Yoga Anatomy – How to deepen your Forward Fold

Today in class we were talking about how muscles work.  In the language of anatomy there are different names for what the muscles do.   When you have a muscle that contracts and moves a body part it is called the agonist or prime mover, the antagonist works against the prime mover and the synergists are muscles that work with the prime mover and help it.

Straighten Your Leg

We were talking about Pascimottanasana, or Seated Forward Fold.  In this pose, the quadriceps are the prime mover.  They straighten the leg and this causes the hamstrings, the antagonist to the quads, to stretch.  This is a concept called reciprocal inhibition which means that when one muscles contracts, it signals the brain to tell the antagonistic muscle to relax in order to be stretched.

But a lot of students miss out on this stretch because they cheat and bend their knees as they fold forward.*   This makes them feel as if they are stretching further because their face is in their shins, but they are not getting the full benefit of the pose.  As best as you can, press the back of the knees into the floor while keeping the heels down.  It is the pressing down of the back of the knees that engages the quads and signals the hamstrings to stretch.  Keeping the heels down prevents hyper-extending the knees.

Use Your Arms

The other aspect of this forward fold are the synergistic muscles, these are the muscles that help you fold deeper.  In the case of Pascimottanasana, contracting the psoas, a deep hip flexor, helps to tip the pelvis forward.  And finally holding the outside of your feet and bending your elbow to engage the biceps helps to pull you forward and deeper into the pose. This is not an aggressive pull, but a gentle pull which helps bring the torso out over the thighs.

Give this a try over a few weeks ad see if it doesn’t help improve your hamstring flexibility.

*(Of course if you have really tight hamstrings you may need to bend your knees as you fold forward to make sure that you are hingeing at the hips and not rounding in the lumbar spine.  This is the sort of thing that is best assessed by your teacher.)

Mantra of the Month - The Peace Chant

This mantra opens the Katha Upanishad. These are the teachings about death as taught to the most unlikely of students, a teenage boy named Nachiketa.

Om saha naa va-vatu
saha-nau bhun-ak-tu
saha veer-yum kerava-va-hay
tejas vi nava-dahee tamas-tu
ma vid-visha-va-hay.
Om shanti, shanti, shantihi.

Om.
May we be protected
May we enjoy each other
May we work together vigorously
May our study be illuminating
May we not quarrel.
Om, peace, peace, peace.

Pose of the Month for October– Eka Pada Koundinyasana I

Eka = One
Pada = Leg or foot
Koundinya = the name of a sage

Eka Pada Koundinyasana is a twisting arm balance. It is traditionally entered into from tripod headstand but you can also get into it from Side Crow or Revolved Side Angle. And, if you know me, there are ways to prop yourself into the pose so that you can get a feel for the posture. This pose, like all of the poses named after sages are challenging, but they can be broken down step by step and made approachable.

Since Tripod Headstand and Side Crow are entry points to this pose, you will definitely see these poses in class this month. But it is possible to break the pose down into even simpler parts.

The two main components of this pose are the twist and the arm balance. We can begin to work on basic twists; everything from simple Seated Twist, Lunge Twist, Revolved Chair Pose, Revolved Triangle, Revolved Side Angle, Standing Hand to Big Toe Pose Twist, Lying Hand to Big Toe Pose Twist and Intense Stomach Churning Pose.

To develop the arm balance we need to work on strength in poses like all of the Plank variations, Caturanga, Crow, Side Crow, Lolasana, Tolasana and Tripod Headstand.

Another aspect of what is required from you to do the pose is a conscious level of engagement. One of the ways I learned this was through the topics of Muscular Energy and Organic Energy. Muscular Energy is the ability to hug the muscles towards the bone, to draw in towards the midline and to draw into a central focal point. This is the ability to consciously engage the muscles. It involves strength. But it needs to be balanced by Organic Energy which is the ability to extend outward from a central focal point, away from the midline and out to the tips of the extremities. Muscular Energy and Organic energy need to balance each other in every pose. Muscular energy provides stability and boundaries, but unless it is balanced with Organic Energy it can cause contraction and hardening. Organic Energy provides lightness and space. If it is not balanced with Muscular Energy it can cause over-extension and instability.

