Featured Pose: Standing Leg Stretches

by Baxter and Nina

The Standing Leg Stretch series, one of our five essential office yoga poses, provide the same hip opening and leg stretching benefits that you receive from many of the standing poses, while allowing you to keep a neutral spine. Even though you tend to feel all the stretch in the top leg, you get some benefits for the standing leg at the same time. So these poses are good antidotes for hip and leg tightness due to sitting, walking, or standing all day and for tightness in your lower back. They also take up less space than the standing poses, and you can do them in your office, airport, or anywhere there is a chair or even, if you are flexible enough, a desk, ledge, window sill, or dresser. If you have balance issues, you can do the sequence with your back or side near a wall.

As part of a larger sequence, this series is an excellent way to warm up for your standing poses.

Baxter prescribes these poses for:

•    leg tightness
•    hip or buttock tightness
•    low back pain
•    atheletes trying to improve their performance, including runners and bikers
•    improving balance for conditions such as osteoporosis
•    improving circulation in your legs
•    leg fatigue
•    antidote for a day spent walking or sitting

Instructions:

Variation 1: Leg to the Side (Triangle Version)

If possible, place the chair against the wall or make sure it’s in a stable position (like a bolted to the floor airport chair) or on a sticky mat. Then stand sideways to chair seat, about a foot and half a way (depending on the length of your legs) and a little bit behind it, with your feet pointing straight forward.

Keeping your left leg straight, turn your right foot out 45 degrees. Then bend your right knee and lift your right heel onto the chair seat (or, if you are more flexible, onto the chair back or a higher support). Next, straighten your right leg, keeping your hips parallel with the floor and squared with the wall in front of you, maintaining the natural curve in your lower back. Keep your hands on your hips and just work your legs with your torso in a neutral position. Or, you can inhale your arms out to the side, parallel to the floor, then exhale and tip your hips over to the side, as if you were moving into Triangle pose. A final option is to lift your arms overhead, as if you were in Tree pose. Hold this pose for 1 to 2 minutes (or work your way up to that timing).

Low Version

High Version

To come out, release your arms and bend your top knee a little bit before you bring your top leg back to the floor. Watch your balance during the transition. Repeat the pose on the second side. Then, after coming out, pause for a couple of breaths before moving on to the next pose.

Variation 2: Leg to the Front (Parvottansana version)

If possible, place the chair against the wall or make sure it’s in a stable position (like a bolted to the floor airport chair) or on a sticky mat. Then, stand facing the chair seat, about a foot and half a way (depending on the length of your legs), with your feet pointing straight forward. Keeping your left leg straight, bend your right knee and lift your right heel onto the chair seat (or, if you are flexible, onto the chair back or a higher support).

Then inhale and raise your arms overhead, reaching down through your left leg and up through your arms, and maintaining the natural curve in your lower back. (If you’re more flexible, you can bend forward from the hips and place your hands alongside your feet, coming into a forward bend, though you should avoid this version if you have lower back pain).  Hold the pose for 1 to 2 minutes (or work up to timing).

 To come out, release your arms and bend your top knee a little bit before you bring your top leg back to the floor. Watch your balance during the transition. Repeat the pose on the second side. Then, after coming out, pause for a couple of breaths before moving on to the next pose.

Variation 3: Twisting (Revolved Triangle Version)

If possible, place the chair against the wall or make sure it’s in a stable position (like a bolted to the floor airport chair) or on a sticky mat. Then, stand facing the chair seat, about a foot and half a way (depending on the length of your legs), with your feet pointing straight forward. Keeping your left leg straight, bend your right knee and lift your right heel onto the chair seat (or, if you are flexible, onto the chair back or a higher support).

Now take your left hand to your right outer thigh and your right hand to the back of your right hip. Establishing the strength of your left leg and the stability of your pelvis, on an exhalation, turn your upper belly and chest toward your right leg, maintaining the natural curve of your lower back. Alternating your focus, lengthen your spine on your inhalation and encourage the twist to the right on your exhalation. Hold the pose for 1 to 2 minutes (or work up to that timing).

 When it’s time to come out, first release the twist. Then, release your arms and bend your top knee a little bit before you bring your top leg back to the floor. Watch your balance during the transition. Repeat the pose on the second side. Then, after coming out, pause for a couple of breaths.

