Many Sides of Backbending

This week my students and I have practiced backbends. Lots and lots of backbends. We included warm up versions of bhujangasana (cobra pose) and salabasana (locust pose), practiced many repetitions of urdhva mukha svanasana (upward facing dog pose), and went deeper into dhanurasana (bow pose). We practiced the backbends one would expect in this group including ustrasana (camel pose), setu bandhasana (bridge pose), and urdhva danurasana (wheel pose).

Why work on so many backbends? In yoga philosophy, the asana (poses) practice is only part of yoga. If there is an objective to the physical practice it is basically to make the world a better place one person at a time. We practice to awaken our consciousness to the unity of all beings. Part of this awareness includes compassion and gratitude. According to yoga philosophy, the anahata chakra (heart center) lies beneath the sternum (breastbone). By practicing backbends, the yogi awakens and becomes aware of this center, allowing compassion and gratitude to flow.

Yoga practice does have physical benefits as well as the philosophical benefits. In addition to all the backbends we worked on poses to strengthen the abdominal muscles like plank, forearm plank, and chaturanga dandasana (low plank pose). We practiced poses intended to stretch the chest and shoulders like gomukhasana (cow face) arms and garudasana (eagle) arms. I included these stretches in the classes to support the backbends with the objective of countering the rounded postures of daily life.

Most of us sit at desks and computers or drive much of the day. Hours of these sitting activities contribute to a rounded upper back with tight muscles around the chest and front of the shoulders. The other side, the upper back muscles, becomes long and weak. Practicing backbends helps to correct hours of sitting by stretching the front of the body and strengthening the back of the body.

Our backbend practice this week can help to prevent repetitive strain injuries by stretching what is tight and strengthening what is weak. But we spend many hours in poor postures and it will take more than a weekly yoga class to reverse the tight chest and shoulders and weak upper back. It helps to take stretch breaks each hour with gomukhasana (cow face) or garudasana (eagle) arms.  We need to be aware of posture all day long in addition to participating a yoga asana practice or gym resistance training and stretching regimen. We can help to correct rounded postures by being mindful throughout the day of drawing the scapula (shoulder blades) onto the back and opening the clavicles (collar bones). Along these lines we can consider almost any pose or posture as a backbend. Even in navasana (boat pose) the correct alignment is to draw the shoulder blades onto the back and to lift the sternum up toward the ceiling. Adho mukha svanasana (downward facing dog pose) also is done with a slight backbend with the sternum reaching through the upper arms. Most yoga asanas support good posture by shining the sternum forward rather than collapsing the trunk thus rounding the spine. 

Any of these poses can help to stretch and strengthen as well as to feel compassion and gratitude. Practicing so many backbends this week has certainly awakened my now slightly sore upper back muscles. It also has made me think more about how grateful I am for the students that come to my classes to share their practice with me and to all the people that read my blog posts. Thank you to all of you!

Benefits of Yoga

I have seen many of the popular press articles and some of the research articles (most are not very well controlled – unfortunately the studies are for the most part too poorly designed to make confident conclusions) espousing the benefits of yoga practice. Every body system, including endocrine, cardiovascular, and musculoskeletal is supposed to be positively affected by yoga in some way. Perhaps they are.

Exercise certainly will positively affect every body system. Many well-designed studies have removed doubt that the higher intensity the exercise the more one will benefit (up to a point that is not likely to be sustained by anyone but a few elite athletes). Unfortunately, few articles that claim health benefits of yoga compare asana practice (poses linked with breathing) to traditional exercise so no one can say for certain if yoga is as good as or more or less effective than a workout that includes cardiovascular exercise and resistance training. There also are many styles of yoga practice, some more likely than others to benefit all body systems. Of all the classes available on any one day in any city, most will not be as beneficial as a gym workout for any body system because of the difference in workload intensity.

I personally look to the gym where I maintain an elevated heart rate during cardio exercise and lift my maximum weight during resistance training (see previous blog posts) for physiologic benefits of physical activity. It is the mindfulness part of yoga practice that keeps me coming back to my mat. Turning inward to time by breath with body movement keeps me present the entire time I practice. Anytime my mind wanders off to the huge list of things I need to do or issues I need to resolve, I come back to my breath and alignment to maintain my mindful yoga practice. My poses are deeper when I’m aware and my experience is more awake and alive.  I finish my practice feeling like I’ve been to a spa or had a nap in a way that other physical activity doesn’t offer. My mind is still after a yoga practice and I feel ready to tackle the to-do list and unresolved issues with new clarity and vigor.

