An Arturo style post perhaps with lots of pictures.

First things first, Wifi situation in Japan is.... not so great. In Rethymno last week I could connect for free in every cafe, bar, restaurant and gelato shop in the city, there was even a free citywide wifi service (bit slow) which on a good day you could even pick up on the beach. In Japan we have Starbucks and the odd hard to find internet cafe and that's about it unless you have a contract.  We're still trying to sort out the best way of getting connected at home as well as sort out phones, it seems it just becoming possible to pop in a short contract sim but they don't make it easy. So apologies for dropping off the grid so suddenly, going to be like that for a little while yet.

Winge out of the way, blog title changed, we're now (at home) in Osaka, Japan and apart from the wifi situation it's nice to be back. Familiar, almost as if I hadn't left. In fact come to think of it what with the deflation Japan's been going through even the prices haven't changed in ten years (at east not so you' notice).

Great to live in downtown Osaka, five minutes from Osaka Castle by bike



And talking of bike's here's my first major, essential purchase, a sky blue Mamasan. Mamasan's are bikes that have a fixed gear, usually come with a stand, basket , wheel lock etc. You often see them om Osaka with an umbrella or parasol attached

My new Mamasan

 

 And this is how it's looking now


Put the rug and cushions to one side and we have the practice space, room for three mats.


Still getting back into practice, I like the space but looking forward to moving downstairs in the morning and keep the upstairs for Vinyasa karma and sitting.

And here is downstairs....


I know! Going to start practicing down there next week after it's had a bit of a clean.

Chuck Miller is in Town next week, hoping to go along to his led Primary

Old style houses come with an alcove, alter space

All the books that are left after the great clear out.

My Vayu,  painted by Michelle in the Mysore Style in pride of place ( see this post)

Amazon Link

Matcha tea latte

And a few shots of Ginkaku-ji Zen temple

My fried Esther Waer has come through with a transcription of my Interview with Simon earlier in the year.

Esther is my friend up in Yamagata, Japan who, among other things, makes beautiful Yoga Mat bags from recycled kimono's
See my post from last year
Moving back to Japan and yoga mat bags from recycled kimono's

http://asobi-gokoro-bags.blogspot.jp/

NOTE:  "I have apologise that on the video at 7:30 - 7:45 I made a mistake in what I said - I actually meant to say "The only way to ensure oxygen gets to the cells is by increasing CO2" and by not by decreasing CO2 as in unintentionally spoke - thank you Mick Lawton for pointing this out
thank You to Eva Kincsei for filming this and getting the video to Anthony". Simon

This has been corrected in the transcription below.

Interview with Simon Borg-Olivier with Anthony Grim Hall
Location: Yoga Rainbow Festival, Turkey
Transcription by Esther.


ANTHONY: Krishnamacharya outlined how he was using Kumbhaka in his first book Yoga Makaranda.  

My friend Mick, has an hereditary illness with regular attacks throughout the year, which causes much inflammation and pain in joints, he also had regular visits to hospital.  He started to incorporate Kumbhaka into his practice, and he started to find that his healing was much quicker.  Due to regular visits and blood tests at hospital, the hospital was also noticing a difference.

So we’d like to ask you about Kumbhaka, and if that makes sense to you coming from a background in molecular biology and physiotherapy.  Does it make sense to you that Kumbhaka can have a healing effect.

SIMON: Yes definitely, there are many benefits that can be attributed to various types of breath retention, Kumbhaka, and of course there are several different ways you can do a kumbhaka and each of them will have a different effect.  You can hold the breath in, you can hold the breath out, and you could hold the breath partly in, you could also get a similar effect to kumbhaka just by not breathing very much at all. You could also get a similar physiological effect from kumbhaka by breathing very very very slowly, breathing very very slowly would look to someone else like you are not breathing at all.  So, all of these things have effects physiologically and physically as well.

ANTHONY: When you say breathing very slowly do you mean long slow inhalations or do you mean just breathing regularly but very softly?

SIMON: You can do either.  If I had to do a graphical analysis, say this is time in the horizontal axis, and amount of breath on the vertical axis.

If I go deep breath in deep breath out.




This is a lot of fluctuations in the breath.

But if I do a kumbhaka, inhale, hold the breath, exhale, hold the breath. Inhale, hold the breath. Holding is a straight line.




But I could simulate that straight line, by just doing little breath in little breath out.


So from a distance a little breath in and a little breath out would look like a straight line. Physiologically, it has the same effect as kumbhaka.

In Sanskrit, in Yoga terms, that’s really what is Kaivela Kumbhaka is. It’s what happens when you’re meditating, you feel like you’re not breathing at all, but actually if you study it, it’s just a very little in breath and out breath.

ANTHONY: Why does that have a similar effect as a very large inhalation and a very large exhalation?

SIMON: It has a similar effect as holding the breath in or holding the breath out.  Because holding the breath in and holding the breath out will build up carbon dioxide.  And carbon dioxide is one of the main effectors of the physiological effects of kumbhaka. So you’ll also get high levels of carbon dioxide, not just from holding the breath in or holding the breath out, but by not breathing very much. So when we meditate we don’t breath very much, it’s a very little in breath, a very little out breath. So because the air is not exchanging much, you’ll actually start building up CO2. Physiologically one of the best ways of getting the positive effects of carbon dioxide build up is by doing meditation. You hear of many people who have cured themselves of cancer, by doing meditation. On a physiological level one can speculate that the increases in health from someone, say who has had cancer, may be because of the increases in carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is necessary to be present for oxygen to be deposited into cells via the Bohr effect.

ANTHONY: Yeah, can you explain the Bohr effect, because I’ve tried reading about it a few times, and don’t really get it so well.

SIMON: The Bohr effect very simply would say that if you have oxygen which is carried on Haemoglobin, the red pigment in blood, and it’s travelling through your blood, it might come to say, your big toe, and would say I’ve got oxygen, does anyone here in the big toe want oxygen? And all the cells in the big toe will say, yes I want oxygen, and before it releases its oxygen to the big toe’s cells, it’ll say show me your carbon dioxide and if the big toe cells have no carbon dioxide then the oxyhaemoglobin will not release it’s oxygen, it’ll just travel off somewhere else.  You need the local presence of carbon dioxide for oxyhaemoglobin to be able to release it’s oxygen and make it accessible to cells. This is the Bohr effect.

So high levels of carbon dioxide there’s a lot more deposition of oxygen into cells, and low levels of carbon dioxide, you might get increased blood flow, but you might not get entry of oxygen into cells. When oxygen enters cells, you get much better healing, and also, you get much more energy.  So for example a cell can run off glucose, glucose is a simple sugar, and glucose is used as the fuel to be burnt, for that particular cell, will get two molecules of ATP, the energy source of the cell, for every one glucose burnt. But, if you burn glucose in the presence of oxygen you get 38 molecules of ATP, so it’s 19 times more energy can be generated in the presence of oxygen.  Funnily enough cancer cells don’t function with this oxygen method, they don’t work on the aerobic pathway, they only have anaerobic metabolism happening.  So it’s not to say that the presence of oxygen will kill cancer cells, or the absence of oxygen causes cancer, but rather healthy cells, will not do very well, and cancer cells will do very well, in low levels of oxygen. Whereas with high levels of oxygen, healthy cells do very well, and cancer cells don’t necessarily do very much better than normal. So cancer, sometimes, is said to be helped if you can get more oxygen into your cells, and one of the ways of doing that is by putting it in a high CO2 environment, and one of the ways of generating high carbon dioxide is using either kumbhaka or minimal breathing which is Sanskrit terms is Kevalya kumbhaka, which is the type of breathing that happens when you sit in meditation. And on a graphical level that’s a little breath in a little breath out little breath in little breath out, which looks like a straight line. Same as if you inhaled, held the breath in, looks like a straight line. But to simulate a straight line also, you could do a very slow breath in, if I inhaled fast, the line goes up dramatically, but if I inhale slower, the line goes up slower still.  If I inhale and I take one minute to inhale, the line goes up so slowly, that from a distance it looks like a parallel line and so very slow inhales, of say one minute for an inhalation would simulate kumbhaka on a physiological level.

ANTHONY: That’s interesting as Krishnamacharya was talking all the time about long slow breathing, 

SIMON: That’s what long slow breathing is.  And I think in the modern world, people imagine, you know in a common vinyasa class, some people say, deep breath in take up your arms, deep breath slow breath out take down your arms, so of course that’s only 3 seconds breathing in three seconds breathing out. Where as Krishnamacharya was talking much more about one minute inhalations.

ANTHONY: Slow, as in pouring the oil.  

SIMON: That’s right. They also talk about when the exhalation comes out, it should be so fine that you can’t blow out a candle from a certain distance. And there’s also the beautiful videos that Iyengar has put out, where he’s breathing with a microphone and you hear the sound of Ujjayi, and he inhales for 45 seconds and exhales for 55 seconds.

ANTHONY: Stunning.

SIMON: It’s beautiful, yeah.

ANTHONY: We’re quite aware of the benefits of using kumbhaka in Pranayama, and you’ve talked about in meditation getting a similar effect by breathing very shallowly. Iin Asana, Krishnamacharya is quite surprising, when you look at the yoga Makaranda, in that he is using kumbhaka in Asana, and while we’ve been here on the Yoga Rainbow Festival, we’ve been talking about using kumbhaka, in asana, and we were talking about how we could, you said, for example about, getting oxygen and co2 to the two, and how did you put it?

ANTHONY: If there’s not enough carbon dioxide there, you won’t be able to transport the oxygen from the oxyhaemoglobin to the cells. So you need CO2.