Cautions: In general, when doing the Version 1, watch for pain near the pubic bone, which might indicate overstretching of your inner leg muscles (adductors) and while doing Version 2, make sure your lower back is pain free, otherwise, pull back a little. If you have tight hamstrings, keep your top knee a little bit bent while still allowing a small amount of stretch in your raised leg. Be careful not to overdo—pain in your sitting bone is bad sign that you might be overstretching the hamstring tendon. If you have lower back issues, be sure to maintain the natural curve in your lower back while doing these stretches. For those with osteoporosis, you should do Version 3 with moderation, not going  into your full twist. Also be cautious with Version 2, making sure your spine is neutral if you take your pelvis forward.

Read More

Yoga for Abdominal Strength

Seated Twist: Strengthening the Oblique Muscles

by Shari and Nina

We had a request from one of our readers for a post about yoga poses for abdominal strength, so I decided to ask Shari Ser, Yoga for Healthy Aging's physical therapist/yoga teacher for her thoughts on the subject.

Nina: Why is it important to include abdominal strengthening poses in your practice?

Shari: The abdominal area is such an important area of stability! The area carries a lot of emotional baggage for many of us (we feel a lot of frank emotional responses in our abdominal areas). And we need the abdominals to support our vital organs and to assist in supporting our spines. When the abdominals are weak, people may develop an overly arched lumbar spine, and when the abdomen is pendulous due to overweight or pregnancy, the abdominal muscles are in a constant stretch and in a weakened state. However, while many diverse health and alternative health practitioners agree that we need strong abdominals to be able to support our bodies in space and to move efficiently and safely, abdominal strength it not about how many crunches you can do or how flat your belly is, and hardness is not a reflection of strength.

Many abdominal strengtheners that people do are in essence hip flexor strengtheners, for example, raising and lowering the legs. But learning how to engage the deepest abdominal muscle, the transverse abdominus, is important. Yoga is valuable tool for developing abdominal strength and awareness because the way we move our bodies in various directions, often against gravity, allows us to develop both strength and flexibility.

Nina: What are some of your favorite abdominal strengthening poses and why?

Shari: My favorite pose to develop abdominal strength is Plank pose (the classic version with straight legs that you enter into from Downward-Facing Dog pose). But I also think a variation of Plank that Loren Fishman recommends is quite challenging, and I like it a lot because of the hand and arm protection, as well as spinal protection, which it provides. You start on your belly and come up onto your elbows (almost like you were going to do Cobra pose). Keeping your legs straight, curl your toes under and lift up into a half Plank position, keeping your knees slightly bent and making sure you are not overly arched. Hold the pose for 20 seconds. 

Full Plank Pose

 Nina: Where should the poses go in a sequence?

Shari: In general, I include abdominal strengtheners near the beginning of a sequence, as part of the warm up. In addition to the poses I mentioned previously, I also like pelvic tilt and pelvic clock variations as a way to engage the deep transverse abdominus and oblique muscles. If I am adding strengtheners, I will do various twists, which I call “Gay White sit ups” (I first did them in her class). You start lying on your back, with your knees bent and your feet on floor. With your hands cradling your head, bring your legs off the floor so your thighs are perpendicular to your pelvis and shins are perpendicular to your thighs (a 90/90 position). Now slowly bring one knee to the opposite bent elbow. Repeat on the other side. Alternate between sides until you feel fatigued, and then add two or three more rounds. If this is too difficult, then just assume the 90/90 position and hold it.

Another good option is to sit at edge of chair and do “let backs,” which allow you to engage the abdominals without having to get on the floor. Sit in an erect position and hinge back over your hip joints without moving your spine, keeping your torso stable as you move in your hip joints. Or, if you are comfortable on the floor, you can start in Boat pose (Navasana) and move your torso slightly toward the floor as you maintain spinal elongation.

You can also incorporate abdominal strengtheners throughout your sequence. I include abdominal awareness when doing balance poses like Tree pose because drawing up your pelvic floor with an inhalation engages the transverse abdominus, and I encourage people to engage the lower abdominals in Half Downward-Dog pose at the wall.

When you are doing Bridge pose, to work your deep core muscles, you can lift one leg at a time just a bit off of the ground without losing your core stability, as if you are marching in place. Seated twists (on the floor or in a chair), such as Bharadvajasana variations, work the oblique muscles, especially with an emphasis on spinal elongation.

Read More

Restricting the Whirls of Consciousness, Part 2

by Baxter

Upside Down by Nina Zolotow

Nina did such a nice job on yesterday's post "Yoga Sutra 1.2: Restricting the Whirls of Consciousness" that I felt compelled to jump in and add my two cents. The tendency Nina identified for the mind to brood about the past or fret about the future is only of several dyads or other causes of our mental whirling, according to yoga's perspective. In fact, there are five main causes of affliction or klesahs that Patanjali identifies in the Yoga Sutras, and it is interesting to view any particular whirling difficult thought via his lens.

