Can We Achieve the Perfect Pose?

Can we achieve the perfect asana, or yoga pose?   What is the perfect yoga pose?  Is it important to work toward the perfect pose?  

The "ideal" classical form of any pose, as shown by high level yoga practitioners, won't be accessible in that same form by most people, especially those who are older and stiffer, or who have various health and mobility issues.  They'd injure themselves if they forced their bodies to conform to what we might consider "the perfect pose"!   But that doesn't mean they should stop working toward the ideal pose for their own body, even though the shape or emphasis of that ideal pose will change over time.

That makes sense, of course.   Consider the poses you see on the cover of Yoga Journal, or in the YJ calendar.  These are beautiful poses done by young, fit people.   But as we age, our body obviously changes, and our strength and flexibility will diminish.  But our awareness of our bodies grows as we continue our practice, and we can work more intelligently in the poses even though we might not be as strong or flexible as we once were.

In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, two sutras especially speak to this:
II: 46 Sthira sukham asanam
Or as translated by B.K.S. Iyengar in Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, "Asana is perfect firmness of body, steadiness of intelligence, and benevolence of spirit."  He comments that, "whatever asana is performed, it should be done with a feeling of firmness, steadiness and endurance in the body, goodwill in the intelligence of the head, and awareness and delight in the intelligence of the heart." and "in any asana, the body has to be toned and the mind tuned so that one can stay longer with a firm body and a serene mind."

II:47 Prayatna saithilya ananta samapattibhyam
or "Perfection in an asana is achieved when the effort to perform it becomes effortless and the infinite being within is reached."   He goes on to say, "perfection must be attained through perseverance, alertness and insight. Without these we remain dull and make no progress."    But the struggle to perform the asana is gone, while we maintain our firmness of body, intelligence of mind and benevolence of spirit.  There's a balance between effort and relaxation (such that it is) in the pose.

How to Be a Good Yoga Student

For awhile I've been mulling over what I think the characteristics are that define a good yoga student.   Being a good yoga student doesn't necessarily mean being able to do all of the yoga poses well, but it's more of an attitude of respect and a willingness to keep an open mind and to try your best in class that's important to me.

Here's a page I recently wrote on this:

How to Be a Good Yoga Student

Most of it is very practical advice.  Read through it and see which guidelines you follow and which you could do better with.

Some of these guidelines and ideas may not be as important in some yoga classes as in others, but they'll give you a good starting point for how to be a good yoga student in the classes you take.

Are there other guidelines for being a good yoga student that make sense to you?
Yoga / Meditation Poster
At Allposters.com

Yoga Practice Sequences

It's a great idea to find time for your own yoga practice in between the classes you take. 

It's an even better idea when your yoga classes aren't taught for awhile.

I'm on vacation this week, and I know many of you miss your yoga classes.  I'm glad you do!  But do consider practicing on your own this week, even if you don't normally do so.

Most of you who've taken classes with me for awhile have seen these practice sequence sheets that you can print out, but here's the link again:
Yoga Sequences for Practicing.

Have a good week, have a good practice (practice more than once!), and I look forward to seeing you all next week.

Standing Pose Class

As a way to bring a few more people into my Wednesday evening yoga classes this summer (since it had been woefully small most of this past spring), I'm trying something new and offering it as a Focus on Standing Poses class.

The response so far has been very good!   A few people are strongly urging that I continue this class in the fall.

The minimum suggested requirement for this class is at least a full session (7 - 8 weeks) of a Level 1 Iyengar Yoga class so the basics of these poses are already familiar.  There's a little less talk and demonstrating on my part (there is still some though!), and more doing.    For each  1-1/2 hour class there's 50 - 60 minutes of standing poses with a few other poses to round out the sequence, including inversions (headstand, shoulderstand) according to one's own capabilities.

We start to learn standing poses as beginning yoga students, and we continue to come back to them, refining them and adding a few more difficult ones as we become more experienced.

When we're new to yoga, learning and practicing the standing poses helps us to learn how our arms and legs work to bring the body into the general shapes of different positions.  As we become more accustomed to these shapes, we can fine-tune, or go deeper, into these poses, both physically and mentally.

Practicing the standing poses gives us a good foundation for practicing other categories of yoga poses.  They include all spinal movements - forward and backward, sideways, and twisting.   The standing poses also make us more active.  As Geeta Iyengar says in Basic Guidelines for Teachers of Yoga:

"The standing asanas break the tamasic, inert, lazy nature of the body and bring activeness in the practitioner.  The practitioner becomes accustomed to various movements otherwise unknown to him/her.  The standing asanas correct the structure and the posture of the person and develop the sense of balance and proper weight distribution."

Our standing pose class continues to meet on these Wednesdays -  July 30, Aug. 1, and Aug. 8 (2012), 6:00 -- 7:30pm.   If you enjoy standing poses, come join us then!

Musings and ramblings -- yoga classes aren't often "one-size-fits-all"

One of the beauties of Iyengar Yoga is that it can be adapted for specific needs so that most people can practice and benefit from it.  Under the right circumstances, and with the right skilled teacher, I believe that anyone who is interested can safely practice this system of yoga. 