This ability to engage all of your body parts in a pose is challenging and the sign of an advanced practice. It is that proprioceptive sense to know what the leg up in the air in Half Moon Pose is doing while you are trying to maintain your balance. This is exactly what is necessary to the next level in poses. I sometime say, “Imagine you are a statue and I could pick you up and move you from one spot to another and your pose wouldn’t fall apart.”

This is the sort of thing we work on when you lift one leg in Down Dog Split and the rest of your pose doesn’t waiver. To work on this quality we will play with leg variations in Tripod Headstand. When you lower one leg towards the floor in Tripod Headstand, the other leg maintains its position while reaching up. If the leg that is reaching moved with the leg that is lowering, you would fall to the floor. It is the reaching leg that balances the lowering leg much like a seesaw.

The Benefits of Eka Pada Koundinyasana

Like all twists, this pose massages the abdominal organs. The spinal twist rejuvenates the spine. The arm balance actions strengthen the arms and neck.

You can see that whether you do the full pose or not, there are plenty of actions, principles and easier poses to work on along the way. Also, while working on the pose you will reap the benefits of the pose.

I can’t wait to get started. I’ll see you in class!

What happens when your body lets you down?

On my City to Shore MS bike ride this year, I witnessed two events that gave me pause to stop and reflect.

The things you can’t prepare for.
The first was an accident, a lapse of attention. Someone ran into the wheel of the cyclist in front of him and down he went. The guy was scraped up and bruised pretty badly, but nothing broken, on his body anyway. His bike was damaged, but that can be fixed. If we could be mindful and fully present all of the time, these things wouldn’t happen. But, that is easier said than done. I read somewhere that the average person loses their attention an average of six times a minute!

Reflection: Bicycling can be a dangerous sport. It is important to pay attention to your surroundings as you ride. Just like driving, you need to ride defensively.

And the things you can.
The second event, could have been an accident, except that there may have been other contributing factors to a rider who suffered from heat stroke. Was this a condition of this man’s body letting him down? Or was it him not listening to his body? Had he trained for this event, or had he just willed his body to participate in it? Riding 75 to 100 miles is not something you can do on a whim. You need to prepare for it.

Through my work personally training dozens of people over the years, I have heard many times people complain that they can’t do something and they wish that they could. They often feel frustrated and that their body has let them down. Very few people understand how their body works. It seems as if they want their body to perform by imposing their will over it rather than doing what is necessary to have their body function optimally.

Our bodies talk to us all of the time. Unfortunately these messages are non-verbal and you have to know how to interpret them. Often pain, discomfort and unease are the body telling us that something is wrong. The next time your body doesn’t perform the way you want it to, instead of wondering how your body has let you down. Ask how you may have let down your body.

We all know how important the following things are to our health:
Sleep
Food
Hydration
Movement
Relationships
Spirituality
Connection to Community

But there are two questions to ask yourself about these things.  First what is the quantity of each item on the list.  Second is what is the quality?

Reflection: You don’t play the game to stay in shape. You stay in shape to play the game.

Spiritual Materialism or Beware of the Shiny Object

In the interview with Brene Brown that I just shared, she cautions us to beware of the shiny object.  This is a common warning in yoga, and perhaps in life as well.  In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna gives Arjuna the same warning:

“You have a right to your actions, but not your actions fruits.  Act for the action’s sake.”  B.G. II.47

In the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, the third chapter is devoted to the powers or siddhis that one can acquire through the practices of yoga.  Patanjali is not merely referring to asana.  He very clearly spells out that these yogic practices are specifically related to the last three rungs on the ladder of yoga; namely dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and Samadhi (absorption).

