Old Moon Yoga

“That was from my Alfred Hitchcock series” I joked to a Yogi as we filed out of class. This week I was using a bird theme for my classes. Might sound easy at first, who does not like pigeon after all? But from there is starts to get pretty challenging and leads me to an interesting question. Should I teach a pose I can’t do?

It is a while now since I did my teacher training and I can’t remember the rules. Is it ok to teach a pose even if you can’t do it? On the plus side there is clearly little ego involved. I can imagine, though, the confidence of the class dropping rapidly as I attempt the balance and fall flat on my butt. “He can’t do it himself, is he crazy”

Maybe it is the fact that I might fall flat on my butt that has me asking this question. I can’t do wide legged forward fold, turtle, turtle in shell or the splits either but that does not stop me teaching them. I figure if I was to wait until I could do every pose perfectly before teaching it, it would be a very sparse class program. “Everyone take down dog…… and breathe”.

Isn’t the old saying those that can do and those that can’t teach.

Birds to warm up

It seems that most bird poses in Yoga are pretty challenging, so it is definitely a series for the more advanced groups. During the warm up vinyasa there is always an opportunity to rest, not in down dog, but in dolphin. I use this option to give the “Type As” more of a workout. “if you want more take dolphin. Now put one leg in the air, now both legs. … no really both legs” The kick up, of course, is into Pincha Mayurasana (Feathered Peacock Pose)

Later in the warm up Crow and Bakasana (Crane Pose) make an entrance. I have written multiple times about crow so enough said today. To finish “just shoot your legs back”

The final bird of the warm up was Kagasana “The bird the flies through open spaces.” I call this “that scene from the movie Titanic”

A bird to stretch you

Bird of Paradise

During the middle segment of my classes I typically do a standing series that grows towards a “finale” pose. In this series it is obvious of course, we are headed toward bird of paradise. I like to approach this pose from Utthita Parsvakonasana (Extended Side Angle Pose) Stepping the back foot forward take a couple of breaths in bound forward fold. “You can stay here working on bound uttanasana” I suggest attempting to encourage the new Yogis to stay where they are and feel good about it. But, as usual, the room is filled with that “will to win” and pretty soon the gracefully flowing class is replaced by grunting, straining and pogo’ing around the room on one leg. This pose is certainly a challenge but done well it it looks very elegant. Point your toe in this pose. It is easier and looks way prettier. I glance around the room and see two such elegant poses, the yogis are right next to each other oddly enough. Resisting the urge to state the obvious saying quote about birds of a feather.

Bird Bath

The obvious bird to balance to is of course Garudasana (Eagle Pose) but for some reason I blanked on this pose. Instead I decide to go for the pose I cannot even perform myself. Yes Kapinjalasana (The bird that feeds on raindrops)

Kapinjulasana - Shutter speed 1000/sec.

This pose starts in down dog. Then taking your right foot in your right hand (yes same side) you lift that leg in the air, still in down dog shape. Then as the final touch you look up at the ceiling. You know how hard it is to look up at the ceiling in half moon? Multiply that by 10 and you have Kapinjalasana. Of course as you fall over you gracefully land in Camatkarasana (Wild thing) with the ego saving comment “I meant to do that .” Everyone seemed to enjoy the pose even though none of us could do it. Of course my mind reading skills are a little rusty, next weeks class sizes will tell the real story.

Ground Birds

From Camatkarasana it is easy to transition to Eka Pada Rajakapotasana

or as we like to say in the trade, pigeon. In some variations of Yoga (Yin) this pose is also called swan and sleeping swan, giving me one more bird I could call out.

My final bird for the floor was Krounchasana (Heron Pose) Always a nice way to cool down towards the end of class.

Coming to my next class?

I know I know I missed all kinds of other birds but poses like fierce bird and peacock will have to wait for the second in my Hitchcock series.

Psycho!

Where did that instructor go?