That's not to say that any particular Iyengar yoga class will be able to accommodate anyone who comes to that class.   Certain classes will focus more on general beginning level skills, while others are geared toward experienced practitioners of Iyengar Yoga.    Some classes may be structured for yoga students who need a more gentle and supported approach to the practice of yoga poses, while other classes may be very vigorous and difficult.

The classes aren't "one-size-fits-all" classes.   They can't be.   Beginners need to learn basic elements of this practice before moving on to higher level classes, and more developed students need the opportunity to go deeper into their practice, under the watchful eye of a good teacher.  Students with physical difficulties, disabilities, or chronic health conditions do better with a more careful approach to the practice of yoga.

A teacher can't do justice to all of her or his students if the range of abilities and needs within a class is too wide.  Of course it wouldn't be fair to a new beginner with mobility issues to be expected to keep up in a class of a vigorous sequence of jumpings, arm balances, and long inversions.  But it also wouldn't be fair to more experienced students to have a new student who's not experienced in a particular style of yoga, such as Iyengar Yoga, expect to join them in an advanced class while not knowing the basic elements of that system.

If you're new to yoga and want to take a class, check the requirements for the different classes.   If you have yoga experience, but want to try a different style of yoga, also check the class requirements.     You may be very skilled, strong, and flexible in a certain yoga practice, but you may not know enough to do well in a higher level class of another yoga system (and you might not know enough to realize you're not doing well...).  Yes, a good teacher can handle a wide range of abilities, but you'd be doing the rest of the class a disservice if the teacher has to focus most of her attention on helping you because you don't have the required background for that class.   You might even look a little foolish if you're in over your head and don't know it.  Ask the teacher if you're not sure if a certain class is appropriate for you and your experience level.  Don't feel insulted if the teacher wants you to take a lower level class at first.  Ultimately you will be more grounded in the basics of that yoga system, rather than superficially trying to practice at a more advanced level.

Different styles of yoga have different expectations in classes.  Do your homework to get a good sense of these expectations, especially if you're thinking of trying a style that is new to you.  Be humble and don't expect to jump into the highest level class, even if you are very skilled in another method.  You will ultimately learn more this way.

Think of it this way -- a fiddle player will have very different skills from a symphony violinist.  They both may be excellent in their area of practice, but they wouldn't expect to be able to switch venues without going back to a more basic practice first.

How well do you know your yoga pose names?  Do you remember their English names?  Do you know them in Sanskrit?

Some time ago I created an online page, Quiz Yourself on Yoga Pose Names, with three short Yoga Pose Quizzes.   Each quiz is only 8 questions.

• The first quiz is English Names of Yoga Standing Poses
• The second quiz is on the English names of 8 more poses
• The third quiz is on the Sanskrit names for 8 poses.

The first quiz is the easiest, while the second and third quizzes are a little more difficult.  Test yourself to see how well you know your yoga poses!

As I mentioned on the page, they can be "open book" quizzes.

You can search the web for different sites that show yoga poses and their names, such as YogaJournal.com .

Or you might have your own yoga books that you can check for the English and Sanskrit names for yoga poses.

My suggestions for good books for learning more about yoga poses, including their English and Sanskrit names are any of these excellent Iyengar Yoga books:

• Light on Yoga by B.K.S. Iyengar
• Yoga: A Gem for Women by Geeta Iyengar
• Yoga: The Iyengar Way by Silva, Mira, and Shyam Mehta

Head forward position causes strain on body

One of my Facebook friends posted this image last week, and I figured that I needed to show this to all my yoga classes.   Some of you saw it, and it made quite an impression on a number of you!

This image shows that the further forward we keep our heads, the more it feels like it weighs.  This puts strain on the rest of the body.

This common condition is given its own name, Forward Head Position (FHP).    I'm sure you've seen many people with this condition, and there's a good chance that many of you exhibit this condition too.   It's very common in our society -- many of us sit hunched at a desk in front of computers for hours at a time, or slouched while driving or walking.   We're not taught to stand up straight like many people were taught to 50 - 60 years ago.

The article Forward Head Posture and the Pain it Causes tells us the effects of FHP on the whole body.  The human head weighs between 8 and 12 pounds.  When it's balanced well on top of the rest of our body, it doesn't feel like it weighs too much, but for each inch forward it comes, the "relative weight of the head over the body doubles" due to the effect of gravity.

When the head stays forward of the shoulders, the rest of the body has to compensate:  The upper back rounds out more and the hips tilt forward.   All of this puts stress and strain on the body, and results in all sorts of problems.

Of course there's much more stress on the neck, shoulders, and back from FHP.  The article mentioned above lists a number of health conditions that can be caused or made worse from Forward Head Position including:

• Headaches, migraines
• Tempero-mandibular joint pain (TMJ)
• Asthma and allergies
• Poor sleep
• Fibromyalgia
• Reduces lung capacity and blood flow
• Spinal degeneration

If all you get out of your yoga classes is improved posture with the head balanced evenly on top of your body, you'll be ahead of the game!

Many of our yoga poses require an upright posture to do the poses well.   We learn a good upright posture first in tadasana (mountain pose).   Chest up, shoulders and head back, shoulder blades in, buttocks down so the low back doesn't over curve. 

See you in class!