To successfully dissolve shoulder stress from computer work (ahem!), driving and just plain life, you really need to work through the whole body. It's all connected, so to really drain off the tension, you've got to get every limb, every muscle and every cell into the act.
We almost always start with a Yin pose - long holds without warming up, targeting the fascia, focusing on spaciousness and breath - and a great one for shoulders is Anahata. Then we move into a full body warm up and some targeted shoulder work - both strengthening and stretching, working with opposing muscles and always connecting to the breath. Locust Pose is often overlooked in dealing with neck and shoulder tension, but its addition here after some sun salutations is key to really inhabiting and releasing those holding patterns. Dolphin and side plank are more intermediate moves, so might not be given in all classes. The standing series should now be accessible to everyone without provoking tightness in the shoulders. We finish with a glowing camel, a great quad stretch in Supta Virasana and a bit of Restorative even before fully releasing into Savasanahhhhhh! Enjoy! Comment if you try some of this series and let me know how it goes!
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"We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled; the trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over an let the beautiful stuff out." ~Ray Bradbury
Imagine an hour long vacation that fills your well with fresh, new, clear energy. That's restorative yoga class. Someone today remarked that yoga would never be the same without someone supporting them completely in every pose, taking them on a renewing meditation journey and even a little release in final supported twist. When and how do you include restorative yoga in your life? Comment below and share your experience and favorite modifications! "Do not think of yourself as a small, compressed, suffering thing. Think of yourself as graceful and expanding, no matter how unlikely it may seem at the time." ~B.K.S. Iyengar
I've become quite enamored by alternating Dangling and Squat a couple of times and then moving to the foot poses in Yin practice. Not only do the meridians and many fascial lines get efficiently targeted this way, it feels amazing and I'm noticing pretty remarkable results. I've never known how much of my inability to squat flat footed was due to bone structure and how much due to soft tissue - because of birth defects, the bone structure in my legs is rather idiosyncratic - but I'm experiencing more opening than I though possible. Try it for yourself and tell me in the comments below what you notice and how you feel! Sometimes I create a class and figure out later why it works. That's what happened this week.
When I'm planning classes for the week and feeling uninspired, I just show up on the mat. I realized this week that sometimes inspiration is the tiniest kernel. I was looking for something that built on the last month's classes, that connected students directly to their own experience... and I was over thinking it. I finally just got on the mat figuring at least I needed to cheer myself up. I was craving twists. This class is mostly what my body did. I rearranged a few things on the basis of realizations I had while practicing. This is my favorite way to plan classes: not plan. One of the deep themes I've been studying - in bodies, in my experience, in books, blogs, watching people in class and at the gym - is "head forward posture." E-pi-dem-ic. Epidemic in our culture. And connected to so much suffering - from neck and back pain to headaches, belly disruption, even depression. The posture is so natural given our computer and screen focused activities, but the knock on effects in the body, when they go unopposed, are devastating. The posterior chain or the superficial back line is key to our ability to moving from the core and postural balance. Without strength and connection to these structures, our body has to hold up from the front rather than support from behind and inside. Learning to revolve from the deep belly up while creating a stable foundation from the pelvis down is a great way to build connection and sensation into the deep core and back body. Try it, see what you feel. Share it in the comments below! Restorative Yoga classes are a special treat that I recommend everyone indulge at least once a week - whether you provide this experience for yourself at home or you allow me to guide you. Restorative practice includes a gentle "warm up" - Moon Salutations, here - and then long rests (not holds) in completely supported asana, sometimes with guided meditation. In the diagram above, the rectangular paddle looking things are blankets placed strategically to support the body for maximum release of muscular effort - you shouldn't even feel as if you have to hold your arms up. Covering the eyes is an added way to trigger the relaxation response and deeper sense withdrawal, or pratyahara. While there isn't a wide variation in poses used for Restorative practice, you'll find you don't miss the variety once you sink into the experience. Your body will bring the novelty - where you feel tightness and release, how the body melts from week to week - and guided meditations will guide your monkey mind into releasing it's grippy little paws for the hour. Leave a comment below about your Restorative Yoga practice this week and be entered into a drawing to receive a guided recording of this class. Yin class this week starts with the feet: Ankle Stretch and Toe Squat. Yin yoga targets the fascia and connective tissue, so is done "cold" without a warm up and without ujjayi breath. We stay with postures for 2-5 minutes, making the sensation the object of meditation, much like you might make the breath the focal point of seated meditation.
Starting with the feet can be intense because they receive so little attention in everyday life - negative attention, even, in heels and constricting shoes! But this is also where many fascial lines are anchored and similarly many of the meridians these poses also impact. Beginning with the feet is both very focusing and a way to knock on the body's doors and request admittance to release more deeply. By applying intelligent pressure and stress to the fascia in the feet, we're opening up the entire system by which we interact with the ground, balance and move through the world. this will create effects, particularly over weeks of practice, in the joints and balance in the rest of the body. No pose impacts a single meridian or fascial line, and even one meridian or line has knock on effects on the others. These poses will create systemic changes, though the focus of many poses in this class are the Stomach and Urinary Bladder meridians. The Stomach meridian has to do, not surprisingly, with nourishment and balancing the differing substances we take into our bodies and lives. the Urinary Bladder meridian impacts balance of the fight-or-flight and rest-and-relax systems known as the autonomic nervous system, making it's balance crucial in healthy handling of everyday as well as extraordinary stress. Add a Yin Yoga practice to your week and see the transformative effects in your active asana practice as well as your ability to settle in seated meditation as well as move through your world with ease and grace. Leave a comment below about your Yin practice this week and be entered into a drawing for a recording of this practice! Sensing and mindfully releasing and activating the bandhas is key to balance on and off the mat: the bandhas define your center and create your stable core. Once you're established in your center, you can choose to move out, around or even upend yourself and you'll feel solid and oriented, because you can feel and return to center from any position.
