Tiger is an inverted posture done balancing on the forearms. It is often called Forearm Balance, but in the Ghosh tradition it is called Tiger Pose. Also in the Krishnamacharya/Iyengar/Ashtanga traditions it is called Pincha Mayurasana or Peacock Feather. All the names refer to the same posture. Practicing Tiger is about two main elements - shoulder strength and tricep strength. This includes the chest and upper back which are necessary in the motion and stability of the shoulders. When we go upside down and balance the entire body on the forearms we need lots of strength, stillness and balance. There are 3 stages in practicing Tiger: building strength against a wall, building strength and balance slightly away from a wall, and balancing without the wall. Stage 1: Building Strength Against a Wall. Start on your forearms with your fingers an inch from the wall. Kick up (gently) and rest your feet against the wall. The wall helps with balance, so all you have to do is build the strength in your arms and shoulders. (See picture 2) Practice this way until you can hold it easily for a minute. Then move to Stage 2. Stage 2: Building Strength and Balance Slightly Away From the Wall. Move away from the wall so your fingers are 3 or 4 feet from the wall. Kick up and let your kicking leg come all the way over and touch the wall. Your trailing leg will stay in front of you. It will look sort of like the splits. (See picture 3) Use this stage to start to find your balance. You will shift both forward and backward. Use your strength and be as balanced and even as possible. Start to lift your foot away from the wall. Find moments of balance in this splits-like formation. Gradually straighten both legs upward until they are together and upright, like in Stage 3. Stage 3: Balancing Without the Wall. Finally, move an extra foot or two from the wall. For awhile you should stay near one so if you start to fall backward you can catch yourself like in Stage 2. But in this stage the goal is balancing upright with the legs together. At the beginning you may only be able to hold it for a second. One second will become two and two will become five. Keep practicing. Find stillness, find balance. It took me about a year of practicing these stages before I could balance for more than a few seconds.
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While practicing this morning, I noticed something interesting and powerful while standing with my feet together and arms extended overhead (pictured). When I found my center of gravity - the point of balance where my weight is shifted neither forward, backward or to the side - my body automatically engaged in so many of the ways they harp on in yoga class. My weight is in my heels with only slight balancing weight in the big toes and small toes. My quadriceps engage, though only slightly. They are certainly not limp, but they are also not tight and locked with great effort. The slight engagement of my quads lifts my kneecaps. My pelvic floor (mula bandha) and lower belly (some call it uddiyana bandha) engaged, though again not intensely; about 50% of a mind-driven muscle engagement. My point of focus was my spine and keeping its natural curvature. When my spine is relaxed and strong and my weight is centered in opposition to gravity, the body seems to spring upward and open. It floats without effort but remains absolutely present. This makes me re-think the way that we teach muscle engagement in yoga class. For years I have heard: "Lock the knee, lift the kneecaps, engage Mula Bandha!" as if they are independent mental engagements like puzzle pieces that make a proper posture. But more and more it seems that these are results of a proper posture instead of the building blocks. If someone wants to be a race car driver, they don't begin by driving at 150mph even though that is the most obvious characteristic of a race car driver. They begin by learning to drive with perfect awareness and the speed will come. The same seems true of yoga postures and specifically these physical engagements. The engaged quadricep, lifted kneecap and Mula Bandha are results of proper balance in the body. Perhaps we should be teaching balance and body awareness in space instead of which muscles to engage. After all, our muscles are designed to serve the body, not the body to serve the muscles. ps. This posture (standing or sitting with arms extended overhead) reminds me also of ancient yogic postures designed to awaken the body's energy. It could be that this is a fundamental and powerful position for the body. Today my Cobra practice reached a new level of focus and openness. I was able to hold onto my knees while putting my feet on my head. I have been practicing toward this variation for a few months now, but I have not had the combination of openness in my chest and upper back and strength in my back, legs and buttocks. For 3 years I practiced only the regular Cobra, where the yogi builds back strength and spinal flexibility by lifting the shoulders and chest off the ground. This posture is one of the foundations of a yoga practice. I still practice it regularly. When my strength and flexibility reached a good level about a year ago, I began to deepen the bend in my spine. This is the first of what I consider to be