Happy Monday everyone! Birthday weekend over and a new week beginning. But never fear, birthday celebrations will be stretching into next weekend!
A few things to get on with today so let’s get straight to it.
The Gaiam Yoga Club (Week Two)
This week we have been concentrating on sun salutations. I’m not the biggest fan of traditional sun salutations (I do them like this). I’ve never been convinced that the chaturanga/upward dog transition works for everyone, I think sometimes it can put so much strain on the shoulders, more than it’s worth and I am also constantly boggled by how early in a person’s yoga journey we introduce this tranistion.
That said, Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman once again introduce the sun salutation step by step, concentrate on several modifications, explain the anatomical make up of the poses and emphasise that you don’t have to do the full sequence until you’re ready. And you know what? I did the best chaturanga/upward dog transition of my career by taking it slowly!
The Gaiam Yoga Club is currently running two memberships – US$25 per month or US$65 per quarter (which saves you US$10). Both packages include a 10 day free trial period.
And now on to a fabulous guest post from La Gitane.
Supta Padangusthasana: La Gitane’s One-pose wonder
[Supta = reclining Pada = Foot Angustha = Big Toe Asana = Posture]
Many of us have a pose (or many, at different times in our lives!) that just brings everything home for us. The pose seems to completely understand what our body needs at the time. It brings us exactly the sensations we need, stretches what needs to be stretched, relieves the aches that plague us.
For me, at the moment, this pose is Supta Padangusthasana. Actually, a combination of SP I, II and Parvritta SP which we’ll call SP III. Don’t worry – there are pictures!
Before we get into it, here are 3 things I love about this sequence of poses:
SP I: stretches your hamstrings while keeping your back neutral (highly recommended as a hamstring stretch if you have lower back problems!!)
SP II: opens your hip while allowing your opposite hip flexor to work out as well, plus, you get a nice little shoulder action as a bonus. Pure hippy joy!!
SP III: just a fabulous reclining twist that gives a lovely stretch to your outer hamstrings and gluteus muscles too! Fabulous for relieving back pain, especially around the lower middle of the back.
So with no further ado, here is a super-simple Supta Padangusthasana sequence.
Props you may like to have handy: pillows or bolsters, placed at leg’s length to either side of your body in line with your hips, and a yoga strap.
1. Pavanamukta asana to Supta Padangusthasana I
Start by lying on your back. Gently bend your right knee and hug it towards your chest by bringing your hands onto the right shin. Breathe deeply, keeping the chest lifted and relaxing the shoulders back towards the mat. Keep the head on the mat.
Soften: by using a strap or towel around your shin
Intensify: by keeping the left leg really engaged, lengthening from the left thigh all the way through the left heel as if you were pressing into a wall.
Next, release your hands from your shin and clasp your fingers together around the base of your right thigh, towards the root of the hamstring. Gently begin to straighten the right leg, applying a bit of pressure with your hands. Turn the right toes slightly outwards, towards your right shoulder. Keep breathing deeply and evenly, and keep the chest lifted and the shoulders soft.
Soften: by bending the left knee and placing the left foot on the floor / or, don’t straighten the right leg all the way.
Intensify: by keeping the left leg really engaged // or, by increasing the pressure with your hands and then pushing back into the hands with the right thigh, creating a kind of push-pull for a nice deep stretch.
2. Supta Padangusthasana I to Supta Padangusthasana II
Release your hands from the right thigh and either grasp the right big toe with your right thumb and forefinger, or loop a strap around the ball of your right foot. Breathe a few moments there, keeping the shoulders soft.
Take both ends of the strap with your right hand, and gently start to release the right leg towards the right hand side. Keep the foot flexed, with the toes rotating outwards (towards the floor). You may want to use one or more pillows, blocks or books to rest your right foot on, like in the picture.
When you’re comfortable, open your left arm to the left hand side an turn your head out to the left.
Soften: By adding more pillows under the right foot.
Intensify: By activating the left thigh and lengthening the left leg away from your body. OOoooooh hello hip flexors! You can also place a small weight like a sandbag on your left thigh to help work it towards the ground.
3. Parvritta Supta Padangusthasana
Bend the right knee and gently come out of SP II. Stretch it out as needed. When you’re ready, come back to centre and bring the right knee in towards the chest. Stretch your arms out to either side, and gently release the right knee to the left hand side of the body, keeping the left leg straight. Look back over your right shoulder and breathe deeply into the belly in this twist.
Soften by placing a pillow or block under the right knee.
[This photo makes me look like I have spider-arms!! Ideally the arms should be straight out to the sides and the torso should be mostly straight, like in the second photo. But hey, whatever floats your spine!]
You can also do this stretch with the right leg straight, but it is much more intense, so please try the bent-knee version first! If that feels ok to you, you can try the straight leg version, using a strap or a pillow (pictured) as feels comfortable to you. Look back over the right shoulder, breathe deeply into the belly and enjoy this spine-refreshing supine twist!
When you’re done, repeat the whole sequence on the left side! Wrap it up by hugging the knees to the chest and rocking from side to side or doing circles on your lower back, or maybe taking the feet up into happy baby pose. You might also want to add a supported bridge pose or a supported reclining backbend like Supta Baddha Konasana for additional lower-back yumminess. Balance it out with a round of alternate nostril breathing or Brahma Mudra when you’re done!
Enjoy!
LaGitane (Bree) has been practicing yoga for 8 years and teaching for 4. She is a certified Vinyasa instructor in the Ashtanga tradition but harbours a not-so-secret passion for restorative and therapeutic Yoga. As a yogini with an s-shaped scoliosis, she has a special appreciation for all things spine-candy. A lifetime nomad and development worker, she blogs about yoga and life from her present base in Dili, East Timor (go on, look at a map, you know you want to!).
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love La Gitane’s step by step SP’s !
Also- I always do better Sun sals when they are in slow-mo… no cranking of the lower back. i usually do cobras for the first half of the sun sals, regardless of whether they are given as options- my lower back just can’t take that many updogs in a class usually.
[...] Suburban Yogini » Blog Archive » gaiam yoga club week 2 and a guest post! [...]
yoga is the best way to maintain the health
Great post! Very informative.
Thanks for your comment on my post…but I’m confused (although agreed) – does that mean to make the leap and make the extra money to pay down debt – so I can try to do something new that I might want to do in the future instead? …Or to just accept another decent job, get by and learn to just BE and live…
looks like a great sequence, can’t wait to test it out!
Loved the guest post! And, the Giam review is great! Sounds fun!
This is the second piece I’ve read on this pose in the last day, weird!
Hope your fibromyalgia is easing up now. I imagine it’s similar to my IBS, but much worse, in that it just rears it ugly head at seemingly random moments. Rubbish. xxx