Awoke in the deep dark to a knock on our door – it was pre-yoga tea being delivered. Opened the curtains and sipped lemon balm tea as the sun came up and the lake gradually brightened into its full glorious beauty. We skipped the yoga class and practiced on a sunny outdoor terrace overlooking the view. KARE is absurdly well equipped for yoga, from the days when links with Guruji were strong, so there are all kinds of wooden and metal props – better equipped than many flashy studios, but much of the equipment now unused and gathering dust.
The yoga teacher / ayurvedic doctor was suffering from sciatica so Jenny and I took the opportunity to show him some very important Iyengar yoga basics as well as giving him some poses to help with the sciatic pain – he was touchingly grateful and a very fast learner, it would be great if the management at KARE could provide him with the time away from his schedule to attend classes at the institute.
On the road to Pune
It was good to get back to our apartment and our cook had left us a meal ready to heat up. We headed off to Abhi’s evening class refreshed after our time away from the city – it felt like a much longer break. Today was the beginning of backbend week and Abhi’s class focussed on getting the correct action of the shoulder blades in dog pose, sirsasana and the standing poses. An energetic and fast paced class and up to her usual high standard. We stayed a long time with legs apart and arms extended sideaways and Abhi told us about the time when Guruji met with the Dalai Lama and she and some of the other senior students gave a yoga demonstration – they were held for a full ten minutes in this pose as Guruji explained the intricacies of the Yamas and Niyamas! We didn’t do much in the way of backbends, but the preparation was there for the week to come (full sequence below).On the way home I surreptitiously gathered some earth from the freshly dug trench outside our apartment to plant up the clay pot I bought for our beautiful roses. I certainly couldn’t find any compost to buy – I think perhaps the idea of bagging up soil and selling it in a plastic bag has yet to take off here!
Blogging!
15th February – Abhi
AMV – Preparing the body for the class
AMVirasana – full classic pose, knees together sitting between the feet going forward.
AMV – hands at same level as shoulders – I used two upright bricks – inner shoulders, trapezius away from neck, rolling biceps outward.
Padangusthasana , Pada Hastasana and gulphasana all Concave Back
AMV – From seated – several times with belt around elbows NOT letting arms overtake head – going in stages – half way, then 4 inches away from the height you took for hands. Hit out on the belt. Shoulders down, side trunk forward.
AMS – belt around the elbows – “A Superior Dog!” – inner shoulders suck upward, taking chest closer to legs WITHOUT dropping the elbow, resisting wrists upward OR going beyond your capacity so that the shoulders roll inward. Head to the floor if you can “SHOULDER BLADES UP BACK RIBS IN”
Repeat AMS with careful placement of the hands – thumb and index finger down first, then place the rest down, hands as wide as possible with the belt.
Full Arm Balance – still with the belt around elbow joint – harder to kick up but easier to stay.
Waiting group Vasthisasana – buttocks in, head back. Bottom hip resists away from floor, but don’t hit top hip up.
Repeat Full Arm Balance – outer buttocks to outer knee
Waiting group Purvottonasana legs bent
Prasarita Padottonasana
Parivrrta Trikonasana – Insert opp hand under foot and fix that shoulder blade, lift top arm UP UP UP
Weird upside down thing holding ropes that we did with Edgar – note to self, to get out of it: pull on ropes to lift chest up, then walk feet down the wall (don’t turn your arms inside out in their sockets!)
Tad, Urdhva Hastasana, Urdhva Namaskarasana
Ardha Chandrasana x 2 – whole palm down, hand exactly in line with foot, put palm on brick if necessary and make sure you don’t throw buttock back in order to get down. Press the thumb and turn.
UH Padasana – outer edges of feet press. Extend arms in such a way that the bottom upper arm (bingo wing) has to grip upward into the bone and the hands extend normally not with the fingers or wrists raised. Anal mouth faces the floor. She told us about when Guruji met the Dalai Lama and they gave a demonstration while he lectured on Yama and Niyama – 10 minutes in UH Padasana
Trikonasana – insert palm under outer foot, palm faces up, bend the knee to get the hand under, then straighten the leg.
AMS
Parivrtta Parsvkonasana – insert opp hand under front foot and fix that shoulder blade, top arm lift UP UP UP
Ustrasana x 3 – Cut the outer corners of the buttocks forward.
Sirsasana – she made us come down as there was some confusion about which parts of the body she was referring to. Front body is the side you are looking at and back body is the side you cannot see.
Back up to sirsasana – Back of upper arm to front of upper arm. Inner wrist down. Increase the surface area of the back of the knee. Inner knee upward. Outer elbow toward the inner elbow, circular motion there is needed to keep the shoulders lifted, lift inner and outer blade, the whole slab of the shoulder blade up.
Halasana – 1)palms facing cutting wrists and upper arms down to support – as if some great weight is placed on the arms and lifting back chest up.2) Palms facing floor and / or catching far edge of mats – only in this version did we briefly lift up into sarvangasana 3)Fingers interlocked the difficult way with little fingers downward.
Savasana
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