In his commentary on the Yoga Sutras, Mr. Iyengar says this:

“On this innermost quest, supernatural powers or accomplishments (vibhutis) come naturally to a yogi who has integrated his mind, body and soul.  There is a danger that he will be seduced by these powers.  He should bypass them in order to pursue his practice as far as kaivalya, the height of indivisible existence.”

The essence of what he is saying is that when we strive wholeheartedly towards a goal, gratifying rewards and results will incidentally come our way.  It is easy to become enamored of what we have accidentally acquired and that we mistake it for the goal itself.

He gives three examples of how the lure of the shiny object can ensnare us.

The first is that of a young person who dreams of becoming a great actor.  On the way he acquires fame, and if he does not have his priorities straight, he makes fame his new goal.  This power, or siddhi, can enchant him, swallow him up and spit him out.

The second example is that of a young business man who sets out on his career to provide for his family.   Along the way he becomes rich. He now has more than enough, but riches and their pursuit now possess him.  He neglects his wife and children who live in sterile luxury while he pursues money and more money for its own sake.

The third example is that of a man who, through the merits of past lives, is born into a royal household.  Instead of regarding his good fortune as a sign that he must humbly serve his people, he becomes seized by pride of birth and behaves tyrannically.

In all of these examples, the protagonist has let himself be side-tracked, has substituted an agreeable and merited by-product of his efforts for the real goal.  At best his progress is stopped, at worst he is consumed; and in all cases illusion has displaced reality.  The lesson of the siddhis for all of us is not to allow ourselves to be side-tracked, but to stay the course.  Someone who has let themselves become ensnared by the glamour of the siddhis is like one who believes that the bricks and mortar of the temple are God him/herself.  This is known as spiritual materialism.

In the blog post I wrote about Krishna Das and his song Sri Argala Stotram, he talks how about the trap he fell into.  When he lived in India on an ashram he had few possessions, he didn’t need many things to survive.  When he came back to the States, he felt superior to people who he thought were too attached to their possessions.  As he matured, he realized that you need a rich inner and outer life.   It is okay to be comfortable.  Having possessions or not having possessions is a way of life.  One is not superior to the other.

And so it goes with our physical practice as well.  Asana is just one of the eight limbs of yoga.  Being physically strong and flexible is nice and may make us more comfortable in our bodies.  But being able to put your foot behind your head does not mean you are more enlightened than the next person. In my yoga practice I have noticed that whenever the pose became the thing I was seeking, I usually had a lesson delivered to me in the way of an injury.  Instead, when I focus on the practice for the sake of doing the work with mind, body and breath intertwined, that is when the magic happens.

Sri Argala Stotram

The song I have been playing in class is the Sri Argala Stotram by Krishna Das.

Without knowing the meaning of the word stotram, I think it is obvious that the song is a hymn of devotion. The melody just exudes that sentiment. Nevertheless, I looked up the word stotram on Wikipedia, and here is what it says: Stotra or Stotram is a Sanskrit word, that means "ode, eulogy or a hymn of praise". It is a literary genre of Indian texts designed to be melodically sung, in contrast to shastras which are composed to be recited.

This stotra is to the goddess Durga. She is the warrior goddess, whose mythology centers around combating evils and demonic forces that threaten peace, prosperity and the dharma of the good. She is the fierce form of the protective mother goddess, willing to unleash anger against wrong, violence for liberation and destruction to empower creation.

The first line of this song calls her by another one of her names: Chandika. Chandra is the word for moon.
Om Namas Chandikayai (Om, I bow to the goddess Chandika)

The repeating verse of this song is:
Rupam dehi, jayam dehi, Yasho dehi, dvisho jahi
Which translates to: Grant us your form (Liberation), Grant us victory, Grant us welfare, remove all hostility (negativity).

You get a better sense of from whom you are asking these things in the line preceding it:
Madhu Kaitabha vidravi vidhatṛ varade namah
To you who have defeated the negative qualities of “Too Little” and “Too much”, Giver of blessings and of creativity, I bow to you.