And as I turn my back and walk away I hear a little cry followed by the sound of someone hitting the floor. So much for that adjustment enhancing the pose. We are nowhere near finished with the standing poses and I have one yogi already on the floor:)

This week I have been practicing adjustments, including wide legged forward fold adjustment from last weeks blog. The conclusion I have reached is that is the trickiest part of any adjustment is the exit. People have been falling like nine pins (ten pins if you were not born in England)

I sit behind the Yogi, legs on her hamstrings pulling her arms towards me as she takes the wide legged forward fold. I feel a little like Robin Hood drawing his bow. The tension mounts and she gets deeper into the forward fold. Something must feel really good about this pose because everyone I have tried it on pulls really hard on my arms, the tension is mounting even more. Now it feels like like I am tightening a guitar string. How do you tell when a hamstring is about to snap? There is no audible note getting higher and higher as there is when you are tuning. OK Its time to finish this adjustment.

Drawing the bow back

As I start to relax my grip she pulls harder. I try to relax some more but she is pulling harder. I can’t escape I am trapped in the ever tense situation. If I move my feet she does a forward roll. Like the little flip parents do with toddlers. If I let go she catapults up and forward taking out the legs of the Yogi directly in front of her.

I relax more, she pulls even harder, has she never strung a guitar? Does she not understand the dangers? The rest of class, now bored with 8 minutes of wide legged forward fold, start to gather around as we continue our tug of war, our battle of wills. Then it occurs to me perhaps she is not trying to get deeper, perhaps she is just afraid to let go, afraid of falling. “I am letting go now” I say to breaking the silence by stating the obvious. Gradually we release the tension and she releases her grip. We breathe a sigh if relief as finally she starts to come up. But my feet, still on her hamstrings gently push her forward as she tries to come up. Over she goes in a very gracefully forward roll.

This pose is especially hard, but in a lot of other adjustments too it’s the “dismount” that causes the problems. In simple forward fold yogis like to push harder into my supporting hand to get deeper. Like a scene from a bad chick flick I announce quietly “I’m leaving now” and gradually release the supportive pressure. However slowly I release, this lack of “wall” can cause the yogi to wobble unstably as they try to find the balance point on their own.

The particular pose I was referring to in the opening paragraph was Triangle. I had been supporting the Yogi from behind, helping to straighten her shoulders. As I move way all seems stable. But like in the silent movies where the chair is removed just as the guy sits down, the yogi lean back to find me again, and crash.

I will just have to keep practicing the “dismount” until I can leave without drama. Leaving the Yogi sprawled over the floor is certainly not enhancing the pose.

Of course I am always on the look out for new adjustments too. The ones where the instructor is in plain view should be easier. Here is a great one, an adjustment for warrior 2, The Fit Yogi (my son) invented. Of course Beth is a lot smaller and more nimble than I am but I sure given enough practice I could master the “dismount”

I’m leaving now.

U shaped Yogi

“If you don’t want the shoulder adjustment in savasana, just wiggle a foot at me.” This has become a stock phrase in my finishing sequences recently. It all started after a good friend and accomplished Yogi requested it during one of my classes. This subtle, almost nothing adjustment ,just really worked for her. Adjustments in general have increasingly become the focus of my teaching.

Initially, like many instructors I have studied under (literally for some adjustments), I use to think that deeper was better and that everyone could be adjusted in every pose. Surely it’s just a matter of helping people get deeper? As with most things it turns out to be much more subtle than that.

A good friend and mentor of mine put me on to a really good book about adjustments. My approach has been to pick just one and practice it endlessly. Just the one adjustment for weeks at a time. I have been doing this for about 2 months now with one pose. The most basic of adjustments, forward fold.

Spotting the guinea pig

The key is finding the right candidate for adjustment. Only if you find the right candidate is there beneficial. As I scour the room looking for a potential guinea pig for my practice I see poses ranging from a sort of P shape through to upside down U to L (well L only if they have big feet ) . I make a bee line for any potential Ls, being careful not to step on their toes of course. If there are no Ls I have to curb my enthusiasm and accept there will be no forward fold adjustment practice for me today. “Step away from the Yogis, nothing to adjust here.”

Catch 22

The ideal person for this adjustment is an L or someone approaching an L, (maybe they just have small feet). As the instructor it almost becomes a binary decision. For the Yogis though it must seem odd. I can almost hear them thinking ‘Why does he give the ones that can already do the pose the adjustment, they don’t need it. How can I get better at this if I don’t get ever get the adjustment? She doesn’t need the adjustment anyway she is already super flexible” Sorry the subtly of this adjustment requires that you are deep enough to start with, and anyway what are you doing looking around the room mind wandering, you are supposed to be concentrating in forward fold.