The first one, and the one that sprouts the others, is known as avidya, sometimes translated as misapprehension or an error in our view of reality. Yogis believe that we start out not quite understanding the world correctly, and out of that misunderstanding, all kinds of troubling thoughts arise, often connected to fear, jealousy, anger, greediness. One of the main problems is that we view ourselves as separate from all other people and beings in our reality, which almost guarantees conflict and struggle on some level. And therefore, because I don't quite view the world accurately, one of the first errors I make is to create this sense of I-am-ness, know as asmita, the second of the klesahs. This separates me, with all my opinions and ideas of who I am, and how I am different from you, with all my likes and dislikes.

In fact, out of my ego self arise the next two klesahs, raga and dvesha, or attachment (or things I desire or like) and aversion (things I dislike or try to push away). These two klesahs alone account for so much of our mental activity all day long: I want to do this, and a lot more or it!  I don't want to be doing this, I am bored with this, I wish I was doing that. You get the idea.

Finally, the yogis concluded that the preceding four klesahs create the condition of clinging desperately onto life, know as abhinivesha, even though we don't even really understand our reality clearly enough to know what we are clinging onto! And this desperate clinging can actually shut us down for living fully, as we become so fearful of aging, losing function, or death itself.

Oy, oy, oy! So what's a poor yogi to do? Well, the klesahs are said to exist in different states of activity, sometimes dormant, sometimes active, and sometimes influenced or attenuated by our yoga practices. I have noticed lately as I have been experiencing some increased effects of stressful changes in my life, that an active asana practice, guided relaxation via yoga nidra and breath awareness and mantra meditations have each been effective methods for attenuating the whirling patterns of thought that have been under the surface of my perception of stress. In other words, they seem to short circuit my mind's fruitless machinations, providing me with some temporary peace and quiet. And the more regularly I do my practice, the less frequent these particular upsetting patterns of thought happen. I even begin to notice that many of the thoughts are not even really true. I have also noticed that playing my violin for an hour, especially newer music I am not so familiar with, has a similar effect. If you find yourself under increased stress, instead of doing what a lot of my students seem to default to, which is to not practice as much, you might commit to doing a little yoga every day, and see if things don't start to shift for you, too.

Subscribe to YOGA FOR HEALTHY AGING by Email ° Follow Yoga for Healthy Aging on Facebook

Read More

Yoga Sutra 1.2: Restricting the Whirls of Consciousness

by Nina

Spring Blossoms, Clouds by Nina Zolotow

My young cousin asked me last night about the history of the form of yoga that she’s been practicing lately. I told her that it was a very recent form of hatha yoga, but added that all the hatha yoga we’ve been doing in the United States was developed in the 20th century. We then talked about the part of yoga that was, indeed, very ancient, and I tossed out some of the definitions of yoga from the classic scriptures. One of them was this from The Yoga Sutras:

Yoga cittavritti nirodha

Yoga is the restriction of the whirls of consciousness.

I like this particular translation of sutra 1.2 because it translates the compound word “cittavritti” as “whirls of consciousness.” I not only find that very poetic, but also very accurate in terms of how the mind works. The word “vritti” has many definitions, including "waves" and "fluctuations," but whirls reminds me of the revolved yoga poses that also contain the word “vritti,” such as Paravritti Trikonasana and Paravritti Parsvakonasana. So for me, whirls evokes revolving, turning, and circling. And when we’re depressed or anxious or mentally stressed out, aren’t we tormented by the our whirls of consciousness, by negative thoughts and emotions that cycle over and over? What if I miss my deadline? What if the plane crashes? What if I can’t fall asleep tonight? Or, if only my lover hadn’t left me. If only I wasn’t so helpless/afraid/overwhelmed. If only my parents had loved me more.

In Andrew Solomon’s wonderful book on depression The Noonday Demon, he describes the difference between clinical depression and agitated (or anxiety based) depression, saying that clinical depression is an obsession with the past or, as I like to put it, all those “if only” thoughts. On the other hand, he says that agitated depression (or anxiety for that matter) is an obsession with the future, or as I put it, all those “what if” thoughts. Do either of those states of mind sound familiar? And if so, don’t you think it would wonderful to be able to “restrict” or “cease” or “quiet” those whirls of consciousness?

