CLUBASANA

Uddiyana Bandha. Say it three times fast!

This was the total focus of the class.  “flying upward” with your abomen. In every asana, you must move the “soft tissue” of your abdomen.  Gently pulling the abdomen into the belly of your spine; I attempt to do this often in forward folds, it gets the spine to flatten out. 

Inhale, exhale and then gently move/stretch your organs out along your spine.  But they must go back, and in. You should find lightness in your belly, softness for movement instead of rigid tightening.  Something that is very hard to explain, and only understood through your work.

In all of these, imagine the back of your hips to be like a rectangle.  There are four points, you must always be “pressing” these into the floor when you are on your back, and lifting them evenly if you are not on your back.  Learning to lift the four corners of your hips will provide MUCH relief in your lower back when doing backbends. 

Sequence

• Supta prasartia eka pada (x10 ea. Side) (lay on your back, single leg lift; I think I may be making up the name) lifting from the abdomen, pressing through the four corners of your hips, do NOT let your hips come up, slide the sacrum down toward your heels (just like in backbends!)
• Then do it with two legs (x10)
• Jathara Parivarttanasana; heels to your shoulders; keep your shoulders on the mat as much as possible. Go slow, and as John says, STRUGGLE with all you have! Do not give up an inch of your hips!
• Utthita Trikonasana
• Uttanasana; feet mats width apart, gently “tucking in,” or “rolling” of your belly
• Utthita Parsvokonasana
• Uttanasana; feet mats width apart, gently “tucking in,” or “rolling” of your belly
• Ardha chandrasana
• Urdhva Mukha Svanasana>Plank (x2) Lift your hips!!!
• parivrrta trikonasana
• parivrrta ardha chandrasana
• Urdhva Mukha Svanasana> this time lift one leg, hold, then lift the other
• AMV, lifting from your abs, trying to balance
• Pincha Mayurasana, lumbar spine back- hmm, how to do this? Lift from your abs! take your organs into the belly of your spine!
• Sirsasana, eka pada & parsva
• Purvottanasana* and then eka pada
• Sarvangasana, eka pada & parsva
• halasana

 yoga say wahhh??

Purvottasana = “intense stretch to the east” Intense, indeed!! one of my least favorite, but the lifting of the hip action is precisely what is needed for those of us who crunch into our lower backs when doing backbends.