Not All Poses Are Created Equal

When you're old, you can still straighten your arms. Your legs. Your hips. Neck. Wrists.

Wanna know what you can't straighten, when you are older? Your thoracic (upper back).

Don't believe me? <sigh, foolish one>

Think of two ideal old people. One's straight and tall, and is full of life. The other, is <insert body part and direction>, and not much fun.

Exactly!

Now you know why backbends are the most important asana family.

They are the only ones, that stop the one body part, that can't be straightened - in most oldies - from getting bent over. Ergo.

Backbends rock. And you should be busting them out more than any other family of asana.

Workin' on that kickass press lift from uttanasana?

Or, that chin to shin in pacimo?

Pfffft...Wastin' your time.

Those body parts aren't in danger of not straightening. Now, your thoracic.

If you don't give that 666 badboy some attention, you'll regret it later.

Well, don't sit around reading blogs. Get backbendin', J.

You Know The Moment You Know You're Weird

You know the moment you know you're weird.

You know?

When you're standing there.

And you get a view of your life from the outside.

It's kinda magical.

You know that it's happening, and you know it's magical.

But you also remember, saying to yourself.

In your magical happening, outside your body, looking back at yourself.

Remember that you're weird.

Bring Yoga Back

Follow up post to "How Yoga Lost Its Way"

In that post we argued that money is now in charge of yoga. And because of this, yoga now bends to the mass of consumers, rather than the masses bending to yoga (pun intended).

In other posts, we questioned where all the back bends went, and tied that into this bowing to the masses. Give 'em what they want. They don't want backbends.

In this post, we give a passing mention to how hard we see yoga teachers trying to teach funky flows. New moves. Fresh outta <insert hip, happenin' yoga location>.

You see guys, these teachers and studios, that omit asana families (like backbends), or that feel they have to funk up their flows, in order to be successful, are robbing you.

Not of money. Of yoga.

It's only after years and years of practice, that you'll start to see that, what you needed all along, was a solid basic practice.

One that builds on itself, and fully equips you with all the tools you need to climb Mount Yoga.

The way yoga's being taught now, you guys are gonna hit high altitude, and figure out some important bit of equipment is missing. That you need to get to the top.

So, then you have to go all the way back down. Pick up the equipment, and start climbing again.

The good news, is that there's probably a few yoga teachers around that understand this. You need to find them.

They're the ones with the boring classes that include all the basics and where you're probably gonna (shock, horror) sweat during class. Yep, yoga's a workout.

So, try different studios. Find the ones that stick to the basics. Find ones that actually include backbends or that have backbend props lying around.

Find classes the make you sweat.

Here's yoga:

Repetition of the same boring old poses, until you get them. Then repetition of new poses, that soon get boring, until you get them.

Rinse, dry repeat, J

Natarajasana - The Sooner You Push Up ^ With That Back Leg The Better

Let's work on a bit of visual imagery with natarajasana.

This pose doesn't actually start, until your back thigh, is up past parallel to the floor.

So, the guy in the above pic, has his lifted leg just under parallel to the floor. If he lifts his back knee another 12 inches, it'll be past parallel.

This is an important milestone (when the back knee is higher than the hips). Here's why.

With the knee higher than the hips,  you get access to pushing upwards linearly.

The importance of this change in action can't be understated.

That right angle in the guys pose (between the lifted leg and the standing leg), saps huge amounts of energy from the pose.

Past parallel he'll be pushing down through the standing leg, and straight up, through the lifted leg.

Ummm...try this...put your hands on a wall and push away.

Now stand in a doorway. Reach up and push up against the top of the door jamb. Put some effort into it.

You'll notice that you can exert heaps more outward power, when pushing linearly under the door jamb.

In the two examples, the right angle nataraj is like pushing against the wall. That right angle kills the pose. It's hard to transfer energy through a bend.

When your leg is past parallel, you have unlimited ability to push upwards. All that leg strength acting in a linear motion. Powerful.

Ok. So here's the main take away...

...you gotta hit nataraj hard, until the leg is past parallel.

The gains literally pour on, when you can access the power of linear motion. Especially when using the body's most powerful muscles (legs, glutes).

In a future post, I'll show you a method of supercharging your nataraj practice. Easy, but powerful.

Be royal, J

P.S. Here's a pic of someone with their leg past para. She's pushin' up through that lifted leg. The power you can use in a straight line is awesome. Especially, when the legs are involved.

Evolution Of A Yogi

When you first start out, you gravitate to what comes naturally. Maybe arm balances for men. Hip and hammies for women.

After a bit (a 'bit' in yoga is years and years), you've got your go-to thing coming along nicely.

Then you notice that you're weak in something. It's your nemesis yoga body part or family of asana. Say backbends.

Well, you're pretty good at your go-to body part, so you devote some lovin' to your nemesis yoga.

