As mentioned before HERE, I'm currently registered on Simon Borg Olivier and Bianca Machliss' Yoga Synergy Fundamentals course. The first week, was kind of an introduction, History and Philosophy of Yoga but also the purpose of yoga postures.
This week is the main anatomy section on the nine bandhas ( nine joint complexes)
see these earlier posts
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2011/11/nine-bandhas-yes-nine-in-applied.html
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2014/10/employing-simon-borg-olivers-ha-and-tha.html
Wildyogi magazines interview with Simon Borg-Olivier give us a bit of an insight into Simon's view of the purpose of yoga postures and I thought it would be nice to share, it(s a better write up than my course notes.
"The traditional yoga postures were not designed to stretch or to tense muscles. They were designed more to achieve some sort of union in the body, and that union would be done primarily by increasing the movement of prana and chitta to the body. In more scientific words - moving of energy and information in the body along the different energy channels. Those channels include blood vessels, nerves, lymphatic vessels, meridians. And the energy that flows in the body includes, for example, the heat in the blood, or electrical impulses that move through the nerves".
He's the above paragraph in the context of the interview.
Wild Yogi: Describe your method please in more details.
Simon Borg-Olivier: The traditional yoga postures were not designed to stretch or to tense muscles. They were designed more to achieve some sort of union in the body, and that union would be done primarily by increasing the movement of prana and chitta to the body. In more scientific words - moving of energy and information in the body along the different energy channels. Those channels include blood vessels, nerves, lymphatic vessels, meridians. And the energy that flows in the body includes, for example, the heat in the blood, or electrical impulses that move through the nerves. So we than made our practice to enhance the flow of these things.

What I was feeling during yoga practice - that I was in yoga. It didn’t feel like I was stretching, tensing, breathing or thinking. Yet what we observe with most people’s yoga practice in the modern world, that they are trying to tense, stretch, breath too much and think too much or not to think at all.
So we’ve redesigned the sequences in such a way that people without thinking too much would make their bodies do what automatically normal indian traditional body would do. For example, what a modern person would do to get into a lotus position. He would take one leg, grab it and pul it on the opposite thigh, the same with the other leg. When you do this you cause the muscles between a knee and a hip to stretch as a result of a stretch reflex. But if you do this posture in the way that traditional Indian body would do - they do it the same way we cross our arms - they put leg on the opposite thigh without using their arms. You must do it in the same way while you are in the head or hands stand, for you can’t do it with your hands. So legs are moving due to the action of the muscles. It is a simple nerve reflex - in order to bend your knee you have to switch on one muscle and switch off the opposite muscle. So by moving actively into a position, using forces of the internal body, it automatically gives you strength on one side of the joint, relaxation and length on the other side of the joint. It looks like you’re having a stretch, but it doesn’t feel like you’re stretching. And because one side of the joint was tensed and compressed, while the opposite is relaxed and lengthened, this causes change in the blood flow - from high pressure to low pressure. And this improves circulation. Working in such a way you feel warm very quickly. I can practice in a freezing cool room or walk outside in the winter and my body in a couple of minutes becomes very warm. Or if I practice in a very hot conditions I would not feel overheated because of good circulation process in my body.
So the most important aspect of the practice I teach is - can you move energy and information through the body in a way when you don’t feel like stretching and tensing. But as a natural byproduct of the practice you end up very flexible and very strong, and fit, while feeling like you were meditating and your mind is at peace.
Wild Yogi: Is this what makes your method unique?
Simon Borg-Olivier: Well, if our method is unique, it is only in the world of modern yoga. Because this is exactly what traditional yogis do. And that’s why they achieve the results they do. That’s what my teachers taught me, I had very good Indian, western and Chinese, Tibetan teachers.
full interview here http://wildyogi.info/en/issue/interview-simon-borg-olivier-traditional-yoga-modern-body
Did you pick up on this in the above quote....
" I can practice in a freezing cool room or walk outside in the winter and my body in a couple of minutes becomes very warm. Or if I practice in a very hot conditions I would not feel overheated because of good circulation process in my body".
This has been of particular interest to me, I blame my first and second experience of kidney stones on sweating too much, the first time due to a Kyoto summer, the second, hot sweaty, practice, ideally the extra water we take on in summer should pass through our kidney's rather than our yoga towel (in case your curious the second kidney stone was most likely due to green (spinach) smoothies).
Like many I assumed that we were supposed to practice in a hot room, not Bikrum hot perhaps but pretty hot. Many Ashtanga teachers seem to want to make their room as hot as a Mysore afternoon in May. Where did that idea come from, we seem to be getting passed that now (see Gregor Maehle http://chintamaniyoga.com/asana/why-overheating-the-yoga-room-is-not-a-good-idea/) but there are still a lot of hot shalas around. Hamish's room in London was sweltering I remember but then he used to practice with Derek Ireland at The Practice Room in Crete, I imagine that was pretty hot.
I used to sweat a couple of kilo during practice at home and in Crete also, Kristina threatened to did a trough between my mat and Niko's for the following summer.
Above was a typical sweaty summer practice in the UK but the picture below is of full Ashtanga Primary although more in line with Krishnamacharya's presentation in Yoga Makaranda (1934) that I've been practicing for the last two years or so; longer, slower breathing, kumbhaka, some longer stays. As well as Krishnamacharya's slower breathing I've been incorporating Simon and Bianca's focus on abdominal breathing, it does seem to keep one more relaxed.... and seemingly cooler. I've also started incorporating some other approaches of their's that gives a more relaxed practice (more to come on that later).
The yoga towel doesn't lie, almost sweat free in Osaka, in July
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Here's the Osaka temperature this morning, around 32 degrees and 70% humidity, we have no Air Conditioning in this old house but we do have a fan.
