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Koundinyasana II

Here are two very different ways to get into one very fun arm balance. Most people prefer the method shown in the second video, but the traditional method is shown in the first video.


From downward facing dog:

1. Step the left foot up outside the left hand. Work the left shoulder behind the left knee. (Feel free to use your hands to really get it back there.)
2. Place left hand just behind and outside of the left foot. 
3. Lean forward and let the left thigh rest on the left upper arm. 
4. Straighten the left leg, and then lift the right toes off the mat. Lean wayyyyy forward and blast off!

From the floor:

1. Start with legs extended. 
2. Cross the left ankle over the right knee. Then pull the right ankle towards the left sit bone.
3. Bring the left upper arm to the inside of the left inner thigh. Keep this connection as you lean forward and place hands shoulder-width apart onto the mat.
4. Lean wayyyy forward (see a pattern here?) and shift the weight onto the left upper arm.
5. Press your hands down and look forward as you extend your legs. Boom!

How to Practice Yoga at Home

Practicing yoga at home is awesome. But it can also be a little daunting. How in the world should you start? What should it include?

A few years back, a teacher told me to structure my home practice around what feels good. I think I took this a bit too literally, and would either A.) sit on my mat while I watched Cops reruns, or B.) fall asleep. In the intervening years, I’ve worked out a set of loose guidelines to make sure my home practices are beneficial and time effective. (I’ve also realized that I cannot, under any circumstances, practice in the same room as a television.)

Simply put, I have a mental checklist that I try to complete. Asanas can be roughly organized into 6 categories, so I try to work on at least one posture from each category.  This structure works for me because I can get elaborate and spend lots of time on each category, or I can keep it simple and quick.  This variety keeps my home practice interesting, and sticking to the 6 categories keeps it well-rounded.  The only things I try to keep consistent are my warm up and cool down.  Everything else is up for grabs.

Below is a rough framework of my home practice. I included a few suggestions for poses in each category, but please don’t feel limited. Have fun!

Warm Up:

At least 5 Sun Salutation A, followed by at least 5 Sun Salutation B. 

Category 1: Standing Poses

Postures like –

Warrior 1, 2, and 3

Triangle

Chair Pose

Tree

Baby Dancer

Down Dog

Extended Side Angle

Half Moon

High Lunge, and Low Lunge

Category 2: Arm Balances

Postures like –

Crow Pose

Hummingbird Pose

8 Angle Pose

Hurdler’s Pose

Fire Fly

Category 3: Forward Folds

Postures like –

Child’s Pose

Standing Forward Fold

Seated Forward Fold

Down Dog

Happy Baby

Category 4: Inversions

Postures like –

Headstand

Handstand

Forearm Stand

Plow

Shoulder Stand

Category 5 Backbends

Postures like –

Bridge

Cobra Pose

Pigeon

Bow Pose

Camel

Full Backbend (Urdva Danurasana)

Category 6: Seated & Twisting Poses

Postures like –

Cowface Pose

Logs on a Fire

Bound Angle Pose (Baddha Konasana)

Monkey Pose (Hanumanasana)

Hero Pose (Virasana)

Janu Sirsasana

Parivrtta Janu Sirsasana

Cool Down:

Postures like –

Savasana or seated meditation*

That’s it! You can condense it to a 25 minute practice, or expand it to last hours!

*I struggle with savasana at home. Mostly because I wake up snoring 45 minutes later. So when I practice at home, I swap out savasana for seated meditation. It’s never come easily to me, but I’ve found I’m more patient with myself when I’m on my own (and after I’ve worked off some physical energy).

Teacher Feature: Jill Gamer

Jill Gamer is the kind of person who—at the drop of a hat—will get onto the floor to show you a cool new yoga posture she’s working on. (The last time I witnessed this, she literally wound up with her feet resting comfortably atop her head while she chatted about why she liked the pose.)  It’s this spontaneity and passion for her job that makes practicing in her classes so much fun.