SIMON: So then we were talking about how we could um, one of the interesting things about Kumbhaka in Asana was that it seemed there might be the possibility that you could direct the blood that you’ve effected with your kumbhaka to different areas of the body. So for example if I’m doing a posture where, a certain area is perhaps compressed, and then when I release it, perhaps when I’m doing my vinyasa, the blood, could perhaps flow into that area. In Ramaswami he talks about shoulder stands, where we would have the legs very relaxed, and the idea seems to be to let the blood kind of drop away, and when we straighten the legs and tense, we are then sending the blood straight through, so it seemed to me, that if relax the blood drains away slightly, we’re doing a kumbhaka, and then we extend our legs, the new kumbhaka co2 infused blood, then flies through that area. Does that make sense?

SIMON: Yeah it does make sense.

ANTHONY: Why does that make sense?

Well I’ve measured, ten different ways you can move blood through the body, other than the heart. One of them includes using the muscles of breathing, another uses the effect of carbon dioxide. So, carbon dioxide when it builds up, not only helps the bohr effect, but also causes vasodilation. 11;48??  The blood vessels of the body, so for examples the blood vessels to the brain would get larger, more open, and allow greater entry of blood to the brain,　also to the heart, and several other places in the body.

ANTHONY: Is that why we do Jalandhara Bandha?

SIMON: Yes, because otherwise you get too much transmission of energy back and forth to the head. So carbon dioxide can have this vasodilation effect.  It also effects the bronchial tubes, it’ll make them vasodilate it also effects pretty much every tube in the body, it makes the stomach dilate, the bladder wall dilate, stuff like this.  So that’s one effect that comes from breathing, especially from kumbhaka in terms of long kumbhakas, where the breath is held long enough to increase co2 in which ever way you do that. But the other effect that Pranayama can have on blood flow is that you can use the muscles of breathing to pull the air in and out of you. For example if I expand my chest, the expansion will cause a suction, that pulls air into my nostrils, but if I close my nostrils, either with my fingers or my glottis, I close the holes in my face and expand my chest, as if I’m taking a breath into the chest but not, then you get uddiyana bandha.  And so, use of the muscles of breathing will cause various increases and decreases in pressure in the body, and those increase and decreases in pressure will push and pull blood. So if I exhale fully that going to push blood away from my chest, that actually slows the entry of blood into the heart. If you inhale to the chest that pulls blood toward the heart, and actually increases heart rate, and that’s well recorded in medical texts. But then if you hold your breath, and while holding the breath in you compress your chest that’s an even more powerful way of moving the blood through the body.  And similarly if you hold your breath out and then you expand your chest like breathing in but not, this is using bandha with Kumbhaka, that moves the blood a lot more.

ANTHONY: So this would allow us to practice without increasing the heart rate.

SIOMON: It can give you control of your heart rate certainly. But it also helps you move blood through your body in different ways, plus with the movement of blood through the body there is also the possibility of taking increased or decreased amounts of carbon dioxide, which can help with the bohr effect and which can help with vasodilation, and also increase levels of oxygen, and blood carrying oxygen as well. The effect of carbon dioxide is also going to effect the ph levels inside the blood as well. And ph levels are very significant in terms of the effect on things like stem cell production.  So holding the breath can also effect how stem cells are produced and how well they’re moved throughout the body, and stem cells of course can turn into any cells in the body. And so a lot of research in the world is being done nowadays to try and work out the best ways of harvesting stems and increasing endogenous production of stem cells.

ANTHONY: Can you explain a bit more about how the ph in the body is effected. I mean you talked for several days, while we’ve been talking about the ph, increasing alkaline or decreasing and how certain kumbhakas can have an effect, you also talked about diet effecting that. So how the kumbhakas we’re using the diet we’re using, how all these factors can have an effect on the ………..

SIMON: Effect on everything, ph can effect almost everything in the body.  The body will only work properly between a very narrow ph of 7.35 and 7.45 that’s when you get the healthiest things happening. But the ph is effected by how you breath, how long you breath in for, how long you breath out for, how many breaths per minute, what type of air you’re breathing. It can also be effected by what you eat as well. So if you eat very acidic foods that will make your blood acidic, if you eat alkaline foods, that will make your blood alkaline, if you breath a lot of air per minute, that will make you very alkaline, because the more you breath the more you blow off carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide in blood or water becomes carbonic acid.

ANTHONY: I remember reading your book, and you were saying at the end of the practice, depending on your ph levels, at the end of the practice you might feel famished and just stuff your face, or you won’t feel that hungry at all. So for example after Pranayama generally you don’t feel very hungry. But after practice, often people just, will just eat anything. . . 

SIMON: Yes, and they use the excuse that they’ve just had a work out, therefore they should be able to eat more. But if you do Pranayama while you practice, if you don’t breath much while you practice, then you’re not hungry, and so that would be coming as a result of creating significant levels of carbon dioxide while you’re practicing, doing Pranayama while you’re practicing, or just not breathing much while you’re practicing, and this co2 will cause an increase in carbonic acid which will lower your ph levels and then instead of craving acidic foods you will be more craving alkaline foods or nothing. Whereas if you breath a lot during your practice which will blow off carbon dioxide, reduce your carbonic acid levels, increase your ph, you will feel unbalanced. Your ph will be increased, too alkaline, and if your ph is increased and you are too alkaline the symptoms include sensitivity of the nerves, your nerves might start to shake, you might start to feel emotional, you’ll feel weak, you’ll feel hypersensitive also the blood vessels to the brain will be constricted and you’ll feel like your dizzy, lightheaded, so the body will know, we need acidity in our body now, and the quickest way to get acidity into your body will be to eat acidic foods. A good stodgy meal, some breads some rice.  Alkaline food fruit and vegetable, pretty much everything else meat, fish, eggs, bread, rice, that’s all going to be acidic in the body and will make you straight away feel grounded. And grounded means more blood goes to the brain and the nervous system calms down. But you can also become grounded by doing something like meditation. Because meditation also causes co2 to be built up because you’re not breathing much in meditation. And so that co2 build up is one of the main reasons why you feel relaxed after doing meditation, because co2 has built up.

ANTHONY: So again, if we have an integrated practice, where we are doing our asana, pranayama and meditation and we’re coming out of our practice . . . 

SIMON: Not hungry and feeling very grounded.

ANTHONY: And fancying some fruit rather than a steak.

SIMON: Yes if you’re going to eat anything, you’re more likely to eat some fruit. And so you can also do pranayama in the postures if you either do long slow breathing or you do meditative breathing which is more like natural breath in postures, which is what Iyengar teaches. Or if you do kumbhaka like Krishnamacharya teaches. And of course the simplest kumbhaka is just to pause at the end of the in breath and pause at the end of the out breath, and not change the muscles of inhalation or exhalation at all. But more complex pranayama would include bandha, like Krishnamacharya demonstrated in his videos, where at the end of the exhalation you can do a full uddiyana bandha, nauli, nauli hi, and at the end of the inhalation you would not just hold the breath in but you could activate the muscles of chest exhalation, muscles we use for forced exhalation from the chest. 19:53  Like when you force the air out of the chest you can do this. So if I breath in now for example, 19:59 my air is fully in my lungs, my chest is expanded, but if I hold the breath in I can compress the chest 20:05 and that chest compression will increase the inter-thoracic pressure and that will actually push blood away from the chest, reduce the blood coming into my heart. That can have a very powerful effect on the body. You could do it in asana as a Valsalva maneuver.  When you do this, in western terms it’s called a Valsalva maneuver.  So a Valsalva maneuver has been studied extensively you can Google it and read a lot, learn a lot about how people do this in Yoga. Valsalva maneuver is when you take a full breath in, you hold the breath in and make a false attempt at exhalation. There’s another one called the Muller maneuver, where you exhale fully, this is also a scientific medical term, hold the breath out, and make a false attempt at inhalation.

Demonstration

Valsalva Maneuver.
SIMON: I will inhale fully into my abdomen and into my chest, hold the breath in and then I’m going to pretend to exhale from my abdomen and my chest. To help you appreciate I’m pretending I’m going to hold my nose. 21:48  Let me do it again, so you can see I can also expand or contract.

So it looks like I’m breathing, but I’m not breathing, I’m activating my muscles of inhalation and exhalation while actually holding my breath in. And that act of trying to breath out, having held the breath in is called a Valsalva Maneuver.  It’s very well studied there are hundreds of papers about it. There are many physiological effects. Many of them can be healing effects. There are also a few negative effects, such as when weightlifters do this, weightlifters do exactly that inhale, pick up the weight, and and they exhale once the weight is lifted. A valsalva maneuver can help you increase strength and you pointed out that Krishnamacharya has actually said to do this while doing lolasana, it’s very usuable, you actually see people all round the world doing this intuitively because they know it makes them feel stronger.

ANTHONY: So Krishnamacharya when he does his jump throughs, jump backs, he is doing it on a kumbhaka. 

Yes, and that’s what he wrote in Makaranda right?  So that was a surprise to me that he wrote that, because Pattabhi Jois doesn’t teach that. He teaches inhale, and you inhale diaphragmatically, and I’ll come to that in a moment.  That’s what can be used to increase strength, but when weightlifters are studied doing this their blood pressure increases from a normal blood pressure of 120 over 70 to a very intense blood pressure of 380 over 360 which to me says that they’re super yogis of sorts, but actually they could also burst a blood vessel in the brain very easily. So it’s potentially very dangerous to do a Valsalva maneuver.

