Turn out or lift the heels in drop backs? Feeling sore, should I take a day off? My doctor says I should stop practicing Ashtanga?--Ask a question

Students often write me with specific questions concerning their practice. Here are a few of the answers I have given the past couple of months. Enjoy!


1) Hi David,

I have been attempting to come up from drop back by pushing into my arms and using momentum to rock up to standing. I am able to rock up about 50% of the time. My heals tend to come up most of the time. I noticed in the PT3 video your student's heel also comes up but in the other video's the students heels don't come up but sometimes the toes go out like in 2nd position in ballet. What is the correct position?

Hi ____,
The correct position for coming up is variable, it can be different for different people. Generally I prefer lifting the heels to turning the feet out. Or another good option is to use a little combination of heel lift and turn out. I do caution people not to turn out too much, because it can compromise the joints, especially knees. Also lifting the heels can be felt more like transferring the weight forward into the mounds of the toes. It is best to minimumize both lifting the heels and turning the feet out. Rather try to track the hips, knees, feet as straight as possible, but this can be very challenging! Hope this helps. Thanks for writing!! David



2)Hello David,

Thank you so much for your videos. I think they are great. Now I'm new to yoga (a month or so) and I want to practice every day but i feel so sore sometime i cant even do the asanas right. Any advice? I appreciate any help and thank you in advance.

Hi _____, thanks for your message. That's great you've taken to yoga. It's natural you're feeling so sore because it's all so new. Practice as often as you can, but don't be too hard on your body or your self. You can do a smaller practice on those days when you feel you can't do the asana's right. But it is good to try to do a little bit each day, it's only if you get really, really sore and tired that you should take an extra day off when you need it. Best Wishes, David



3)Hi David,

I've been practicing Ashtanga yoga since October last year during a vacation in Bali from Prem & Radha. And I've been following your blog since then.

Since learning the primary series, I practiced every day at home.
Unfortunately I live in a place where there is no authorized/certified teacher. After a medical check up, I was diagnosed with mild scoliosis to the right. Another doctor also found I have a carpal tunnel syndrome (right wrist).

I told the doctor my sole fitness regime: Ashtanga 6 days a week.
She told me to quit Ashtanga as it seems it gives lots of pressure to my wrist. And the inversions, will only make my scoliosis worse.

I stopped practicing this week and substituted it with swimming every day just like the doctor told me. And I feel terrible. I miss my practice. Is there any way to keep doing my practice with carpal tunnel syndrome & scoliosis?

Hi _____, thank you for sharing your challenges with me.
First I will say yes most definitely you can continue to practice with scoliosis and carpal tunnel syndrome, but there are some extra challenges involved. You most likely will need to modify things and having a teacher can be a big help with this. Concerning your wrist (or wrists), the pain can tend to be episodic or more cyclical. Sometimes the pain may flair up more than others. In that case you have to be sensitive and aware and have a good plan for when you have pain. For instance you can take the pressure off your wrists when you do surya namaskara by: 1) not bending your elbows in catauranga dandasana, and instead go from plank to your next position. Or 2) you can make a fist out of each hand and do the catauranga on your knuckles. Or 3) you can buy a set of those wrist protecting props made by hugger mugger that accomplish the same fist idea but in a little fancier way. And 4) you can simply minimize or not do the postures that involve weight bearing on your wrists. For example you can go through both surya namaskara a and b using the wall without putting weight on your wrists. 5) you can do less surya namaskara and spend more time on the standing postures and other postures that don't involve weight bearing on the hands/wrists. When you get to the seated postures you can modify, reduce or eliminate the jump back/jump through vinyasa. These are just some of the possibilities, please know that there is always a way to modify the practice to suit specific problems or other extra requirements.

The essential ingredient is a love of ashtanga and in maintaining a steady devotion and trying to do the practice as accurately as your given circumstances allow. Inversions don't necessarily have to contribute to your scoliosis, but I would advise you to eliminate them until you are able to receive instruction from a highly qualified teacher. There are many aspects of the practice besides inversions to develop and enjoy at this time. Hopefully sometime sooner than later you'll be in position to get some hands on help with the challenges you are facing. But in the meantime you can try experimenting with the suggestions I've made and let me know how it's going.

One last small note is that there will always be someone to tell you that you can't do ........... the list of possible things or activities or dreams is endless and so is the list of people who will tell you can't do that something. Sometimes they may be right but equally sometimes they are wrong. And ultimately you have to decide how important something is to you. And when you've decided on that something that is important enough to you, you may need to guard and protect the heck of it in order to for it to remain a strong, positive force in your life. As people we can tend to be suspicious of what we don't know about, and if on the surface something looks strange or exotic or very different from what we know or are used to, we can tend to form negative impressions of that thing. But our own fear and unwillingness to be open to new or different things can us cause to make wrong assessments of things and to unfairly judge what we don't have enough information to be judging. I believe it would be a true waste for you to stop developing the ashtanga yoga practice that you have begun and love. If you practice properly there is a strong chance that ashtanga can help correct or at least minimize the negative effects of both of your problems better than any thing else that you will try. I have found that ashtanga applied properly, has huge potential for transformation and healing. Om! David

Ashtanga Discussion Room: Guruji said, "Medium breath!"