Is it working?

People tend not to give you much feedback so it’s hard to tell. All that pleasurable moaning and groaning you hear from the class immediately stops when the yogi is being adjusted. It’s like the instructor’s hand is an off switch, a mute button for the Yogi. Probably just as well though especially if “the boss” is taking the class too.

“I really don’t like adjustments, they disrupt my focus” I was really surprised to hear this from a Yogi with a very strong practice. We had been discussing the idea of having an adjustments workshop. “Oh I like your adjustments though” she back peddles quickly, obviously seeing surprised look on my face. “ Your’s feel good.” Was she desperately back peddling for my benefit or genuine? I know for a fact that the only adjustment she has ever had from me is the forward fold adjustment. She is an L (with small feet) and therefore an perfect candidate. So what is going on?

Do this adjustment using the wall

“He will just adjust you for alignment” the girl on the desk announces to all beginning students who come to my Sunday morning class. It is true. I just adjust for alignment, trying to push new students deeper than they are ready for does only damage. This holds true all the way through to advanced students too though. My theory is that this is why the advanced student said she liked my adjustments but not adjustments in general. (Darn this ego, I must find a way to get it under control.) We should enhance the alignment only whatever the experience level. It just so happens that for more experienced Yogis that alignment enhancement means getting deeper in the pose too. By enhancing rather than adjusting hopefully it deepens the practice rather than disrupting it. So my criteria are:-

• Pick the letter from the alphabet soup carefully
• Enhance the alignment, subtly

So what is so special about this forward fold adjustment? How is it done? Why does it take 2 months to perfect? Starting by selecting your L Yogi first, position one hand in the sacrum to steady the top part of the body. The other hand goes low on their back. Notice the knee pressing into my hand in the photo. This provides a solid “wall” for the Yogi to push against. At this point I like to suggest they bring more weight into the balls of the feet, effectively leaning forwards into my non-moving lower hand. The effect is very similar to doing the pose against the wall. The Yogi decides how hard to push. They enhance their own pose as much or as little as they like. As my mentor would say “its about them finding their pose, not me trying to get them into my vision of the pose”.

The simple Savasana adjustment, it turns out, meets these criteria for pretty much every Yogi at every level. The letter I am looking for is an “i” shape, the adjustment, very subtle. No one has ever wiggled their foot at me so far.

So what is next, what do I spend the next 2 months perfecting. I am thinking wide legged forward fold in the next one. Let me know if you want to try this adjustment. I am told it is really good, but I don’t bend enough yet to get an instructor’s attention.

I learned a new pose this week, pretty exciting. It was sort of an arm balance/handstand using your chin pose. Well it’s yoga what did you expect? Yoga is full of surprises it seems. Coincidentally last week I started writing the thoughts for this blog down. My plan was to talk about teaching crow, another arm balance. This week, it turned out, was arm balance week. The classes I went to taught it and I taught it too.

“I want to be able to do crow by the end of the year” a regular to my morning class suggested. This was at the beginning of the year. A year seemed more that enough time so I confidently said “no problem”. Of course since then they have becoming much less regularly so the end of the year seems like it’s approaching fast.

So why is crow so hard for some Yogis? Is it just a question of balance? “What are you blogging about today?” Dawn just asked me. “Crow” I replied. “Crow, I hate crow” is her immediate reaction. “Why?”. “Because I find it so difficult”. Actually she said a bit more than that, a 5 minute explanation with accompanying demo and sounds effects followed.

In the end we discovered a slight adjustment in her feet and leg position would take pressure off of the groin when coming forward. Hey presto crow pose. It was the fine tuning. Everyone is different and a minor adjustment here or there can make the difference.

The first question of balance though, is how many and how often. As a teacher, how often do you introduce arm balances into a the class? Then how long do you spend focusing on them? I used to go to yoga classes at a fitness center where every week we would practice some form of arm balance. The problem is that the longer you spend in class doing the pose the more of a spectator sport the Yoga becomes. Each person has their own unique adjustment that will make the pose work for them if they can’t find it they become a spectator because they “find it too difficult”. So here is the catch 22. As a teacher you need to spend individual time with each yogi, but you can’t spend much time with anyone or it becomes a spectator sport. What to do with all those spectators? It’s Yoga, there a pose for that “please take couch pose.”

