Posts Tagged ‘Asana’

This Week’s Pose: Virabhadrasana I

Emily on 3:29 am November 4th, 2009 / Be the first to comment! »

Virabhdrasana I is no half-hearted posture. It is like a warrior stilled mid-stride. It is captured movement. The front leg lunges forward while the back leg reaches back and grounds the pose. Likewise, the hips both contain the movement of the thighs, and connect the solid legs to an expansive chest and arms.

Virabhadrasana I by Emily Sloat Shaw

This Week’s Pose: Trikonasana

Emily on 2:18 am October 29th, 2009 / 1 Comment »

This week’s One Pose is Trikonasana. It’s the first asymmetrical pose in the series where the sides of the body do not mirror each other. Yet there is something very natural about the star-like shape the body takes in Triangle Pose. The action of coming into the pose has often reminded me of  Leonardo Da Vinci’s drawing of classical proportions, the Vitruvian Man. If you look closely at the Vitruvian Man you can see him standing with legs together as well as with legs apart, as if he is setting up for Trikonasana. 

Trikonasana by Emily Sloat Shaw

This Week’s Pose: Bhujangasana

Emily on 3:06 am October 20th, 2009 / Be the first to comment! »

Think of a snake. They are almost all spine. The snake’s long spine would appear to be fragile, but it is wrapped and stabilized by a lattice of muscle. This combination of makes them capable of  grace and power simultaneously.

The aptly named bhujangasana, or cobra pose, captures flexibility and strength of a snake. Bhujangasana takes the attitude of a cobra hooding up in a threat display. The spine extends, supported by a network of muscle, and the chest broadens and lengthens. The limbs are secondary in this pose.

Since we’re not snakes, bhujangasana can be a challenging and subtle pose. Learning to rely on the strength of the small muscles of the back is hard when you’re not used to it. Cobra pose can help build strength and flexibility for deeper backbends.

Join boundless this Sunday, October 25 for an exploration of bhujangasana.

Bhujangasana by Emily Sloat Shaw

One Pose at a Time: Salabasana

Emily on 2:54 am October 14th, 2009 / Be the first to comment! »

Salabasana, or locust pose, prepares the body for deeper backbends, increasing the strength and flexibility of the muscles on either side of the spine. 

Many people don’t realize that these muscles of the back, like the abdominals, are part of the ‘core’ that protects the spinal column. 

Practicing salabasana starts out as rather thankless work. It takes a while to build strength among the lattice of muscles along the vertebrae. Even for an experienced practitioner, salabasana is a subtle pose, a shallow backbend with more length than curve to it. It a good way to practice distributing the curve of a backbend evenly along the spine. Mastering locust translates into better backbends all around.

Join boundless this Sunday, October 18, to explore salabasana.

Salabasana by Emily Sloat Shaw

This Sunday: Chaturanga Dandasana with Kristen Krash

Emily on 2:46 pm October 7th, 2009 / Be the first to comment! »

Chaturanga Dandasana by Emily Sloat Shaw

If you’re like me, Chaturanga is your nemesis.

It appears deceptively simple—body extended, arms tucked in at the sides, weight balanced between hands and feet. But finding the combination of strength and length to push your prone body off the ground is surprisingly difficult. When it’s done well, a body in chaturanga appears weightless, contained front to back and lengthened head to toes, simultaneously.

Join Kristen this Sunday October 11, for an exploration chaturanga dandasana, one of the most challenging asanas in the yoga canon.

ooh i’m so tired!

kim on 7:17 pm October 6th, 2009 / 1 Comment »

This is one of the things I hear during the Fall a lot. More so than Winter, even though during those colder months there is less light to go around.

This makes me think of yoga. I can say without a doubt that at 37, I feel younger and more alive than I did at 23 — then I was busy working on Wall Street, running to the gym, and then running home to go out, or to go home and hang out in front of the TV. I felt exhausted all the time, and even training for a marathon didn’t seem to help.