Greetings,
Joy and I have landed in Kovalam and are enjoying our house nestled up in the jungle (there is a quarry near our house where I go swimming each evening!) It is now less than a week before the Mysore Intensive begins. I have been using the days off of to help Joy on her upcoming film, resting, practicing, and of course writing and talking about Yoga.

Last week Joy asked me the question about the difference between receptivity and effort in the practice? (This turned into the second video posted below.) However, the next morning while we were on a walk she asked me about how the role of breath plays into receptivity (first video posted)...so the discussion continued!

I decided to post both videos. If you only have time to watch one then I recommend the first video posted but if you want more information and to go deeper into the conversation then I recommend you watch both.
I hope you get some useful info out of these videos. Over the past 20 years of teaching I have realized that receptivity is one of the hardest aspects of the practice to teach but once a student understands and starts to truly work with the idea through their breath the students practice will completely change.
Hari Om,
David





Notes on the concept of receptivity (it could also be thought of as simply receiving).

The deepest person within each of us knows the larger, more comprehensive nature of things beyond the limited appearance of things that the ego and senses apprehend. Learning to identify ourselves with this greater perspective is the subject of receptivity. When we use our ego and senses to become aware in an inward direction, we will find that there is a sort of knowing that has its own direction, its own intelligence, its own necessity to fulfill something through us. And so in a practical, on-the-mat way, receptivity is the sustained effort to give up control enough to receive the wisdom that lies within our inmost core. And then to follow the direction of this wisdom with as much trust as we put in our ego and our ideas and feelings of how we control or shape our lives through our choices.

Set up to the JUMP BACK or Can a woman jump back?

Joy and I have been extremely busy the past five weeks with workshops and traveling. We have finally settled down in Kovalam where I am preparing for the month long Mysore Intensive and working hard on some short Asana Kitchen videos! You can expect my bimonthly blog posts to start in motion again.



Hari Om,

David

P.S If you are near Kovalam and want to make your way for some Mysore classes and some beach time there is availability! More info on my website.

Asana Kitchen: Pasasana

This will be my second to last blog post in the year 2011! In the month of December I will be traveling to Spokane for a workshop, holding a one day workshop on backbending in Philly, beginning the year with my Second Series workshop at A.Y.S, and then off to Tel Aviv, Mysore and Kovalam to start 2012 off with a bang.
I've had many students write in regarding Pasasana and since its the first posture of the second series I thought it would be fun to leave 2011 with an Asana Kitchen post on the ever challenging pose that wields Ganesha's noose. Please read the summary of notes and then scroll down for the video.

Hari om,
David

Summary Notes On Pasasana (The Noose Posture)

1)Establish a Grounded, Immoveable Foundation

Balancing in a full squatting position is one of the most important and challenging aspects to this posture. The feet are your foundation, they are directly in contact with the earth. Organize your posture directly over this foundation noticing when/if you are either too far behind or in front of your foundation. Start by planting the feet while feeling the support of the arches. Squat all the way down. Close the knee joints entirely. Lower the hips, touch buttocks to the backs of the lower legs. Orient your squat directly over your feet. If you have any difficulty squatting you will feel unstable when you squat as though the hips are too heavy, that they drag you down and back. You may want to lift up the heels. But instead elevate your heels with just enough height to truly balance on the feet as you feel your hips, torso and head align more clearly over this foundation. When you feel stable, centered and immoveable in your squat, then you are ready for the next step.

2) Remember the Twist
As you develop and refine how you work in the posture remember to return your orientation to the twist along the central axis. Study the rotation of the torso in order to study the middle channel. Remember that part of creating a satisfying twist is in becoming receptive, especially within the torso and spinal area. And so position yourself to receive the action of turning the spine, and endeavor to rotate your spine more evenly from base to crown. Notice the inner refinement that can take place along shushumna, the middle pranic axis.

3) Position of the feet/knees

To make the posture easier place one foot or knee slightly forward of the other. If you are twisting to the left you can facilitate the twist to the left by moving the right foot and/or knee forward of the left. This also brings the right hip forward of the left hip and thus makes twisting to the left easier. For some of you this will serve to clarify the central axis, and give you more freedom in a certain direction to twist, and will help establish a more stable, grounded foundation. Your posture and twist will not be served If you are too strict and insist on keeping the feet/knees together or the heels down.
But for others keeping the feet and knees more together will help you to hone in on the vertical axis and improve the feeling of the rotation. In each case you want to continue to refine your sense of the breath, cultivate an awareness of the actions and the resulting counter actions along the glorious axis set in motion by the breath, and observe how that awareness leads to intelligence in your asana's.

