I just completed some of the basic postures the last 10 days and it has been exciting, especially when you wake up at 5 am.
Here are some of the few asanas that I learnt.
Bhujanga Asana (The Cobra)
| The difficult part is keeping your head up and look at the ceiling. Sarvanga Asana (The shoulder Stand) |
| 'Sarva' means all and 'Anga' means body, so Sarvanga is the posture of the whole body. As the whole body weight in this posture rests on the shoulders, it is also called 'Shoulder Stand Posture'. It is a purifying, nourishing and energizing asana beneficial to the whole body. I did this pretty easily and even got a thumbs up from the 'guru' [beams] | |
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| Matsya Asana is so called because in its perfect posture, one is supposed to float like a fish in water. It is beneficial to perform this asana after Sarvanga Asana. It has corrective effects for the neck and shoulder troubles. I still can't get this right since I have a small neck..grr.. | |
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| The body form in this asana resembles a bow or 'dhanur'. It is one of the best asana for activating and strengthening the joints of the body. This was pretty easy and some of the students had a tough time holding on to their legs. | |
| The plow or Hala Asana is an extreme forward bending exercise. It has some excellent benefits and occupies a very prominent place in asanas. I tried bending and ofcourse was not able to touch the floor with my toes, the guru came over and actually pushed my legs down….eoooooow. |
On day 8, we had a visiting 'guru' a 60 year old uncleji who took over the class with some very fast yogic exercises. Some of the lines that he said were less than raunchy.
'whenever you are alone or with someone, try this exercise , it is very good for your lower back. Don't be shy' he goes on to show us something that we have been doing for the past 20 years all thanks to Govinda. Yes sir it was the pelvic thrust. ;]
He went on to make some more exciting 1 liners such as ' you are doing wonderful', ' bend a little more',' don't be shy', 'yoga should be done very slowly , 1234512345'.
In my class I have an 'aunty-ji' who has a lot of puppy fat. She has trouble touching her toes and getting some of the basic exercises right.The other day when we were doing a complex asana, trikonasana, the triangle, as shown below…and the aunty-ji was trying her best.. the guru starts counting..1 – 2 – 3 – 4ish…and he stops and comes over to auntyji correcting her posture and we had to hold our position for 15 seconds.. and the look that we gave her after we came back to our normal position would surely have burnt a couple of holes in the ozone layer.
Yeah Yeah I know asana means to stay in a particular pose, but believe me when I tell you it's difficult.