the Full Cobra backbends (I call this Full Cobra 1), where the yogi bends the spine as deeply as possible including the neck. It is different from the regular Cobra (above) in that significant arm strength is used here to bend backward deeply. Full Cobra 2 achieves the opposite of Full Cobra 1 (above). While Full Cobra 1 uses arm strength to bend the back, Full Cobra 2 (sometimes we call it Flying Cobra) removes the arms and relies only on back strength. I still bend as deeply and completely as possible, but this posture creates incredible engagement in the whole spine and buttocks. It is intense and powerful and builds great strength. To complete the body's energetic circuit and put the bottom of the feet to the top of the head, Full Cobra 3 (left) combines a bit of arm strength with bent knees. It stretches the entire front side of the body from the chin to the toes. I will continue to practice all of these variations because each offers something different. As a group they strengthen the muscles of the back, improving posture. They compress the disks of the spine from behind, reducing the risk of herniated disks into the spinal column. They stretch the front side of the body, increasing emotional strength and courage. They stretch the abdomen, increasing intestinal movement and improving digestion and elimination. And they compress the adrenal glands, reducing stress.
If this is not the most valuable group of Postures, it is certainly one of them. APANA & PRANA Apana (Elimination Energy) is the energy in the body that eliminates waste through the lungs and excretory systems. It is vital in order to get rid of useless and detrimental elements in our bodies. When our bodies can effectively get rid of waste, we become significantly healthier. The opposite energy, called Prana, is the Circulation Energy of our beating hearts, lungs and blood. We cultivate Circulation Energy by containing the energy in the body and not letting it disperse from us. Basically it is the opposite of Elimination Energy. Ideally we will balance these two energies so that we keep what strengthens us and get rid of what weakens us. WIND REMOVING POSTURE One of the great Postures for refining our Elimination Energy is called Wind Removing Posture (Pavanamuktasana). In some traditions it is even called Apanasana or Elimination Posture. The belly is compressed by squeezing the legs with the arms, and the body's energy is forced downward and out of a relaxed anus (often accompanied by 'wind,' hence the name of the posture).
Much yoga practice begins with mindful breathing; the relationship of breath and movement is an important one. Mindful breathing during Postures/Asanas (and life in general) is the first step in our Energy Control (Pranayama) practice.
There are four ways that we can relate our Postures and our Breath: we can 1) move the body and the breath, 2) hold the body still while moving the breath, 3) hold the body still while holding the breath, and 4) move the body while holding the breath. Each has its own benefits. 1) Movement the Body and the Breath is the most commonly known "yoga" practice in the west. It is called Vinyasa (especially in the Krishnamacharya lineage) - each movement of the body is linked with a complimentary inhale or exhale. This category of Posture practice begins the process of breath awareness, links the mind to the body, begins to purify the energy channels of the body and therefore generates tremendous energy and strength. 2) Holding the Body Still While Moving the Breath is powerful for the energy body and mind. It creates a "lock" with the entire body, shifting circulation and endocrine flow as well as strengthening the nervous system. When holding the body still while moving the breath, the body's energy circulates strongly. This category of Posture practice builds great concentration, focus and quiets the mind. 3) Holding the Body Still While Holding the Breath is often called a "lock" or "bandha." It creates vivid stillness in the mind and connects the energy of the body to the energy of the universe. This practice is used to purify the body on ever more subtle levels and to draw focus to the motion of the mind so it may be stilled. After we still the body and breath, stillness or Concentration (Dharana) of the mind is the next step on the path of Yoga. 4) Holding the Breath While Moving the Body takes great awareness and control of the body, energy and mind. It is the most advanced of these four practices. Once we can hold the Breath in stillness along with the Body (as in #3), we may decide to deepen our energetic control by moving the body without letting the breath or mind move. This practice creates powerful force in the physical and energetic bodies that can push up against a stilled mind and create energy disturbances if the yogi is not careful. If the mind can remain still and clear, the yogi deepens his or her connection with the divine. Today I listened through a recording of Tony leading us through the complete Ghosh series. He led us through it a few times during our training and, with all the posture variations (140 positions) and individual instruction it takes about 3 1/2 hours. As I listen back to Tony's guidance, one thing in particular strikes me. He is relatively brief in the postures.