So this is what could be called a Muller Maneuver, is by the medical definition, a full exhalation and then a false attempt at inhalation. 24:33  So the act of pretending to breath in the chest looks like uddiyana bandha. But it’s not the uddiyana bandha that some people use. Many people say that uddiyana bandha is something to do with hardening the abdomen.  But actually the uddiyana bandha that BKS Iyengar described in his book, that many yoga texts describe is actually, purely and simply an expansion of the chest, the same way you would breath into the chest but without breathing. But it is done without tightening the abdomen at all.

ANTHONY: The problem with tightening the abdomen is you’re restricting the diaphragm. 

SIMON: Well the problem with tightening the abdomen to do this is that it wouldn’t work very well. If someone tightens their abdomen and then tries to expand the chest, it doesn’t lift up as high, because the rib cage is being pulled down. But it depends on what muscles you tighten the abdomen with. I can tighten my abdomen at the same time, I can use my muscles of forced exhalation to tighten the abdomen while doing my muscles of chest inhalation.  I can use my muscles of abdominal exhalation 25:51  So then perhaps you could see the two external oblique muscles coming on and that indicates that I was using my external obliques in exactly the same way that I would use to make a forced abdominal exhalation. So that was activating my muscles of chest inhalation and my muscles of abdominal forced exhalation while holding the breath out. And that’s a combination of a Valsalva and Muller maneuver at the same time on exhalation retention.

But a real Valsalva Maneuver and a real Muller Maneuver are very hard to explain because if I talked to a cardiologist and I say to them, what is a Valsalva Maneuver, they’ll give you the description I just gave, but if I say to them, what should I be trying to exhale with, my abdomen or my chest?  They’ll say what do you mean? And I’ll say is this the Valsalva Maneuver 27:03?  In other words am I trying to exhale with my chest, or my abdomen, or both?  And they’ll look at you in surprise and say I didn’t even know you could do that. And then of course a Muller Maneuver is a false attempt at inhalation, so this is an inhalation 27:19 with the chest, this is an inhalation with the abdomen.  And I’ll say to the cardiologist which type of Muller Maneuver do you want? Do you want a false inhale to the abdomen or the chest, because this is a chest inhalation 27:38 this is a false abdominal inhalation 27:42 and of course I could do both.  One looks like uddiyana bandha, one looks like some very esoteric yoga who knows what, but I could pretend to inhale to my abdomen and my chest at the same time 28:00. And that’s actually very very difficult.

ANTHONY: And what would be the benefit of doing that? Why would we do that?

SIMON: The chest muscles are going one way the diaphragm is going the other way and it creates a tremendous suction. You can get a similar effect by doing nauli. The effect that’s more common and more easy that also creates that of this going up and this going down 28:28 That’s using my rectus abdominis to push the abdome out. What I did before was use my diaphragm, to push the abdomen out. And that’s very stressful because when you expand the chest,that pulls the diaphragm up, when you breath diaphragmatically that pulls the chest down. So to do a complete breath for most people is very difficult. This is a complete breath 28:58. I inhaled into my abdomen and then into my chest but most people when they try that do this 29:06 and once the chest starts expanding the abdomen goes in, to actually inhale to the abdomen keep and expand and then inhale to the chest that for most people is very very difficult. In fact most people if you ask them to breath into the chest with the abdomen relaxed one in ten people can do it, nine in ten can’t. Most people can only breath into the chest with the abdomen tight. By doing that they also make themselves quite stressed.

During practice often that’s what people are doing.

Most people are breathing into the chest by inhibiting the diaphragm and if you inhibit the diaphragm the whole time you don’t have diaphragmatic strength power, you also don’t have good digestive ability, good reproductive function, good immune system function because the diaphragm is the main controller of the parasympathetic nervous system. So unless your diaphragm is really freely able to breath the whole way through your practice you are potentially inhibiting digestive, immune and reproductive function.  And you are basically stimulating a sympathetic nervous system response, the fight or flight response. And that fear anger and aggression that comes with the fight or flight response doesn’t sound like yoga to me. You know, whereas if you’re in the parasympathetic nervous system then that’s going to be promoting love and peace and harmony. But to feel parasympathetic response you must be able to breath diaphragmatically. And so this is where Pattabhi Jois changed what Krishnamacharya was teaching he said that when you lift to Tolasana you do inhale, hold the breath, and then lift up in the air, whereas what Pattabhi Jois teaches, is he say you inhale while you lifting up in the air. And the only way you can do that is by contracting the chest and then activating the rectus abdominus and then breathing in, and then you can breath diaphragmatically. But if you try and exhale into the tummy and inhale into the chest while trying to lift into the air, most people can’t lift up in the air. And you can see this when you do something like a half sit up 31:17 Lolasana, PJ says inhale into that posture, but if you inhale to the chest there’s no power. If you inhale to the abdomen with the abdomen soft, there’s no power.  But if you make this contraction 31:36 to tighten the abdomen, then inhale diaphragmatically, then it’s possible to lift up, and you feel power. The way you can show that to someone, because not everyone can do that posture is you can do a simple version of lolasana which is this 31:52 This is what I call a simple version of Lolasana, I do a half sit up and you can see it’s the same shape as Lolasana but in the half sit up it obliges the rectus abdominus to work. But nothing else has to work. And in this position this doesn’t inhibit the diaphragm. So I can breath diaphragmatically as I sit up, everything’s relaxed. But if I exhale fully and draw the navel to the spine and keep it firm here I can’t breath here. Unless I release the muscles of exhalation. If I try and sit up it stresses my neck, and if I try and sit up further the abdomen pushes out. So a person who’s trying to hold their abdomen in and breathe either into the abdomen or into the chest will have no power and often neck pain if they do it in sit up. You can actually lift up but it’s very stressful, it’s much easier to lift up into a sit up or a half or Lolasana if you just simply engage the rectus abdominus and simultaneously inhale diaphragmatically. But the rectus abdominus in this pose and in Lolasana will hold the ribcage down so it’s very difficult to inflate the chest now because the ribs are held in.

ANTHONY: Generally in Ashtanga we tend to, the belly tends to be drawn in slightly, throughout, which is restricting our diaphragmatic breathing.

SIMON: It can and it can’t

But you were talking earlier about how we can do a similar effect of drawing the belly in using similar muscles and allow ourselves to breathe more diaphragmatically. 

SIMON: And this I can show you 33:36

This is my relaxed baby abdomen.  Now if I tighten my abdomen with the muscles of exhalation, the abdomen is drawn in. Now if I tighten my abdomen with the same muscles that we use to do Lolasana, that’s this 33:54 looks the same on the outside. But if I put your fingers into my soft abdomen, this is tightening my abdomen using my exhalation muscles 34:04 and then this is using my muscles that one would use for Lolasana 34:10 which is the rectus abdominus. And so the muscles of exhalation drawn the abdomen in, the muscles of Lolasana push the abdomen out but relative to relaxed baby belly both of them appear to draw the abdomen in. But when you use the muscles of exhalation if I now try and breathe diaphragmatically I can’t because it goes to the chest. Whereas if I use Lolasana (rectus abdominus) now I breathe diaphragmatically, I can breathe fine in my diaphragm. But I have a firmness, I have an abdomen that is drawn in, a little bit at least, and I have relaxation and strength.

ANTHONY: So if we breathe like this we can basically increase our diaphragmatic breathing throughout our whole practice it’s gonna effect how calm you are heart rate, it’s going to effect the degree to which we are sweating and our breathing is going to ???????  as well.

SIMON: Yes because if you use muscles of abdominal exhalation it’s a little bit like tying a noose around your neck, people die from that, you don’t get blood to the brain,  so if you tie a noose round here (waist) you don’t get blood to the legs, but the blood needs to come to the legs, so the heart says better pump faster.  But if this (belly) is expanded, firmly expanded, the heart can easily push blood through without pumping faster.



CASE STUDY

I mention my friend Mick in the interview as a case study fro  the effects of Kumbhaka. I was lucky enough to have Mick join me for a workshop I was giving at Stillpoint Yoga the weekend before last, at the end of the workshop Mick gave a presentation I just asked him  on fb if it's OK to post the hndout here.








And here's some of the extras from the original post.

Tuesday, 27 May 2014

MY REVIEW HERE http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2014/04/emergence-of-yoga-by-krishnamacharyas.html

Curious where I choose to practice ashtanga and where Vinyasa Krama, what's that all about.

Ashtanga shala

Vinyasa Krama Shala

One final thought that 

This came to me yesterday and I can't get out of my head at the moment...

Surrender is perhaps the least passive of acts, why am I so slow to catch on, it's active, a choice, an act of trust, an offering (up).

If you were Krishnamacharya, if you had spent 80 odd years, pretty much your whole life, studying, practising and later teaching yoga, reading all the ancient texts, all the different approaches to practice in the original sanskrit; how would you yourself practice?

What for example would your own personal pranayama practice be like?

Last year I picked up the Original French version of Emergence of yoga, written by Krishnamacharyas 3rd son T. K. Sribhashyam.

Amazon link Emergence du Yoga by Krishnamacharya's Son T. K. Sribashyam

My Review here
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2014/04/emergence-of-yoga-by-krishnamacharyas.html

I took the section on Krishnamacharya's own practice ( apercu (overview?) in French, translated as 'Insight' in the English edition) and turned them into practice sheets and have been practicing them off and on all year

One example - Krishnamacharya own practice?
....along with the life saving session, presented as an example of Krishnamacharya's personal practice in the Movie Breath of Gods.