 My awareness practice on the mat also helps me to return to the present moment during my experiences off the mat. I have learned to tune into the present by being aware of each breath and of the sensations of each moment.  I have come to appreciate the difference between gulping tea without awareness and presence and drinking with attention to the aroma, taste, and sight of the drink. I stay with each sensation to take advantage of each moment, particularly when I am enjoying an experience. Why get a fabulous massage when I’m busy mentally running down my to-do list?! Why indulge in a decadent dessert unless I’m enjoying each bite with all my senses?!

 I’ll rely on my gym workout to benefit me physiologically. It is the awareness and mindfulness I learn from my yoga practice that I see as the valuable benefit of yoga.

Freedom

Freedom has been the lesson I keep returning to this week, (not coincidentally) timed with the country’s celebration of its freedom from a relationship that did not work to the advantage of the colonies nor the English. I have explored many ways to deepen the feeling of freedom, or moksha (liberation), on the mat that have followed me off the mat.
  

Some students requested that we work on hip openers for our Independence Day practice. We worked to soften through the hips and pelvis to find a sense of ease in several asanas (poses), including gomukhasana (cow face pose) and in many lunges and standing poses including parivrtta trikonasana (revolved triangle pose). We worked toward eka hasta bhujasana (elephant trunk pose) and astavakrasana (eight-angle pose). But these two are not easy poses. Many students did not get into them and some of the students that did were unable to hold the poses for five breaths. This is where we are presented with the opportunity to free ourselves from our egos. Difficult poses like these offer important lessons to let go of the ego that tells us we need to “nail” each pose and let us explore the pose and experience it as our bodies offers it at this point in time. We are free to develop our practice and our attention as we challenge ourselves – where is the opportunity to develop if we never practice a pose we find difficult? 

Many yoga students are challenged by hip openers like these. Others find these poses easier and need to explore freeing their egos in other poses such as shoulder openers like garudasana (eagle pose) and arm balances such as bakasana (crow pose). Whatever our challenge pose is at the moment, it will challenge us emotionally and mentally as much as it will challenge us physically. The challenging pose will become easier if we surrender into it and soften our resistance, using our breath to move into it, rather than pushing, expecting, trying and doing.

So where have I applied these lessons to my life off the mat? As a chronic perfectionist, I’ve been working on freedom from finding perfection in myself, others, and events. It is not easy for me to let go of my ego that I wrap in perfectionism. But I am more aware of softening expectations, looking for the best possible outcome perhaps, but finding something natural and generally ok about imperfection. I’ve been lengthening my breath and releasing resistance to what is and accepting it with a free and open mind. Just as every asana isn’t going to be perfect, nor will every action off the mat. If I accept freedom to experience fluctuation on my mat then I need to soften and release perfectionism off my mat.  

We find more opportunities to liberate ourselves by releasing habitual thoughts and actions. Habits by definition are the easy way to function and lead to our reaching for a less healthy food option or automatically finding the negative in someone or something. It requires more mindfulness to interrupt a habitual pattern by reaching for a peach rather than a chocolate bar when we feel stress. It is hard work, but that is where the opportunity to develop ourselves comes from. True freedom comes from controlling and interrupting patterns and habits that don’t serve us. The founders of our country declared independence from patterns that didn’t serve the colonies. The freedoms they sought did not come easy but were rewarding, liberating, and enduring much as the benefits of our yoga practice can be for us. If we could only surrender and let go of our ego then we can be free.

The Many Meanings of Flexibility

People frequently comment on my flexibility. Often they refer to the way that my body can move and bend. Other times they refer to my attitude in accommodating unexpected obstacles and requests. I’ve found that life teaches each of us to be flexible. Often there is nothing else we can do but accommodate. Sometimes it is the weather, other times it is a business (especially an airline), and other times it is a significant other or colleague but each day we are required to veer off our planned course of action and be flexible and open to something else.