The bandhas coincide with the three structural diaphragms of the body: the pelvic, respiratory and vocal diaphragms, or the pelvic floor, breathing diaphragm and vocal "cords." Learning how to activate and relax these areas is key for modulating - not controlling - the breath. Allowing the movements to synchronize is helpful for freeing holding patterns, the breath and allowing yourself to move as a unified whole. Often in yoga classes we focus on how to engage these areas - pelvic floor, respiratory diaphragm and vocal cords in mula bandha, udiyana bandha and jalandara bandha respectively, as well as ujayyi breathing - without focusing on how to also mindfully release. The point of the bandhas is not to always engage but to mindfully engage, making intelligent choices about how we're most supported in various activities. Activation of the bandhas supports the spine through complex movements and meters the breath. Release allows stress relief and activation of the relaxation response. Learn how to choose your state of mind through physical engagement: do yoga! Leave a comment about how the bandhas help you do what you do and be entered into a drawing to receive a recording of this week's class! "Heart Opening" poses, a.k.a. backbends, are accomplished with spinal and shoulder mobility, a large infusion of core strength and core sensation. Core - deep core - are muscles interior to the "abs" forming the very basis of our ability to walk, sit and breathe: respiratory diaphragm, psoas and pelvic floor. Learning to sense your ability to move and engage these muscles transforms backbends by moving the arch up into the less mobile rib cage and away from the more mobile and in need of stability lower back.
In this class, explore openness in your shoulders and upper back along with stability in your pelvis and legs while enjoying how they interact to allow you to move with grace, freedom and generosity. The * poses are advanced to intermediate and not at all necessary to feel the benefits of the class. Find the backbend in triangle as well as camel. Feel the awesome strength of Anjeyanasana, and ground it in the stability of Warrior I. Finish with a lovely Supta Baddha Konasana and melt in Savasanahhhhh! Where do stability and openness meet in your life? Tell me in a comment below! You'll find class plans and themes here every week. I share these for many reasons and there are several ways you can best use them.
Yin yoga works with sometimes intense sensations over longer periods of time (2-5, even 10 minutes), and relies on the difference between pain and intensity. We'll discuss 3 different ways to work with intensity and turn anything into meditation.
Yin yoga is a style of yoga that focuses on "yin" tissues of the body: the fascia, connective tissues and bones which are yin relative to the yang muscles, yin with respect to having less blood, less water than the muscles on which regular hatha yoga practices focus. If you've come to a place in your practice where you feel stuck, it's likely the fascia surrounding the muscles that's the culprit and yin yoga is the way to work with fascia. These tissues are, however, less pliable. The forces we exert on the yin tissue require relaxation of the muscles, a relatively "cold" practice (without warm up or heat that activates the muscles) and longer time in pose. These poses can be quite intense, but that is all within your control: go slowly and explore closer to the minimum edge of these poses until you are comfortable with the sensations and how to work with them. Four ways of working with intensity in yoga and life
Why would we want to work with these tissues? Aren't these the exact places you tell us not to stress during regular classes? Yes. In regular yoga classes we are focused on muscular engagement, strength and flexibility. We specifically warm up and engage muscles, which compress and put their own strain on joints. In a regular yoga class, we don't want to add stress and can't access the fascia. In Yin yoga class, we release patterns of holding and habitual engagement in the muscles so we can intelligently work with the connective tissues. The joints have more space so shearing forces aren't directed into them. This is less forceful, more patient work. The reason to work with these tissues is that the fascia and other connective tissues are exactly where we hold our patterns - our "stash" of habit, filter, assumption and experience. If you're stuck working with a certain area of your body or class of poses and haven't been able to "stretch" your way into the experience you want, Yin yoga is most likely exactly the secret key you've been looking for. You've probably heard that bones are strengthened through stress; this is one reason some form of resistance training is recommended for graceful aging. Without stress, the processes that rebuild bones are circumvented. In zero gravity, astronauts actually loose bone density. But this happens with physical inactivity of any kind: a casted limb, bed rest or simply a sedentary period of time. Yin yoga intelligently applies stress to the bones and the connective tissue in ways that strengthen rather than strain and which can lead to increase mobility and vitality. Additionally, because postures are engaged for minutes rather than seconds and target fascial lines, they interact with what Eastern Medicine refers to as meridians in the body. This week's practice focuses on forward bends and therefore interacts with the liver meridian, though kidney, gall bladder, urinary bladder, spleen and stomach also run through the legs. This is a gentle stimulation and leads to greater balance. The most important thing about Yin Yoga is to discern the difference between pain and intensity. In no instance do I recommend you remain or move toward poses that create sharp or electric sensations: these are "pain" and signal danger to tissue (soft, connective or nerve) in the body. However other sensations often avoided are actually signals of need in the body. Erich Schiffman popularized the distinction between minimum and maximum edges in his book, Moving Into Stillness. Your minimum edge in a pose is the first inkling of sensation created by a direction of movement. In Yang Yoga practices, this isn't a very useful place to stay, though it's vital to understand. In Yin practices, this can be a fruitful place to explore sensations and make decisions about how much intensity to generate by moving toward a pose. If you're looking for the next horizon in your practice, Yin may open up a whole new world. You can come to class, request a consult or book a private lesson by Skype or in person in the 505 to get you started. Already have a Yin practice? Tell us about it! What has it opened up for you? |
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