Quick Review: The Breathing God : Der Atmende Gott. DVD cover translation

REVIEW: Breath of God, Documentary on T. Krishnamacharya

There's a section in Emergence of Yoga titled 'Insight into my Father's practice session', I can't decide if 'insight' here means actual practices of Krishnamacharya as observed by the son or notes written down by the father, or practice sessions that are pretty much the kind of approach and content Krishnamacharya was taking at the time, after a lifetime of study and practice.

Nestled in amongst the integrated asana and pranayama practices is this example of a pranayama session. The book actually has a small chapter containing eleven other pranayama practice sessions. I don't remember this particular Pranayama session being in the original French version, I gave my copy away when the English edition came out so can't check.

It's a pleasure to practice, a nice mixture of pranayama's and I particularly like the employment of mantra's.

Ramaswami taught us to mentally recite a pranayama mantra built on the Gayatri in the kumbhaka after the inhalation,

My pranayama page

....here they are employed at each stage of the pranayama, mentally recite the Gayatri once on the inhalation, four times on the kumbhaka and twice during the exhalation.

I had the Krishnamacharya practice sheets I'd made up last year with me in Crete and practiced them after leaving Rethymno for Agios pavlos, I was looking forward to getting my hands back on the book after I arrived in Japan (I'd shipped my books over). Since arriving I've started working through all the examples of General practice in the order they're presented in the book. Sri Sribhashyam mentions that they are presented pedagogically and it's interesting to see how he's introducing the different elements of practice, alternatives to certain asana (sirsasana for example) more challenging asana, the Kumbhaka's (breath retentions) length of stay, the focal points (fascinating) and here, with Krishnamacharya's own practice, employment of mantra. The same goes for the pranayama chapter, they build up. If you find Krishnamacharya's pranayama session below too challenging for now then you can start with the first couple of pranayama's presented in the book.




The pranayama session nestled in amongst the integrated asana and pranayama practice sessions.

MY REVIEW HERE http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2014/04/emergence-of-yoga-by-krishnamacharyas.html

Семинар Энтони Грим Холла 22-23 ноября

M. snapped the picture of me in Savasana yesterday, I'd fallen asleep and not for the first time it seems, ....in Savasana, in the bath, in a friends Meditation class, "Stay present, stay present, stay... ZZzzzzzzzzzz

In need of Coffee, damned good coffee....

Yesterday I spent running around Kyoto, on my own, playing tourist. Back when were were living in Kyoto, ten years or so ago, we tended to avoid the main tourist areas in favour of the more out of the way or less well known temples and shrines. Yesterday I saw places for the first time that I'd only seen in pictures, despite living there for a number of years.

Hoken-ji pgaoda

Best of all though was discovering the Best Coffee in Kyoto, the Kansai region, in all Japan, perhaps..... unless you know different.

I'd ended up wandering from Gion down to the Hoken-ji and the four ( or is it five ) tier Pagoda. After walking all day I was in need of a coffee but to be honest the coffee hasn't been that great thus far. Just down from Hoken-ji though was a fancy looking place that boasted great coffee but looked a little too fancy for it's own good, too much style over content perhaps. Still, it had an espresso machine in the window and sacks of beans, how bad could it be.

Lets jump ahead,

I was given my macchiato in a paper cup, Hmmmmm

....at the first sip, the world dropped away, I can't really put it into words but everything just, well,  dropped away and there was this sense of peace, a Samadhi of sorts but lasting I guess only a minute. With the second sip I just smiled and felt as happy as I've ever felt, with the third I almost burst out laughing, "This is great coffee" I said, ".... but you know that". The guy just smiled, he knew.

Perhaps they get that a lot.

Clearly I need to sit more


It was the best coffee I've ever had, surely the best in Kyoto if not Japan, Samadhi for heaven's sake, can it get better than that, really?

It's a one shop company, supposedly the owner asked himself what he really wanted in life and decide he just wanted a simple life and good coffee so bought himself a coffee farm in Hawaii.

In the shop he will roast your beans for you in a special roaster made in Japan that takes five minutes, then he'll grind thebeans for you. Your coffee he'll run through the most incredibly beautiful espresso machine I've ever seen, all metal and wood. It has these beautiful wooden paddles that you can adjust the flow of the coffee, unfortunately it's called 'The slayer' but it's made in Seattle and they know a thing or two about coffee I hear.


The barista is Junichi Yamaguchi, a world Champion I believe, beautiful to watch him work, adjusting this, tweaking that..... well here he is at work on the Seattle Slayer, here in Hong Kong.



Anyway great coffee and made me want to move back to Kyoto within cycling distance of the place.

M.however,  is an Osaka girl and perhaps feels a little slighted, she's been sending me links to the best coffee in Osaka.

I cycled across town to one today, Brooklyn Roasting Company in Kitahama. And it was great coffee except that the barista, keen to show off his fancy creme design perhaps just kept pouring and pouring the milk in to my macchiato, ruined. Of course if you like latte then just order a macchiato here and you get a latte on the cheap.


Nope sorry, still moving to Kyoto.

But of course %Arabica isn't going to be open before practice in the morning, I still need my pre-practice brew. I came across this researching coffee in Kyoto. Seems Kyoto has a bit of a thing for the vacuum syphon method and I'm tempted to try it out,  perhaps pick one up for home use, some say it's the best method of all.

Cona Vacuum Brewer

Update: but for now we've picked up an Aeropress half price, always wanted to try one, what it may lack in romance it supposedly makes up for in flavour.


I mentioned that I'll be giving a workshop in Moscow in November, they seem to like the old picture of me playing my flute with my leg behind my head for their flyer's. I tried to explain to my friend Michelle that there was a serious point behind the picture (  Michele, Ashtangi Angel, has a workshop coming up herself in November, in Coventry on Overcoming Fear in Ashtanga Practice. It's also Michelle who painted my Vayu in the Mysore style seen behind me in the picture below).  I'd been offered free flute lessons but I couldn't find the time to practice yoga and flute, thus the tongue in cheek photo. However, while setting up for the picture I noticed that it was hard to play long tones without half decent alignment, I started exploring playing some long tones in different postures..... I don't think she bought it, still thinks I was just showing off.

There is no justification at all for making an update with a Shakuhachi but I did it anyway.

See this post http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2013/04/chanting-or-playing-flute-in-asana.html

Hey NYT, My Body Was Wrecked Before Yoga! ~ Anthony Grim Hall

About my poster Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda asana in Ashtanga Primary Series order

Available from Amazon, Lulu and as a free Download from my blog HERE

Available from Amazon, Lulu and as a free Download from my blog HERE

Leon
 https://www.facebook.com/YogaCentroVictoria
Thank you to my dear friend Oscar for inviting me to give my first workshop here and Leon.

http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2013/11/my-first-workshop-december-13th-and.html


















Valencia 
Organised by Living Yoga Valencia- Cosmin and Andrea

Blog posts
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2014/01/still-places-on-my-january-14-26th-next.html
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2014/01/my-krishnamacharya-workshop-at-living.html
























Valencia 5-day Easter Retreat
Organised by Living Yoga Valencia- Cosmin and Andrea




Ulm
Organised by Janosch Steinhauer www.janoschs-turnstunde.tumblr.com

http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2014/01/still-places-on-my-january-14-26th-next.html


















Leamington Spa 
Organised by Digby Platt, Stone Monkey Yoga Studio and cafe http://www.stonemonkey-yoga.co.uk/?page_id=202







London 
Organised by Scott Johnson Stillpoint Yoga,




















Yoga Rainbow festival, Turkey
Organised by http://wildyogi.info/en




























Crete
While in Crete for two months practicing with Kristina and manju Jois I gave Vinyasa krama classes once a weekend and a couple of evening introduction to Vinyasa Krama classes in Chania and Heraklion.


Rethymno
Kristina KaritinouYOGA PRACTICE Ashtanga Yoga Greece http://www.yogapractice.gr













Heraklion
Organised by Areti Karantzikou
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Yoga-Martial-Arts-Esoteric-Studies-in-Heraklion/303464323012067?sk=info











My Books

AMAZON PREVIEW

There is now a print edition available on Lulu and Amazon (looks much better in print with the A4 pages but you don't get the hyperlink to the videos). 

Videos can be found here

VINYASA KRAMA YOGA, sequences & subroutines.

I'm able to discount it heavily on Lulu but Amazon don't allow me to do so, best you get it here 

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/grimmly2007atgooglemaildotcom

That's my new book beside it, see details below.

Just published a new book, Krishnamacharya's 'Original' Ashtanga Yoga

Below is the second section of an article from Simon Borg Oliver for Wild Yogi Magazine on employing bandhas in Trikonasana (Simon, in his book, Applied Anatomy & Physiology of Yoga written with Bianca Machliss lists nine bandhas rather than the three we are most familiar with See my earlier post HERE). 

The first part of the article includes more basic instruction ( follow THIS link for the full article) but we pick it up here with the more detailed instructing focusing on employing the bandhas.

What particularly sparked my interest was Simon's definition of what he refers to as Ha- and Tha-bandha in relation to the blood.

"Ha-bandhas are compressive, create heat and increase local pressure. They push energy and blood away from their region and reduce local blood flow

Tha-bandhas are expansive, decrease temperature and local pressure. They pull energy and blood away from their region and increase local blood flow"

Recently Simon, Mick Lawton and myself have been in discussion concerning the topic of Kumbhaka. Mick you may remember suffers from an hereditary illness that causes his body to 'flare up', whereupon, several times a year, he is rushed to hospital and operated on, the wounds at his joints needing to be left open.  During these periods of healing ( when he is constantly receiving tests at the hospital) Mick's Ashtanga practice is on hold . Coming upon this blog he began practicing Vinyasa Krama and following my posts in the last couple of years on Krishnamacharya's employment of breath retention he's been including kumbhaka ( see this post). Mick's own experience, and the results of the tests from the hospital seem to bare this out, is that when he employs Kumbhaka he heals more quickly than when he doesn't employ kumbhaka.