How willing I am to be flexible depends a lot on how committed I am to my original plan. But willing or not, I’ve got to budge. I believe that my yoga practice has helped me to be flexible – in both senses of the term. As I get on my mat and bend my body, opening hips, shoulders and hamstrings, I explore my flexibility both physically and mentally. I try to be open minded to what the asana (pose) will feel like during that particular practice. The same asana looks different from one day to the next. Even within the same day, my morning hanumanasana (monkey pose, or splits) and titibhasana (firefly) poses are never as deep as they are in the evening. But yoga practice teaches me to stay with the practice and accept the pose as it is at the time, regardless of the outcome.

Deciding to use yoga props is an example of using a flexible attitude to improve a flexible body. I might use a block one day although I didn’t use one the day before. Although the block itself accommodates physical flexibility, it takes flexibility of attitude to use a prop to experience the asana without ego interfering. For instance, it is easy to lapse into full-blown ego protection during a practice by telling myself “I can get into a full split without using a block so I won’t use one today”. But yoga has taught me that the practice of staying in the moment, using my breath to transition between and to stay in poses is what is important. Coming into an expression of any pose beyond what my body is willing to provide at that time has potential of straining a muscle or ligament, causing an injury. Repeatedly coming into an asana incorrectly or holding it with poor alignment because I haven’t prepared my body for the pose might make me prone to a painful and limiting tendonitis. None of these injuries is worth forcing a deeper expression of a pose than is available at the time. So it serves me well to be flexible in accepting the pose as it is available during that practice without expecting a certain expression of that pose.

Yoga practice requires that I stay with the process, without attachment to the outcome. This practice is important for proper alignment, awareness, and injury prevention on the mat and it also serves me well when life requires me to be flexible in attitude when I’m off the mat.

Comfort Balanced with Effort

Yoga practice is based on philosophy outlined in the Yoga Sutras, organized as poetic verses written in the 2^nd century CE. Only a few of the 196 verses refer to the physical practice of asanas (poses) even though most Americans consider that the poses define the practice. Sutra number 2.46 does refer specifically to asanas, and even this message extends beyond the mat into our lives in the real world. This sutra has been translated to mean “It is essential that the posture be steady and comfortable”.  Any pose, then, should be performed in a manner that is challenging, yet relaxed in some way.

A pose as simple as sukhasana (easy sitting pose) has components of comfort and effort. One doesn’t sit rigidly in this pose as they begin a sequence or transition and rest between poses. There is more ease and comfort than rigidity. At the same time, the pose isn’t slouchy. The spine is erect and the spine is energized. The person in this pose is awake and alert.

The same duality applies to physically challenging poses such as natarajasana (dancer pose). This pose requires the person stand on one foot while holding the other leg behind the back with one arm and pressing into a bow shape with the back. This is challenging for balance, flexibility, and strength but it is also challenging to find comfort amidst all the effort. So many muscles must generate force to practice this pose. But many other muscles do not need to work. The jaw doesn’t need to lock and the teeth don’t need to clench. It is actually easier to balance if the toes don’t claw. Pulling the leg up too strongly will hike the pelvis and change the pose. So with all the effort of the pose, there will still be some ease and comfort.

This delicate balance between being alert yet relaxed occurs in our daily lives just as it does in asanas. We need to stay alert when we drive (and not use a phone – even with a hands-free device but I’ll save that lecture for another time) but we also need to have a certain amount of ease so that we can respond to unexpected obstacles and change course quickly if necessary. It requires some effort and control to chop vegetables yet there too, we need some ease as we do; we don’t use every arm muscle to dice a carrot. This balance extends to our relationships where we learn how much we need to give and how much to take in each one just as we learn which “battles to choose” with employees, spouses, and children.

More and more I find my life off my mat reflecting my yoga practice. I look to balance effort with comfort. I remind myself to back off when I push hard or to push when someone is taking advantage of me. This is just how a beautiful life should be lived: steady, comfortably, and in balance.

Grateful for Backbends

A student requested that we work on backbends this week. She has tended to neglect those poses in her yoga practice out of concern out of not doing them correctly. I’m glad that she was aware enough to know that backbends done without correct alignment could create pain. The worst part is that experiencing injury in a pose or in any exercise might make anyone hesitant to continue a yoga practice or exercise routine.

So we worked on loads of backbends, from eka pada rajakapotasana (one leg king pigeon pose from low lunge) and bhujangasana (cobra pose) to urdhva mukha svanasana (upward facing dog pose) and ustrasasna (camel pose). We practiced many variations of salambhasana (locust pose) and both dhanurasana (bow pose) and urdhva dhanurasana (wheel pose).