I recently dropped into one of Jill’s popular Yoga Music Flow classes as a way to wrap up a long and busy weekend.  Jill had put together a killer mix of love songs (“Nothing cheesy!”) as a way to kick off Valentine’s Day, and as soon as I heard the opening beats of XX’s song "VCR," I knew this class would be just what the proverbial doctor ordered.

Jill took the Valentine’s Day theme to a new level as she focused the class on heart openers (ha! get it?) and integrated chest expansion into poses throughout the practice. Pounding her chest ala Marky Mark in the movie Fear, Jill had us in stitches as she cleverly reminded us to puff up our chests as we dropped back into camel.  The class was accessible, yet challenging, and Jill’s cueing was clear and relatable. And, despite a misguided attempt at a backwards somersault on my part, I left the class with an enormous smile on my face.

Jill is a relatively new teacher, but you’d never know it. After finishing her teacher training in California, she enrolled in Yogaview’s no-nonsense 500 hour certification program. Her enthusiasm for learning about yoga keeps her classes fresh and exciting and ensures that she never teaches the same class twice.

If you want to catch one of Jill’s classes, and I highly recommend that you do so, check out her website. And if you don’t believe the story I opened this post with, just take a peek at this photo.

One Month of Unlimited Yoga for $59!

Head on over to Groupon to see today’s awesome yoga deal. One month of yoga at Corepower for only $59! If you’re a fan of hot vinyasa, I recommend the CS2 class. If you are more of a Bikram yogi, try their Fusion class!

Yeah for cheap yoga! 

Hummingbird Pose

Hummingbird is one of those poses that can still scare the crap out of the uninitiated. To be honest I think that’s why I like it. I was scared of it for years until one day I had a teacher explain it in a way that resonated with me.  Suddenly, it clicked in the way that every pose clicks when you finally get it. And now I can’t seem to stop doing it.

So here it is folks.  My version of this twisting, hip-opening, mind-and-body-wringing arm balance. It’s easier to see it done so I’ve included a short vid of me getting into it.

1. Start in standing pigeon, with the right ankle crossed over the left knee. Bend the left leg and sit low.
2. Bring hands into prayer. Bring the upper right arm to the sole of the right foot. Twist open here.
3. Keep the connection between the right foot and the right upper arm, and release your hands down onto the floor. Really reach your left hand out here so your hands land about shoulder width.
4. Slowly bend the elbows, look forward, and shift the weight into your hands. Straighten the left leg.

Dealing with Wrist Pain?

 
Do you ever suffer from wrist discomfort during a long yoga practice? You’re not alone.

Wrist pain in yoga is typically the result of either underdeveloped muscles in the forearm or limited extension of the wrist joint—or both. If you struggle with inflexible wrists or weak forearms you end up localizing all your body weight in one small part of one small joint. And that’s a recipe for trouble.  

Tackling the issue:

First, let’s deal with increasing wrist flexibility.   Most daily activities involve flexion  (carrying groceries home), adduction (opening a beer), or abduction (giving thumbs up about said beer), so it’s natural that we’d need to spend some time working on extension.

Warm up: Bring palms into prayer in front of heart center. Keeping palms flat against each other, slowly raise elbows to eventually bring forearms parallel to the floor.

Next step: Extend right arm in front of you, palm facing up. Extend fingers down toward the floor. Use fingers of the left hand to grasp fingers of the right hand. Gently pull the right fingers toward the heart. Try on the other side.  This one is easy to do throughout the day—hell, do it at your desk. Your wrists will thank you.

Strengthening the forearms is also super easy—it just takes some patience and determination. Keep up your regular yoga practice, just alternate between traditional downward facing dog and downward facing dog on the forearms (dolphin). If your wrists are pretty sore, start with just a few traditional down dogs per practice, and then build from there.

While you’re working on increasing strength and flexibility in the wrists—either opt for bridge pose instead of full backbend, or do your backbend with your wrists on a folded mat or wedge for a little cushion.

The more wrist strength you develop, the more comfortable you’ll be.  That’s it—no special weights, no tricky maneuvers. Just do yoga.

