OM senior teacher Joe Miller demonstrates Chadurunga incorrectly.
What's wrong with this pose?
OM senior teacher Joe Miller demonstrates Chadurunga incorrectly.
Read the winning answer below:
unless he's rooting around for truffles, he's
dipped down too low--his upper arms are
not parallel to the ground. this makes his
heiney stick way up in the air.
- Leni
OM senior teacher Sarah Trelease demonstrates parivritta trikonasana
(revolved triangle pose) with incorrect alignment below.
Sarah in revolved triangle with ideal aligment below:
Read the winning answer and Sarah's response below.
Hi!
She needs to shift her right hip back to even her hips; to energize and
straighten her back leg; to rotate her torso towards the ceiling a bit;
move her top shoulder back and her top arm forward, getting her arms
into a straight line floor-to-ceiling; finally she needs to shift the
tilt of her head, bringing her chin in to align the top of her spine.
That should do it!
Nina
Nina was the first of many who responded with helpful suggestions.
Parivrtta Trikonasana is a challenging twist, balance and hamstring opener!
In all of our postures we are looking for the steady ease of Tadasana. That is clearly not the case in my "before" picture (!) where you can see that I am ungrounded, off balance and straining into the twist. I need to find my feet and legs and root evenly though them. I have too much weight falling forward and am not grounding either foot well. But if I open and lengthen my back (left) leg and move that foot into the earth I will be able to lift my back (left) hip.
Next I need to lift onto my fingertips or a block so that my head and chest are not lower than my hips. Then I could bring my head forward lengthening the right side of my neck and drawing my chin in towards my chest until I can find length from the crown of my head to my tailbone.
Then with my hips, chest and head balanced I can reach evenly through my legs, finding the connection between my legs and my ability to lengthen my spine. This will allow the twist to come from my low belly and centerline; from my inner feet up through my breast bone and crown.
As the twist comes from my core I can draw the top (right) side of my chest back, bring my top arm forward into balance with the shoulder socket and feel my whole body breathing into the twist!
Thanks Nina!
OM senior teacher Heather Shaw demonstrates sirsasan B
(headstand variation) with incorrect alignment below.
Heather Shaw in Sirsasana B with ideal alignment.
OM invited you to win a free class by answering WWWTP.
Read the winning answer and Heather's response below:
Congratulations, Nancy, for being the first OMmie with the correct answer! You wrote:
1. She's not smiling!
2. Her elbows are wider than her shoulders
3. Her front body is spilling out
4. Her back back is in a backbend--with her butt
sticking out
5. Her forehead is tense
Heather's response:
Nancy, you are absolutely right. All of the things
you have pointed out here give me good reason not to
smile in my headstand variation (sirsasana b).
According to the yoga sutra, an asana (seat/pose)
should be a balance of both steadiness (stira) and
sukha (ease). This means that when the foundation of
the pose happens to be your arms and head, they must
be clearly aligned in order for energy to flow in an
optimal way throughout the rest of the body. Since my
hands are too narrow and too close to my head, it
scrunches my neck, makes my forehead tense (because my
poor neck hurts!), and my elbows bow out to the sides.
No matter how strong your arms are, they will always
be more spindly than your torso, hips and legs, so
when they are misplaced, it makes for shaky ground on
which to stack the rest of your tower. Sure, you can
still do it, but if one the of the benefits of
standing on your head is to ground the mind, wouldn't
it be nice not to spend that time upside down worried
that you might take a tumble?
Hey Nancy, Thanks for participating in our new WWWTP quiz?
You win either an OM t-shirt or a free class -- just let us which you want.
Namaste, Cyndi