The safety precaution we took in each of the poses is to generate length through the spine even before lifting into the back bend. Imagining the crown of the head reaching forward and the toes reaching backward helps to energize the muscles through the back and strengthen the space between the vertebral bodies, giving a foundation from which to bend. The back bend should truly be from the entire spine, not just the lumbar portion of the spine (low back).

We also worked to stretch the hips and shoulders before going into deeper backbends. These joints need to be flexible even more than the spine does to achieve a pain free backbend. Students also are surprised at how much leg strength is needed in a backbend. So we worked on strengthening the quadriceps muscles (front of the thigh) because these need to contract to find deeper expressions of dhanurasana, urdhva dhanurasana, and ustrasana. Injuries are more likely to happen if people take backbends without preparing the shoulders, hips, and quadriceps.

The intention we set throughout the practice was to experience gratitude. Moving into backbends opens our hearts up to the sky, a great way to breathe gratitude into the heart center. However deep our pose was on the mat during that class, our bodies were working hard to coordinate flexibility in the front of the hips and shoulders, strength in the front of the thighs and strength in the muscles along the spine to create the expression of the pose we found at that moment. Our bodies are amazing and always give us so much for which to be grateful. Even in days we are ill or injured, even when seasonal allergies are acting up, for the most part we need to find gratitude for all our bodies do for us.

Benefits of Awareness and 100% Effort

My philosophy is that if I’m going to make time, whether it is 20 minutes or 90 minutes, to be on my mat then I’m going to make the most of it. I like intensity and focus that I put into my practice and my gym workout. Maintaining my attention on my body keeps my mind from drifting into crazy chatter that it does the rest of the day and that break is nice. But full effort also affords me all the benefits from the practice (or workout).

I can sort-of-kind-of be in virabhadrasana 2 (warrior 2 pose). You know what this looks like, a little wishy-washy. My front knee can be bent a little and my arms could be out to the sides but be soft and hanging limply because I’m not really aware of what I’m doing. Or I can choose to be in the pose completely with intention. This way my front thigh is parallel with the floor, my legs are working hard as I press them away from each other, and my arms are alive with activity. I’m not rigid, but all of my body is working completely, in the present moment, with all the effort that I can give. I’m going to be there for five breaths anyway, why not be aware, give it all I’ve got, and get the most out of it.

When I do manage 100% effort I’m more likely to have my muscles and joints aligned the way they should be. That alignment makes my muscles more efficient. If I want to develop muscle strength, mental focus, flexibility, balance, or any other benefit from practice then I’m most likely to get to those benefits if I’m completely aware and putting full effort into the pose.

Full effort also keeps me from injuring myself in the pose. It is when we are really thinking about something else that we get hurt. That is because we let the front knee cave in toward the inside of the foot and stretch the ligaments beyond what they should be. Or we can create cervical discomfort if the shoulder blades are riding high instead of anchored down on the back as they should be.

This intense mindful movement is important in the gym as well as on the mat. It is the moment I begin to think about the grocery list that I bang my leg with a dumbbell and bruise my shin (true story – happened last week). If I’m not thinking of alignment while I’m doing a set of flies then I’m likely to stress my shoulder ligaments and feel pain in the front of my shoulder. The ache might last a little while or it could end up being a serious injury, particularly if my inattention is habitual and I continually stretch the same ligaments. Injuries aren’t a badge of honor in the gym or on the mat. They mean that we didn’t do something right; we didn’t maintain awareness or we didn’t honor our body’s limitation that day.

Maintaining awareness for 100% effort on my mat and in the gym also helps me remain focused when I step into the real world. I get more from my relationships when I listen completely to what my friend is telling me. The intensity on my mat also helps me to stay focused when I’m doing anything else so that I am more likely to do it right the first time without errors. That happened last week, too. I breezed through the supermarket thinking about the yoga sequence I was planning to teach that evening and I left the store without a critical item.

No, I’m not able to put in 100% effort every single moment. But I do try. I’ve asked my yoga students this week to set the intention to put in 100% effort throughout the class. One woman learned that she compensates for weak abdominal muscles by using her shoulders in several poses. She realized that is why her shoulders are tight. Her devoted awareness during yesterday’s practice taught her a lot about how she uses her body and will help her get much more out of the time she already is committing to her practice. As long as she is on the mat, she might as well be there completely, 100%.