Tony often counts while we practice: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 at frustratingly unpredictable tempos, but in general he doesn't make us hold the postures for super long. (Though I must mention that some postures felt like forever. Two in particular are the 2nd expression of Chair and Balancing Stick.) As I have developed my own practice, finding my own expressions of the postures and sequences, I find myself spending longer and longer in each posture. Often 10 breaths, somewhere around 1 minute per posture. Tony's counts are more in the 10-20 second range. I realize that there is a difference between focusing on each individual posture, like I have been in my own practice, and focusing on the practice as a whole. Perhaps we don't need to get each posture perfect or even to its deepest expression. We only need to put our body in the position for a reasonable period of time, not too long, and then move on. Over the course of a couple hours and a few dozen postures, the cumulative effect of the postures takes shape. A complete practice is the sum of many postures. Perhaps it is better to do 50 postures, as in the Master's Core System, for 20 seconds apiece than 20 or 30 postures for a minute apiece.
Quite simply, Asana practice is defined by alignment. Alignment is what makes one posture different from another. It is the rotation in the hip that separates Warrior 3 from Balancing Half Moon. It is the bent knee that separates a High Lunge from a Low Lunge. It is the straight arms that separate Up Dog from Cobra. Alignment is simply the position in which we put our bodies. We are always aligned in one way or another. From there it is just a matter of degree: how much attention we pay to the integrity and proper use of our bodies' structures, or how little.
It is understandable and justifiable to see the postures in broad strokes and shapes; to think that as long as we put the big pieces in place we are doing the postures. To a certain extent that is true. But that approach neglects a deep and profound well of strength, flexibility, balance, resilience, patience, compassion, intelligence, focus and calm that awaits us when we explore our bodies and the body-mind connection with more curiosity, depth and attention to detail. The Devil's In the Details Our bodies are tremendous creations, complex and multi-faceted. Which means that it is easy to become overwhelmed by the details and minutiae, especially if we aren't anatomy or bio-mechanics experts. This is true of teachers as well as students. When we feel overwhelmed by the sheer possibilities for our body's alignment, it is normal for us to retreat from it. But, even though alignment can be detailed, it shouldn't be overwhelming. In fact, it should be quite simple. Go Simply I encourage you not to retreat from detailed alignment in your yoga posture practice. Just simplify. When I am frustrated by a posture, I go back to the beginning and find its essence. What is the One thing this posture is trying to achieve? Is it a bend in the spine? Is it a stretch of the hamstrings? Is it strength in the shoulders? Once you identify the most important element in the posture, practice that posture with your mind completely focused on that element. Don't think about anything else. Do that one thing with 100% intention and try to do it perfectly, no matter how good or bad it looks from the outside. After awhile of practicing with complete commitment to the primary intention of the posture, the rest of the posture slowly begins to reveal itself. The body starts to unfold naturally, and you will end up solidly in a posture that you now know intimately and love deeply. And one that is properly aligned. Stay Focused On the Center There is always the availability of countless details about the alignment of the edges of the postures. Consider them for a moment or two, then return your focus to the core intention of the posture. As my teacher Tony Sanchez said during a breathing exercise, "It is a breathing exercise. Focus on your lungs, not your legs." This will keep your mind focused and your postures true. It will bring greater detail and energy to your practice.
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