I discussed this with Simon recently given his molecular biology, an Anatomy and physiology background, trying to understand why this approach to breathing in asana might be having such a positive effect on Mick's healing (See my Interview with Simon on the post). Simon draws attention to the Bohr effect where the increased level of CO2 resulting from the employment of Kumbhaka may allow oxygen to enter the cells more readily.

My own speculative theory resulting from this and mentioned briefly in the interview, was that somehow perhaps the nature of an asana (a bind perhaps) restricted the blood flow to a particular region of the body while kumbhaka was introduced, then on the relaxing of the asana ( unbinding) and while moving to the next asana, the blood, with the increased CO2, could then perhaps move more freely to the required region and thus account somewhat for the healing effect in the area of injury. It might then be possible to choose our asana  to have the greatest beneficial impact on the area most in need.

Speculative at best. However, reading Simon's article on Wild Yogi this morning and the section below in particular I wonder if it's not perhaps the employment of ha- and tha- bandhas that push blood to and from a region following the kumbhaka. 

Simon also mentions, in the interview I linked to above, approaches to breathing other than Kumbhaka that may have a similar effect.

UPDATE

I sent this to Simon to see if this made sense to him and he said that it was very much in line with what he was teaching and practicing himself currently. he also suggested I add this note.

"kumbhaka with bandha (especially compressive bandhas) will also increase the partial pressure of oxygen inside the body and thus create an autogenous hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, in the form of sitting in hyperbaric oxygen chambers, has been shown to be very effective in helping healing. The self induced version of this through kumbhaka with bandha  may explain in part what is happening to Mick in his healing response".

Over on the right blog I've added a link to Simon's excellent online courses based on, and extending, the material from his book 'Applied Anatomy & Physiology of Yoga', that link will stay there but here it is again.











These notes are adapted from our book comprehensive textbook ‘Applied Anatomy and Physiology of Yoga’ (AP). This work is also elaborated and enhanced in our two award winning fully online courses ‘Essentials of Teacher Training: Yoga Fundamentals Online Course’, and ‘Anatomy and Physiology of Yoga Online Course’.

Definitions and Introduction (APCh 1, 2,4, 7 Appendix C)
Bandha is defined as co-activation (simultaneous tensing) of antagonistic (opposing) muscle groups around a joint complex; Bandhas require multi-joint muscles and multi-joint complexes; Bandhas strengthen and stabilise joint-complexes; Bandhas help to move prana (energy) citta and (consciousness) through the nadis (subtle channels including nerves, blood vessels, lymph vessels and acupuncture meridians)

Ha-bandhas are compressive, create heat and increase local pressure. They push energy and blood away from their region and reduce local blood flow
Tha-bandhas are expansive, decrease temperature and local pressure. They pull energy and blood away from their region and increase local blood flow

There are many ways to generate bandhas at each of the nine main joint complexes. The main ways in Trikonasana are listed below with simple instructions to guide you in this posture as a follows:

Below are listed some of the instructions you can give to others as a teacher or things you can do in your own practice in the posture Utthita Trikonasana (with right leg forward)


Kulpha (ankle) bandha (APpp 178-186, 395-396)

Use ha-kulpha bandha on both feet (This bandha pushes the blood away from the feet and should mainly be used when the foot is on the floor)

Grip (flex) the toes (like trying to make a closed fist)
Lift the arches of the feet – (once kati (hip) bandhas are applied then emphasise the lift of the arch of the outer right foot and the arch of the inner left foot), i.e
turn the right thigh out and lift the arch of the outer right foot, and
turn the left thigh inwards and lift the inner arch of the left foot
Bring the weight of the body to the front of your feet

Janu (knee) bandha (APpp 158-163, 396-397)

Use tha-janu bandha on both knees (This bandha enhances blood flow through the knee and should mainly be used with the knee extended in a weight-bearing posture)
Pull up the knee caps (in order to activate muscles in front of the thighs or knee extensors)
Try to bend the knee with knee caps still pulled up and/or press into the front of the foot (in order to activate muscles in the rear of the thighs or knee flexors)

Kati (hip) bandha (APpp 134-142, 398-399)

RIGHT LEG (flexed hip)

Use ha-kati bandha (This bandha restricts blood flow through the hip and should mainly be used with the hip flexed, i.e. in poses with the thigh moving towards the front of the body, in standing or in the air)

Try to turn the right thigh outwards
Start with the right foot slightly turned inwards (outer foot parallel to the long side of your mat, and your inner foot slightly turning inwards (although the exact position can differ from person to person) then:
press your right heel inwards and
press your right front foot outwards
(this is like trying to turn the thigh outwards, but effectively co-activates hip abductors and adductors to create a compressive hip bandha)


LEFT LEG (extended hip)

Use tha-kati bandha (This bandha enhances blood flow through the hip and should mainly be used with hip extended, i.e. in poses with the thigh moving towards the back of the body, in standing or in the air)
Try to turn the thigh inwards
Start with the LEFT foot turned 45-60 degrees outwards, then:
press your left heel outwards and
press your front foot inwards
(this is like trying to turn the thigh inwards, but effectively co-activates hip abductors and adductors to create an expansive hip bandha)

Mula (lower trunk) bandha (APpp 207-209, 400-401)

Tha-mula bandha:

For most people it is generally best to only use tha-mula bandha in this posture. This bandhaenhances blood flow through the lower trunk while stabilising and firming the lower trunk. It is best maintained with natural diaphragmatic breathing where should feel like you are keeping your abdomen relaxed and feel comfortablly able to breathe into the abdomen (using your diaphragm) but if you were to touch your abdomen it would feel firm to touch because of the way you are doing the posture and using your postural muscles.

Lengthen the spine (especially by pushing the tail bone and sitting bones in the opposite direction from the first thoracic vertebrae and the collar bone)
Narrow and compress the waist (using the postural abdominal muscles and not the muscles of abdominal exhalation)
Initiate your inhale using the diaphragm (pull the diaphragm down) while not letting the abdomen puff out and this will increase intra-abdominal pressure and add to the stability of the lumbar spine
Keep the abdomen very firm but calm with three spinal movements:
Bend your spine and trunk forward (spinal flexion) to un-crease the back of your body, by moving your navel and your navel spine (L4-L5) forwards and downwards (activating spinal flexors, especially rectus abdominis)
Rotate your spine and trunk upwards (to the left side), by rotating your navel and your navel spine (L4-L5) to the left side
Lengthen the front of your body (spinal extension) by moving your navel and your navel spine (L4-L5) forwards and upwards

· AND/OR Try to push the sitting bones down and forward and while trying to pull the middle back in and up, without actually shortening the spine

· AND/OR Stretch the mat with the feet (specifically try to stretch the mat apart from the ball of the RIGHT foot to the heel of the LEFT foot)

· AND/OR Perform nauli (activate the rectus abdominis by pushing the pubis and your navel spine (L4-L5) forwards and downwards while generating tha-uddiyana bandha (see below) on exhalation retention)

Ha-mula bandha:

Only use ha-mula bandha (the compressional form of mula bandha which restricts blood flow through the lower trunk and is best used and learnt during forced abdominal exhalation) when both this posture (asana) and basic breath-control (pranayama) have been mastered separately and can now be applied at the same time. Note that most practitioners with less than 10 years or rigourous yoga are not ready for this stage and will over-tax both their physiology and anatomy by inappropriately applying this type of positive pressure core stabilisation or ha-mula bandhaprematurely trying to apply it in postures.

Narrow and compress the waist and especially the lower abdomen (using the abdominal muscles of exhalation), but generally only hold for a few moments
most people can only use a combination of the external and internal abdominal oblique muscles to to do a forced abdominal exhale, but this will restrict the ability to rotate the spine and prevent a diaphragmatic inhalation. Ideally the exhalation and tha-mula bandha should be done only with the transversus abdominis muscles, and they should be able to isolated so that the lower abdominals can be constricted separately fromt the upper abdominals (most people cant do this
Activate the perineum (not the anus) by learning how to draw in the lower abdomen and not the upper abdomen using the lower transverse abdminis fibres and not the external oblique muscles
This will cause a co-activation of the lumbar multifidus muscles and the perineum not the anus and yet still allow diaphragmatic breathing, but this is not possible for 90% of people without special training using devices such as ‘Real Time Ultrasound’
AND/OR contract the diaphragm with or without an inhalation

Uddiyana (chest and upper back) bandha (APpp 208, 211, 402-403)

In Utthita Trikonasana the chest can have a bandha that is intermediate between ha-uddiyana bandha and tha-uddiyana bandha (see below), or it can fully oscillate between the two opposingbandhas with or without using complete breathing (i.e. using diaphragm then chest muscles)

Ha-uddiyana bandha (This bandha restricts blood flow through the upper trunk and is good to use when the spine is being compressed or under a potentially damaging load, or when strength is required such as when lifting into a handstand, Lolasana or any arm strengthening activity)
Contract the front lower rib cage and the rear lower rib cage (near the kidney region) inwards towards each
Activate the muscles that you would use to exhale fully from the chest (ha-uddiyana bandha is easiest to feel on a safely performed forced chest exhalation)
Equally round out the upper back then lift the collar bones so the front and the back of the chest are equally stretched

Tha-uddiyana bandha (This bandha enhances blood flow through the upper trunk and is safest to use in postures such as Utthita Trikonasana where the spine is not compressed or under a load

