Restart of yoga - pain relief

I went back to class at sunset yoga on Wednesday. It was a level 1 class with Julie Burris. She is an excellent teacher, very calm, pleasant and has that wonderful texan twang. I like her style. Its very relaxed. She spends a great deal of time teaching you how to do sitting postures correctly at the start of the class. She will stop and correct you and modify poses for you if you have pain. I had announced up-front about my sciatica. There is still some pain when I stretch my left hamstring especially in Uttanasana, Dog pose, or Halasana. It was a basic class, but it was a good way to ease myself back to my class practice. Julie spent a month at the Pune center last year.

Last evening on a whim I attended the level 3 class taught by Terri Peterson. But he was not there. It was being taught by Marianne as a substitute. Wonderful! Marrianne is a great teacher and her style is very therapeutic and she is very attentive to each student. Its always a fun and relaxed class. She spent a fair amount of time on Suptapadangusthasana using belts for support, and I got to show her the Nuvana approach of pushing the belt down on the hip, to relieve the sciatic pain.

She talked about the similarities between sitting, standing poses, how each pose is related and linked to another pose. She calls it "science" - there is a lot of science behind these poses, for instance she mentioned that before you enter into a complete Sarvangasan, you fold your legs down - that action and posture is similar to Virasana. Marriane spent time at the Iyengar center in Pune many years ago. She speaks fluent Japanese and is a writer. Her passion, writing and yoga. Another very attentive, skilled and dedicated student and teacher of Iyengar yoga at Sunset Yoga Center.

Back Care Class

This morning I went to the back-care class that is conducted every Saturday at Sunset Yoga. The class is generally taught by Nuvana, but was subbed by .... . I had discussed about the certain poses in my earlier blog to help with lower back ache. Here is a list of other supported poses that help relieve lower back stress in a supported form with belts, blocks and blankets:

1. Adho mukha Viranasa (child pose)
2. Utitha Trikonasana (triangle pose)
3. Vrikshasana (tree pose)
4. Uttanasana (forward bend)
5. Paschim Uttanasana (sitting forward bend)
6. Tadasana (standing / mountain pose)

I will upload some instructional videos on the mechanics of these poses in a supported form. Most of these poses help you strengthen your quads, shoulders, hamstrings, maintain good balance and posture and help relieve pressure on your lower back and help relax those muscles.