To answer my first question, I think two attempts at crow, at most, in a class then move on. I don’t like to practice it every week either, that is more because I like to mix the class up a bit though, nothing deeper than that. I prefer to spend time after class with someone if they have been struggling. Helping to find the simple change that can make the difference between fight and flight.

So what are these subtle adjustments that make crow possible. It can’t be that hard after all, a child can do it

Old Moon Yoga’s guide to crow

Notice I said crow not crane. Crane is the harder variation where the knees are close to the armpits and the arms are straight. Here are some basics and some finer points I have discovered when teaching the pose.

• Start in a squat position, feet facing out (duck feet) hands in prayer position at the heart. The elbows are pushing into the thighs about half way down the thighs. The thighs are gripping tight to the elbows.
  Is this hurting your groins? Take your feet further apart.
  Can’t get your arms back in there? Take your feet further apart.
  Can’t get your heels down? Don’t worry they will be in the air in a minute!
• Start to tilt forward. As you do push your elbow out more into your thighs.Leg keep slipping off your arms? Make more of a shelf with your elbows for your thighs. The elbows outwards.
• Look forward, way in front of you. If you look down that is where you are headed, face plant! Imagine you have a flat back, even a dog tilt. Keep looking forward and bring your weight forward. Don’t pick your feet up.Can’t bring the weight forward enough? Bring your elbows back in closer to your groins. The closer they are in the closer you are to a balance point.
• Don’t pick you feet up. Shift the weight forwards until the feet just loose contact with the ground. Look forward, reach forward with the head.Too much weight on the wrists? Don’t stay “flying” to long. Build up the wrist strength with down dog and other poses that don’t use all the body weight.
• Once your feet leave the ground you can tuck them up. Pull up the undercarriage.Feet don’t leave the ground, only one briefly? Bring the weight more forward and don’t try to lift the feet let them float up.

Once you are there you are into the world of Yoga arm balances. There are lots, 20 or more. Crane, side crow (4 variations of this one at least) and from there its party poses all the way.

So I offer this solution to struggling crow’ers. Find a blogger who is mid blog struggling to writing about crow and tell them what you think.

The morning class started ordinarily enough, simple side stretches to wake the body up gradually. As we moved towards our first down dog a new Yogi, obviously young and very fit, took child’s pose. I always like to think a couple of people in child’s pose a some point means that I have judged the class about right. Not too easy, and not to hard. But even for me this seemed a little soon. The natural “Sherlock” instinct in me suddenly took over. “Something was amiss here” I thought.

After a quiet chat with her I understood, she had an injured shoulder and could not do anything that required using the arms for strength. This was going to be interesting. In the past I have asked for any special request and someone had suggested jokingly “no down dogs”. If I was to make this class work for everyone, no down dogs was what I would have to teach. Just to put this into perspective I attended a vinyasa flow class this morning and lost count after 35 down dogs.

My morning class members vary in experience from “ relatively new to Yoga” through “super advanced, should really be teaching the class and letting me sleep longer in a morning”. The one thing we have in common is that we like early morning Yoga. Yoga that usually involves a number of sun salutations and vinyasa flows to heat the body up and keep it warm. But today it was time to scramble and come up with a plan that worked for everyone in the room. That meant no down dogs, no up dogs and no vinyasas, or at least only optional ones.

At teacher training class we are told to plan for the unexpected. You never know who will be in your class. What we did not get was training on that. How do you train for the unexpected? I visualize various scenarios in an “advanced teacher training” class. It’s like a scene from Project Runway or some other reality show where they spring the killer surprise on you, just when you think you have things under control. Picture the scene, the group are asked to prepare an advanced class with plenty of blood pumping power building flow for 10 recent Olympians. The next morning Heidi introduces the surprise – the Olympians all bring their grandmothers too.

Goddess pose

Not quite my scenario granted, I have a young and very fit, if a little injured Yogi to weave into the class. None the less I have to “Make it work”. Of course any Yogi nursing an injury always says “don’t worry I will modify or take child’s pose if I can’t do it.” But to ignore them seems wrong to me. What kind of class would it be if you could only manage half of it?