Expand the lower rib cage
Inhale to the chest or expand the chest as if you are inhaling (this can be done at any time of the breath cycle)
Equally round out the upper back then lift the collar bones so the front and the back of the chest are equally expanded

Jalandhara (neck & head) bandha (APpp 209-211, 404)

Ha-jalandhara bandha (This bandha restricts blood flow through the neck)
Move the head down and move the neck back
If and when you rotate the head to the left (i.e. upwards) then move your left ear away from your left shoulder
Note that when you turn your head upwards you should turn your whole spine from the region of the naval and the ‘navel spine’ (L4-L5)

Amsa (shoulder) bandha (APpp 87-92, 405-406)
Generally to create amsa (shoulder) bandha, move or push the armpits in the direction they are facing and move the elbows in the opposite direction

In Trikonasana the shoulders can have a bandha that is intermediate between ha-amsa bandha and tha-amsa bandha (see below)

Ha-amsa bandha (This bandha restricts blood flow through the shoulder and is best used when the shoulders are extended by the side of the body or abducted out to the side)

Push your shoulders towards your hips and push your elbows away from your hips

Tha-amsa bandha (This bandha enhances blood flow through the shoulder and is best used when the shoulders are flexed, i.e. arms above the head)

Push the shoulders forward towards the chest and push the elbows backwards away from the chest

Kurpara (elbow) bandha (APpp 112-113, 407)

RIGHT ARM

Tha-kurpara bandha (This bandha enhances blood flow through the elbow and is best used when the elbow is extended)

Gently and simultaneously tighten (bulge) the biceps brachii and triceps brachii
Here the arm is pulling upwards against the ankle (or the big toe or the floor), as if trying to fly up into the air
Try to bend (flex) your elbow, activates the elbow flexors and elbow supinators (e.g. biceps brachii), and try to rotate your forearm inwards (elbow pronation), which activates the elbow pronators, and thus creates co-activation of opposing muscles groups (bandha) around the elbow

LEFT ARM

Tha-kurpara bandha
Gently and simultaneously tighten (bulge) the biceps and triceps brachii
Here the arm is pushing to try and straighten (extend) the elbow so try to rotate the forearm outwards (elbow supination)

Mani (wrist) bandha (APpp 113-120, 408-409)

RIGHT ARM

Ha-mani bandha (This pushes the blood away from the hand and should mainly be used when the hand is weight-bearing or grabbing something)

Grip (flex) with your fingers and
Pull the back of the hand towards the wrist (extend the wrist), as if trying to make a closed fist with the hand
OR in an open handed position in case the hand is on the floor then try to ‘grab the floor’ with your fingers,  or if your hand is resting by the side of the ankle in the air then make a tight closed fist with your hand

LEFT ARM

Tha-mani bandha (This pulls the blood towards the hands and should mainly be used when the hand is in the air and is not weight-bearing or grabbing something)
Spread (extend) your fingers and
Pull back (flex) your wrist slightly

The Three Ages of Woman, 1905 by Gustav Klimt

Thank God for Ashtanga!

After checking out the local Yoga scene the last couple of days I can't tell you what a relief it is to find that Ashtanga is still Ashtanga and free from general kookiness.... pretty much.

I'm sure it's not just Japan, or Osaka, start googling the yoga scene in your local city, whichever country you happen to be in,  and it's going to be just as bizarre, there's some eyebrow raising yoga out there..... your going to end up with videos that will have you screaming, as a friend messaged me after I sent her a couple from here, "Make it stop, for God's sake make it stop".

Ashtanga seems so stripped back in comparison, workman like, relatively sane.... it's refreshing.

But not just Ashtanga the whole tradition, Ramaswami says no more than he has to when he teaches asana,  mostly he just indicates the breath. And recently in my own classes I've started giving instructions for all the asana on one side then just shut up for the second side and left the class to it, so what if they forget an asana or two in this particular class. I'd rather everyone just focused on the long slow breathing, the kumbhakas as well as the linking of breath and movement, just as when I practice myself at home. One day I want to give a class where I don't say a damn thing for the whole two-three hours.

But back to stages ( and these are not in order of Ashtanga enlightenment, in fact lets get rid of first, second and third altogether and replace them with x, y and z)

Stage X
The thought came to me that perhaps in the beginning we focus on those asana in the series proper (OK, after we've learnt the sury's and standing, indulge me), so the Primary, Intermediate, Advanced series. We struggle with marichi's, obsess over our kapo's....... become vindictive over tic tock's (tacks)... and pretty much forget all about standing and finishing altogether, just go through the motions, standing we rush, finishing is just in the way before our well earned savasana.

Stage Y
For me the second stage (sorry, stage y) came when I started Advanced A (which I no longer bother with btw), those leg behind head postures are on you before you know it, I came to appreciate quite quickly the standing postures and milked them for all they were worth.

I still love standing, will often find I've spent an hour on it and do paschimottanasana and it's pratkriya before switch to finishing (see below).

Stage Z
This is when we get finishing and everything before seems stuff and fancy, this is our yoga practice right here. I'd rather do half standing, a couple of postures from whichever series and then spend the majority of my practice on Finishing. Ramaswami stresses long stays and variations in shoulderstand and headstand and most of Krishnamacharya's third son's ( Sri Shribhashyam) practice examples in his book Emergence of Yoga are taken up by the inversion work, preceded perhaps by a standing posture, a forward bend, backbend postures and then a mudra then a seated posture after the inversions. I wouldn't be surprised to find the Ashtanga finishing sequence as one of his whole examples of practice.

Ramaswami too, following his teacher Krishnamacharya, stresses a long stay in paschimottanasana (Ashtanga has that as part of finishing too of course, after the backbends), a long shoulderstand with variations and a headstand, he also includes long stay in maha mudra but in Ashtanga we get yoga mudra instead.

The Ashtanga finishing sequence is, I would argue,  a complete, stand alone practice. OK, I'd want to add a little pranayama before and afterwards but you get the idea.

And of course there's this that we've quoted before from Yoga Mala, although I'd argue it's a pretty complete practice for anybody whatever their age.

"Older people who want to start yoga, however, will find practicing the following ten asanas sufficient [see Chapter 2 for detailed descriptions of individual asanas]: first, the Surya Namaskara (types 1 and 2); then Paschimattanasana; Sarvangasana; Halasana; Karnapidasana; Urdhva Padmasana; Pindasana; Matsyasana; Uttana Padasana; and Shirshasana. It is preferable to do these in concert with the vinyasas [breathing and movement systems], but if this is not possible, then practicing while focusing on rechaka and puraka will suffice. Shirshasana should be practiced for at least ten minutes, and the rest, for at least ten rechaka and puraka while in the state of the asana [see fn. 39]. By practicing in this way, the body and sense organs will become firm, the mind purified, longevity will be increased, and the body will be filled with fresh energy". 
p26 Yoga Mala. Sri K. Pattabhi Jois 

If you could only do 10 postures (plus a handful of Sury's ) every day, which would you choose? Would you drop one of the finishing postures for one in a series or in Standing. A mildly thought provoking question.


But then of course there's the Stage Z1 where you rediscover Primary and then Z2 where you have a 2nd series epiphany and perhaps z12 where you decide that really you only need to do Savasana and might as well stay in bed and practice it there.

Been thinking about getting back into shala practice, checking out the local Ashtanga programs. I'm going to a Led Primary tomorrow in fact at Spirit Yoga Mysore, Osaka, where the program is run by Veronique Tan (authorized level 2). Yeah I know, on a Saturday, it seems to be rest day anarchy in Ashtangaland these days.

I might wait until I'm back from November's trip to  UK and Russia before I start going to Mysore practice every morning but find I'm quite into the idea. Perhaps I just got the shala habit in Rethymno.

re. the trip back to the UK in November
Confirmation just came through for a Vinyasa Krama Class at IndabaYoga, London on 14th November.

Here are the details.


On the 16th November I'll be back at Stone Monkey http://www.stonemonkey-yoga.co.uk/?cat=5 for a follow up to my workshop there in May. After a recap of the basics principles of Krishnamacharyas original Ashtanga that we looked at last time we'll move quickly through to pick up and focus on where we left off last time and the second half of Primary. Hopefully it will be of interest if your coming for the first time or if you attended the workshop in May. In the afternoon we'll ooh at a different Vinyasa krama sequence from last imd. Then we looked at the backbend sequences, this time we'll look at the Asymmetric postures and how the sequence prepares and leads up towards full outs and or/leg behind head work. You might not feel ready for the full expression quite yet but hopefully this sequence will give you postures and subroutines to work on.




And then on 21st November I fly to Moscow http://www.yoga108.com/2014/09/24/grim-hall/

And an 'Autobiography' that he seems to have been working on for some time titled 'DUST'

http://timmiller.typepad.com/dust_by_tim_miller/2010/09/chapter-1.html

Here's part of Chapter 1 and Tim;s first Ashtanga class. 

 "...I told Nate I'd be back tomorrow, a Friday, to check out a class.

The next day I wandered down the block to the church at five o'clock. Approaching the front doors apprehensively, I noticed they were painted in a mysterious way. The branches of a tree supported two figures in meditation, the right one silhouetted against the sun, the left one in front of the moon. The door knob was cleverly disguised as a knot in the tree trunk, as if whoever was inside didn't really want any one else finding their way in.

Entering the church, I was surprised by the roominess inside. The high pitched, open beam ceiling and uncluttered floor space made the building seem much larger inside than out. In the dim light I could make out a few people doing yoga.