Yoga was initially developed (or perhaps “evolved” is a better word) for that purpose. Thousands of years of different kinds of yoga practice have resulted in a lot of different methods for “restricting the whirls of consciousness” or quieting the mind, including meditation, breath practices, and chanting, as well as asana practice.

And, for me, this concept is the basis for using yoga for your emotional wellbeing. When I teach workshops on this topic, I always talk about this translation of sutra 1.2. Because my general principle for using yoga for emotional wellbeing is simply this: Start by becoming aware of the vrittis, of the way your mind gets caught up in them. And then observe how different yoga practices affect them.

Subscribe to Yoga for Healthy Aging by Email ° Follow Yoga for Healthy Aging on Facebook ° Join this site with Google Friend Connect

Read More

Friday Q&A: Shaky Legs

Red Bud Tree in Transition by Nina Zolotow

Q: Shaky legs towards mid to end of practice (standing poses and prone, like locust with lifted legs), what makes this happen? (I'm guessing they are tired.) And how to address this? Is it just a matter of strengthening?

A: Dear Shaky Legs,

Let me begin by saying that you are not alone with this phenomenon. In fact, for the first year or so of my asana practice, I'd experience the same thing, especially in poses that were held for a long time. It would sometimes recur if the level of difficulty of my asana classes went up, such as when I graduated myself from the beginner level classes to the intermediate level. In all likelihood, the muscles that start to shake are becoming fatigued to the point that the normal sustained contraction cannot be held, so you get this on-off thing happening that is felt as shaking. It may be a build up of lactic acid in the muscles, the by-product of the energy used to contract the muscles, and evidence the muscles probably need a respite. This reaction usually improves as you practice more regularly and work on the offending poses a bit in your home practice. This will begin to increase your endurance and the shaking will be a fond memory of what it was like early on in your yoga history!

Sincerely,

Baxter

A: I, too, experienced shaky legs during my early years of yoga practice. Shari reports that fatigue causes “muscle fasciculation,” which is incomplete contractions because the muscle efficiency has been reached and it is fatiguing. She suggests that you honor the fatigue and rest your legs. I’d like to add that I think it’s not just a matter of leg strength per se, but rather than in yoga asana we’re using our legs differently than we do in walking, running, or other forms of exercise. The example you gave of Locust pose illustrates this, because we don’t normally lift our legs backward behind us. That’s why it is only by doing more yoga (and those very same poses that fatigue your legs) that you’ll gain more endurance in those poses. I myself noticed the shaking after the strenuous poses, when I was in an inversion, such as Shoulderstand or even in a resting pose. So you might experiment with doing leg stretches after the poses that make your legs shaky to see if that helps relieve the muscle tension and relaxes your legs (and leg stretches are great counter-poses for backbends, partly because they do relax your legs after their hard work lifting you into a backbend).

—Nina

Subscribe to YOGA FOR HEALTHY AGING by Email ° Follow Yoga for Healthy Aging on Facebook

Read More

Featured Pose: Chair Forward Bend

by Baxter and Nina
The simple Chair Forward Bend, one of our five essential office yoga poses, is a safe forward bend for almost everyone. Because you’re bending your legs at the knees, you’re reducing the tension on your hamstrings and therefore allowing your pelvis to have more flexibility at your hip joints. In addition, because you’re resting your arms and head on a chair or desk and you’re not hanging in space, your lower back muscles can release more completely and relax more deeply. (Some of the seated forward bends with straight legs can aggravate lower back pain or disc problems because they pull so strongly on your back muscles and encourage the discs to move toward a posterior position, and you can sometimes over-strain your ligaments when you overdo.)

This forward bend can provide you a quiet moment in your busy day, and allows you to access the deep rest of conscious relaxation without lying on the floor, especially if you focus on your breath while you are in the pose. In addition, folding forward creates a feeling of safety and comfort for many people. And supporting your head enhances the soothing quality of the forward bend, so the Chair Forward Bend may even have a quieting effect on your mind and your emotions, cooling negative emotions such as anger and anxiety.

Of course the pose can be done anywhere you can find a table and chair, such as an office or a dining room, or you can do it with two chairs when there is no table available. (Nina used to practice this pose quite frequently when she worked full time for a software startup company for a few minutes of respite during a hectic day.)

