Playin’ The Edge

Alright let’s keep the flows a-flowing! Here’s another one to poke into some Sun Salutation fun:

- From Downward Facing Dog, lower your elbows to the mat shoulder width apart to bring you to Dolphin. Slide your shoulder blades down your back toward your waist. Walk your toes toward your elbows a little until you have a nice stretch up the back of your body. Hold for a couple of breaths.
- Lower your knees toward the floor slowly and stop at the point where you find your edge. Hold here or raise and lower a few times.
- Straighten your legs again and raise one leg straight up so you’re in a version of Standing Splits. Hold for a breath.
- Bring the leg down, bend and place it on the mat for Pigeon pose, stretching your other leg back. Hold for a few breaths.
- Then do a Plank, Cobra, Downward Facing Dog transition and repeat the flow on the other side.

Options: If you’re feeling keen and your shoulders are healthy, you can also raise and lower your hips slowly 3x in Dolphin before walking your feet closer to your elbows. Also, if this is an active flow, instead of resting in Pigeon inhale your arms up, exhale them down and move right into the transition.

This flow is a good strengthener - enjoy!

I’ve been working on some mini-flows to mix with Sun Salution flows or to use as warm-ups. Here’s one:

Start in Mountain. Bring your hands behind your back and clasp for Yoga Mudra. Press your chest up, and look up as you inhale. Then on the exhale fold forward, letting your arms relax away from your body for a shoulder stretch. Take another breath here. Bring arms back to your body, unclasp the hands and bring them down to the floor or to your legs for a Standing Forward Bend. Stay for another breath. Bend knees and bring arms up straight for Chair. Hold for a breath. Then lower your arms has you straighten your legs and come back to Mountain. Repeat often.

I like this flow because it stretches the legs as it warms them up. I also like Standing Yoga Mudra and Forward Bend together because they’re both calming and destressifying. It’s a warm-up flow that helps get you centered too. Give it a try!

So once the day is complete, fuelled by our a.m. yoga session, we want to bring it back down for a relaxing snooze. Often our hips and low back really take on the stress of the day. Rosie stands at her job and I sit at mine, so I know there are evenings where we’d both want to spend extra time loosening out the concrete that gathers there. I’ve added in a few Options for babying that area.

- Easy 1/2 Moon - Bring feet to hip width apart. Place a hand on your hip and slowly sweep the other hand up to the ceiling so your torso stretches long and then allow it to curve over your head, bringing a gentle stretch to the long side of your body. Pause for a couple of breaths, bring your arm back down with awareness before changing sides.
- Ragdoll - tuck your chin, place hands on thighs, bend your knees a bit and roll down until you’re in an easy Forward Bend. Plant your hands on the floor for support so you can sway your hips. Take a few deep breaths here letting gravity work it’s magic on your lower back. Then ease your hips down to the mat for Option: a Squat. Point your toes out and spread your knees bringing your hands to prayer position. Hold your elbows to the insides of knees if that feels OK. Let your hips relax, keep your back long and take a few deep breaths here.
-Bound Angle - come to sitting, bend your knees and bring the soles of your feet together, tuck them in close to your body. Hold onto feet or ankles and stretch your spine straight. Relax your knees and let them sink down towards the mat.
- Shoulder Rolls - come into an easy seated position (cross legged) and do some slow Shoulder Rolls in both directions. Then bring your feet to the mat with knees bent, tuck your chin and outstretched arms roll down onto your back.
- Twists - bring your feet off the mat so that your knees are bent at 90 degree angles. Bring your arms to a T position. Drop both knees over to one side and hold. Keep shoulders relaxed on the mat. Change sides.
- Knee Squeeze - squeeze your knees into your chest. Stay for 3-5 breaths. Option: cross one knee over the other and squeeze both knees into your chest. Change legs and repeat.
- Reclined Bound Angle or Legs Up The Wall Bring your feet together in Bound Angle position, let your back relax into the mat, bring hands palms up. Or, move your mat to a wall, sit next to the wall and then gently bring your legs up as you let your upper body come down onto the mat. Keep a slight bend in your knees so you relax. In either pose, stay for 5 long soft breaths.

