 |
  |
 |
|
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
Site Areas  |
store | | | articles | | | forums | | | studios | | | vacations |
|
yoga | massage | fitness | wellness | meditation |
|
|
For future visits, link to "http://www.YogiSource.com/forums".
Make a new bookmark.
Tell your friends so they can find us and you!
Coming soon ... exciting new changes for our website, now at YogiSource.com.
 Head in handstand?Moderators: Moderators Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page] | View previous thread :: View next thread |
| Yoga -> Ashtanga Yoga | Message format |
tmarques |
| ||
| |||
| Nick |
| ||
    Location: London, England | tmarques - 2009-01-03 12:53 AM My teacher doesn't want me facing the ground in handstand, like this - http://www.rossellayoga.com/images/yogapics/handstand.jpg Instead, she wants me to relax the neck and let the head hang down, which completely throws off my balance. I don't want her to think I'm disregarding her advice, but I honestly can't help facing down unless I want to crash down on my back. It probably sounds silly, but my head automatically turns up when I jump into the posture. Is it really wrong to face down? Because I honestly can't feel the strain on my neck that she's worried about. I wouldn't mind doing it her way if I could, so any tips would be appreciated. Also, she's having me jump forward from downward dog into a handstand in every sun salutation. I've poked around and haven't seen it anywhere - the closest was Swenson placing handstands in between navasanas, but that was it. I almost asked her whether this is part of the traditional practice or something she came up with, but I was afraid it might rub her the wrong way. Hi Thyago, You're right, both those instructions are very unusual-in every yoga form I've come across, handstand is done as a backbend-there must be exceptions. In gymnastics, the handstand is done in the way your teacher recommends. I understand this is partly for aesthetics and also because it's a better position for vaulting yourself into somersaults, etc. With regards the neck, there is a potential risk, but only if the neck is not aligned properly. This is true for any yoga posture, but in backbends, it is often the case that students compensate for tight hip flexors, and also inability to extend the thoracic spine, by over-exaggerating the curvatures of both the cervical (vertebra of the neck) and lumbar (vertebra of the low back) spine. It's the joint between the first cervical vertebra and the skull which you have to look out for-it's this vertebra which allows us to nod our heads-if it had the same range of motion as the rest of the cervical vertebra, our whole bodies would snake back and forth whenever we nodded our heads.  So the general rule in backbends is to limit the extension available to these joints, so that the neck is not strained, and also to encourage positive change in the range of motion of the hips and thoracic spine. The usual instruction is to retract the head before you extend the cervical spine-this should allow for the extension to travel along the lenght of the spine, rather than being concentrated in the lumbar and neck. Hope that helps a bit-you will find your point of focus changes as you are going to be looking at a different spot-try and hold onto this new focus point throughout your sun salutes as well. Take care Nick | ||
| |||
| Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page] |
| Search this forum Printer friendly version E-mail a link to this thread |
| (Delete all cookies set by this site) | |