So my class plan changes on the fly. After the seated side stretching and spinal twists I usually do several sun salutations to heat up the body and core. Today though, we did that warm up standing. Heavy use of Utkatasana (Chair Pose) and Utkata Konasana (Goddess pose). Followed by a long series of standing poses.

Virabhadrasana I (Warrior I Pose)
Humble Warrior (Sanskrit any one?)
Urdhva Prasarita Eka Padasana (Standing Split)
(Optional vinyasa)
Repeat on the other side

Padangusthasana (Big Toe forward fold Pose)
Pada Hastasana (Hands under feet)

Samasthiti – Equal standing pose – (a little savasana mid class at the end of the warm up)

I usually try to make the first 30 minutes a gradually intensifying warm up. With a little pause in Samasthiti allowing a refocus before the next phase. Deeper stretching.

Humble Warrior

This class the stretching was pretty much all the standing series poses I could think of, starting with:-

Virabhadrasana II (Warrior II Pose)
Reversed or Dancing Warrior
Utthita Trikonasana (Extended Triangle Pose)

Inspired instead of the regular triangle, must have been thinking about the shoulders, I decide to do triangle in the traditional style with the upper hand reaching forwards. From here it is usually Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose) Today however I change it to shooting star. I have not taught this pose before and only ever done it once in a class.

It was great, I was impressed at how well everyone did in the pose. It is not easy. This influenced the rest of my week’s classes. I taught shooting star at each of them. Funny how things work out, but here is the final twist. In the class I took this morning we did, for the 2nd time in my 8 years of practicing yoga, shooting star. What a strange coincidence.

So something great came out of my need to change the class on the fly. For the second morning class this week I was better prepared. I had a number of gentle shoulder openers planned to blend into a “no down dog” warm up. You guessed it, my latest inspiration did not come to class.

Well time to plan for next week, no wait that’s a waste of time. I think I will put my feet up instead. Mmmm inversions next week

“Hold your ankle and slowly straighten your leg”. Hey what, what is going on here? I had not been practicing Yoga that long. The mixture of Iyengar and Vinyasa classes I had been taking had never got us into the pose this way. Was this right? Was this proper? Did this teacher know what she was doing?

In Iyengar class we would start feet together with the mat width ways. Jump the feet out wide. Then pivot the feet to the left first. Arms in a tee. Stack the hips to the right. Reach out with the left hand as far as possible. Let the hand come down to the left leg. The right arm is now straight up an the head looking up towards the right hand. There we are perfect Utthita Trikonasana (Extended Triangle Pose) , at least that is the theory, what could possibly go wrong?

Recently I have been focusing more on Triangle in my classes. As I look around the room there is so much variation. One has their hand on their ankle, but at the expense of the straight body. The inner side all scrunched up while the outer side of the body is stretched in an arching curve more like a standing side bend. Another Yogi is following suit. Being less flexible they are bending forward to reach the elusive ankle. I resist the urge to give the “You don’t have to be better than everyone else in class, just the people right next to you” line. A regular joke from one of the more challenging teachers in the area.

“Triangles have straight sides’ another familiar line from an early teacher of mine comes to mind. Somehow it does not seem to convey enough information for new Yogis though. As I say it, the arms come straight but the back still looks like an advert for the new VW Beetle. I use the line “It’s more of a back bend that a forward bend” and “open your chest to the ceiling” to help encourage people in the right direction. That seems to help a bit.

But the basic triangle has both sides of the body equally straight. The bend coming from stacking the hips. So should we start here when teaching? “Just stack your hips.” Each time I say that I remember when I first started Yoga. My hips were locked in place it seemed. No stacking ever going to happen, I was lucky if any sideways movement at all would happen. I just could not figure out what was meant by stack your hips. “It must be a guy thing” I thought at the time. “We are not naturally blessed with volatile hips”. Now gradually after many years things have freed up a little, though I am still not quite ready to play stunt double for John Travolta in Grease.

It was a substitute teacher that first got me to realize what the stacking the hips thing was all about. She faced away from the class and demonstrated the action, for me, clearly for the first time. Now I mimic her in class occasionally. “Everyone look at my butt” LOL how many other situations could I get away with that line?