A guy who was lighting candles walked towards me, smiled, and introduced himself as "Brad". Brad had long golden hair, receding a little in front, a full beard, and twinkling blue eyes. Wearing only a pair of Speedos, Brad's short, muscular body resembled a small oak tree.

"Are you a teacher or a student?" I asked.

"Both," was his amused and ambiguous reply. "Are you here to do some yoga?"

"I guess so," I stammered, trying to sound non-committal  and suddenly aware  of  the inappropriateness of my attire, dressed as I was in jeans and a flannel shirt.

Brad asked me to remove my shoes and directed me to a place on the carpet. He explained that to warm up we would do a series of movements called Surynamaskara (salutation to the sun). We did several Suryanamaskaras and Brad taught me how to synchronize my breath with the movement. Satisfied with my progress, Brad demonstrated a second, more complicated version of Surynamaskara. This was more difficult and I soon began to perspire in my jeans and flannel shirt as I struggled to keep up. After half a dozen of the second Surynamaskara I was drenched in sweat.

Brad explained that getting warm served a dual purpose-it made the body more flexible and sweating removed toxins through the skin. I noticed that I felt considerably looser than when we started. He showed me several standing poses then led me through the movements of Surynamaskara as far as the downward  dog. At this point he lightly jumped through his arms to a sitting position. He indicated that I was to do the same. Clumsily, I attempted to mimic his maneuver, landing noisily in a heap beside him.

We began to do some seated forward bends with one or both legs bent in interesting ways. Between these poses Brad showed me how to lift myself up with my arms while crossing my legs, then jump back into a push up position. From there we inhaled to an upward dog, exhaled to a downward  dog, then jumped through the arms again. Brad called these movements "vinyasa". "The vinyasas," he explained, "make you pay attention to your breathing, keep your body warm, build strength, and put your spine back into neutral between the sitting poses."

After about an hour of this I began to show some signs of fatigue, so Brad had me lie down and showed me some variations on the shoulder stand. He explained that the inversions cooled the body down and helped restore energy by supplying fresh blood to the brain. Following the shoulder stand we sat cross legged for some deep breathing. We sat for a few minutes in the lotus position and Brad explained a kind of breathing he called "ujjayi'-the victorious breath. "Breath in through the nose but from the throat so you can hear the breath as it passes through the throat." I had never been comfortable in the lotus position until this moment and the ujjayi breathing was having an intoxicating effect. Immersed in the sound and fullness of the breath, I felt like I was floating.

Suddenly Brad extended his arms downward and lifted his lotus off the floor. He began to breathe in a rapid and forceful manner and I tried to do the same. We did about a hundred breaths like this until my arms began to shake. After lowering my lotus to the floor I struggled for a moment to release my legs, which by now were completely numb.

Brad grabbed my feet and stretched my legs out to get some circulation back into my knees and ankles.  Once I had some feeling back in my legs he asked me to stand up and clasp my hands behind my neck, letting my shoulders relax so the elbows came together on my chest. Standing behind me, Brad reached around me with both arms, lacing his fingers together around my elbows. "Take a deep breath," he said. As I exhaled, he lifted me off the floor and squeezed me against his chest. My spine cracked in half a dozen places. "Lie down," Brad suggested. He covered me with a blanket and said, "Rest now, for at least fifteen minutes."

As I lay there I noticed that my whole body was tingling. A relaxing warmth spread through me and a deep sense of stillness came over me. Accustomed as I was to my habitual anxiety or depression, with the accompanying mental chatter, I was both surprised and delighted to find myself feeling so peaceful. The sound of other people's ujjayi breathing accented the stillness.

A feeling of familiarity, of being at home-but a home I hadn't visited in a long time-came over me. The candlelight flickered on the walls and cast dancing shadows. I felt my heart beating slowly and strongly in my chest.  A few people began to chant in a resonant language I figured must be Sanskrit. I could feel the vibrations of the chanting in my body. It felt good and strangely reassuring.

When the chant ended I got up slowly and folded the blanket. Brad walked over and took it from me.  "Thank you," I said, feeling the words were terribly inadequate to express what I had just experienced.  "You're welcome," he replied. "I'll see you Monday," I promised. "Good," said Brad".

• Prologue
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3

On the 16th November I'll be back at Stone Monkey http://www.stonemonkey-yoga.co.uk/?cat=5 for a follow up to my workshop there in May. After a recap of the basics principles of Krishnamacharyas original Ashtanga that we looked at last time we'll move quickly through to pick up and focus on where we left off last time and the second half of Primary. Hopefully it will be of interest if your coming for the first time or if you attended the workshop in May. In the afternoon we'll ooh at a different Vinyasa krama sequence from last imd. Then we looked at the backbend sequences, this time we'll look at the Asymmetric postures and how the sequence prepares and leads up towards full outs and or/leg behind head work. You might not feel ready for the full expression quite yet but hopefully this sequence will give you postures and subroutines to work on.




And then on 21st November I fly to Moscow http://www.yoga108.com/2014/09/24/grim-hall/

So I'm quite the shala ashtangi now, I've been writing down moon days, putting the slight difference in practice times in my diary ( and in different pen colours too).

caught this week's total eclipse, here it is just beginning

Playing shala Ashtangi is fun... except when it isn't, Typhoon hit Monday, big winds and a lot of rain and me still without a jacket let alone an umbrella, I went back to bed and practiced at home.

An even bigger Typhoon is due to this Weekend/Monday, I may get another lie in and home practice.

TY 1419 (VONGFONG)

That's Veronique  above in the centre of the room, she recently came back from Sharat's three week (or so) teacher training Special course, for Authorised teachers (invite only), very up to date then with not only how Ashtanga is currently being presented in Mysore, India and perhaps also  how Sharat intends to teach this season.

It's curious experiencing the different focus of attention, the varying concerns of different teachers especially after spending the last few months in Crete with Kristina and Manju where so many of the old ways are still alive and present.

Old ways, new ways, interesting to explore them all and see later which elements end up remaining a part of one's Ashtanga practice and perhaps even one's yoga practice.

In Nietzsche's sense, Crete seemed more Dionysian, oh so Dionysian, here the stress appears, for the moment at least, to be more Apollonian.

Both are considered essential to Nietzsche, the Dionysian needs form and form without the Dionysian.... well, "...what's the point, Stan", an empty eggshell.

Either way it's all good work but a relief to come home and do my regular practice in the evening.

I could do with some Apollonian form perhaps, there's seven years of bad habits for poor Veronique  to deal with, plus a general lack of interest over the years in the 'correct' vinyasa of the day (Although recently I obsessed on the count for a while in Primary - Anyone have a bootleg audio of Sharat's 2nd series count?).

Mostly though I just want to tidy up my 2nd series, get my strength and stamina back such that I can explore Krishnamacharya's approach to Intermediate asana, in the same way I've been looking at his Primary this last year or two. Unfortunately only certain aspects of Krishnamacharya's original Ashtanga survived parampara, Archaeology is required.

Talking of Archeology

I came across a Zen monk ( who seems to have open Zazen sessions) with an obsession for the Elgin marbles, supposedly he's been to see them ten times at least and says that on seeing them he realised what was wrong with his Zazen.
You can run the link through google translate for an English'ish version. http://www.geocities.jp/tensho_ji/index.html

The wonderful marbles should of course be back in their rightful place Athens in the beautiful new National Archeological Museum below the Parthenon http://www.namuseum.gr/index-en.html (we'll take that replica though).... and as Free of charge for anyone to visit as in the British Museum, poor Zen monk couldn't have visited ten times if he'd had to pay 7 euros each visit.

This is the google English translation of a blog post where the Monk explains the impression the marbles made on him as well as on his Zazen

"In attitude and flexible nature, beautiful and behave freely-actively - and was named "Parthenon-style" to live like this. By using a return to a flexible attitude of the original, freedom-activeness that their have you originally emerged. And since is that it is available to everyone."


I could try to tidy up the Google's English a little but it has a somewhat poetic quality don't you think, the frown of incomprehension gives way to a smile and an ahhhh, so I thought I'd leave it as it is as well as the post below from the Monk's blog where he tries to explain his idea of a Parthenon style of Zazen. Note where he talks about exploring the nature of the body.

"Zen and Parthenon style quest of attitude beautiful flexible & free natural" 

People think it's strange title also will most likely. I think so too.
I came to explore as most important thing,
Such as Shinran Shonin and Jesus or Zen Buddhism,,
The ones that you feel sincerely "It's really important this is!" And,
It was very religious naturally.
At the same time, to explore the nature of the body also is important,
In the process, that it has met a sculpture in the Parthenon was a milestone.
And exploration of Zen and zazen, is quest of Parthenon sculpture,
In a strange form myself, and connected, and has been explored.
(It will continue until death) the course of the quest,
I think you would like to spell out in this blog.

Direction you are thinking now,
· (Failure can be seen very well) my experience in the body and posture
- Zen in the "free-flexible"
Words used 臨済 Zen master is repeated ("free",
The "flexible", teacher Dogen has been described as the root of Buddhism. )
· "Waist stand" and "put the hip" mean?
-Of (or mind) and body "center" is?
-Wonder of the body seen in sculpture Parthenon actual Zen flexible
Perhaps that's the Apollonian sense of our practice, our attention to form, the container, it is after all an embodied practice. Or is it, perhaps as with the mind we attend to the body to overcome the body, pay attention to form without becoming lost in form.

I'm more than happy to have my asana poked about a bit, sure I'd get a rougher ride in an Iyengar class. Also, encountering the latest manifestation of vinyasa is a source of much interest and even amusement in the case of drishti since I tend to practice with my eyes shut... "I have to look where?" See this post on focal points. Must do a comparison post on Krishnamacharya's original Ashtanga vinyasa (put to one side in his later teaching) and current vinyasa, been meaning to for some time.

