MOAR’s Daily Dozen: DAY 3 – Dolphin Pose

Step-by-Step:

1. Come to tabletop position, shoulders stacked over wrists, hips over knees.

2. Leave your knees where they are but come down onto your forearms, elbows directly under shoulders.

3. Spread the fingers wide and press hands and forearms firmly into the mat. Curl your toes under and press into the balls of your feet as you straighten your legs out, hips reaching high to the sky.

4. Keep a nice long spine and walk your feet closer to your elbows by a couple of inches.

5. Keep your gaze between your hands and let the chest melt back towards your thighs as your shoulders soften and hamstrings slowly open with breath.

6. Take 10 deeps breaths (count to 4 on the inhale and 4 on the exhale) then slowly release, coming back to tabletop.

How it will heal you:

Hamstring Pulls – The vast majority of the time, hamstring pulls are a direct result of inflexible hamstrings. This big muscle group requires patience and daily attention to open up and can be really frustrating in their resistance to change. You are not going to go from barely touching your toes to Jordyn Wieber overnight. Commit to working on this posture every day and slowly but surely you’ll get the results you want and your body needs.

Shoulder Pain – Football, lacrosse, and baseball players know shoulder pain. As a yogi, I can also vouch for the frequency of shoulder injuries in yoga–a misaligned jump-back to chaturunga is one of the fastest ways to wreck your rotator cuffs. Shoulders, like hips, are a ball-in-socket joint and thus are designed to have a broad ROM (range of motion). Athletes and office bees alike experience a lot of shoulder pain because not enough attention gets paid to maintaining the flexibility of this critical joint. Increase the openness of your wrists, chest and upper back to prevent and treat discomfort. Additionally, focusing on contralateral movement (i.e. twists) will help to eliminate rigidity from the upper body.

Lower Back Pain – How many of you have experienced lower back pain? I’d venture to say that anyone who sits in a chair all day has suffered through their fair share. This is also a big one for athletes. Why is that? Most often, lower back pain in athletes stems from tight hamstrings. For my fellow anatomy nerds out there, the hamstrings originate on the sitz bone–aka those little nobs deep in the flesh of your booty that us yogis balance on when doing boat core work (my favorite!). , If your hamstrings are tight they will pull down on the pelvis from the insertion point (the sitz bone) tilting it out of proper alignment and forcing your body to compensate using your lower back to remain upright. Another common reason for low back pain is underdeveloped abdominal muscles. I’m not talking just the six-pack abs (rectus abdominis) but also the deeper corset abs (transverse abdominis) that are critical for balance and stability. The simply solution to preventing and treating lower back pain is to stretch out your hammies and workout your core every day.

Wrist Problems – Football, lacrosse, baseball, tennis and basketball players are incredibly susceptible to wrist injuries. Amongst others, yogis should be added to that list–just ask two of my fellow yoga teachers who went through training with me and are still modifying their Down Dog months later. In order to avoid wrist issues, it’s critical that you build strong forearms, biceps, triceps, shoulders and upper back. Like all other joints, it’s also important to maintain ROM (range of motion) and flexibility in the joint itself as well as the elbows and shoulders so that the body can maintain proper form and alignment when generating power and movement from the upper body and arms.

Foot and Ankle Issues – I can’t tell you have many times I wrenched my ankle playing soccer and field hockey as a kid, or more recently while hiking and running. Ankle sprains, Achilles tendonitis and plantar fasciitis are three very common foot and ankle injuries. These injuries are no fun because let’s face it, when our foundation is out of whack everything else is thrown off and dysfunctional. The answer to avoiding these frustrating beasts of burden is to strengthen the ankle, increase the flexibility of the ankle and toes and work on your balance. Not only does this require concerted effort to increase the openness in these areas but it also means more core work. Core is your key to stability, meaning you’ll be less likely to get thrown off balance and tweak something if your abdominal and back muscles are strong.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

May 28, 2013

Prepare to Fly with Crane Pose

Crane pose, or Bakasana, is one of the most challenging positions the yoga asana practice has to offer. Often confounded with crow pose, or Kakasana, crane is a much more advanced posture. Both are excellent core prep for handstand, but crane will really take your inversion and arm balancing skills to a new level. Crane will increase the power of your upper back, shoulders, arms, wrists and, my favorite, the core (both the rectus abdominis, or six-pack abs, and the transverse abdominis, or “corset” muscles).