Perfecting the pose

Now we are in a better triangle how can it be perfected? Some styles of Yoga like the peace sign fingers around the big toe. I am not a fan of this as it pulls me a little out of shape. My feet must be too big because I can’t quite reach that toe. I like to :-

• Pull up on both kneecaps to straighten the legs
• Open up the chest to ceiling
• Imagine the arms being pulled apart, no weight in the bottom hand.
• Try to lengthen the side of the body nearest the ground
• Push down with the big toe of the front foot.

Enjoying the pose is easy of course, just breath, but even better close your eyes and relax too. Triangle is a great pose with the eyes shut.

Bound Triangle

There are a couple of ways to bind in triangle. One where the hand at the back wraps around the back looking for the front thigh. I find it easiest to get people into this variation from Warrior II. The great thing about this pose is it is self adjusting. The chest stay upright because of the hand around the back. The perfect pose to teach, everyone gets an adjustment while you, the instructor, just sits back and takes it easy.

The other variation is where the front arm goes under the front leg and wraps around to meet the back hand. This one is easiest to sneak people into from Utthita Parsvakonasana (Extended Side Angle Pose). This bind is much harder of course, the front leg coming straight on only the most flexible Yogis. What I like to do is get people to let go of this bind first and hold their ankle as they straighten the leg from side angle into triangle.

It has taken a while but I have finally become like the teacher in my opening paragraph.

There is no right way to do triangle. There are lots of way, and many variations I have not even mentioned here. Another early influence of mine had it right though. She used to say. “You can never have too many triangles”

”It’s cold out there this morning” one of my regular morning Yogis announces as the walks into class this morning. He was right, I rode the bike and it did feel a little chilly. “It’s 37 degrees” he continues. What would we do without digital thermometers in our cars. On the bike of course things are a little less scientific. Are my hands numb when I get to class? If so, its a cold one.

As a motorcyclist you dress in layers to stay comfy. Too cold add an extra sweatshirt, too hot take one off. Back in England it was not unusual for me to where 3 pairs of gloves in the winter. No winding up the in car digital thermostat to a cozy 74 degrees here. If you are cold, or hot, you have to stop the bike, get off, add or subtract a layer, then continue on your way. So you ride with the dilemma swirling through your mind and upsetting your concentration. Do I stop mid ride and change, or am I almost there? Ignore the discomfort and keep the flow going.

I have been struck this week by this same phenomenon while teaching Yoga. Women, and to a lesser degree men, tend to come dressed in layers. As we warm up so the layers come off and as we head towards savasana the layers go back on again. Doesn’t this destroy the flow? Though in some of my more intense classes maybe its a crafty excuse to take a welcome break:)

From a teacher’s perspective layers coming off feels like a good thing. “I am getting them warmed up, that’s good for stretching later”. The counter is not true as the layers go back on. “have a slowed things down to early?”, “should I put the heater on?” At the end of the class, usually just before final savasana the biggest disruption occurs. People reach for blankets, extra sweatshirts, gloves, bobble hat …… It’s a good thing of course it’s hard to reach Samadi with your body shaking uncontrollably and your teeth are chattering louder than the music system. Got to be comfy in savasana.

So how does an instructor make this more like a car ride and less like a road trip with the Hells Angels? There is the heater on the wall of course, very similar to the car, in operation. Just dial up the correct temperature and problem solved. I always put the heater on before class to warm up the room a little before we start. But the heating systems these days have a mind of their own. I think they call it “fuzzy logic”. They decide when they will come on and more importantly when they will switch off. Important because the heaters in Yoga studios like to let you know when they are on. The mystery of what all those ex Concorde engineers did, after that deafening aircraft was taken out of commission, is solved. They came to US and now build heaters for Yoga studios.

So here is the dilemma. Putting the heater on at the end class is like taking savasana at the end of San Francisco airport’s main runway. Not putting the heater on means people have to stop during the most important part of the flow to layer up like a motorcyclist.

As a Yoga enthusiast and motorcyclist I see the solution is close at hand though. The Beatles summed it up on Abbey Road. “Here comes the sun”

“Top of a push up” the instructor commanded. I was new to Yoga then but knew this just did not sound right. “Plank pose” is what most teachers had called it up until now. To the uninitiated it might seem like a nothing pose. It does not appear to have a Sanskrit name. A pose to pass through on the way to somewhere better? Plank is a great pose in its own right and worth pausing for. Worthy of a little attention. Top of a push up is most certainly is not.