Come back to a seated position. With hands in Namaste give thanks for one thing from your day. Thanks Rosie. Have a good sleep.

My friend Rosie asked if I could suggest a few yoga moves she could do in the morning or the evening before bed. I’m going to split them up because energizing moves are ideal for the morning and ‘winding down’ moves are best for evening. Stay tuned for the evening set tomorrow.

If you’re anything like me, some a.m.’s I have no energy and need to respect that. Other mornings I *could* have more energy if I just choose to do more energizing type moves. So the suggestions below are for Rosie’s lower energy days, but I added options for each that are energizing and will make you feel positively perky.

-Sit & Breath - Sit in an easy pose, close your eyes and center. Sit and just notice your breath. Notice the state of your body, mind and spirit without judgement. Set an intention for your day. Option: take a few 3-part breaths that fill up your belly, then ribs, then chest with a long slow exhale.
-Opening Breaths - touch your fingertips lightly together at the center of your chest. Then with a deep inhale through your nose, open your arms out wide to either side. Let the movement of your arms open your chest. Press your chest and face upwards gently if that feels OK. Then exhale back to the first position. Repeat 5 or so times. Option: after warming up with the first couple breaths, put more emphasis on your inhale filling your nose/lungs right up with a whoosh of air as you move your arms into the open position.
-Side Bends - place one hand to the floor next to your hip and sweep the other up to the ceiling until you feel a stretch up the long side of your torso, then curl your arm overhead so you fill out a “c” shape. Hold for a moment, change sides, and then repeat it again Option: bend from side to side with your breath (inhale one arm up, exhale it down, change sides).
-Twists - sit with back straight, place your hands on one thigh and twist your shoulders in that direction. Let your neck stay relaxed. Hold, change sides and repeat. Option: twist side-to-side with your breath (inhale and then exhale into the twist, inhale back to center, change sides until your spine feels energized).
-Ragdoll - place your feet hip width apart and parallel on the mat, keep your hands planted on the mat as you press your tailbone up to the ceiling. It’s important to keep knees bent, you just woke up afterall. Keep head and neck relaxed. Sway your hips a little and take a few deep breaths. Press gently into any spots that feel stiff and compressed. Take two more breaths and use the exhales to try to relax deeper into the stretch. Then place your hands on your thighs and roll up slowly, one vertibrae at a time to standing, keeping your chin tucked until last. Option: roll back down with your exhale, come up again with a deep inhale. Keep hands on thighs for this or add arm motions, sweeping them wide and stretching up into Extended Mountain with the inhale. Repeat.

These are just a few poses that don’t take long to do, but they’ll get you centered and loosen up your spine and hips. From here you’ll be warmed up enough to do some standing poses, or to simply start your day. Thanks Rosie. Namaste.

Here’s a good flow for sessions when you’re warmed up and feeling energetic:

- High Lunge - do a Sun Salution and after Down Dog come bring your right foot forward into a High Lunge. Keep your hands on the floor on either side of the foot or for more intensity, bring them up Warrior 1 style. Stay for a few breaths pushing your weight into your back foot and relaxing your hips.
- Side Plank - then bring your hands back to the floor and use them to support your weight while you scoot your right foot back so it’s under your hip bone. Pivot your toes toward the side of the mat. While you keep your left hand planted on the floor under your left shoulder, pivot your body and left foot to the right, stretching your right hand up to the ceiling. This may feel a bit clumsy the first time, but it’ll be one smooth motion with a bit of practice. Now you’re in a modified Side Plank, with your right foot helping keep your hip raised so your body is in one straight line. Go to a full Side Plank by straightening your right leg and stacking it over your left.
- Revolved Lunge - To come back, bring your right foot back to the floor under your hip, bring both hands to the floor and scoot your right foot back between them (knee should be safely over your ankle). Come up on your toes as you activate your back leg so you’re in a High Lunge again. Keep your left hand planted next to your right foot and twist to the right, raising your right arm to the ceiling for a Twisted Lunge. Sorry I can’t find a picture of this one, but your arms are in a t-position, left hand on the floor with your torso twisting right, toward your thigh.

