A Little Ashtanga For the Splits

I watched some videos today by an Ashtanga yogi of Splits preparations, and one of the postures is a cross between the Vinyasa Low Lunge and the Ghosh Bow Legged Posture. It consists of doing a low lunge, with back knee on the floor, bending the back knee, grabbing back foot and stretching it toward the buttocks. This opens the front of the hip in preparation for Splits. In the Ghosh complete series Bow Legged comes way after the Splits, but it would be very helpful to do this Bow Legged prep as warm up for the Splits.

Also in Ashtanga (in the 3rd Series), there is a Standing Splits Pose that is kind of the compliment of the Ghosh Standing Splits. In Ghosh (and Vinyasa) we bend forward and hug the standing leg while the back leg kicks straight up making the splits. The Ashtanga version is done standing upright, bringing the leg up and hugging it next to the body. This is very similar to the posture we do in Ghosh, Upward Stretching (One-Sided), except that in Ghosh we do it seated. The Ashtanga Standing Split will be a great compliment to the Ghosh Standing Split.

Taking these two new additions into consideration, a new little section of the series might go like this:
- Splits Prep (Bow Legged Low Lunge)
- Splits
- Pigeon
- Standing Splits (Ghosh)
- Standing Splits (Ashtanga)
- Dancer

I also want to work more toward the Straddle Splits, which isn't really in the Ghosh series. But Ashtanga has a few postures and preparations. It could fit into the Stretching Series, somewhere around Separate Legs Stretching and Frog. More on that later.