I am holding what I believe to be a pretty good plank, why then in the instructor pushing my stomach up and at the same time trying to adjust my shoulder. The problem is that it is so easy to see when someone is out of shape in plank pose. It is one straight line with the body. Any imperfection is easy to spot. Other poses don’t suffer this scrutiny. There can be multiple up or down dog poses in the class. The perfect dog pose is hard to define.

Plank is simple but very deceptive. As I look around a beginner class I see various attempts that range from “dangling cobra” to a sort of semi down dog pose. So how does an instructor correct all of these variations. I picture myself in the beginner class like a guy spinning plates. Raise the tummy on this Yogi, rush to the next, push down the butt on the second. On to the third. Not bad, but straighten the legs more. On to number 4 no wait number 1 has started to sag again. Rush back to one raise tummy, back to 4. Ah no number 6 just crashed on to their mat.

There has to be a better way. I found this technique as a way to teach plank. Variations of this work for all levels and seems to get great results in all class levels.

The prep.

Starting on all fours, shoulders over the wrists. Fingers spread wide. Middle fingers face forwards. Eventually the thumbs point towards each other. Step the right foot back them the left. Have the feet a little wider than hip width.

This gets the body into the right position to begin the focus…..

Feeling the core.

The next step is to show that the core muscles are highly active in this pose. Take you right hand and touch the heart and your left side. Putting that hand down. Now take you left hand and touch your right side and your navel. Having marked out a diamond it is much easier for the Yogis to focus on the next stage. Tightening every muscle in that diamond.

Now the core is actively involved we are ready for the icing….

Every muscle is engaged.

Tuck the butt, pull up on the kneecaps, push the heels back. Now push down with every finger and thumb, starting with the pinkie working towards the thumbs.

There you have it a perfect plank pose every time. Plank is intense. It core work its shoulder work, leg work and arms. Its not a pose to pass through but one to perfect.

Top of a push up it is not. The results are perfect plank poses every time and no broken crockery.

Drop and give me 20

“Can you speed up the class and push us harder?” the fitness fanatic asked after a very nice class “No” replied the teacher. At the time I could not really appreciate why. I was a member of the sports club that provided Yoga classes as part of the over all fitness program. We liked our Yoga hot and fast.

As members of the sports club we defined our workouts in terms of sweat and breathlessness. “You had a good workout then” was the comment many of us would appreciate from fellow members as we made our way back to the locker room. The basic metric being how wet the tee shirt was. Soaked half way down was ok, but what you really needed, to get a hi five, was a tee shirt soaked right through and two additional dripping tees in the left hand. Imagine, then, the disgrace of completing a Yoga class and having to sneak back to the locker room with dry shirt. “um yes just got here actually, no not worked out yet”.

Even with this peer pressure I still attended each and every Yoga class at the club. Luckily there was a water fountain just outside of the Yoga studio, so soaking a couple of tee shirts after class was always a good face saving option. But I was really about soaking up as much Yoga as possible. The variety was great and being able to remember sequences easily allowed me to practice at home too. Obsessed would not be too strong a word for my approach to Yoga.

Occasionally I would “sub” for a teacher who did not show up. As I could remember the sequences it was easy. Of course, I discovered, I really loved to teach too. At the end of one such class someone said “ it was a nice class. You should try Yoga in a real Yoga studio, you would really like it. “yeh right” I think. I could not see how Yoga could be any different elsewhere. I had done every style from Yin to Yan, Iyengar to Vinyasa from a wide variety of teacher. Was I missing something?

Having now entered the world of Yoga in the studio it is hard for me to think about going back to a sports setting to practice. Where is the mood, the setting, the atmosphere? At the gym we switch those for ego driven ab attacks, and using force to muscle our way into poses we are not ready for. Once you cross the bridge there is no return.

So how much keep fit should we introduce into a Yoga class? Are people coming for the workout or the Yoga feeling? Are they coming for both? These days I don’t like Yoga classes to seem like a fitness workout. Yoga should be more subtle than that. Sneak a little ab work into the regular poses maybe, but not an obvious 5 minute set of screaming core work.

Yikes this is pilates!

