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January 21st 2025 - Abhijata Parivrttas

Tamara Hockey

Updated: 1 day ago


The grounds of FC College

The 50th Birthday Celebrations culminated on Sunday with everyone dressed in their finery, packed into the hall (and more in an overspill venue across the road or at home watching online) to enjoy a series of tributes and reminiscences from those that have been an integral part of RIMYI from the outset and then a 'Moot Court' with Raya acting as the prosecutor, Abhi the accused and Prashantji as the judge - all up on YouTube here:



It was announced that RIMYI would be closed completely the following day to give all involved a well-deserved day of rest before getting up and getting back to business as usual today. Many students have either returned home or travelled onto Bellur for an intensive with Prashant, but there were still enough to pack out the hall for Abhi's excellent intermediate class this evening.


Today was my favoutite kind of Pune day - up and out for a Pranayama class this morning at 7.45am, then a long, unhurried practice under the shade of the trees on the terrace looking up at the circling kites overhead. A coffee in Godaam Coffee house, which seems to be the new favourite haunt for Iyengar students (the guy behind the counter told me that most of their business comes from us) and then an absolutely banging class from Abhi this evening.


It was one of those where everyone in the room - locals and internationals alike -was completely engaged in the work which came thick, fast and thorough and there was one moment where we'd all been working our hardest in a pose and there was a kind of unanimous groan of relief as we released the effort required to hold the pose that reminded me of a Geetaji class back in 2014, where we were working so hard in Virasana in Sarvangasana to get the knees back and buttocks forwards that we were all making those involuntary moans that humans pushed to the limits of their endurance do and Geetaji said 'Yes!! That's it!! That sound is it! That is the movement!'. (BTW you'll notice if you keep scrolling that I've now managed to successfully load all the previous blogs up, going right the way back to 2013).


A beautiful moment today when I was going to see the Ayurvedic doctor in Deccan Gymkahana. I passed a group of young teenage schoolgirls excitedly chattering away as they waited for a bus home. The girls were all quite smart in their school uniforms, but I noticed as I navigated through that one of them was in completely bare feet, stood on the stony, dusty roadside in her uniform with no shoes on at all. In my very British way, I felt a pang of sympathy but carried on and ignored it even though I would have loved to have reached out and helped. Too shy and uncomfortable and well ... British. Once round the corner though, I stopped and knew that it would bug me for weeks that I could so easily have helped but didn't, so I turned around and the perfect moment presented itself - her friends had just got on the bus so I wouldn't embarrass her and I was able to point at her feet and tell her I was giving her money for shoes. It really was lovely and I practically skipped off to my appointment, pleased that for once humanity won over awkwardness,


There was no-one taking notes at tonight's class and I'm quite sure there were a few more AMSvanasanas and Parivrtta Trikonasanas sprinkled in the sequence, but the gist is there (Big thanks to Rosana for brainstorming with me and Sheila / Larissa for their two pennith worth too - definitely a team effort tonight)




21st January 2025 – Abhijata – Parivrttas


Throughout this class many instructions to suck the back in and lengthen the chest away from the abdomen, whilst working on the rotations. Keeping chin away from chest.

  • AMVirasana

  • Uttanasana

  • Prasarita Padottanasana - Moving the front of the leg towards the back of the leg to get the spreading of the back thighs.

  • Sirsasana 2 belts one around thighs, the other around calves – Move the patella into the knee, there should be no dip there- the back of the knee make it dense. Like you spread your bed sheet over the mattress, in the same manner spread the skin all over the back of the thighs. The belts are keeping the legs together, but the legs have their own tendency. Feel what is the natural tendency of your legs and see that the legs do not roll out. CHARGE the inner ankles. Imagine you had a third belt on your hips, as if that belt was there tied tight, draw your hips DEEP inwards. And now prepare yourself to grip the hips DEEP inwards AND the whole inner leg STRETCH it up x 6.

  • Keep the belts on – Uttanasana

  • Dandasana with the belts – spreading the toes.

  • Urdhva Hasta Dandasana into Parsva Utthita Hasta Dandasana (hands down for high blood pressure) – Into hands down Parsva Dandasana. Suck the back! X 2 each side.

  • Parivrtta Trikonasana

  • Half the class Bharadvajasana 1 – Coiling the back in and taking the head back to look at the ceiling, the other half Supta Padangusthasana 3.

  • Marichyasana 3 back hand at wall / Supta Padangusthasana 3 (leg across the body in line with the hip, using the belt. Bottom leg on the floor rolling over with the top leg. We did not keep the toes pointing to the ceiling X 2 – We looked at the back in Marichyasana 3 how the back tends to be convex, bulging, dense on the left back flank when turning to the right and how that part of the back cannot suck in unless the opposite shoulder is properly rolled back. She said that the same dynamic is playing out on your back on the floor in Supta Padangusthasana 3. When the right leg is stretching across the body to the left side, the right shoulder has to press down into the floor and the left back flank had to spread away from the spine and become more concave, not bulging into the floor.

  • Parivrrta Trikonasana – Chest away from the sternum! Suck the back!

  • Supta Padangusthasana 3 / Kneeling Pariv Parsvak

  • Ardha Matsyendrasana 2 / Supta Padangusthasana 3

  • Parivrtta Trikonasana

  • AMSvanasana jumping to Uttanasana x 3

  • AMSvanasana jumping to Parsvottanasana, both feet leaving the floor.

  • AMSvanasana jumping to Parivrtta Trikonasana – keeping hands where they are for dog pose and jumping the legs outside.

  • Uttanasana – bend knees hold heels, move waist corners down, and when you straighten the legs chest / abdomen lengthening down the legs like a child moves down a slide (shows hands gesture of a slight ski jump shape)

  • Paschimottanasana

  • Janu Sirasana – Head outside the extended leg holding the outer edge of the foot, forehead to floor x 6 each side, using sharp exhalations to deepen the action.

  • Paschimottanasana – move the waist corners forward.

  • Parsva Bakasana or Pasasana at wall.

  • AMVrkasana – SCRUB the heels up the wall! SCRUB!

  • Supta Baddha Konasana - Back flat on the floor.

  • Karnapidasana and Parsva Karnapidasana – Going so far around that rather then your knees being outside your ear, they reach the edge of the stack of thick mats. She showed us for our own practice it is useful to sometimes support length of the shins. She used her hands to deflate the student’s calves and you could see instantly how this pacified her face.

  • Paschimottanasana as Savasana (or Uttanasana if not comfortable).

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Annie
2 days ago

These blogs are so wonderful and extremely helpful. I am missing being there this year. It seems like a very special time.

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