4) The Energetic Chain of The Noose

At one point in the video, using Rob as the model, I trace what I call an 'energetic chain' formed by the upper back, shoulders, arms and connected hands (the parts of the body that form the 'noose' that give the posture its name) Rob was twisting to the right and I used my hands to trace the energetic chain in a counter clockwise direction. But what I didn't mention was that the direction of the chain that I indicated in the video was actually the more subtle counter loop. If you are twisting to the right, first try experiencing a clockwise direction to the energetic chain formed by the loop of the upper torso, arms, and hands. And afterwards experiment with a counter clockwise direction to the loop.

Enjoy!



I have also included an extra clip that didn't end up in the final video on How to work on lengthening your achilles tendon.

Asana Kitchen: Bakasana

If there is one idea that you take from this week's blog it is this:

 

B*A*K*A*S*A*N*A

                                                                A*W*A*R*E*N*E*S*S

From David's Ashtanga Journals: Perfect that Single Sacred Asana

"From David's Ashtanga Journals" are unedited excerpts from my ongoing Ashtanga journals.




Greetings,
Fall is in swing here in Philly. At the Ashtanga Yoga School of Philadelphia the heaters are on high as the tapas burns. I would like to thank Dhyana Yoga (Dhyana Vitarelli and John Vitarelli) who have been supporting our school in many ways! Several students from their strong rooted Philadelphia Vinyasa program have taken up ashtanga and I am so happy they are part of our community!!

In the next couple weeks I will begin solidifying my spring schedule and am excited to announce that I will be teaching further south (at Balance Yoga in Atlanta) and north (at Florence yoga in Northampton) ! My teaching is reaching a wider circle of people partly due to you all who enjoy my blog, thank you for continuing to show your support and spreading the DG word! Hopefully this year I will get the opportunity to meet new people and share yoga with many of you.

Now to the goods!

Below are two excerpts from my journals. They were both drawn out of a notebook I used last winter in Mysore. Enjoy!

Excerpt One

Perfect that Single Asana!

The theme or premise is that asana practice is based on a single asana created by breath. That posture could have several names including

Shavasana, Sarvangasana,

Hanumanasana, Samasthiti

Tadasana, Bhairavasana

Mula Bandhasana

Generally speaking in our daily practice we can get sucked in by the lure of our fantasy about the forms of the asanas in sequences. Each asana in the sequence could be thought of as an excursion towards and/or away from that one single asana that is the essence of all asana. In our fantasy of what we will look like and how good it will feel we overextend ourselves in our efforts to achieve what we consider to be the end goal or final pose. Our excursions take us too far away from the center where the skeletal support is, where our breath really does lead the way-- where we make optimal use of our muscles and organs and where our brains are situated properly to minimize reality obscuring ego striving.

For example, to go for a drop back and be unheeding of the position of the skeleton in order to get your hands to the floor is a long term mistake. In the short term there might be a thrill, a sense of accomplishment and a sense of maximizing progress. a feeling like you are working at the edge so you will improve and be an intense student--- (like yoga sutra 1-21 for the intense student--- yoga--nirodah is near). How strict are you going to be? How close to center are you going to stay? How many props (please note: only if necessary and desired and under certain, specific conditions) are you willing to use to remain close to center, close to principles?---We want to explore the foundational principles of the positions and see how those principles will always lead back to that central asana that has so many important names---but actually is unnameable---

--- this is precisely why asana is limb 3 and Samadhi is limb 8--- samadhi is more based around the center, where movement is subtle and stillness reigns---

you have to be sure you are not sacrificing your body to your ego. That you are not going too far in order to compensate for unconscious feelings of unworthiness--- you don't need to use your asana practice to 'prove' you are good and worthy.

and yet don't underestimate the amount of shakti, energy, both physical and mental, that it takes to strike a pose and remain utterly centered in dynamic absorption.

It is ironic that the more gymnastic posture appears to be more difficult---But from an energetic and emotional place, sitting, working with breathing, can be more challenging, require more energy--- because of what will be revealed about you, because of what you will experience about yourself.

Excerpt Two

The World is a Sacrament

Never mind that to many people it is blasphemy. The truth is that you don't need to be inside a church or in some official place to worship God. In fact, I've found that for me being outside, under the sky, feeling the air, seeing the sun, or the sea, or the mountains puts me in touch with God. I've taken to saluting the sun, facing the sun and moving through a set of exercises. I coordinate my movement with breath and I become prayerful. Filled with joyous connection and know a sense of deep peace and belonging. To me the entire world is a sacrament--- everything and everyone everywhere is sacred--- and its up to me to attune to this ever present beauty wherever I may be.

Ashtanga and Diet (pts 2 and 3)

Greetings and welcome back!

Here are parts 2 and 3 of my series on Ashtanga and Diet. If you haven't watched part 1, I strongly suggest you watch it. I have included it in this post for your convenience. I am so pleased to see such a strong and enthusiastic reaction to these diet posts. I have seen amazing progress in students practices once they alter their diet. Even the slightest changes can result in less injury, faster recovery and FULL STRENGTH! I have also added some great diet books on my reading list page of this blog.
Joy and I have bought our tickets for Mysore in January and my one month Mysore intensive in Kovalam! We are looking forward to meeting some new faces and having lunch with some old friends.

Hari Om and enjoy!!