To get into Bakasana come down into a squat, heels and toes together, knees splayed to hip-width or slightly wider. Extend your arms forward, taking your palms flat to the mat, shoulder-width apart. Bend your elbows, lift your hips, tilt the torso forward and snuggle your knees into your armpits (you’ll have to rise onto the balls of your feet). Pull belly button to spine, engaging the abdominals and lean forward, squeezing knees to upper arms until your toes take flight. Gaze forward and down, keeping a long neck, draw in and up on your pelvic floor (think Kegels or holding in your pee) and actively hug heels to booty to keep your weight stacked over your wrists. Beginners can keep arms slightly bent while they develop the core and shoulder girdle strength required to straighten out.

To be in the full expression of crane involves engaging your Mula Bandha (root lock) and Uddiyana Bandha (upward flying lock). Bandhas are a complex topic that I would be more than happy to elaborate on for anyone that is interested. MindBodyGreen had a great overview of the topic a couple of years ago as well: “Bandhas for Beginners.” It is the control and connection of the Mula and Uddiyana Bandhas that empowers advanced yogis to press from crane into handstand. I’m not there yet, but a girl can aspire!

Enjoy playing with this challenge pose and please contact me with any questions. Now go play!

May 19, 2013

Unleash Your Beast with Budokon® Yoga

I was first introduced to Budokon® Yoga back in the fall while in the early stages of my yoga teacher training program. One of my favorite teachers infused our normal sun salutations with a technique called the “rolling wave” and I was absolutely entranced by the graceful movement. I can be a complete klutz (some might say spaz) in my everyday life but when I practice Budokon® Yoga I feel like a prima ballerina. Long and lean, soft and strong.

Budokon® is all about circular transitions. You never stop as you progress from one posture to another. This constant movement means you have to be connected to your core and shoulder girdle (the muscles across your upper back and in between your shoulder blades) at all times. To practice the primary series is to be fully engaged in the muscular body, completely focused mentally and emotionally, and wholly committed to your breath work. For all you skeptics out there, believe me when I tell you I have never been stronger in my entire life.

Captivated by this movement art, I decided several months ago to pursue a Budokon® Yoga teaching certification immediately following my Vinyasa Power Yoga teacher training. Last weekend I traveled to the Utopian community of Doylestown in Bucks County, PA for a weekend of intensive training with an incredible family of yogis and martial artists. During our training I learned that in Japanese Bu means warrior, Do means way, and Kon means spirit. Thus, Budokon® literally means “the way of the warrior spirit.” This style of yoga does make you feel like an Amazon and/or ninja. Fierce and sneaky. It is also the most meditative yoga style I have experienced to date. The spinal rolling and circular transitions require complete presence. It is easy to get lost in the movement and walk out of a class feeling like you’ve just participated in a long meditation–except that your abs, glutes and shoulders will be screaming.

All classes begin with the “rolling wave”, which fires up your core and shoulder girdle and teaches your body how to smoothly transition from downward facing dog into countless other asanas without dragging your feet across the mat. It then progresses through several twisting, rolling, and balancing sections until reaching its climax: the animals. Above you can see me in preparation for a “leaping leopard,” where you spring from a deep squat turning 180 degrees around mid-air and landing back in your squat. This powerful plyometric move is just the beginning of a string of dynamic jumping feats of strength and agility. Believe you me, the animal section in no joke. If you don’t think yoga is aerobic or cardiovascular, think again. You will be panting like a panther after you make it through this section for the first few times, no exceptions no matter how fit you think you are.