Then the call comes from Devi. “Can you sub a Yogalates class?”. “oh of course I don’t mind subbing the class” I reply. Like Laurey, from the musical Oklahoma, I can’t say no, to subbing. Even though I have no idea at all what Yogalates is. I have never taken a Pilates class much less taught one. In 4 hours time I will be teaching, this should be interesting. A little research reveals that Yogalates is mostly Yoga with additional core work.

Yogalates, I realize, is the gym/yoga studio cross over activity. Come for the fitness stay for the Yoga. Stomach crunches and sit ups work for the sports fanatic. Yoga is about how you feel when you leave. “Get down and give me 20 press ups” seems a little out of place in a pure Yoga class but back in my early Yoga days I attended a yoga class where we did do 20 press ups as part of the warm up. I decide to teach the class like a yoga class but with emphasis on the poses that work the core.

Only now do I understand that teacher who would not change her class for the keep fit fanatics at the club. Oh dear I have become a Yoga snob? Maybe, but maybe not, these thoughts and Dick Van Dyke’s infamous cockney accent in Mary Poppins inspired the theme for today’s class.

“Core blimey”

Had this been a classroom full of 10 year old kids the reaction would have been fits of giggles. An audible burst of flatulence in an adult Yogi class is a little different. Like Rod Stewart I deliver my well rehearsed ad lib line “good idea everyone find something to release”.  Yikes the elephant in the room just got even bigger. “I am sure in some cultures that would have been funny” I tell myself oh that fragile ego.

These things can happen. It is going to happen to all of us at some point I am sure.  You can only hold Mula Bandha for so long. So from a teacher perspective it’s a good thing to “hear”.  At least one Yogi is now a little more relaxed for the practice. Well, once they are past the social embarrassment of course.  So what is a good way to handle this “feedback” from the class?  Ignoring the elephant is awkward. Ideas welcome as clearly a well delivered “ad lib” is not the answerJ

“It is good to yawn” I remember a teacher telling me once. “It means the body needs more oxygen and the yawn is the body’s way of getting it”.  I look across at 4 yogis opposite me. As usual one yawn starts a chain reaction that has set in and all four are yawning now. Is one looking at the clock too?  I am not so sure about this “yawn is a good thing idea” I think to myself.  These bodily functions are really taking their toll on this fragile instructor.

The class is in forward fold as I look around the room I see a Yogi picking away at her toe nail polish. Having never worn toe nail polish I am not intimately familiar with the psychological relaxation benefits of peeling small pieces of paint off.  “Could you just sit up and yawn or something” I think to myself. “Find something to release” I suggest to the group, hoping she does not see this as the green light to start on the other foot. Is my class really that boring, fragile, fragile

For final savasana, if the class is not too large, I have recently been using a sand bag across the hips. It helps to deepen the relaxation, or so I think.  A yogi came up to me after class recently with this advice “Sand bag on a full bladder, not good”. He looked so calm and relaxed too.

Teachers are human too.  Hard to believe, possibly, but it’s true. For us the pressure (no pun intended) of maintaining Mula Bandha for an entire class because of an ill chosen curry the night before is no joke. Imagine the size of the elephant in this situation. Mmm maybe not, lead by example, well there is only one way to learn more about the acceptable social etiquette.

I teach an early class twice a week and start the morning with at least two mugs of strong tea. By the time I get to class I have more caffeine in me that downtown Seattle on a Monday morning. The class starts smoothly enough then I begin to realize that the last mug was maybe one to many.  The door to the bathroom seems a mile away and getting smaller. It’s ok for students. They can get up and walk out any time they like. “Everyone take down dog” while I nip to the bathroom is not really going to fly.  I hang on modifying the sequence of poses so that I don’t have to demonstrate quite as many twists.

If you have read my previous blogs you will know that there is no way I am “nipping out” during savasana either.  Class ends with no one any the wiser, clearly, as two Yogi come over to talk about poses. Normally I welcome this but today I am unwittingly inventing a new stretch. This expanding balloon pose does not have a name yet. “Party poppers” “Caffeinasana” perhaps?  Or may be just omg omg omg omg.  The mantra used both during the pose and when it is finally released. These bodily functions are really taking their toll on this fragile instructor.

Bodily functions are natural; we cannot switch them off for the duration of a yoga class. So relax and find something to release, unless you are in “Caffeinasana” of course.