It’s a beautiful song and I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am. To listen to it click here. To read more about it on Krishna Das’ own website, click here.

If you want to buy the song, it is on the album Kirtan Wallah by Krishna Das and is available on itunes.

The Straight Leg Question in Triangle

This is a question I get a lot: “Should I straighten my front leg in triangle? My teacher told me I should never straighten my leg, it should always have a micro bend.”

First of all, I have to say that there is no one “right” answer. This is often frustrating because we want to know what the “right” answer is. My stock answer is “it depends”.

Generally, I would say that if the person is healthy, has nothing going on in the way of an injury, is relatively flexible, then yes, the front leg should be straight in Triangle. Tight hamstrings, and I mean tight hamstrings , like I can’t even reach my knees tight hamstrings, would pretty much necessitate bending the knee. Any knee injury would have to be looked at specifically to the individual. There are many types of knee injuries that would be adversely affected by a straight leg.

Anatomy
According to the Yoga Sutra, the asana should have the qualities of steadiness and ease. When the bones are stacked or aligned in a straight line, the effort is transferred along the length of the body part with relative ease and equilibrium. If there is a bend, the force or body weight and the relentless pull of gravity can cause that bend to increase over time. Take the example of holding a straight arm push plank position as opposed to bent arm plank position, or Caturanga. You can hold the straight arm position much longer and with more ease than you can the bent arm position. Why? Because when the bones are stacked or aligned it takes less effort to keep them that way. Muscles work in agonist and antagonistic pairs. If the appendage is straight and the muscles are engaged, both pairs of muscles are working together with the same amount of effort. If there is a bend anywhere, the muscles that are holding the bend are working harder than the opposing muscles and will fatigue faster as the relentless pull of gravity does its thing. There is a time and place for bent arm and straight arm planks. If you can’t hold a bent arm plank with your arms bent at 90 degrees, you might micro bend them to start building strength to work on a full Caturanga.

That was an obvious example, but let’s take a look at the same thing in standing poses: Triangle and Warrior II. In Triangle the front leg is supposed to be straight (see disclaimer above). In Warrior II, the front leg is supposed to be bent. Which pose do you think you could hold longer? It is easier to hold Triangle for longer than Warrior II because the bent front leg fatigues faster than a straight leg.
I am not a fan of hybrid poses. If your front leg is bent in Triangle, what is the difference between Triangle and Warrior II? One of the opposing issues here is also how much do you bend the front knee in Warrior II? I see lots of students whose front knee is not over the standing ankle in Warrior II. Sometimes it is hard to know which pose is being performed because the front knee is not bent deep enough to be Warrior II nor is the front leg straight enough to be considered Triangle Pose. It is not as important how deeply the knee is bent, but, the alignment of the front knee should be over the ankle (barring any injury). Yoga poses work the body in a full range of motion. Our job is to see that we work the body in that full range of motion: legs straight in straight leg poses, knee bent in bent leg poses.

Locked out leg
The difference between a straight leg and a bent leg is pretty obvious. The more subtle difference is between a straight leg and a locked out leg. The instruction to have a micro bend in the front leg comes from seeing a student lock their leg out. If you let your front leg lock out in Triangle Pose, it means that you have basically relaxed all of the muscles in your leg and have allowed your knee joint to move backwards as far as it will go, hyper-extending the joint. The leg will look slightly bowed in this position and the weight in the foot will lift off of the inner edge of the foot and all of the weight will be on the outer edge.

Hyper extended leg. Notice calf bowing toward floor and the lifting of the big toe mound off of the floor.