I am proud to say that I survived the 10-hour training days in one piece minus a severely bruised toe, and that was from nailing my foot on the metal leg of a locker room bench–like I said before, I’m a klutz. I can’t wait to begin sharing this beautiful, strength-building practice with my students in DC. Speaking of (shameless plug!), I will be teaching a Budokon® Flow class at STROGA every Sunday at noon beginning June 2nd. Come ride the rolling wave with me this summer and get stronger than you’ve ever been before!

April 25, 2013

MOARyoga Moves: Tripod Headstand

VIDEO HOW-TO: Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend (Prasarita Padottanasana) to Tripod Headstand (Sirsasana II)

[wpvideo vt0E8RK4]

A note of caution: before attempting this, make sure you are practicing with an experienced teacher that you trust. This is an advanced move, involving lots of core strength and proper alignment to avoid injuring the neck. Don’t let the ego cloud your judgement here yogis.

HOW TO GET THERE:

Stand facing the long edge of your mat. Step or hop your feet 3 to 4 1/2 feet apart (play around to see what feels comfortable in your body). Look down and make sure your inner arches are parallel with feet ever-so-slightly pigeon-toed. Lift through the inner arches by drawing up from the inner ankles to the groin, and press the outer edges of your feet firmly into the mat. Engage your quads by lifting the knee caps. Place your hands on your hips, inhale deeply and lift your chest, spreading your collarbone wide.
Exhale and fold forward from the hip crease, keeping your back flat and spine long. With your chest about parallel to the floor, bring your hands to the mat, fingertips in line with your toes.
Breath deeply and with each exhalation, bend your elbows and lower your torso and head until you come into your full forward bend. Make sure don’t lose that flat back and long spine. If it’s in your practice, rest the crown of your head on the floor.
Press your palms firmly into the floor. If you have the flexibility to get your head to the mat, walk your hands back until your forearms are perpendicular to the floor and your upper arms parallel – creating a shelf with your arms. Make sure your arms are parallel to each other and widen the shoulder blades across the back.
Now for some levitation! Again, moving from Prasarita Padottanasana to Tripod Headstand is a very advanced move. Do not just flail and fly into this.
Draw in through your core, pulling belly button to spine and knitting your ribs together to engage the transverse abdominals. Shift your weight forward into the balls of your feet, until your hips come over and slightly past your ankles. You will begin to take some of your weight into the arms and crown of your head.
Engage your legs, pulling up through your groin and firing up the quads and inner and outer thighs. Using the power of your legs and strength of your core slowly pull legs up and over head, moving from an inverted wide-legged straddle to full tripod headstand. Spark your toes and keep your legs and abs engaged – this will help you find lightness and draw up and away from the neck and head. Hold for a few deeps breaths.
To come out, reverse your ascent and slowly lower legs into a wide-legged straddle then gently set them down on the mat (I like to focus on keeping my hips shifted forward on the descent because it keeps my core engaged and gives me the control I need to move slowly).
Now you’re back in prasarita padottanasana. Finish the move by lifting your head off the floor and coming into a flat-back position with your torso parallel to the mat – your arms will straighten but keep your palms and/or fingertips on the mat. With an inhalation, lift your hands to your hips, pull your tail bone down toward the floor, and raise the torso up.

You did it! That was some serious core work and involves a somewhat-scary weight shift. Playing around with the first five steps until you can comfortably get into a full forward fold. Once you’ve got that down, then go for it – but make sure that for your first few attempts you have an experienced yoga teacher or yogi friend nearby to make sure you got in and out of the asana properly.

March 15, 2013

Yoga Playtime at Venice Beach

To any of you who read my blog on the regular, more posts are on the way. I finish my Yoga Teacher Training this weekend (hooray!) and have just concluded a two-month whirlwind of work travel that took me from Tanzania to Texas to Southern California. Needless to say, I’ve been a little behind on a lot of things. But hey, this crazy beautiful life gets busy from time to time. All the more reason to breath, move, and play!

