Playin’ The Edge

You simply haven’t done Pigeon Pose until you’ve done it with a 35 pound preschooler on your back.  It makes for a great stretch.  He is available to rent as a yoga prop, by the way, but his attention span is short and he requires constant feeding.  So if that’s not an option, breath some life into your Pigeon Pose with these variations.

Let’s say you’ve got your right leg forward for each of these descriptions.   

- With hands supporting you on the mat, twist your right shoulder to the right.  If you want to go deeper, bring your right hand behind you and reach to the back of your left thigh.

- With your left hand firmly on the mat, lift your right arm straight above your head.  Feel how it changes the stretch.

- Walk your hands forward bringing your face to the mat.  Walk your hands to the left and hold.  Pause for a few breaths, then walk them to the right and hold it there.

- Roll onto your left shoulder and bring your hands to a prayer position and hold.

If Pigeon is intense for you anyways, make sure you’re well warmed up for these variations, because you’ll feel the stretch in a whole new juicy way.

I said good-bye to one of my yoga classes.  I taught a weekly lunch-time class to my co-workers for almost 3 years.  It was a great gig, paid for by the company.  We had lay-offs last week and now most of the yogis are gone.  We had our last class and didn’t even know it.

It was a weird gig too, playing the role of yoga instructor to my co-workers.  Going from working on a project with someone to adjusting them in Triangle.  It taught me alot about boundaries.  I wanted to be open.  So I would share stuff about myself and my yoga experiences which could be scary, but I wouldn’t expect the same from them.  They’re professionals, at work after all.

When I asked if people wanted a little massage during Savasana, it was the only class where they didn’t say say ‘hell yeah!’.  The touching could be tricky, but if I felt like the right thing I did it anyways.

It was odd to teach a class where I knew so much about what people were dealing with.  When the lay-offs were looming the classes got really small, but class time was a needed break.  And sometimes during relaxation I reminded people to trust.  I reminded them to trust that the right thing was going to happen in their lives.  To be grateful.  And to breath.  And the best thing is that it reminded me too.

I hear there’s a yoga studio opening in the new year near my workplace.  Maybe I’ll be able to take in some classes with my extra lunch time.  When they ask about a massage, I’ll be the one saying “hell yeah!”.

The yogis who were my co-workers have gone on to the next thing.  Some are going to travel, some are going to take some time, some are job hunting.  And I’m not saying it’s because of my class.  But they’re all calm and they’re all trusting.  They’re looking very well rested. And I hope I’ll see them in a yoga class soon.

I’m reading Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture called Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.  Get it for yourself on video or transcript.  He talks about the value of playing football when he was a kid.  He says the real value is in the head fake indirect learning.  It wasn’t about the dream of playing professionally or really, about playing at all.  It was all the other stuff that had the most value - learning preserverence, teamwork and sportsmanship.

And the head fake bit is what I love about yoga too.  And that’s the challenge for the teacher.  How do you take a room full of newbies who want to ‘get fit’ or ‘touch their toes’ and help them do that as *well as* learn about mindfulness, compassion, yamas and nyamas - in an eight week session?

Well, of course you don’t.  Teaching them the poses injury-free is often a full-time job in itself. 

But the best head fake learning is what we take in from doing the yoga itself.  That a few simple deep breaths can completely alter our physiology and perspective.   That the sweet spot, the eye of the storm, is being in the moment.  That just doing the poses, whether we touch or toes or not, is its own reward.

A woman in my neighbourhood has been coming to my Power Yoga classes.  I was at her house recently for a, don’t laugh, Tupperware party and she introduced me to some others.  She mentioned I taught yoga and said “sometimes it feels like we way too many Sun Salutations but I always feel great afterwards!” 

And I was like, hmmm, do we *do* too many Sun Salutations?  We probably max out at 5 and don’t always do that many.  But this was just her subjective impression, and that’s cool, i’m happy for the feedback because it makes me think.

Some styles of yoga take Sun Salutations or leave them.  My Kripalu teachers would have us do a couple after we were warmed up when they felt like it.  But in Ashtanga the 5 Sun Salutation A’s are just the *beginning* of your warm-up.  And it makes me think again about focus.

Often I find when I’m bored, I’m actually scattered so while I think I should fix it with more stimuli, it doesn’t help at all.  I really need less.  And that’s the cool thing about Ashtanga and Bikram - doing the same poses everytime.  It forces you to bring your attention to the subtle stuff. 

It forces you to look inward - because there’s nuttin’ interesting going on outside!  Once you get tired of wondering how many Sun Salutations you’re going to have to do - you notice whether this forward bend feels different than the last, or whether your back feels any looser this time around in Updog or, god forbid, you notice your breath

Now I don’t do alot of Sun Salutes in every class.  Sometimes when my Power Yoga class sounds really scattered before we start I just crank the tunes and get everyone’s sweat on, mixing it up and wearing them out.  It guarantees that everyone will get mellow and have a good relaxation at the end. 

But I also think that forcing yourself to be ok with the repetition is good too.  It’s just harder.  Because we wish we were doing something different.  And then we realize that the value is in just doing what we’re doing. 

So, I’m sorry to say, my neighbour isn’t going to get out of Sun Salutations in my class.  But I might make a point of explaining why they’re hard on our head and why that’s good a good thing.

I love Chair pose (Ardha Utkatasana) and have been playing around with Half Chair.  Chair is challenging enough, but in Half Chair, you let your upper body sink down until your chest is against your legs, arms in Warrior 1 position.   So it’s a good strengthener for your legs, butt and upper back.  Here’s a flow to try:

Warrior 1 - right foot forward.  Hold all poses for 3-5 good breaths.  Then bring your weight onto your right foot, arms stay in the same position for,

Warrior 3 - Then bring your back foot down and take a couple breaths in,

Forward Bend - after holding this one, stay in the pose and bring your feet to hip width distance, insides of your feet should be parallel and let your hips sink down for,

Chair - after holding, let your torso sink forward until your chest rests on your legs for,

Half Chair - After holding let your hips sink down for a squat, knees forward.  Wrap your left arm around your knees, place your right on the floor twisting your right shoulder back for, 

Twisted Squat - Then come into,

Downdog for a couple breaths and repeat on the other side.

Although there are some good strengtheners in this one, I find the Forward Bend, Twisted Squat and Downdog breaks keep it from feeling too intense.  Let me know what you think!

I recently discovered Upside Down Carl’s blog and besides loving his name, I love the idea of doing a reclining cow face pose! Thank you Upside Down Carl! I have some one-class-a-week guys in one of my classes who are not fans of the deep hip stretches. I try to stick to stretches that are adjustable so that they don’t spend time grimacing when they should be relaxing. But Cow Face Pose isn’t easily adjustable.