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sun_salutation.
Getting Started 2: Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend)
Disclaimer: I am not a yoga instructor. I don't know anything about exercise safety or fitness instruction. I'm not even an advanced practitioner of yoga. But I have come to love yoga and am completely self taught.
You know your own body best, so please respect your known health conditions and use the variations offered by instructors that are best for you. Remember to balance where you are now with where you could be in the future. There is no perfect pose.
Yoga Attitude
And as Mr. Kest reminds us, the important thing in yoga is "to feel something." The difference between a flexible person and a less flexible person is that the flexible person just has to go farther to feel something.
Disclaimers and reminders all done!
Surya Namaskar A has a lot of components. I would like to take the component postures and discuss them, starting with Uttanasana.
Some thoughts about getting the most out of Uttanasana
The second posture in the sequence is Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend).
This may seem like a very simple posture at first - touching your toes, basically.
It has two basic components. Getting length in your spine, and developing openness in the hamstrings.
Brian Kest suggests that you prioritize getting length in your spine. Focus on getting your fingertips to touch the floor, even if this means bending your knees. As you swan dive forward into the bend, reaching for the floor will maintain the space you've opened in your back. Over time, as you perform the pose regularly, and in combination with other hamstring-opening poses, you will gain the flexibility in the backs of your legs to eventually straighten your legs completely.
You can use your breath to gain length.
As you are in this posture, on your inhales, attempt to extend your spine through the crown of your head. On the inhale, you grow. You might even raise your torso up as far as you can while leaving your fingertips on the floor, all the while extending.
On the exhale, try to drop a little deeper into the posture than you were before you grew. You can apply this strategy in many postures. Inhaling to extend, exhaling to move deeper into the posture, be it a forward bend, a twist, or Side Triangle.
In yoga postures, there are a lot of things to think about. At first, I was just trying to get close to what the instructor was doing – approximate the pose as closely as possible. The second challenge was placing the breath properly with each movement. Just those two goals are a lot at the beginning.
As you become familiar with the posture, you will find you can concentrate on growing into it more deeply.
In yoga, in almost all poses, but especially in forward bends, you should be engaging your core by lifting up your abdomen. First, this brings strength to support your lower back. Second, lifting up your abdomen "moves your organs" up out of the way, allowing you to bend forward more deeply. That said, I'm still terrible at consistently remembering to do this. But if you can lift up your abdomen as you are diving forward into Uttanasana, you will find that you get more fold.
Finally, as you fold forward in the posture, think about extending your tailbone toward the sky. Creating this lifting intention will help you to engage your hamstrings more fully.
You can see how this simple posture can provide room for growth and development for weeks, or months, or maybe years.
Here is a guy explaining how to do Uttanasana, illustrating the things you are likely to do wrong and showing how to avoid them. Michael McEvoy explains Uttanasana. Note he uses a block in his illustration. However, I have never seen any other instructor use a block for this pose. I suspect you can accomplish a similar result by placing your hands on your shins.
A couple more examples:
Instructor shows how to return to Mountain Pose from Uttanasana.
Yoga Therapy's Uttanasana example.
Real Life Applications for Uttanasana
As you do more yoga, you may find that you discover poses that you bring into your daily life. For instance, I know Zats, when forced to sleep on terrible mattresses while traveling, will do a few rounds of Suyra Namaskar B with some extra standing postures thrown in to work out the mattress-induced aches and pains. Anduisgich has been known to sneak off at work to a special hidey hole to do a couple of interations of Wheel, or sun salutations.
My all time favorite posture for real life is Uttanasana.
1. Sometimes it's just fun to spontaneously reach down and put my hands on the floor.
2. If my back is tired, doing a hanging version of Uttanasana, as in the Yoga Therapy example above, really releases tension and rejuvenates.
3. If I'm feeling run down, there's nothing like getting upside down to get some blood and oxygen to my brain.
4. If my head is congested, particularly if my sinuses are really stubbornly plugged up, several rounds of Uttanasana in a row will really get the nasty fluids moving again and loosen things up.
So! I think that's all I have to say about Uttanasana.
On other, practical yoga topics for people just getting started:
Or consider an evening practice
Ribby pointed out in response to my post yesterday that she practices in the evening. She says, "I'm not limber enough in the morning to do yoga, so I do mine in the evening when I get home from work--I find, for me, it's a great release/changeover from the work day... I come home, do yoga, and I'm relaxed and ready for the evening." Which is an excellent point!
Do I need special clothes for practicing yoga?
seleneheart raised this issue at this post in sun_salutation. She comments on the "almost uniform" of yoga. There is a lot of helpful discussion in the comments. My suggestion – don't rush out to buy anything til you check your current wardrobe of exercise clothes first. A tank top or tight fitting shirt is best, so that your shirt doesn't fall into your face when you are upside down. Be sure the shirt allows good arm movement. You can use any exercise pants that allow good range of movement. Surprisingly, this may not be your loosest pair of baggy shorts, since they may actually get in the way of the lunges that you will eventually be doing.
And lastly, a few more examples of Surya Namaskar A, provided byrydra_wong:
Ceci Lester does a "softer" "more modified" Sun Salutation A.
