If you want to experience Yoga Nirvana try a restorative halasana. Its the ultimate experience of yoga - life could not be any better than being in this pose for 20 minutes. This Sunday I walked into Nuvana's house with the kids for a family yoga session (Well I do the yoga and the kids jump around). Her first comment after our Om chanting was "you look drained". It was time for chest opening, chair-sarvangasana and supported halasana vs the intense poses we normally do.
I did about 5 minutes of chest opening on the stairs and then on to a chair supported sarvangasana. And then came the moment of glory. She pulled out the Halasana bench she brought from India and with my thighs resting on the bench, legs and feet stretched arms holding the bench, on came the weights on the calves. An amazing release to my tight back! It was instant energy booster and I woke up from my drained existence. She then had me pull my arms behind stretched holding on to her legs, which forced the shoulders to roll back. There was an amazing gush of energy in my body and I had an out of body experience. One I cannot forget.
Then the weights moved over to my thighs and a blanket and chair as weights on my calves. The out of body experience only expanded - And the cameras started clicking pictures. 20 minutes later, I was more energized and my heart was pumping and the blood was gushing in all the energy I could get. I was in HEAVEN! It was truly Nirvana from Nuvana. Then a resotartive ending with the chair sarvanagansana.
Sequence of poses
1. Chest opening: Sit on the first step of the stairs, lie back on the 2nd and 3rd step, stretch out the legs, roll the shoulders back and let the head rest on the blanket on the 3rd step. (10 minutes)
2. Chair sarvangasana (10 minutes)
3. Halasana on bench with weights (20 minutes)
4. Chair sarvangasana (5 minutes)
CLICK HERE TO VIEW A SLIDE SHOW OF PICTURES OF THIS SESSION!
Namaste
Yogi
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3 comments:
That looks divine! Funny, I keep looking at the photos, like, "ooh that sandbag probably feels so good" and wow I never would have thought of that chair... :)
I think, however, if you are not an Iyengar yogi, it could look a little scary..
Candice, I am so glad you found it divine. The experience with the halasana bench was divine. The chair was an impromptu thing we are in a home. Of course in a studio there would be plenty of sandbags. The point was one can improvise and thats we do in my teacher's house. Stairs, walls, door handles, a ledge and a pillar all become part of the props and that is the beauty of Iyengar style yoga. You are right it may appear scary to some, but the therapeutic effects far exceed the visuals :).
I just think its art and an amazing one of course with such therapeutic benefits. My sciatic pain really got mostly better with yoga therapy. The whole purpose of this blog is to educate folks who may not be Iyengar yogis and are happy with other styles. But I know those styles don't offer much when you get hurt or injured.
And yes, those weights resulted in the oohs and aahs for me.
Namaste
Yogi
good that u western guys are doing yoga and tapping all the goodness for health and well being.
here in india population is getting more obese as they r trying to ape the west by eating fast food(now that we have mc donalds and kfc here)pretty soon we like americans will be world no.1 obese nation.with our population of 1 billion oops.....you can imagine
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