Category: Asana

  • Asana Gradient: Backbends

    Asana Gradient: Backbends

    Gradient Documentation Started: Feb 32, 2020. Therefore, the timeline preceding this date is not precise, it is based on partial documentation and partial recollection. This gradient involves numerous asana off the same “family.” Though the individual asana do evolve separately that evolution does not usually involve noticeable external changes in form. Looking from the outside…

  • If an Asana is a Koan …

    There is a lot I do know about asanas in my practice: I know the core position – the ideal form. I know how to modify it to suit me – the form I am able to meet. I know how to get into it and how to leave it I know if I am…

  • Yoga Practice Review with Paul – Spring 2016

    Following my periodic reflection I had another review with my teacher. Though my original intention was to focus on the pranayama sequence, the development of breath in asana and its relationship to pranayama called for some attention. The following changes were introduced to the asana sequence: Adding parsva uttanasana in the standing sequence. Continuing structured…

  • Christopher Alexander – Material and Light

    When I collected this quote, the words “ultimately material and light” shimmered for me. Yet I decided to skip them, I felt that they may not be nourishing for a reader who is not as involved with the text as I am. Yet as I continued collecting the quote the words came back to me.…

  • Asana & Pranayama – An Energy Process

    There is a fuctional relationship between Asana & Pranayama. Understading it is useful in putting both Asana & Pranayama practices in context and draws them together into a fuller understanding of Yoga. I’ve been looking for a metaphor to demonstrate this relationship for some time until I remembered to revisit the engine metaphor which I…

  • Limitations

    I’ve been playing around with stick-figures that are used to describe Yoga asana (postures). I am experimenting with an application that will make it possible to easily illustrate quality stick figures – and then use those figures to describe practice sequences (here’s an example). Inevitably this is leading me into an in depth examination of…

  • Yoga Asana Practice Sequences meet WordPress & HTML

    I’ve been gradually looking for better ways to display and communicate asana and practice sequences: It started with some basic hand drawings which were clumsy because I had to use a marker instead of a fine pen to get a result that would scan and display properly on screen. I’ve described some asana in depth…

  • Pratikriyasana: Counter Postures

    Physical postures used in asana practices usually involve placing the body in unusual (compared to the day-to-day demands) positions. Though much attention is placed on the physical aspects, asana and practice sequences can (be designed) to have physical, mental, emotional and energetic effects. Counter postures are in some ways “resting postures” – they are practiced…

  • Integration through Assymetric Postures

    My current practice includes numerous assymetric postures. These are postures in which one side of the body is placed in a different position then the other. They are usually performed in sequences in which both sides of the body are practiced – either in alternating form or in separate sets of movement. One of the…

  • Breath & Heat in Yoga Asana

    There are two kinds of heat we can experience in a Yoga asana practice: a peripheral heat and a core heat. A similar (and easier to achieve) experience can be found in food. Spices like black pepper create a peripheral heat that can be felt in the bodies extremities (hot face, runny nose, sweat, etc).…

  • Alchemy of Breathing in Asana

    This post will describe an experiment that will enable you to experience the workings of the fire within. To proceed with the experiment effectively you should be: Comfortable using Ujjayi breathing in your Asana practice. Comfortable with the basic relationship between breath and movement. Familiar with the length of your breath and how it applies…

  • Reading Asana – Alternating

    Let’s have a look a sequence that includes alternation between two sides – a simple upper raised leg posture: This illustration says: on inhale raise your arms on exhale bring your arms forward and raise one leg up on inhale bring raise your arms again and return the leg to the floor repeat this 8…

  • Reading Asana – Sequences

    A slightly more elaborate illustation of a sequence for Parsva Uttanasana – Flank Forward Bend: This illustration says: on inhale raise your arms on exhale bend forward on inhale come back up on the exhale lower the arms back down alongside the body. repeat this 4 times on one side and then 4 times on…

  • Reading Asana – Breath & Repetition

    A post I hope to publish soon will include a sample practice. I just realized, as I am working on a repository of posture illustrations, that I have taken for granted that everybody knows how to relate to these illustrations. So I paused to write something about reading of yoga asana illustrations. I feel it’s…

  • A Political Headstand

    There is a famous image of Israel’s first prime minister Ben Gurion doing a headstand. I think it’s pretty impressive that a newborn country’s first prime minister was a yoga practitioner. But this morning, it is not a romantic notion that set me thinking on this path, it is a critical one. Headstand provides a…

  • Breathing Formulas in Asana

    Pranayama breathing practices and Asana practices create a cycle of growth and expansion of (amongst other thing) breath. Ujjayi breathing in Asana develops a strong and enduring breath. Then in Pranayama that strength and capacity is used to refine the breath and make it longer. Then that refinement and length of breath is again carried…

  • Movement after Meditation

    Yoga asana (physical postures) practices are very helpful in preparing the body for seated meditations in which the body is usually placed in an unnatural static position in which legs are folded to form a base and the back is held erect. Regardless of preparation, static sitting places certain stresses on the body. Such stresses,…

  • A Yoga Sequence for Everyone

    The following images/animations depict a short sequence anyone can do. Repeat each posture 4 times – which should take a few minutes (over time you may want to increase this to 6 or even 8 repetitions of each posture). The postures are accessible and yet each one has much depth to explore. It is a…

  • Yoga Asana: Savasana

    Savasana (corpse posture) is a simple looking asana. Lie down on your back, legs straight and released so they fall slightly to the sides, arms alongside the body, palms turned up – and you are physically arranged in Savasana. It is a resting posture that can be visited numerous times during a practice. Savasana is…

  • Soft Movement

    A reflex is something that happens quickly before you are conscious of it. Anatomically it is a process that occurs in the nervous system without reaching the brain: (1) A designated sensory neuron sends a signal to a neuron junction in the spine; (2) another motor neuron linked to the same neuron junction, carries the…