Baxter prescribes it for:

• fatigue
• eye strain
• stress
• anger and/or anxiety
• sensory overload
• lower back tightness (if it feels good to you)
• hip tightness and increased mobility in hip joints

Instructions: Depending on your height and flexibility, move your chair one to two feet away from the desk or second chair where you will be resting your arms and head. Next, sit either in the center of the chair or near the edge, with your feet flat on the floor and about hip-width apart. If you are very short or tall, use a prop if necessary under your feet or your buttocks. Position your knees directly above your feet, with your legs parallel to each other.

Now, tip forward from your hip joints, keeping your back as straight as possible, and then rest your arms on the desk as shown below, and your forehead on your top arm. At this point, you can allow your back to soften and round a bit (if that is comfortable for you). Once your forehead is resting on your forearms, try gently pressing your head forward so your forehead skin stretches downward toward your eyebrows. You may find this enhances the quieting effect of the pose.

Stay in the pose from one to 10 minutes. (Nina’s experiments with Iyengar’s recommendations confirmed that three minutes is the minimum time to get the full “forward bend” feeling from the pose, though even a quick forward bend can be quite effective.) To come out, slip your hands onto your knees and use your arms to support yourself as you gently roll up to sitting, keeping your back muscles remain relaxed, long, and open.

Cautions: If you have a history of chronic low back pain or other back problems, be careful going into this pose, checking as you move into it to ensure your back feels okay. If moving into this forward bend causes a flare of discomfort, you should eliminate it from your practice. See "Featured Series: Low Back Care" for poses to help with back pain. You may also want to avoid this pose if you have severe arthritis in the hips or abdominal discomfort, but in general it is a very safe pose. If you have depression, forward bends may cause you to brood or to become more depressed. In this case, keep your eyes softly open, rather than closing them. If that doesn't help, avoid forward bends until you feel ready for them.

Subscribe to YOGA FOR HEALTHY AGING by Email ° Follow Yoga for Healthy Aging on Facebook

Read More

Deciding What to Practice

by Nina

For Me, By Me by Nina Zolotow

After falling off the wagon, I did indeed pick myself up, dust myself, and start all over again (I even did some airplane yoga, including twists and shoulder stretches in my seat, standing twists and a wall hang using the wall in that tiny corner near the bathroom, a standing backbend in the aisle, and a long session of breath awareness back in my seat again). But then my first day home I had to decide what my first full practice would be.

Since my last few days were filled with a serious amount of walking, my legs felt stiff and tired, so leg stretches and hip openers sound delicious. Standing poses, well, not so much. And since I was bending forward a lot, moving boxes and putting things on shelves, etc., shoulder openers seem like a good antidote to the stress in my back and shoulders. And, finally, because I was under a lot of stress, I’d wanted to include my favorite inverted poses, including Headstand, Shoulderstand, and Legs Up the Wall. To prepare for the full inversions, it makes sense to do some partial inversions, including Downward-Facing Dog and Standing Forward Bend. And there it wisas, as easy as pie, my general outline for a post-walking-a-lot-and-helping-someone-move-then-taking-a-plane-ride yoga practice designed by me, for me. (And, of course, I can always—after some post asana assessment—change my sequence as needed while I’m in the middle of practicing.) Whew! I feel better already.

Of course, when you get ready to do some yoga, you can always just practice whatever you’re in the mood for. If you’re craving backbends or forward bends, just go for it. But if you don’t have a particular impulse and can’t decide what to practice, you can consider what you’ve been doing lately with an eye toward balancing your body.

For example, if you’ve been very sedentary for a long period, standing poses get your whole body moving, strengthening and stretching you at the same time. Backbends are also great if you need energizing after being sedentary and they help balance your body from all the forward bending of being seated, so you might want to do a full backbend practice.

But if you’ve been physically active at work or around the house, gardening, painting, or building, gentle stretches and twists can help release tired muscles and balance you out. The same is true if you’ve been spent the afternoon playing soccer, basketball or another favorite sport (dare I make a joke about how active baseball is—or isn’t?). And if you’re really exhausted from physical labor or outdoor fun, you may even just need to rest in your favorite restorative poses.

In general, just think of about doing the reverse movements of those that you’ve been doing outside the yoga room. And if you have some particular condition you’re working with (for example, improving balance, strengthening your core, keeping your joints mobile, or dealing with back pain), just weave those poses into your sequence as well. In the end, this is one of the main reasons why having a home practice is so wonderful. You can do exactly what you want or need on a given day, rather than hoping your teacher’s plans just happen to coincide with yours.

Subscribe to YOGA FOR HEALTHY AGING by Email ° Follow Yoga for Healthy Aging on Facebook

Read More