What does your split look like?

I had never liked working on splits. I knew that somehow, there was something wrong with my posture that I needed to fix before it really made any sense to work on it. For several years I had developed a flat lumbar spine. It felt like my spine was curved the wrong way and that made it impossible to extend one leg backward and one leg forward into a split. I could do symmetrical poses more easily, but asymmetrical poses just felt like something was wrong.

Here is me last year at the end of the MS City to Shore Bike Ride. It felt so good to hop into the Ocean after riding 75 miles, but I really didn’t want a picture of me looking like this. I hated my posture.

There is this concept of internal rotation of the legs when you are doing almost any yoga posture. It’s not that the legs are actually internally rotated; it’s just that our tendency is to externally rotate them so we internally rotate them to bring them into neutral alignment. It is much harder to maintain this alignment in back bending postures like Cobra, Up Dog, Bridge, Wheel, etc. especially because the back leg is out of sight and out of mind.

Cobra with the legs externally rotated. Notice the “Butt Fist” Too much engagement of the Gluteus Maximus turns the legs out. This creates compression in the sacrum and low back.

Cobra with refined engagement of the Glutes. Notice there is no clenching of the buttocks and the legs are in neutral and they are parallel to each other. This creates a broadening of the sacrum and low back.

I always have appreciated a teacher who would adjust, assist and correct me in my postures. I could tell that I was doing something wrong, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. Through the persistent feedback of my teachers and my dedication to working on it, I was able to change my posture and then the poses began to click.

Once I made it a priority to work on the neutral alignment of my legs, my posture actually changed. I developed a concave low back. This is one of the promises of a dedicated yoga practice. It took a long time and it was sometimes painful. When you change your posture, it is a little like orthodontics; the change happens gradually over a period of years. Not only do you change the way the bones line up but you change the muscles and nerves as well. The nerve stretching was the most challenging as it produced sensations of numbness and tingling. Fortunately, I worked with a very calm and reassuring physical therapist who promised me that this was all good.

I first started noticing my posture would change after swimming. Here is me before I swam. Notice my flat lumbar area.

This is me right after swimming. Notice my lumbar curve. I was astonished by this and wanted to learn how to maintain this posture. I felt so much better standing this way. But initially, it was painful.

Once my back shifted, my body began to “understand” postures like a split. But, more importantly, it changed my Tadasana, or neutral standing posture. It used to be painful to stand and I was very self conscious of my posture. It also changed poses like Crescent Warrior, Warrior I and Anjaneyasana. These poses are all precursors, or benchmarks to being able to do a split.  It’s funny, I was looking for “before” pictures of me in Warrior I and I couldn’t find any. I really didn’t want any pictures taken of me then. But, now I wish I had them for comparison.  I never could bend my front leg 90 degrees or straighten my back leg before.

Hanumanasana or Split.

The feature pose this month is Hanumanasana, or a yoga split. The pose is named after Hanuman, a monkey god from the Hindu epic, the Ramayana.  We will be discussing Hanuman’s story as we work on our splits.  Hanuman is a devotee of Prince Rama whose wife, Sita is abducted by the demon king Ravana. Hanuman makes an enormous leap across the Indian Ocean, from the Southeastern tip of India to Sri Lanka, in order to rescue Sita from Ravana. His devotional leap is memorialized in this yoga posture.

Hanuman

It seems that yogis are divided into 2 groups over this pose, those who can do the pose and those who can’t. The first group generally likes it. Not so with the second group. Groans will be heard from those who don’t like it whenever this pose is being practiced in class. Notice I said practiced and not performed. One of the keys to any pose is practicing it, not coveting it and not avoiding it. Hanuman didn’t care how he looked as he stretched his legs to Lanka to rescue Sita. And since he did rescue Sita does it matter whether he took one leap or several?

This first week, in Hanumanasana let’s just take a good look at where we are in the pose. It doesn’t matter if all your split is a runner’s stretch (back knee on the floor and the front leg straight). In fact, you will still be reaping the benefits of the pose as long as you work honestly where you are.  Remember, one of the signs of an advanced practitioner is one who knows how to modify his/her pose.

Stages: Working where you are.