Hanging in the ligaments
This can be damaging to the joint over time because you end up hanging in the ligaments. Ligaments connect bone to bone and their purpose is to stabilize the joint; they have very little elasticity. If you continuously hang in your ligaments, these structures can become stretched out over time and will not spring back the way muscles will. Also, every joint has protecting structures and fluids cushioning the bones and protecting the “joint space”. When a joint is hyper-extended, the joint space is compromised and the bones will move closer together on one side of the joint and further away on the opposite side of the joint. This can cause uneven wear and tear on these cushioning surfaces and lead to bone on bone contact which can lead to arthritis, pain and joint dysfunction.
Most yoga teachers will correct this position by telling students to micro bend their front knee. What most students will actually do is bend their front knee.

Straight leg
What I tell my students to do in Triangle is to engage their quadriceps muscle while pressing down in the ball mound of the big toe. In the locked out leg, the quadriceps muscle is not engaged, neither is the calf. If you reached down and felt your quad in this position, the muscle would be squishy and wiggly and you would be able to wiggle your knee cap from side to side. If you engage the quad while pressing down through the mound of the big toe, the knee cap would lift, the calf would also engage and the leg would straighten. If you were to watch someone do this from the side, it would look like they were micro bending their leg from a hyper extended position, but the leg would appear straight. Typically this takes a while to learn how to do. Most students have habitually let their quads relax in Triangle and initiating this change takes a concentration and time. Another instruction I give is to hug all of the muscles in your leg to the bone. This often helps to straighten the leg.

Straight leg. The muscles of the quads are lifted as are the muscles in the calf.

Bent leg
The instruction to lift the knee cap is a much more subtle instruction and could be lost on beginners. Tightness in the hamstrings makes it difficult to straighten the leg, but once the student learns to straighten the leg, they typically begin locking it out. The next instruction seems to be to put a microbend in the leg. There is a subtle but important difference between bending the leg and lifting the knee cap. Bending the leg involves engaging the hamstrings and stretching the quads. Lifting the knee cap involves contracting the quads and stretching the hamstrings.

This is often what I see when a student says they have a micro bend. This is a bent leg.

You can see that these two instructions, bend the knee or lift the knee cap create two very different actions in the leg and two very different looking poses.

Too many cooks spoil the pot.
One of the sources of confusing instructions is that students typically take classes with many different teachers. Some teachers may be newer and have less experience than others. Not all yoga teachers have a lot of anatomy training. Some styles of yoga are different and have different instructions and methodologies.

If you are taking classes with a lot of different teacher, you will hear different and often conflicting instructions based on the style and the teacher’s understanding. And a teacher’s knowledge and understanding can change over time. I want to be careful that I am not saying that my instructions are right and their instructions are wrong. I believe that every teacher teaches from their heart and from what they know to be true at the time. I am only stating what I know to be true from my experience and understanding.

When in Rome.
It is important that you follow the instructions of the teacher during the class that you are taking. It is also important to test theories out for yourself and experience the differences in your body. That is what I have done and what my teachers have encouraged me to do. My experience has taught me that the front leg should be straight in Triangle (Even when I tore my hamstring. I simply did not put my hand down as low until the muscle healed.  I did not work a bent leg.) It has also led me to investigate what the difference is between a straight leg in and a bent leg in Triangle.

If you would like to learn more about this, if you would like to learn more about anatomy in yoga, I have a workshop coming up from 12:00 to 2:00 on October 26th called Hamstrings and Quadriceps: Strength and Flexibility, Two Sides of the Same Coin. This is an anatomy focused workshop; understanding the underlying structures.

The Site of the Pain is often not the Cause of the Pain

This is my answer to students who ask about wrist pain while doing back bends: "The site of the pain is not the cause of the pain". They often want to know what they can do to stretch their wrists. First I usually ask them to bend their wrists back so that I can see how much range of motion they have in their wrists. If they have normal range of motion and no injuries to the wrist, then the wrist is not the issue. I don’t usually have to see them do the pose to know that their arms will not vertical when they do wheel. When the arms are not vertical in wheel, the wrists will be bent at less than 90 degrees and that is not in the normal range of motion for the wrist and therefore not very comfortable.
However, just to be sure, I always ask them to do their pose for me so I can see if there is anything else going on. But more often than not, their arms are not vertical.

