Sri K Pattabhi Jois said, "Yoga is 99 percent practice, one percent theory." This blog is a resource to explore the one percent theory and to inspire you on the mat.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Asana Kitchen: Dropping Back Parts 1-2

Greetings! I'm excited to offer parts 1 and 2 of a 3 part Asana Kitchen video series answering our most popular question to date: how to successfully drop back into a back bend and then stand up! Part One looks at the principles of dropping back and standing. Part Two addresses the problem of the heels lifting going down and the feet splaying out when coming back up.
Get out your mat, warm up your back and try to do what I have presented in the video's. You will benefit more by doing rather than simply watching and then trying to remember what to do the next time you practice.
Regardless of your level of experience, I recommend you watch and work with both video's because each part contains important basic information for more beginning students and subtler, nuanced information for more experienced students.



8 comments:

  1. In a word, YES. This is where my standup from a backbend has been for the past year and part 2 here particularly seems custom-made for my standups right now. Brilliant.

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  2. Excellent tips. Thank you and hello to Charisse!

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  3. Thank you David, very much appreciate that you took the time to address this issue. On the re-count that you do at the end of video two, when you talk about the rocking, for some reason, maybe because I am a female (at least that is what a very senior female teacher suggested), it is very difficult for me to put the torso on top of the arms, to rock back, everything hurts I even get headaches... I am working with my teacher and just keep practicing for now hoping that the pain will ease and the rocking will happen... guess is like a rite of passage :-)

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  4. Hi Claudia, but that's one of the uses of those pads--rather than suffer through and hope it gets better, you could reduce and/or eliminate the rocking by dropping back onto some height. It is more difficult to do it with out the momentum that the 'rock' gives you, but it might be better than pain... David

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  5. Hmm... Yes, when I looked at your video I even liked the pads, I have nothing like it and wonder where you got those, perhaps I should do a little research and get some to try. I will. Thank you!

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  6. Claudia,
    You can buy them at The Seattle Foam Company. I will have more info on the pads this Sunday when I post part three of the dropback series.

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  7. David, thank you! Will get some of those :-)

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  8. Hi David - Thank you so much for these drop back posts! I watched parts 1 and 2 last week and was instantly inspired to try my first drop backs. I worked at the wall, followed your tips, and had a really great experience.

    Love your blog and your approach to the practice. Thanks again.

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David welcomes comments on his posts, however, due to time constraints he is not able to respond to every comment.