Pretty soon ('soon' in yoga is years and years), your nemesis yoga is looking pretty decent.

Encouraged by your success, with your nemesis yoga, you move onto the next thing that you are most weak at.

In the meantime you are keeping up your practice with your go-to and nemesis yoga.

You keep working through things, until everything is the same.

et voila! Balance. The circle is complete. You are complete.

Now, you can start the real practice, J

Yoga's Unique Perspective

Photography is all about perspective. I like to think successful photography is about being unique.

Unique person, unique thing, unique event or unique perspective (or combinations of them).

Everything you perceive is because of a function of your body in some way.

You feel the wind on your face, running the fastest you've ever run before.

You look out from higher than you've ever been before.

What if one of the functions improved. You could see further, jump higher, run faster or smell more?

It would be unique feeling the wind on your face, running the fastest you've ever run before. Or, how the trees go by so much faster.

Or, you how everything you've ever smelt before is now up for grabs, if you could smell more.

Deeper asana provides a unique perspective.

Every time you bend further than you've ever been before, you are getting a unique perspective. A place you've never felt open in such a way before.

..the first time you see your feet from behind in a backbend.

Back to photography; next time you see a photo you really like, ask yourself: Unique person, unique thing, unique event or unique perspective?

I just made all that up...It's Friday night. I need to get out more. You know. Be unique, J

Read All About It: Yogi Eats Hot Dog

Ok so, you know how hot dogs are full of shit that's bad for you? Well, apparently it's true...

iWitness Testimony

"How like, this one time, 

Rhonda's sister Sherry's boyfriend 

said that the sausages in the hot dogs

 are made from all the dead cats and dogs 

that they kill at the pound."

Well, there's a healthy yogic alternative.

Introducing: The Banana Dog (tm) : )

Yep, the folks down at the yogic think-tank "Brainy People For Yoga", have come up the yoga's hot dog alternative.

No longer will you sit in the stands at your favorite sporting event, jealous of all the guys who get to eat dogs. It's just not right.

Now you can break out your Banana Dog (tm) and chow down with them. Could life get any better?

num, num, num, J

Banana Dog (tm) ingredients:
Lightly (that's lightly, not crispily, <sigh> toasted bread.
Nuttelex (spread over aforementioned light toast)
Honey (spread over Nuttelex)
Banana
Bend toast around banana, voila! Banana Dog (tm) <see, told you not too crispy!>

Yoga Is Selfish

"Yoga is so selfish", said the daughter to her father.

"It's all about your pose, your breath, your focus".

"But I never talk about my yoga with you!", protested her father.

"I can see it when you practice", said his daughter.

This Is Yoga, You Are --> Here

In this post we...

   ...levitate ourselves into the yoga stratosphere

      ...take a gander at the world of yoga below us

         ...pinpoint where exactly we are

Then we suck the whole world of yoga into that pinpoint. Kinda like an imploding black hole. It's gonna be so cool. Let's liftoff.

Four Paths

There's four paths of yoga:

1) Jnana yoga: This is nerd yoga. These yogis study a lot. Knowledge is their drug. They study yogic texts. Kinda like monks in a monastery studying scripture.

2) Karma yoga: This is selfless action yoga. Think Ghandi and Mother Teresa. They are Karma yogis. What goes around, comes around.

3) Bhakti yoga: This is love and devotional yoga. Devotion to God. Think Hare Krishnas.

4) Raja yoga: This is us. Jock yoga.

We'll stick with Raja yoga for this next bit, and we'll use Patanjali's 8 limbs to help pinpoint our location.

CU in the next post, J.

Practice At Your Level During Class

You go to class, and the level of practice is below your level. Do you:

A) Throttle it back, and go with the level of the class, or

B) Practice at your own level regardless of the teacher and class.

Now, I'm not talking about heading off in your own direction during class. What's the point of attending, if you are just gonna do your own thing?

No. I'm talking about practicing at your level within the poses on offer.

Here's some examples:

Teacher has the class come into side plank and lift the top leg up. Do you catch the toes and extend or just lift the leg a bit?

Teacher has the class come into ardha chandrasana. You are used to lifting the bottom hand. Do you do this or leave the lower hand on the floor?

Here's the answer:

Will you be practicing the pose in the full variation in the next couple of days? Now.

If you will be practicing the full variation in the next couple of days, it doesn't matter whether you go full variation or throttled back.

If  you will not be practicing the full variation in the next couple of days, then you had best go full variation.

If you keep throttling back your practice during class, and class is the only yoga you are getting in, then eventually you'll lose the ability to get into the full variation.

That's why it's called PRACTICE!

Now, onto whether you look like a show off or not if you do practice the full version.

Show off to who? Those who don't have the fortitude to achieve? Gimme a break. Same deal. 

If you let people with less ability than you, dictate your capabilities, well, it won't be long till you join them.

CU in class, J.