Nothing beats playing with some yoga asanas at the beach with your family. Okay, so maybe had it been a sunny day it would’ve been a little better.

February 7, 2013

Bored with Supported Shoulderstand? Change It Up with Lotus Legs

Whether you’ve been to one yoga class or 1,000, you’ve likely tried your hand at an inversion. From the most restorative of options like Legs Up the Wall (Viparita Karani) to a full-blown Scorpion (Vrschikasana), there is an inversion suited for everybody. They can be challenging, it’s true, but in the words of Leo Buscaglia:

“The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow or love. Chained by his certitude, he is a slave; he has forfeited his freedom. Only the person who risks is truly free.”

Nothing ventured, nothing gained–am I right?

By definition as human bipeds we spend most of our day upright, head above our heart. Inversions flip that anatomical predisposition on its head, hands, forearms or shoulders, providing a rare opportunity for increased venous return from the lower body (anything below the heart) and improved lymph drainage. Lymph drainage may help reduce swelling, promote healing, alleviate headaches and decrease the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Whether you drink the inversion health KoolAid or not, done properly they are safe and fun, so why not give them a go?

For athletes, I would definitely suggest Legs Up the Wall for post training and competition recovery. For the rest of us, I’d recommend starting your inversion play with Supported Shoulderstand (Salamba Sarvangasana)–though both are good for everyone, athlete or not. To get into Supported Shoulderstand check out Yoga Journal’s excellent step-by-step. Once you’ve got that down, you may start to feel the desire to move your legs around, spreading them wide or dropping them in opposite directions into an inverted split. As long as you’re still supporting your back with your hands and keeping your neck straight (no peeking at your neighbors!), you’re safe to play around.

My favorite variation is Upward Lotus in Shoulderstand (Urdhva Padmasana). To get into it, you’ll want to start in Plow Pose (Halasana). From there, pretzel your legs, left over right, into Lotus (Padmasana). With your hands on your back, fingertips pointing toward your booty, stretch your pretzeled thighs up towards the ceiling. Hold this for 8-10 breaths then slowly come out the way you went in, using your hands to gently untangle yourself then slowly rolling down your mat, vertebrae by vertebrae.

Setting up, feet hip width apart, before sending legs overhead into Halasana.

Upward Lotus in Shoulderstand, a.k.a. pretzel time

Lotus Legs: check. Now time to work those elbows and shoulders back in

Have fun with this asana but be careful. If you don’t already have full Lotus (Padmasana) in your practice DO NOT attempt this variation–it can be really tough on the knees.

December 13, 2012

MoYoga on Supported Headstand (Salamba Sirsasana)

Salamba Sirsasana, or supported headstand, like all yoga inversion postures is a great way to find both energy and calm. By flipping your world upside-down, you’re allowing for increased blood drainage from your lower extremities, as well as your lymph nodes. When you come out of the posture and into child’s pose, you’re flushing your entire body with fresh, oxygenated blood. This is an incredibly active pose and works everything from the forearms and shoulders to the abs and back muscles to your thighs and even feet.

The key to this asana is to approach it without ego and with a sense of adventure. Inversions are often scary for people, but the only way you’ll get injured is if you don’t listen to your body. In the beginning, take it slow and use a wall. Having both the support and peace-of-mind that something is there to catch you if you fall is a great way to get comfortable and kickstart this element of your practice.

Now, let’s break it down step by step…

STEP 1: Set up your yoga mat, kneeling somewhere in the bottom half. In order to find the proper spot to place your head, take your wrist joint and place it on the tip of your nose, fingertips reaching up to the sky. Wherever your middle finger lands–somewhere between your hairline and the crown of your head–is where you’ll want to set your head down. Keep in mind that from an anatomical standpoint the closer to the crown of your head you base this asana, the more neutral your spine will remain.

