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| Does any one have any advice about how best to move fluidly between Adho Mukha Svanasana, Urdhva Mukha Svanasana and Chaturanga Dandasana in the series of jumpings / Surya Namaskar .
Also Geeta has said that you can incorporate standing poses within the Surya Namaskar and I was just wondering if anyone knows how best to do that? Where in the sequence do you insert them?
Thanks
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| wohayo:
If you are in Virginia neighbourhood, come to me and I shall addrress this.
Neel Kulkarni
www.authenticyoga.org |
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| wohayo,
I asked a similar question in the Ashtanga forum called "jump-thoughs", but the same principles apply. Yoga Dancer gave some good advice on focusing your dristhi and engaging your bandhas, that specifically helped me. There are others as well.
I am struggling with making my Sun Salutations nice and fluid. I have a teacher who says that everything in Ashtanga (which has the same roots as Iyenger) is mini-handstands. That made no sense to me until I started really watching how more advanced yogi's move and see there is true to it. The real strength comes from your core. Instead of "jumping" you are actually floating and your body moves in a very controlled way.
Practice! That's at least what I am doing!
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Expert Yogi
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| wohayo - welcome! The best way to make sun salutes smooth is to just practice, practice, practice  Therefore, I am probably the worst person around to give you advice! But I do know you can add in the standing poses by going from down dog and stepping one foot forward. Then you have the legs apart stance and adjust from there into the standing poses you wish to do. When finished, step back into down dog and off you go.
"Geeta says" interests me - have you had classes with her? |
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| Thank you for your response, I know you are right I must just get on with the practice. I love my classes but find it hard to get as much out of practicing without the corrections of my teacher......I think I just need to learn a lot about the value of patience and trust that the flow will come with time.
I wish I had had classes with Geeta, unfortunately my knowledge of her teaching comes only from books...........maybe one day  |
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| Patience and learning to enjoy where my body is, rather than gettin discouraged its not where I think it should be are two lessons that I am learning in my practice.
A bit of wisdom that my teacher this morning gave though was "don't think about it, just do it" in a new asana. Now, I still fell on my bum, but I did get a little closer!
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| "Patience and learning to enjoy where my body is, rather than gettin discouraged its not where I think it should be "
Wise words indeed.....it is far to easy (for me anyway) to fall into the trap of being so afraid of doing things wrong I end up never doing it at all, or at least don't allow myself to relax into the full enjoyment of doing it.
I will employ that advice in my practice tonight.
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| >>A bit of wisdom that my teacher this morning gave though was "don't think about it, just do it" in a new asana. Now, I still fell on my bum, but I did get a little closer!<< 
So true! I had to work hard to stop trying to learn yoga with my brain and let my body learn for me. Then to teach, I had to channel it all back through my brain so it would come out my mouth in some sort of semblance of intelligent speech. It was a challenge! |
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Expert Yogi
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| Jo - so which Geeta book are you working with? |
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| "I had to work hard to stop trying to learn yoga with my brain and let my body learn for me."
That is so true! I am learning from so many books I am beginnig to get befuddled, I have been looking at the preliminary series by geeta, also (of course) light on yoga plus the two Dorling Kindersly books Yoga the Iyengar way and Iyengar Yoga the path to holistic health.
I have a wonderful teacher who's lessons are an inspiration, and I can truly feel free when I practice in class but I just can't seem to get my home practice going. I am too busy worrying about what is next and can I remember how to do it properly to allow myself to get into the pose I am in.
I long for a home practice that flows seemlessly from one pose to another, but I guess the only way I can achieve that is to get on with it and the more i do it the easier it will become. |
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| it is probably worth mentioning also that while I might sound like I should be doing Ashtanga or something with all this talk of flow, my heart is with Iyengar and that is the path I want to follow.
I just still yearn to make it flow, but still get my allignment correct!
Edited by wohayo 2005-04-06 11:46 AM
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| While I love Ashtanga, I too have Light on Yoga and like to read and re-read Iyengar's descriptions and hints, etc. Iyengar's attention to aiignment is extremely important and beneficial. And since Ashtanga and Iyengar's roots are so similiar there is no reason you can't implement the two for your own practice. I mean, "Flowing" from pose to pose is really cool!