One last thought on form....

The 'Zen circle 'below, isn't that round, tear it up and start again


and as for this 'wabi sabi' pot.....


I liked this sentiment from the Ashtanga San Diego Blog

जलपूर्णेष्वसंख्येषु शरावेषु यथा रवेर् ।
एकस्य भात्यसंख्यत्वं तद्वद्भोऽत्र दृश्यते ।।
उपाधिषु शरावेषु यो संख्या वर्तते परम् ।
सा संख्या भवति यथा रवौ चात्मनि तत्तथा ।।
In the same way that a single sun reflects innumerable times in innumerable bowls full of water, so diversity is seen in the world. But just as there are as many suns as there are bowls, so there are as many selves as there are conditions for their appearance.

"In the Ashtanga yoga community we like to speak (or write) a lot about how the practice is more than physical and can be practiced by anyone willing to devote themselves to this endeavor. Unfortunately, our constant stream of asana-selfies, highlighting ever more difficult physical postures, can undermine the message we attempt to communicate. It is a delicate balance as there is beauty and serenity in an asana practice done properly, when it is performed as sacrifice. I find myself wondering though, what sort of different message would we be able to communicate if we started turning our cameras and our blogs upon others? Not in criticism but in praise, in awe, in grateful recognition of the stunning, varied forms of the practice. "

Cheat sheet of Sury namaskars made up  different embers of the shala, love this, hope they do a full Primary soon. Full size pdf here http://www.ashtangasd.com/discussion/downloads

The video below was supposed to show how silent the Aeropress is for making early morning, pre practice excellent coffee, except that I'm making a hell of a racket, probably more than the nespresso machine used to make.




and everything else is included so why not this....

The Kitchen Sink

form at the expense of function?

Like many I've often wondered why the Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois approach to asana are so different given that they both studied with the same teacher T. Krishnamacharya and at the same period. We do have the video of Iyengar practicing Ashtanga, jumping from one posture to the next in a demonstration for the camera in 1938 but why the parting of ways?

My understanding is that when Iyengar went to Pune and was asked to write a 'manual' he wasn't able to explain, in words rather than through demonstration,  how to perform an asana. It was in the act of writing out instructions for each asana that he began to focus so closely on the alignment to be explored in each posture. On giving attention to each and every aspect of an individual asana the length of stay in an asana would become longer to allow for exploring these different aspects.

Ramaswami has mentioned that Krishnamacharya did talk about how certain asana required longer stays for the benefits to be experienced, paschimottanasana comes to mind, sarvangasana (shoulder stand), sirsasana (headstand), maha mudra in the mudras, most full body mudras would tend to involve longer stays to maximise the .

But we find it also in Krishnamacharya's early writing, way back in 1934 in Mysore when Pattabhi Jois was his student we find in Krishnamacharya's first book, Yoga Makaranda, instruction and recommendation for extended stays.

Pattabhi Jois too (see below), in Interview talks about extended stays in certain asana.

"You long time you sitting, kurmasana is long time, 3 hours is possible. One asana is perfect, taken 3 hours."

Below then are some of the extended stays that I tend to explore in my own classes and workshops, you will  be relieved to know that we tend to only stay five breaths in Chaturanga rather than fifteen minutes, likewise with trikonasana, we usually stay ten breaths each side and in downward facing dog just ten breaths, enough to get the point of exploring longer stays in the privacy of ones own home practice.

Talking of home practice we have another Typhoon hitting osaka, an excuse to skip the shala for a couple of days and practice at home, Pranayama this morning before and after practicing along to The Pattabhi Jois Led Intermediate from 1989 that I posted yesterday as well as a sit. Half way through the Led I stopped at the leg behind head postures to stay for ten-twenty breaths in each and explore puraka kumbhaka (retention after the inhalation) in line with Krishnamacharya's instruction in yoga Makaranda. I also stopped it at Karandavasana to check Jessica Walden's excellent tutorial again and give it five to seven goes, seems to be coming back but slowly.

What constitutes an extended stay?

It can be confusing, when considering an extended stay in an asana should we count just one expression of the asana or several. Krishnamacharya presents several examples of paschimottanasana (see below), different hand positions and different head positions, the forehead on the knee, face on the knee and chin on the knee.

In Pattabhi Jois' Ashtanga, going by the 1973 Syllabus given to Nancy and David, we find Paschimottanasana A, B, C, D, E.... at 5 breaths each, with 5 seconds for inhalation and the same for exhalation, that gives us approx. 5 minutes in paschimottanasana. If we were to take the old count of eight breaths and go by Pattabhi Jois' mention in Interviews of 10 (even 15) seconds for inhalation and the same for exhalation as the ideal, then we have just under fourteen minutes.

Maha Mudra is another posture where an extended stay may be expected. Janu Sirsasana is a vinyasa of Mahamudra and we still have three versions of this in the Ashtanga Primary series.

Sharat I seem to remember in past conference notes mentioned very long stays in sirsasana as being beneficial ".. but at home, not in the shala, too busy".

Here's Krishnamacharya's extended stays from Yoga Makaranda (1934 Mysore).




ALSO

Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois on extended stays in asana

Question: Yassin is asking if he should stay longer in kurmasana or in back bendings. You give some timing like 10 breaths for kurmasana. You give 3 times five breaths for urdhva dhanurasana. Yassin is asking if he should stay longer. He wants to stay longer sometimes.

Answer: "I telling: all the asanas you take practice how long your strength is so there, you take. Long time he is doing, 100 asanas you do - 1 asana is perfect. Long time sitting all the asanas he is doing time, you 1 take 10 breath or 15 breathing. You count it. Practice, that is all. You long time you sitting, kurmasana is long time, 3 hours is possible. One asana is perfect, taken 3 hours. Now practice how much your strength is there, you take. That is no problem. Your strength is 10 breathing is doing possible, you do 10 breathing, 15 breathing you possible, you do 15 breathing. One hundred possible, 100 you do. 5 you do, 5 is possible, 5 you do. Take practice, that is all. I am telling only for practice. Fix completely perfect. Asana, one asana siddhi, you do hundred asanas, one asana is coming, one asana perfectly is coming. That is real".

And finally we have the Rishi series that supposedly comes after Advanced A and B that I posted on again only yesterday, where we stay in ten postures for fifty breaths. 
See THIS post


BKS Iyengar

In his later years, in his regular personal practice BKS Iyengar would tend to stay for three to five minutes for most postures, longer for certain seated postures,  7-15 minutes perhaps (example baddha konasana 15 minutes) and an extended period for shoulder stand and headstand 15-30 minutes. I also have him, in a regular practice staying 20 minutes in Vajrasana and the same in Raja kapotsasana and even 10 minutes in Hanumanasana.

3-5 minutes minimum in an asana seems perfectly reasonable to me.... except perhaps navasana where I'm happy to go with a minute and a half.


And in case your reaction, like my own, is that three hours in mayurasana is impossible.... perhaps not, here's plank held for four hours and 26 minutes ( his wifes birthday is 26th April i.e. 4:26), notice how composed he is at the end unlike the previous record holder shown at the end of the clip.

 So much for the Month Mysore pass that I bought last week, I lasted a week.

Friday I decided to do my normal Friday primary (at the shala), two hours, made it as far as Navasana before switching to finishing, rushed it a bit.

Since then, with the excuse of another typhoon floating about I've practiced at home, Wonderful Krishnamacharya 2nd series or rather middle group practices with pranayama.

I thought of going to the shala today but couldn't get past the idea that the half hour I spent cycling to the shala and then back again could be half hour of pranayama before and after my asana practice.

Lots I could be improving and tidying up at the shala of course, it's a nice space, nice atmosphere, good people, excellent teacher but good stuff happening here at home, lots of 'Ahhhh' moments again.
Feels like five/six months since I did my own practice, nice to feel it coming back. I should give my mysore pass to the first unhealthy or stressed out person I see, shame to have it go to waste.










Did anybody actually read through the instructions for bharadvajrasana from Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda part II that I posted it yesterday ( I know, text heavy post, need to make this practice more accessible), stunning approach to the posture, he talks of building up to 12 and eventually 48 breaths with kumbhakas after both the inhalation and exhalation, looks over the the other shoulder too. Look how detailed the instruction, wonderful stuff.


BHARADVAJASANA from YM2

Technique:
1. Sit on a piece of soft folded cloth, with one leg stretched straight in front, and the other leg folded back at the knee, so that the foot is close and by the side of the buttocks, the sole of the foot upturned, toes stretched and the back of the foot touching the cloth. The knees should be as close as possible. The foot of the leg, stretched in front, should be upright, to the ground and not inclined sideways. The body should be erect and the spinal column stretched-chin lock.

2. Bend the stretched leg (say the right) at the knees and bring the right heel very near the umbilicus. The right knee should touch the ground. Both the knees should be as near to each other as possible.

3. The right hand is taken round the back to catch hold of the toes of the right leg. The palm to touch the back of the foot.

4. The palm of the left hand is placed on the cloth below the right thigh. The hand should be stretched and not bent at the elbow. The left wrist should touch the outside of the thigh.

5. Twist trunk to face front. Turn the head, so that the chin is over the left shoulder.

6. Take deep inhalations and exhalations with holding in of breath and holding out of
breath. Both types of kumbhakam are necessary. The total rounds of deep breaths may be slowly increased as practice advances, from 12 to 48.

7. Repeat with the other leg.

Note: This is contra indicated to those who have had abdominal operation.