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| hi thushi...
nope that isnt it. maybe it is not really an asana. 
i hold chaturanga and then slide my body forward as i come onto the tops of my feet and then slide back to chaturanga.
i did also learn nakrasana so i know it isnt the same.
anyone else have a guess?? |
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| Warning: Great American Novel ahead:
Nakrasana = Crocodile pose. The hands and feet leave the mat as one jumps 9 times forward and 9 times back. The bottom and abdomen do not lead the jump, so IOW, the core does not flobble up and down. The gaze is about 2 feet forward on the floor.
Chaturanga. If you're looking at your hands, your head is in the wrong place. Bottom line. You need to look forward a little, maybe 2 feet or so, but just enough to give the back of the skull a little lift. If you're looking down, that 12-16 pound weight at the top of your spine drags down your shoulders, upper back, therefore your lower back, and butt. The whole pose becomes heavy. If you do the 1/2 inhale up thing in a sun salutation, notice you actually look at the floor a bit ahead of you to keep your head in line with your spine? Keep looking at that spot while you move back and down into Chaturanga. That is 99% of the time the perfect spot for that person's neck. In up dog (or cobra) you'll look gently up, but as you move back to down dog, look at that spot again as you roll back over your toes and your spine will not hump.
Knees down. Of course it serves a purpose.
•It prevents the above-described sag in someone who doesn't have the upper body strength to lower their entire body safely.
•It helps build upper body strength.
•It prevents injury to elbows and shoulders when someone's getting tired and losing form.
•It teaches someone to keep the elbows in by the sides (to come no lower that parallel to the ribs) where they below, while keeping the back of the skull lifted and heads of the upper arm bones up and back. Lift the knees and someone not strong sags all over while trying to just do these things.
•If someone has bunions or otherwise injured toes, it permits a safe practice while still getting the upper body benefits of the pose. If one uses Uddiyana bandha properly, the ab work is not lost, either.
Rocking back and forth: It teaches you the resistance point the toes can create when used properly in this pose. It teaches you the movement to lift and roll forward into up dog. It gives you the opportunity to work to lift your shoulders away from the ground, to use Uddiyana bandha, and really work the pose. It's easier to move than it is to hold still.
(While I'm at it) Rolling over the toes: It is important. The flex/extension of the toes realigns the tendons in the knee. It can do fabulous things for people with planta faciatis. It helps build ab/core strength while someone learns to lift from their uddiyana bandha, rather than trying to use their toes to lift themselves up and over. It makes life easier in Sun Sals and takes far less jarring energy (usually focused in the lower back and shoulder joints) than trying to hike yourself into the air to "flip" your toes. (One should always point and flex the toes after any knee-compromising position such as Padmasana variations and Triang Eka Pada Paschimottanasana, Virasana, Vajrasana, etc., to relaign the tendons before moving on. Looks funky; much safer.)
Momentum in SS. Afroyogi, speed isn't better. It takes more control, more strength and more focus to move slowly and carefully in most any activity.
Think weight lifting. Do you move faster? No! As you grow stronger, you move more slowly and delibrately to challenge the muscle.
In a SS, you move more slowly and deliberately as you lengthen the breath ever-longer and more smoothly. You give your body the time and luxury of elongation, of truly experiencing a pose. It's wonderful.
IMHO, these people flailing themselves through sun salutations have missed the point. It's all about the breath, remember? It's purely testosterone when you're beating yourself senseless with 108 sun salutations, IMHO. Sure, if you can do the last sun sal with the same breath length and steadiness as the first sun salutation? Then you've truly honored that to which the 108 Sun Sals are dedicated. If not? The point....?
Move slowly, carefully, with focus and intention. Make each asana in the sun salutation an offering in itself. Let your breath lead the asana. I digress, I think.
Chaturanga is a fabulous pose. Gently lift your head and it becomes a whole, new, lighter pose.
Christine
Edited by YogaDancer 2005-01-18 9:52 AM
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| Christine! It's so nice to have you back! As usual you gave a wonderful and exhaustive explanation of the pose. I agree with everything you wrote except:
YogaDancer - 2005-01-18 9:44 AM
Think weight lifting. Do you move faster? No! As you grow stronger, you move more slowly and delibrately to challenge the muscle.
I think you are thinking of those bodybuilding exercises like "concentration curls" which are useless. Bodybuilding is not weightlifting. REAL weightlifting is what you see on the olympics. It is FAST!!!! It is EXPLOSIVE!!!! Although there are some people that believe slow isolation exercises are good for building muscle mass (this is debatable), those exercises are totally ineffective in training the muscles for athletic performance (even "real world" performance). Explosive lifts like the clean & jerk and the snatch are what athletes use to improve performance.