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| I have just de-learned to jump between the poses in surya namaskar. I always was a quick guy, way ahead of the class and very proud of myself doing as double as much SS as the rest of the class. Then I learned (in this here forum) that it will be of greater benefit for me to do it slowly. Well, it works! I now pay more attention to proper alignment and hold the poses much longer before "flowing" into the next one. So, no more jumping for me but only flowing (or kind of creeping flowing). This requires strenght and practice and I hope I will get better with the time. Wohayo, I wouldn't worry too much about the flowing, it will come naturally with practice.
Regarding your question about standing poses: The way we do the SS, it starts and ends with a standing pose, tadasana, lifting arms high and bending backwards, before ending in namaste. One of my teachers have us do a standing forward bend with arms behind the back, sticking up in the air (it's like a standing rabbit, don't know the sanskrit name) before the last tadasana. But I've been through 11 teachers already and everyone does it a bit different.
See, there's no law about how to do the "real" surya namaskar. In yoga is no place for absolutisms. You can always modify it any way you want.
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Expert Yogi
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| woahyo - you are well stocked with great books! The Preliminary Course is really interesting, especially the "Learn To" instructions. If you are struggling to start your practice, start with the ever-important getouthematasana I often suggest doing three poses you don't like and three that you do like. Give yourself a reward pose at the end if you get through them all. |
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Expert Yogi
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Location: A Blue State | The simplest standing poses to stick into Surya Namaskara are probably
Warrior 1 and Warrior 2, which are easily done as Tourist noted, by stepping
one leg forward from downward dog. You can also enter Trikonasana or
Parsvokonasana, although they force you to turn more fully sideways. And the Parivrtta
versions of those two as well. But the possibilities are endless. The Ashtanga
system is full of such transitions, as are most other vinyasa styles. Once you get into
it, you can to arm balances, head or handstands, lunges, forward and backward bends,
and so on.
In general, jumpings are good for strength and endurance, and pretty good for stretching
out leg and hip muscles. I have never really found them to be a good vehicle for
backbending b/c by the time you are open enough for very deep back bends, your back
is probably too open for safe jump throughs.
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| Well I started with the all important "getouthematasana" last night (thanks tourist, I liked that one ) Then I put all the books away and just got on with it, and I really enjoyed it. It was far better not stopping to look things up in the books all the time.
I think I will try to keep reading about poses and practicing very seperate in future...........it's no wonder I couldn't "flow" having your nose stuck in a book doesn't help you see where you are going at all!
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| Hey - good for you! I sometimes have to do that, too - just practice and not fret about the details too much. Since I am going for a major certification exam this year, it is easy to get tunnel vision and only practice the asana on the syllabus or spend a lot of time with Light on Yoga or the other books reviewing. I actually took my LOY out of the room the other day when I was practicing so I wouldn't be tempted to look up every pose.
I won't take credit for getoutthematasana - it is an oldie but a goodie  Once the mat is rolled out one feels obligated to do something, even just a few down dogs. If you feel serious resistance, do something where you have to lie down - that often keeps you ging for a pose or two more than you had planned |
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| Not to be a yogi-in-the-mud or anything but how about just noticing the current quality of your practice and being a bit less attached to fluidity of your salutations. All this seems terribly preoccupied with improvement and performance.
There are several different ways Sun Salutations are taught. Find one that works for you, that feels good, perhaps even one where you are able to release the desire to do and you can root more deeply into the process of creating.
My sequence in Suryanamskara is typically
tadasana
uttanasana
ardha uttanasana
uttansana
plank
chaturanga dandasana
urdhva mukha svanasana (or bhujangasana)
adho mukha svanasana
(walking feet to hands) uttanasana
tadasana
Hope this helps.
namaste.
wohayo - 2005-04-04 2:15 AM
Does any one have any advice about how best to move fluidly between Adho Mukha Svanasana, Urdhva Mukha Svanasana and Chaturanga Dandasana in the series of jumpings / Surya Namaskar .
Also Geeta has said that you can incorporate standing poses within the Surya Namaskar and I was just wondering if anyone knows how best to do that? Where in the sequence do you insert them?
Thanks
Edited by innerathlete 2005-04-12 4:18 AM
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| "how about just noticing the current quality of your practice and being a bit less attached to fluidity of your salutations"
How funny that you should say that. I was just thinking this morning that as I have started practicing more, fluidity isn't such a preoccupation. I think it was just something to cling to while making the leap between attending classes and practising at home between classes.
Now that I have started home practice I find that I am so absorbed in each posture as it comes along, fluidity just comes naturally, as and where it belongs.
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Jumpings / Surya Namaskar