Celebrating Joy

Winter is here. It is cold. What affects me more is that it is dark and I am more isolated from my community because of it. Winter solstice marks the day of the year with least sunlight. But I chose to celebrate joyfully. It may be the first full day of winter, but looking at the “bright side” days will only get lighter from here! Winter solstice celebrations intend to honor the return of the sun’s light. Traditions dating thousands of years have been incorporated into contemporary spiritual and religious practices to honor the lengthening of daylight. These celebrations have a serendipitous effect of countering winter blues and bringing people together in community.

Besides the year-end parties I’ve attended, I’ve found joy this week in being upside down. What better reason is there to practice adho mukha vrksasana (handstand) than to have fun?! Being upside down offers a perspective that is novel and exciting relative to the feet on the ground, head in the air, day-to-day stance. It increases heart rate and blood pressure in part because of the physiology of the action but also because of this novel excitement. Most people haven’t supported their weight entirely through their hands with their feet in the air since they were 8 years old and those are usually happy memories.

Handstand variations can be accessible to anyone. After preparing the body with a few rounds of surya namaskar (sun salutations – honoring the return of sunlight!) and several breaths in adho mukha svanasana (downward dog pose), the shoulders are open and strengthened to accept body weight. Additional time in plank pose and forearm plank pose can also help strengthen the shoulders. Gomukhasana (cow face pose) and garudasana (eagle pose) arms help open the shoulders. Not only do the hands take the body weight in handstand, but the shoulders need to lift up and out more than they do in our usual daily activities.

Coming into the full expression of the pose in the middle of the room isn’t necessary to experience the joy of being upside down. Support from the wall and keeping one or both feet on the wall are still novel and exciting and fun. And that is what is important - it is the joy of the season that we are celebrating after all!

Cleanliness from the Inside

A friend recently posted on facebook that she had completed her weekly grocery shopping in 30 minutes. Several people responded with incredulous comments implying it was impossible. They began to guess how long it will take for her to return and how many more visits she will need to purchase missed items. I was curious about what I was reading. It never takes me as much as 30 minutes to complete a weekly grocery store trip for two. Then I realized that is probably because I only use four aisles and the produce section (and occasionally paper products). We eat only wholesome foods, nothing processed or packaged. Perhaps not going down every aisle for pretend foods saves me time at the store.

That exchange made me think of sauca. Showering and sweeping the practice space before practicing are actions of external cleanliness that often reflect yogis’ interpretation of sauca (cleanliness), one of the niyamas (observances) that comprises yoga practice. However, sauca also refers to internal cleanliness. Practicing yoga poses and breathing techniques is essential for internal cleansing and clarity of mind. Eating wholesome foods also helps keep the body healthy and clean from the inside.

As I interpret sauca, it is essential to eat wholesome foods. I have never performed a “detox” routine or “cleanse” diet because I choose to limit impurities I ingest rather than purge them from my system after putting them into it. It seems easiest and most efficient to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, beans, and whole grains that are used to fuel my body and result in wastes that my digestive system is designed to remove.

So my diet is clean in observance of yoga principles and efficient. With all the time I save with short trips to the grocery store what else do I do? Pull out my mat for another yoga practice, of course!

Observing multiple perspectives

Perspectives - every one of life's issues/ challenges/ problems/ miscommunications/ ... is multifacited with many different perspectives. Moving and contemplating mindfully helps us to reserve judgment and recognize some alternate perspectives we may not have considered when we move through life with our regular habits and biases. Perhaps we do not need to run but to stay. The glass might not be half empty but half full. The rumor we heard at the office may not have much truth when seen from another perspective. A problem that seems impossible to solve may be easier if we take off our blinders and look "outside the box" from another perspective.

In yoga practice, twists help to notice and acknowledge multiple perspectives. Revolved parsvokonasana (side angle), revolved bakasana (crow), revolved trikonasana (triangle), and a multitude of revolved poses and twists in sitting or laying down all help us to observe things from another viewpoint. Who knows, after an asana practice that includes lots of twists, a stroke of insight - an aha moment or an eureka moment - might follow us off the mat. That solution to the seemingly impossible to solve problem might just make itself available. All it took was considering an alternative perspective.