Transition with a Plank, Cobra, Downward Facing Dog and complete the flow on the other side.

Someone told me once that he was doing a finance MBA but absolutely hated accounting. So he took an advanced class in it. Seems counter-intuitive right? If you dislike something you should avoid it like the plague and hope it’ll go away. But what he discovered is that by getting deeper into it he found the beauty (yes beauty) in something he’d previously disliked. He disliked it because he didn’t get it. He hadn’t gone deep enough into it.

I read a bit about this on a Motherhood blog I found. I like #13, it’s so true.

“Sink into it. This is a yoga trick I learned several years ago. When you’ve just about had it with a pose, and your body is screaming at you to untangle!!! and you’ve lost all focus…just sink into it. Every breath, just sink a little lower, or stand a little taller, or whatever you’re doing that’s hard…do it a little more. Yes, it’s hard. Sink into it. When I start to get bored with the knockknock jokes or the diapers, just sink into it. This is my life. Live it deeper. Love it.”

This is a challenge in my home practice. When I reach my first edge sometimes I’m out of the pose before I’ve really thought about it. It’s like the aversion reflex is so familiar I don’t even notice that I’m running off to avoid any discomfort. I’ve been trying to get better at noticing that first edge and then staying for another breath or two. To use the edge as a reminder that it’s time to really notice what’s going on. But next time I’ll go a step further as the blogger suggests. I’ll make a point of just going deeper. To sink in and find the beauty in it.

I read an article somewhere urging women to get over themselves and take up weight lifting. This is all good, because strength training builds bones and muscles and all kinds of good things that we lose as we age. But you don’t *need* weights to build strength. Your body weight is pretty handy for this. There’s plenty of yoga that builds solid muscle and if you choose the yoga path, you get all the other benefits as well. You can kill muliple birds with one yoga mat.

I talked a few weeks ago about building strength and wanted to build on that with more Airplane and Warrior 3 pose variations. Airplane pose is just a different arm position - arms are alongside your torso, hands by hips, palms facing the floor.

- More for your butt - from Airplane pose, standing on your right leg, lift your left hipbone up a few inches and bring it down. Repeat a few times. This is a great glute strengthener that will support you in future balancing poses.
- Extra for arms - from Warrior 3, let your arms drop so they’re hanging down toward the floor. Then on an inhale, slowly bend your elbows and pull them back so your fists squeeze in toward your arm pits. Exhale your arms back down and repeat with your next inhale.
- More arm stuff - with your arms hanging straight down again, bring them up on an inhale into a T-position with palms facing the floor. Squeeze the shoulder blades together a little before lowering on the exhale. Repeat.

These poses really challenge your balance so don’t sweat about getting your body *too* vertical because it’ll be hard to keep it all together. After adding one or two of these into your session you’ll have earned a good Savasana break.

There are plenty of yoga styles but there are exponentially more yoga teaching styles. I’ve been perusing podcasts on iTunes again and found Amy Jin Schmelzer who does Power Yoga with Amy. She’s recorded while teaching an hour-long moderate level class.

Amy is a talker. Like a New York kinda talker. And it’s not necessarily about the yoga pose you’re doing but about life and yoga and all kinds of good stuff. She admits herself that she gets talking so much that she forgets what’s up next. So it just depends what kind of yoga class you like. I found I just relaxed into the pose and listened. Thanks to the talking it’s not a super fast paced class, which makes it easier when you’re following via audio-only. But it warmed me up good because she works through alot of Sun Salutations, probably a good 1/2 hour.