That being said, those explosive movements ARE trained at EXTREMELY slow speeds without weight, to get the form perfect.
I prefer to analogize it to music. You practice scales and musical phrases at slow speed so that you can perfect the details. There is plenty of good fast music, likewise yoga can be practiced at an accelerated pace. However to be considered good music it should be played with "feeling." Similarly, your practice should have feeling to be considered a good practice. If your practice if fast and sloppy it doesn't serve you. Like music, I think some parts should be legato and flowing. Some parts should be staccato and deliberate.
I say practice slow and deliberately and perfect the details, but feel free to change the tempo and move with feeling. |
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| Point well taken -- kind of.
The bottom line, IMHO, is until you get that form down well, moving fast is using momentum where strength and form is frequently sacrificed.
No matter what your form, if your breath is sacrificed, you're missing the point of asana.
Thanks for the welcome back. I'm doing my 2003 taxes and must be done by Feb 3 or they freeze my checking account. [sigh] At least I don't owe....
c. |
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| >> Think weight lifting. Do you move faster? No! As you grow stronger, you move more slowly and delibrately to challenge the muscle. <<
I cannot say. I don't lift weights other than a bottle of beer sometimes, the frying pan, motorcycle spare parts or my wife 
But thanks anyways. Point taken. I just wonder why then some teachers are going faster and faster during SS? Is it maybe to bring our heartrate up and get a bit sweaty since we're doing the SS mostly pretty soon after the warm-up phase?
BTW, good to have you back, Christine, I already reported you to the "Missing Persons" department 
Edited by afroyogi 2005-01-18 6:32 PM
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About SS this is exactly the same way I have learnt., Like Yoga Dancer said, My teacher also said, Its all about breathing., When Afroyogi was talking about SS as fast movements (Even in Dragon's thread about her DVD) I was very confused .
Ok now its cleared Thanks to yoga Dancer!
I went to her site to find Nakarasana and the pose is not displayed there., This pose comes with Ashtanga or Hatha yoga ??
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| Dearheart, Hatha yoga is a misnomer in some ways.
All asana is hatha yoga. Think of "hatha" as the umbrella under which all forms of asana fall. Bikram, Ashtanga, Anusara, Power, Hot, Iyengar, Viniyoga, Kripalu, Swroopa, you name it. If you're in a posture, you're doing hatha yoga. Now, the variation of the particular asana is what causes it to be catagorized as one of the aforementioned families or traditions. See what I mean, bean?
So if someone teaches "hatha" yoga, they either teach a mish-mash of yoga based upon a good, solid background of many different styles, or they don't know what the heck they're teaching. It's up to us as students to ask those questions and to decide what's right for us.
Nakrasana is not on my site because I haven't got any pictures of anyone hopping their body into the air from Chaturanga.  I have to look at my Swenson book, since he's the only one I know who listed it and was one of the first teachers to give me permission to use their stuff. I digress. Look at Chaturanga and imagine the person's body in the exact same position, about 3-6'' in the air. How's that!?
Christine |
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| Thanks !!!! This was a question which was bothering me all these days., How Hatha yoga and Other styles differs in terms of Asana . Thanks again Yoga dancer. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| Nakrasana is in Light on Yoga |
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| Hey tourist,
Is this a real thing ?
http://ashtangayoga.info/41_AsanaVinyasa/E_Intermediate_Series/22__Nakrasana.html |
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| thanks yoga dancer! i am glad to see you are posting again. i always learn something from your posts. just to clarify, chaturange with the rocking action does NOT have a different sanskrit name?
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| EasternSun, it is only that I have never been able to find a name, perhaps. It doesn't mean that someone, somewhere, hasn't named it. Chaturanga is a static one, vs. kenetic, so to rock in the asana itself, vs. moving to something else is kind of contrary to the original asana. However, as I said, that doesn't mean someone, somewhere hasn't named it. If they have, I'd love to know what they're calling it and I'll add it to my site!
Tourist, doesn't Mr. Iyengar himself say, "Pay no attention to that man. He knows nothing about yoga?" His form in many of his own asana would have him screaming these days! 
I hadn't seen the AshtangaInfo.com. It looks like Eddie Stern. I haven't investigated yet, but will be contacting them for some of the asana I don't have! Thanks for offering that link. Very cool.
Christine |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| It is true that BKS has several poses he says we shouldn't emulate. He says they were just a young man showing off  But I don't think Nakrassana was one of them. We attempted it in class once  If you ever want a good laugh and sore toes, that is the pose to try! |
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| thanks yoga dancer!
i really appreciate your response and good luck with the tax man! |
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Chaturanga ?