Teacher Feature: A.J. Durand

It’s saying something that on a Friday night after an epic Chicago blizzard, A.J. Durand can still fill a yoga studio.

I admit, I showed up to class in a less-than-stellar mood. After a long week and an ill-timed espresso, I had a nasty headache. But once I hiked up the precarious stairs of Yogaview’s Division studio (hold the handrails, folks) I knew my night was going to improve.

A.J.’s teaching style is hard to explain but easy to like. He’s technical; it’s not unusual to hear him directing students to engage their medial hamstrings. But he’s also extremely relatable. He uses funny explanations to get students to understand the postures more deeply (“Pop your hip like you’re doing a Stephanie Tanner dance move!”).  He’s lighthearted, but takes his job seriously. 

As soon as class started, A.J.’s quick sequencing took my mind off my blizzard woes. We moved in and out of poses in an almost dance-like pace, punctuated by A.J.’s hilarious quips.  The class was focused on twists, and twist we did. We took simple standing twists, seated twists, and toyed with twisting arm balances. After the class, I felt refreshed, energized—and my headache was a thing of the past.

It’s hard for me to objectively describe A.J.’s awesome teaching style because I actually met him while we were both training to become yoga teachers. I want to fill this post with stories of how wonderful and dedicated and interested he is in yoga. But instead, I’ll end with a story of him from our training. It was nearing the end of our certification program, and we were all tasked with teaching a mock yoga class. Most of my classmates and I were terrified. We stumbled awkwardly through our sequences and giggled from nerves through the whole terrible ordeal. But when A.J. stepped up to the front of the studio, his calm, confident attitude was palpable. He led this group of experienced, knowledgeable (and somewhat frazzled) yogis through his sequence like he was born to do it. And maybe he was.

  

If you’re in the mood for an incredible class, A.J can be found at Yogaview and Nature. Check their schedules and hit him up. If you’re in the mood for something a bit saucier, A.J. can be found tomorrow, Sunday Feb 6, in Shits and Giggles: A Queer Cabaret and Dance Party. 9pm at Parlour on Clark (6341 N. Clark St.)

Broga: What We Can Learn from Yoga for Dudes

Last year, one of the classes I was most excited to attend at Wanderlust was called “Yoga for Dudes.” Sure, I was nervous that I’d be the only lady yogi and screw up the guy vibe, or that the class would focus mostly on upper arm strength and I’d wither before our warm up was done. But mostly, I was just excited to see how this class would be different. I was also really hoping Adrian Grenier would be there. (Sadly, he was a no show.)

I imagined that the intensity would be high. I figured we’d spend lots of time with arm balances and inversions and core. I also distinctly remember anticipating that there would be lots of grunting.

What I found wasn’t at all what I expected. As I settled onto my mat, I noticed how quiet the outdoor space was. The dudes were nervous. A couple of them had even brought a female companion/safety blanket. When our teacher stepped into the studio, she was warm, and gentle, and inviting—not at all the intense or domineering personality I’d expected.   

The class was paced slowly, with several pauses for additional direction and demos. We experimented with arm balances, and practiced linking our breath to the movement. The instructor consistently affirmed our efforts, and the dudes started to relax. We worked on challenging upper body stretches, and took a deliciously long savasana in the sun. And suddenly, the class was over. No male displays of strength. No whiskey or beef jerky consumption. And very little grunting.

Turns out, “Yoga for Dudes” isn’t all that different from yoga for ladies. A good yoga class is a good yoga class, whether it’s focused on men or women. It’s about cultivating an environment where yogis feel encouraged and empowered to learn and grow.  

Since then, I’ve stopped trying to construct my classes to fit the gender of my students. I give everyone the same modifications, and encourage everyone to strive for the same goal. And (much to the delight of the Pilates instructors I work with) I have a steady dude crew that comes each week. 

Namaste, indeed.

Free in February!

Just got a fab tip from a reader-- All month, Moksha is running a great promo at their Logan Square studio. Bring a friend to class and they get in free! One friend per class. The promo works with drop-ins, memberships, or packages, so have at it!

Spread the love this month!