Over time, I’ve learned that my body needs certain shapes, and certain relaxation tools, to keep it running smoothly, energetically, and happily. These shapes and relaxation tools come directly from yoga: They have aligned my skeleton, muscles, and nervous system (i.e., how I think and feel) in such a way that I conserve energy when it feels good and makes sense, and I expend it when it feels good and makes sense.

Running a small business at 9 months pregnant, I still work as many hours as I ever clocked at JPMorgan or Merrill Lynch, but the difference is that my skeleton and nervous system aren’t working as hard to hold me up, move me from place to place, and let go as they settle me down to sleep at night. Even 40 lbs heavier than I was in January, the only thing bothering me occasionally are my knees, and that’s because they are still adjusting to the weight they are temporarily bearing from above.

During the Fall, when it becomes obvious that your body is going into hibernation, it’s a very good idea to stick with a yoga practice in order to observe how your body is holding you up. Learn how to conserve energy, learn how it moves through your body — be interested in where you are efficient and where you aren’t, and explore your body from there. These are essential “wellness” tools for any body wanting to feel more alive, and less encumbered.

This Week’s Pose: Adho Mukha Svanasana

Emily on 3:07 pm September 29th, 2009 / Be the first to comment! »

I’ve struggled with adho mukha svanasana since I first practiced yoga in 2000. I’d get so nervous in the pose that my palms and feet would sweat, and I’d find myself slipping and sliding all over my mat. More recently, I’ve been working on bringing weight out of my arms to distribute it more evenly through my body.

In my drawing I show down dog the way I like to experience it—with weight balanced between hands and feet, a long torso, and a relaxed neck—so that the practitioner experiences the calm energy of this pose.

Adho Mukha Svanasana by Emily Sloat Shaw

This Week’s Pose: Uttanasana

Emily on 3:31 pm September 22nd, 2009 / Be the first to comment! »

Uttanasana by Emily Sloat Shaw

I’ve always enjoyed coming into uttanasana. My body moves naturally into forward folds. Bringing my head forward and down helps quiet my mind and senses. Like child’s pose, uttanasana’s effects vary depending on the practitioner’s intention. Uttanasana can be a short break between strenuous poses, an intense hamstring stretch, or a preparation for handstand when the torso and arms are extended towards the wall. By focusing on extending the front of the spine and opening the chest across the collarbones and from sternum to pubis, the pose becomes expansive as well as calming.

One Pose: Tadasana

Emily on 6:21 pm September 14th, 2009 / Be the first to comment! »

I’m excited to be part of boundless’ One Pose at a Time program. I’ll be drawing, and blogging about, each asana in the series. I’d love to hear your feedback on how you experience these poses, and whether my drawings reflect your practice.

The first pose, Tadasana, was a surprisingly difficult pose to draw, just as it is unexpectedly challenging to perform. Tadasana seems straightforward enough; one stands on two feet, arms by the side. But this simplicity masks a great deal of complexity.

The pose is about stillness, which if you’re not careful, can easily become stiffness. My first efforts to draw Tadasana resulted in stolid statue-like figures. I could almost feel muscles and breath holding in these sketches. But the version of tadasana I have come to love in my practice is both grounding and expansive. In it I become aware of small fluctuations of breath, and shifting awareness in body and mind. In my sketch I’ve attempted to draw this through strong feet and legs that transition into a broad torso, soft shoulders, and expansive arms and hands.

Seeing bodies, literally

Emily on 6:14 pm August 10th, 2009 / 1 Comment »

Kim and I have been talking about a new project that combines my loves for both drawing and yoga. The idea is to create a series of asana illustrations to promote upcoming boundless classes.

I started sketching asanas in the basic teacher training program to better understand their alignment and energy. I’m a visual person and this helps me process and learn. The act of drawing is an exploration in and of itself—a description of how individual body parts work together to create whole bodies.

Kim and I will be meeting this week to think about how to create illustrations that fit with the boundless mission. We both shy away from an anatomical approach (think Ray Long) in favor of a looser, sketchier style that conveys how asana feels.