor in the neck, the sensor sending the message to the brain that the blood pressure has increased which has the brain enlarging the arteries and lowering the heart rate to bring the blood pressure down so that inversions, when in a calm mind state, lowers blood pressure, and Guruji knew all of this from experience ... wow. How stretching has an immediate reaction of causing the brain to contract the muscle, staying in a gentle stretch leaves you more relaxed as the impulses get weaker over time.

the teacher does not have to walk a student deeper and deeper into a state of deep relaxation, you just need to get the student to the tipping point as it tips a little more relaxation takes over and relaxation progresses by itself

prasarita padottanasana - forehead supported, if head to the floor be on crown, if flexible uttanasana head supported

dwi pada - blocks on lowest height, 1 block horizontal under pelvis 1 block verticle under shoulders, belt mid thighs

setu bandha - 2 blankets shelf fold in half lengthways end to end, legs torso on blankets mid calf belted

supta baddha konasana - 2 blankets lengthways fold stacked, 1 lengthwise fold folded in half for head support, blanket folded over feet under thighs

I was fascinated that someone explaining what BKS Iyengar gave to the subject to a non-iyengar group was every bit as astounding as any teacher talking about Guruji's gift to an Iyengar class, it will always give me pause to really try to understand the depth of this mans accomplishments

 

 Knees

I attended a 1 hour knee class with Lois Steinberg while she was in Dallas yesterday picking up her cat, Greg gave her cat treats as a gift and she was thrilled :)

The class was a quick demonstration on the use of the knee rods - she had them for sale with her new knee book which also shows the rods.

The short rods come in a set of 4 rods (2 per knee) and 4 short belts - the set cost $65 from her, the long rods which she said started cutting into her leg for longer practice are more $, not sure of the price but i could see where i could use that for, as she showed, the side of the outer lower leg (where the dent is along the side) which i have had a huge problem with aching there but its much better but anyway... the rods are to get the knee joint totally straight, the joint being straight will allow blood flow and help in healing, she said for Guruji's 75th birthday (if i haven't confused stories) a girl was there with a stiff leg which would not bend as a result of a medical procedure gone wrong and Guruji still straightened it more before bending - so a practice would be straight leg poses then bent leg. Before the rods she would use rolled mat with the belts.

she went person to person telling them your knees go in , go out, this knee does this that one that....mine go in

Here's what we did:

1) Supta Tadasana

 are you looking at me?
Experienced students: heels on blanket roll, belt the rods on either side of the knee cap, up against the knee cap, belt the rods in place with the buckle of the belt on the inner rod (this helps hold it in place), the belt tail should be where it is tightened inward, weight on the thighs (she uses 75 lbs), belt mid thighs mid shins

Less experienced: very small blanket roll under knees, heels on floor, the blanket roll should not get knees to bend, rods belts the same as above

 

 

 

2) Legs up the wall - foam with sandbag on feet

 

 

3) Dandasana - sacrum at wall, feet press against foam held by partner so there is pressure from both sides (sacrum/feet) - heels elevated on blanket roll

4) Virabhadrasana II - if there is knee pain from the weight in the front knee in this pose: front foot on block, toes up wall, block between shin and wall, action move the shin block up the wall