Example with Rise Yoga.
sun_salutation.Getting Started 2: Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend)
Disclaimer: I am not a yoga instructor. I don't know anything about exercise safety or fitness instruction. I'm not even an advanced practitioner of yoga. But I have come to love yoga and am completely self taught.
You know your own body best, so please respect your known health conditions and use the variations offered by instructors that are best for you. Remember to balance where you are now with where you could be in the future. There is no perfect pose.
Yoga Attitude
And as Mr. Kest reminds us, the important thing in yoga is "to feel something." The difference between a flexible person and a less flexible person is that the flexible person just has to go farther to feel something.
Disclaimers and reminders all done!
Surya Namaskar A has a lot of components. I would like to take the component postures and discuss them, starting with Uttanasana.
Some thoughts about getting the most out of Uttanasana
The second posture in the sequence is Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend).
This may seem like a very simple posture at first - touching your toes, basically.
It has two basic components. Getting length in your spine, and developing openness in the hamstrings.
Brian Kest suggests that you prioritize getting length in your spine. Focus on getting your fingertips to touch the floor, even if this means bending your knees. As you swan dive forward into the bend, reaching for the floor will maintain the space you've opened in your back. Over time, as you perform the pose regularly, and in combination with other hamstring-opening poses, you will gain the flexibility in the backs of your legs to eventually straighten your legs completely.
You can use your breath to gain length.
As you are in this posture, on your inhales, attempt to extend your spine through the crown of your head. On the inhale, you grow. You might even raise your torso up as far as you can while leaving your fingertips on the floor, all the while extending.
On the exhale, try to drop a little deeper into the posture than you were before you grew. You can apply this strategy in many postures. Inhaling to extend, exhaling to move deeper into the posture, be it a forward bend, a twist, or Side Triangle.
In yoga postures, there are a lot of things to think about. At first, I was just trying to get close to what the instructor was doing – approximate the pose as closely as possible. The second challenge was placing the breath properly with each movement. Just those two goals are a lot at the beginning.
As you become familiar with the posture, you will find you can concentrate on growing into it more deeply.
In yoga, in almost all poses, but especially in forward bends, you should be engaging your core by lifting up your abdomen. First, this brings strength to support your lower back. Second, lifting up your abdomen "moves your organs" up out of the way, allowing you to bend forward more deeply. That said, I'm still terrible at consistently remembering to do this. But if you can lift up your abdomen as you are diving forward into Uttanasana, you will find that you get more fold.
Finally, as you fold forward in the posture, think about extending your tailbone toward the sky. Creating this lifting intention will help you to engage your hamstrings more fully.
You can see how this simple posture can provide room for growth and development for weeks, or months, or maybe years.
Here is a guy explaining how to do Uttanasana, illustrating the things you are likely to do wrong and showing how to avoid them. Michael McEvoy explains Uttanasana. Note he uses a block in his illustration. However, I have never seen any other instructor use a block for this pose. I suspect you can accomplish a similar result by placing your hands on your shins.
A couple more examples:
Instructor shows how to return to Mountain Pose from Uttanasana.
Yoga Therapy's Uttanasana example.
Real Life Applications for Uttanasana
As you do more yoga, you may find that you discover poses that you bring into your daily life. For instance, I know Zats, when forced to sleep on terrible mattresses while traveling, will do a few rounds of Suyra Namaskar B with some extra standing postures thrown in to work out the mattress-induced aches and pains. And
uisgich has been known to sneak off at work to a special hidey hole to do a couple of interations of Wheel, or sun salutations.My all time favorite posture for real life is Uttanasana.
1. Sometimes it's just fun to spontaneously reach down and put my hands on the floor.
2. If my back is tired, doing a hanging version of Uttanasana, as in the Yoga Therapy example above, really releases tension and rejuvenates.
3. If I'm feeling run down, there's nothing like getting upside down to get some blood and oxygen to my brain.
4. If my head is congested, particularly if my sinuses are really stubbornly plugged up, several rounds of Uttanasana in a row will really get the nasty fluids moving again and loosen things up.
So! I think that's all I have to say about Uttanasana.
On other, practical yoga topics for people just getting started:
Or consider an evening practice
Ribby pointed out in response to my post yesterday that she practices in the evening. She says, "I'm not limber enough in the morning to do yoga, so I do mine in the evening when I get home from work--I find, for me, it's a great release/changeover from the work day... I come home, do yoga, and I'm relaxed and ready for the evening." Which is an excellent point!
Do I need special clothes for practicing yoga?
seleneheart raised this issue at this post in sun_salutation. She comments on the "almost uniform" of yoga. There is a lot of helpful discussion in the comments. My suggestion – don't rush out to buy anything til you check your current wardrobe of exercise clothes first. A tank top or tight fitting shirt is best, so that your shirt doesn't fall into your face when you are upside down. Be sure the shirt allows good arm movement. You can use any exercise pants that allow good range of movement. Surprisingly, this may not be your loosest pair of baggy shorts, since they may actually get in the way of the lunges that you will eventually be doing.And lastly, a few more examples of Surya Namaskar A, provided by
rydra_wong: Ceci Lester does a "softer" "more modified" Sun Salutation A.
Example with Rise Yoga.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-25 04:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-25 04:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-25 04:47 pm (UTC)Now wanders off to carry on writing my Stargate/Sanctuary crossover.