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This week is the main anatomy section on the nine bandhas ( nine joint complexes)
see these earlier posts
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2011/11/nine-bandhas-yes-nine-in-applied.html
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2014/10/employing-simon-borg-olivers-ha-and-tha.html
 |
| Simon Borg- Olivier- What do we call this ardha baddha padma mayurasana? |
"The traditional yoga postures were not designed to stretch or to tense muscles. They were designed more to achieve some sort of union in the body, and that union would be done primarily by increasing the movement of prana and chitta to the body. In more scientific words - moving of energy and information in the body along the different energy channels. Those channels include blood vessels, nerves, lymphatic vessels, meridians. And the energy that flows in the body includes, for example, the heat in the blood, or electrical impulses that move through the nerves".
He's the above paragraph in the context of the interview.
My highlighting in Bold
Wild Yogi: Describe your method please in more details.
Simon Borg-Olivier: The traditional yoga postures were not designed to stretch or to tense muscles. They were designed more to achieve some sort of union in the body, and that union would be done primarily by increasing the movement of prana and chitta to the body. In more scientific words - moving of energy and information in the body along the different energy channels. Those channels include blood vessels, nerves, lymphatic vessels, meridians. And the energy that flows in the body includes, for example, the heat in the blood, or electrical impulses that move through the nerves. So we than made our practice to enhance the flow of these things.

What I was feeling during yoga practice - that I was in yoga. It didn’t feel like I was stretching, tensing, breathing or thinking. Yet what we observe with most people’s yoga practice in the modern world, that they are trying to tense, stretch, breath too much and think too much or not to think at all.
So we’ve redesigned the sequences in such a way that people without thinking too much would make their bodies do what automatically normal indian traditional body would do. For example, what a modern person would do to get into a lotus position. He would take one leg, grab it and pul it on the opposite thigh, the same with the other leg. When you do this you cause the muscles between a knee and a hip to stretch as a result of a stretch reflex. But if you do this posture in the way that traditional Indian body would do - they do it the same way we cross our arms - they put leg on the opposite thigh without using their arms. You must do it in the same way while you are in the head or hands stand, for you can’t do it with your hands. So legs are moving due to the action of the muscles. It is a simple nerve reflex - in order to bend your knee you have to switch on one muscle and switch off the opposite muscle. So by moving actively into a position, using forces of the internal body, it automatically gives you strength on one side of the joint, relaxation and length on the other side of the joint. It looks like you’re having a stretch, but it doesn’t feel like you’re stretching. And because one side of the joint was tensed and compressed, while the opposite is relaxed and lengthened, this causes change in the blood flow - from high pressure to low pressure. And this improves circulation. Working in such a way you feel warm very quickly. I can practice in a freezing cool room or walk outside in the winter and my body in a couple of minutes becomes very warm. Or if I practice in a very hot conditions I would not feel overheated because of good circulation process in my body.
So the most important aspect of the practice I teach is - can you move energy and information through the body in a way when you don’t feel like stretching and tensing. But as a natural byproduct of the practice you end up very flexible and very strong, and fit, while feeling like you were meditating and your mind is at peace.
Wild Yogi: Is this what makes your method unique?
Simon Borg-Olivier: Well, if our method is unique, it is only in the world of modern yoga. Because this is exactly what traditional yogis do. And that’s why they achieve the results they do. That’s what my teachers taught me, I had very good Indian, western and Chinese, Tibetan teachers.
full interview here http://wildyogi.info/en/issue/interview-simon-borg-olivier-traditional-yoga-modern-body
****
on sweating less during practice
Did you pick up on this in the above quote....
" I can practice in a freezing cool room or walk outside in the winter and my body in a couple of minutes becomes very warm. Or if I practice in a very hot conditions I would not feel overheated because of good circulation process in my body".
This has been of particular interest to me, I blame my first and second experience of kidney stones on sweating too much, the first time due to a Kyoto summer, the second, hot sweaty, practice, ideally the extra water we take on in summer should pass through our kidney's rather than our yoga towel (in case your curious the second kidney stone was most likely due to green (spinach) smoothies).
Like many I assumed that we were supposed to practice in a hot room, not Bikrum hot perhaps but pretty hot. Many Ashtanga teachers seem to want to make their room as hot as a Mysore afternoon in May. Where did that idea come from, we seem to be getting passed that now (see Gregor Maehle http://chintamaniyoga.com/asana/why-overheating-the-yoga-room-is-not-a-good-idea/) but there are still a lot of hot shalas around. Hamish's room in London was sweltering I remember but then he used to practice with Derek Ireland at The Practice Room in Crete, I imagine that was pretty hot.
I used to sweat a couple of kilo during practice at home and in Crete also, Kristina threatened to did a trough between my mat and Niko's for the following summer.
 |
| After 2nd series UK |
Above was a typical sweaty summer practice in the UK but the picture below is of full Ashtanga Primary although more in line with Krishnamacharya's presentation in Yoga Makaranda (1934) that I've been practicing for the last two years or so; longer, slower breathing, kumbhaka, some longer stays. As well as Krishnamacharya's slower breathing I've been incorporating Simon and Bianca's focus on abdominal breathing, it does seem to keep one more relaxed.... and seemingly cooler. I've also started incorporating some other approaches of their's that gives a more relaxed practice (more to come on that later).
The yoga towel doesn't lie, almost sweat free in Osaka, in July
Here's the Osaka temperature this morning, around 32 degrees and 70% humidity, we have no Air Conditioning in this old house but we do have a fan.
The Yogasynergy fundamentals course I'm enrolled on.
 |
| http://fundamentals.yogasynergy.com/ |