Stages: almost there

According to “Light On Yoga” this pose: …helps to cure sciatica and other defects of the legs. It tones the leg muscles, keeps the legs in condition and if practiced regularly is recommended for runners and sprinters. It relaxes and strengthens the abductor muscles of the thighs.”  Let’s practice this pose together for a month and see what happens.

Vinyasa Pose of the Month - Hanumanasana or Split

Hanumanasana is a pose that requires diligent physical practice, but also an open mind and heart. When Hanuman lands in Sri Lanka to rescue Sita from the demon king, Ravana doesn’t believe that Hanuman could have leapt across the ocean to his island kingdom. Hanuman tells Ravana, “Withdraw your heart from Sita, or that will be a costly theft, for it’s by her energy that I jumped over the sea.” It’s devotion or the energy of the heart that will help you find the gateway to the posture.In order to perform Hanumanasana, the pose based on Hanuman’s famous leaping ability, we need to stretch the hamstrings and the quadriceps. Often people fold forward or bend backward with more ease, but Hanumanasana requires both. So, as we work on doing a split this month we will stretch our hamstrings in poses such as Forward Folds, Triangle and Pyramid and we will do thigh stretches in poses such as Low Lunge with a thigh stretch, Dancer’s Pose and Warrior I.

If you find that your hamstrings or quads are really tight and more like steel cables than muscles, you might want to look at the psychological/emotional issues associated with those muscles. The hamstrings are connected to the knees, which are symbolically used to bow down to a higher power, and so tight hamstrings can often mean a deeper level of surrender is needed. The thighs (quadriceps) hold onto past conflicts, such as traumatic childhood memories, anger or resentment. This is an area closely associated with sexuality and intimacy. This comes from the book You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay.

If we did Hanumanasana as frequently as we did Down Dog, imagine how good our splits would be!

Keep practicing. I’ll see you in class.

What's on your Yoga Bucket List?

You can often tell which poses a yoga studio practices frequently because most of the students can do them.  Sometime before Christmas, I had one of my classes at The Solebury Club doing Crow and everyone in the class was able to do the pose.  It was quite remarkable!  Clearly, it is a pose I add into the sequence often.  But then we got to Hanumanasana, or split…   Not so much!  Hmmm…

A Split is not a pose I can do.  Or rather, it is not a pose I can do and get all the way down to the ground.  So, clearly I am to blame for not teaching it with any regularity.  I have had hamstring injuries in the past and when injured, I would stay away from such a big hamstring stretch. But still, I cannot take all the blame for not teaching this pose.  My other colleagues who teach similar classes at Solebury are as fond of Hanuman as I am; which means they also cannot get all the way down to the ground, so they don’t teach it too often, either.  Therefore, a lot of our students cannot do a split.  Handstands, yes!  Split, no.

Not that being able to do a Split is a requirement for anything in life, but still I am intrigued, mystified and challenged by the posture.  I want to be able to do a split before I get too old to do it.  It’s a pose on my yoga bucket list!

At The Solebury Club, Karate Sensei Ed Rumick has created a 100 push-up club on Facebook, which anyone can join.  The goal is to work towards being able to do 100 push-ups by the end of the year.  Here is the link if you are interested.  I decided to join.  I hate push-ups, but I have always wanted to be better at doing them because being able to do 100 push-ups will give me more strength to do other yoga arm balances.  Now that is my idea of fun!   There are some in the club who can already do 100 push-ups.  Personally, I think they need a new challenge and I propose that they learn the routine in this video.  Most people in the club can already do more push-ups than me. But, I don’t care.  I would like to be able to do 3 sets of 10, at least.   I did 26 today.  But I can only do about 7 at a time without losing form.

This made me think about doing a Pose for the Year in yoga.  Hanumanasana is not a pose you can master in one month.  So, I thought it would be a good candidate for a Pose for the Year.  I remember seeing a blog about some gymnastics coach who claimed he could teach an average middle aged man with no flexibility to do a split in 6 months.  I think we need at least that amount of time.

What do you think?  Are you interested?  Are you game?  It would mean that you should expect to see Hanumanasana as a posture at least once a week.  I cannot guarantee I can work it into every sequence, but I want to try to fit it in more frequently.  Also, on the Facebook page there could be sequences, tips and techniques for practicing the pose on your own.  A little stretching everyday can help you get there.

I'll report on my progress and you can let me know how you are doing.

Let me know what you think.  Leave a comment below.