Lower back suppting Chair Pose

After spending the morning with my Physical Therapist, we devised a new way to get into chair pose that is particularly supportive of those with lumber back issues. 1. First bend the knees while pulling in the belly button and arching the lumbar spine. pull up on the paraneaum. 2. Extend the arms outstreatched and upwardsa at about a 45 degree angle. bring the weight into the heels and balance for 10 long breaths. do three sets. This protects the lumbar spine particularly L5 S1 from over curvature - convex- of the lower spine. This would be less helpful for those with the opposite problem or a concave lumbar or flat lumbar disposition.

Iyengar's first 10 postures from Light on Yoga

Light on Yoga was Iyengar's first recognized major contribution to yoga in the West. Thought the writing is a bit staid and the photographs a grainey black and white the book retains its usefulness as an instructional instrument. Espically interesting are Iyengars takes on pranayama and on the Bahandas. In both cases when talking about breathing exercies and root locks he explains things in an accessable and clear way. I do recognize that in reading the text I am aided by my knowledge of yoga which allows me to 'see' exactly what he describes.

Having picked up Light on Yoga just the other day off my book shelf I thought a nice experiment would be to work through the book and attempt all 700 or so postures, completing about 10-20 at a time. This is rather ambitions as many require a very supple body and some postures will take some time to master. Yet I feel up to the challenge.

In fact after doing them myself I instructed my class in the first 10 postures today. They seemed to very much enjoy the expreience if not the effort as it was difficult for many of them to get the revolved poses (uttitha parsvokonasana etc)

Thats all for now I hope everyones self practice is coming along

P

Making Space

The toughest part of being new dad is making space for yoga while taking care of our new little peach. The fact is it can be done. Yesterday we all did about a hour of yoga while my wife did some pilates. We passed little banana between us when she needed attention and put here into her seat when she seemed able to entertain herself. I also recognize that this space for yoga is based on the fact we are both off work just now and that there will be less time once my job starts up again. Pre planning is really whats most important here and making sure I communicate with my partner about taking yoga time. She needs/deserves her time too.

cheers

New Baby has arrived and the yoga continues

Our baby , Bella , was born day before yesterday and has kept us busy and me away from this blog. I think she is a little Budda baby as she sleeps often and then looks around with those knowing eyes. Yoga journal is as follows: I've done some childs pose, cat/cow and a few spotting dogs in the AM to get the spine woken up. Meditated on the morning of my daughters birth but not a lot of vinyasa to speak of but baby has kept me present and in the moment, really wonderful.

More to come

Patrick

Starting out

What is yoga? More importantly what is yoga to me. It has been translated from Sanskrit to mean 'union' or 'yoke'. I like to think of it as an immutable word, something that has always been the same like the sound of the universe, "ooommm", but I know in my world yoga has come to mean different things depending on what I've needed it to mean. When I was a 26 year old wide-eyed beginner to the physical practice of yoga (the vinyasas) it was another way to get an adrenaline high. Five years later it helped me through a tough breakup and I began to study the eight-fold path of yoga and attempted meditation for the first time. Finally, I headed for India and had the chance to study with a yoga master.

Since those earlier years I have made yoga a big part of my life (teaching it, and attempting to live yogicly) but I still struggle with what it means and how it brings meaning into my life, so, here I am blogging about it, hoping that by writing an entry here, from time to time, will help me think about my experience with yoga and will allow me to develop a personal practice which leads to a modicum of balance in my life.

With that said_ I did very little except think about doing yoga today, is that yogic? dohno.