Here is a picture of me doing wheel where my arms are pretty vertical:

This version of Wheel looks more like an upside down letter "U".

Here is a picture of me doing wheel where my arms are not vertical.

This version of Wheel looks more like an arc of a circle.

Observe the angle at the wrist. Which one looks like it hurts?  Ouch!  The wrists aren't meant to bend that way!   If the shoulders aren’t open, the lumbar spine doesn’t bend or the quads and/or psoas are tight then other body parts will have to compensate.

In the final form of the pose Wheel should look like an upside down “U”. When it looks more like an arc of a circle, then there is more shoulder or hip opening that needs to be done and the wrists should be supported; either on blocks, the wall, someone’s ankles or even a tightly rolled up blanket placed against the wall can work.

Mantra - Hridaye Citta Samvritta

This mantra comes from the Yoga Sutras, Book 2, verse 35

Hridaye means on the heart

Citta is consciousness

Samvritta means knowledge, awareness

By focusing and holding concentration on the region of the heart, the yogi acquires a thorough knowledge of the contents and tendencies of consciousness.

“The citadel of purusha (consciousness) is the heart.  It is the anahata chakra (heart chakra) the seat of pure knowledge as well as consciousness.  By focusing and holding concentration there a yogi can become aware of consciousness and of true, pure knowledge.  He learns to unfold and tap the source of his being, and identify himself with the Supreme.”  - from Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by B.K.S. Iyengar.

I hope you enjoy watching this video.  It comes from the Iyengar yoga conference of 2016 in Boca Raton, Florida.  It features 3 of the top Iyengar yoga teachers in the US.  Their devotion in performing a series of back bends is very inspirational!  Near the end of the video, at 15:25, they do this chant.

Vinyasa Pose of the Month - Salabhasana or Locust Pose

Salabha means a locust, grasshopper. The pose is said to resemble a locust resting on the ground.

Salabhasna is a beginning back bend. It builds the strength in the back body to prepare for all of the other back bends. Although it is called a beginner’s pose, it is not that easy to do. Because we spend so much of our time hunched forward, it is often difficult to arch back. The muscles on our back body become atrophied from disuse.

Technique:
Begin by lying on the floor in the prone position. Stretch the arms back.

On an exhalation, simultaneously lift the head, chest and legs off the floor as high as possible. The arms are stretched back alongside the body and lifted off the floor as well. The body weight rests on your abdomen.

Contract the buttocks and stretch the thigh muscles. Keep both legs fully extended and straight.

In the beginning it is difficult to lift the chest and legs off the floor, but this becomes easier as you grow stronger. There are modifications to make it easier: lifting just the front body, lifting just the back body, lifting the opposite arm and leg, lifting one arm and the opposite leg and using props to support the chest or the legs.

The benefits of Salabhasana
This pose is said to aid digestion, relieves stomach problems, improves the function of the bladder and prostate and helps cure flatulence. Arching the back in this way improves elasticity in the spine and can relieve pain in the sacral and lumbar areas. Mr. Iyengar states that regular practice of this pose can help people with disc problems without recourse to surgical treatment.

After all of the other challenging poses we have worked on this year, you may be wondering why I chose Salabhasana. One reason is that it is the one basic back bending pose from which your ability to do all other backbends originates. The other reason has to do with a new word that has been introduced in the English language: “i-hunch”; that head forward position we assume when we are looking at our phones. We are spending more and more time hunched over our electronic devices and it is affecting our posture. Salabhasna is a counter-pose, a remedy if you will, for i-hunch!

Where can we go from here?
Salabhasana is the foundation for other back bends such as Bow, Camel and Wheel. But the strength it develops in the back is also important for Caturanga and the lift you need in Forearm Balance and other arm balances such as Scoprion. So, expect to see some of these other poses in the more advanced classes as we work on Salabhasana to set the foundation.