STEP 2: Place your head down on the mat in front of you, using the spot you found in step 1. Lace your fingers together and cup your head. Your forearms will frame your head and neck on the floor, elbows at shoulder width. Press your inner wrists firmly into the floor.

STEP 3: Send your booty up and back, coming into down dog legs. From the side you should look like an inverted “V.” Fire up your thighs, actively lifting your kneecaps to engage your quadriceps. Walk your feet in towards your elbows, keeping your heels elevated. The closer your feet come to your elbows, the more your hips come over your shoulders; this will bring you into better alignment from the get-go, making it easier to stay solid once your legs rise up and overhead. Draw your shoulder blades in and down, flattening them against your upper back to keep your front torso lengthened.

STEP 4: Root down through your forearms, exhale and lift your feet away from the ground. There are two ways to do this: (1) by lifting one straightened leg to the sky, then powering your other leg up to meet with the first using core and glute strength, or (2) taking both feet up at the same time by bending your knees and hopping lightly off the floor (see above). I am demonstrating the second option because I find it to be a slightly easier place to start. If you chose the second option, engage your abs–drawing belly button into spine–and lift your legs straight up and overhead with control.

Either way you choose to go, avoid using momentum. If you aren’t quite ready to rise up using muscle strength (core power!), you can use a wall and add a little more kick into the process. Please heed my warning above and check your ego at the door before trying this asana.

STEP 5: Finally with your legs perpendicular to the floor, tuck your tailbone in and down. Lift up and out of your shoulders and neck by rotating your upper thighs inward, engaging your adductors and abductors. Your feet should be directly over your hips, which should be aligned over the crown of your head. Try to keep your weight evenly balanced on both forearms by continually tucking your tailbone, engaging your abs, and firing up every single muscle in your legs. It helps me to demi/Barbie-point my feet, sending energy through the balls of my big toes.

If you’re just getting started, aim to stay inverted for 10 seconds (2-3 deep breaths). You can gradually tack time onto this until you can comfortably hold the pose for 5 min. To come out of it, slowly bring your legs down the same way they went up with an exhalation. Be sure not to lose the lift in your shoulder blades.

When both feet touch the floor, sit back onto your knees, bring your chest forward onto your thighs, and rest in child’s pose. You deserve it!

December 5, 2012

MoYoga on Wheel (Urdhva Dhanurasana)

Wheel is one of my absolute favorite yoga postures. It’s at the same time playful and powerful. It also transports me back to when I used to take gymnastics–ah, the good old days of effortless flexibility! Wheel is both a back bend and chest opener, great for relieving tension in the upper back, shoulders, and hip flexors. It also strengthens all of the body’s major muscles groups, firing up you quads, hamstrings, glutes, biceps, triceps, shoulders, and the list goes on!

To get into wheel, lay flat on your back, feet planted on your mat hip-width apart. You should be able to graze your heels with your fingertips. This is the same set up you would use if you were pushing up into bridge.

Reach your hands up and overhead, planting palms flat next to your ears, fingertips facing toward your shoulders. Pull your elbows in toward your center line, tuck your tailbone, and on an inhalation press up through your hands and feet. If you’re just starting out, you can come to an intermediary position by resting on the crown of your head before pressing all the way up into full wheel. When taking this variation, be sure to support your weight with your palms and arms rather than your head and neck.

In full wheel, your arms will be straight, head heavy, and legs fully engaged. Keep your knees drawing together, thighs spiraling inwards, no splaying of the knees. As your shoulders, chest, and hip flexors open up, work to press your chest through your arms. You can also begin to play with coming up on the balls of your feet and lifting one leg at a time for some added intensity.

Once you’ve taken 5 to 8 deep breaths, tuck your chin and gently come down, one vertebrae at a time. Once down, resist the temptation to draw your knees into your chest. Repeat this another 2 or 3 times, then lay on the mat in reclining butterfly.

Enjoy this asana, letting yourself be free, open and strong!