Amy is funny and doesn’t take herself too seriously and yet doesn’t take the yoga lightly either. I’ll definitely ‘go’ to her class again.

Blog-reader Heather asked about setting up a home practice and it’s a great question that I tackled earlier in an article on my Yoga Room website.

Her specific question is “Can I just do whatever pose I want?” and I’d say absolutely.

A key differentiator in yoga seems to be two views represented by what I call, the Structuralists and the Free Stylers. There are plenty of other variations on the yoga theme, but stick with me here. The Structuralists are represented by the schools that believe a particular series of poses done in the same order is the way to go. And the other guys are the ones who mix it up in a more Free Style approach. One isn’t better than the other. Different approaches exist to attract the people that are most comfortable with that approach. You know what I mean - the Hippie Chicks tend to be more into a Free Style experiential kind of yoga like Chakra whereas the Triathlete Yoga Convert is addicted to Bikram or Ashtanga. It’s all good. We all get what we need.

For myself, I started with a very structural approach and did some Ashtanga. But I’ve found that as yoga gets me to practice letting go, the best place to start is the structure and expectation around my practice! Going Free Style is outside my comfort zone. It’s scarier and therefore encourages better growth. I have to be more accepting of what I’ve done on mat after I’m finished. I can’t easily point to what I’ve accomplished. Which is good, because I want my yoga practice to be about being instead of doing. But that’s tough to do when you have the Type A tendencies I do.

There are also Free Stylers like those in Kripalu and like the Erich Schiffmans of the world who believe that what you’re working toward in your personal practice is Meditation in Motion. Essentially being ‘moved’ by the Divine, the ultimate Free-Style.

Sometimes I am able to do an ultimate Free Style in a.m.s when I haven’t woken up yet. Other days when I know I have the time I’ll stick to a rough order of - Centering, Warm-up, Sun Salutations/Standing Poses, Back-bends, Forward Bends, Savasana.

My biggest challenge is noticing what’s motivating my home practice session. Am I doing a ‘look-what-I-can-do!’ when I choose the next pose? Is my ego driving it? Or am I really listening and responding to what my body needs in this moment. The first leads to injury, the second to a solid yoga glow.

Being in a class is about giving up the reins and doing what someone asks you to do. Your ‘at home’ practice is about creating a session based on what your body/mind/spirit need. Maybe it’s alot of Child’s Pose that you know will make you feel safe. Maybe it’s alot of Sun Salutations to get your yah-yahs out. Maybe it’s allowing a set structure of poses to operate as a mirror that helps you see what’s going on with you today. Maybe it’s just going with the flow. The important thing is to practice.

I went for a run at lunchtime on Shore Road, it’s a good hilly run that I just love. There are lots of evergreens, views of the water and sometimes you get to see the big o’ swan that hangs around. I knew I was up for a challenging run because the weather has been just iffy enough that I’m not getting out regularly.

So when I tackled the steepest hill on the run sure enough, I got pretty tired and breathless. And it was cool, I just stopped and walked the rest of the hill. Usually I’d get all into ‘I should push myself’, ‘I should be able to do this’, ‘if I walk that must mean….’ blah-blah di blah. But this time I just started walking and I thought - today is just about just going the distance. It’s not about how fast I get there.

I do that when i’m heading to the mat too. I decide that I really should do “x” Sun Salutations or stay in a certain pose for “y” breaths and then, boy, I’ll have really achieved something. But that’s not really listening to my body. That’s alot more about listening to my head and my ego.

I’d like to get better at deciding how long I’m able to stay on the mat and give myself permission to do the poses I need during that time. I’d like to trust I’ll still find the same yoga glow, but allow it to be based completely on how it happens to flows that day. I’d like to be better at just going the distance, taking the shape of whatever poses get me there.