Forward Bends and Stretching

Michael Sutton works @ Pure Yoga SG

Developing and lengthening to progress into your forward bends can be extremely frustrating if your beginner and even if your a regular practitioner as many find they reach a plateau and then they continue on their plateau without progressing any further.

How come? Because when we look at all yogic postures as a whole we only every see the final posture.  Granted, there are basic postures which help to strengthen and lengthen our muscular system and prepare us for the more advanced poses but with all yogic practices, regardless of styles or lineages: they all involve asanas which focus on stretching many muscle groups all at once, to make things even more challenging, within the individual muscle groups are lots more muscles. i.e. the hamstring muscle is not just one muscle but made of 3 individual muscles - Semitendinosus and Semimembranosus and Bicep Femoris (long head and the short head, which are classified as one muscle as they share the same insertion points and orgins), .

Therefore, when we try to stretch by doing Seated Front Bend (Paschimottanasana) which is the final pose, we are effectively trying to stretch many muscle groups all at the same time.  So how many muscles is that?



            
               Gluteus Maximus
               Gluteus Medius
               Gluteus Minimus
               Bicep Femoris
               Semitendinosus
                    Semimembranosus
               Gastrocnemius 
               Plantaris
               Soleus
               Achillies Tendon
               Connective Tissues




The more muscles involved in the stretch the more resistance needed to overcome.  Imagine you are holding lots of elastic bands, the more you are holding the harder it is the pull them apart.  But if you only have one or two elastic bands there is only a little bit of resistance and therefore they can be lengthened much easier.

When we breakdown the muscle group to their individual muscles and we understand the actions (some muscles have more than one muscle action) we then use the action/s of the muscle against itself to "Create Space" in the individual muscle and then once we have created the space we move into that new space which takes us deeper into the stretch without pain.

For Example:

In Yoga, if we want to stretch the Rhomboid major muscle located in the upper back we would move the arms into Eagle pose (Garuda).  This is a great stretch for a beginners but for someone who has relatively good flexibility they will release from the pose after 10-30 seconds and feel nothing regardless of whether we raise the arms to the sky or lowering the arms down by pulling them close to the chest.

Figure A

So lets look an the anatomy of the muscles:

Figure A

Both rhomboids (major and minor) also act to retract the scapula, pulling it towards the spinal column

(1) From a protracted position (shoulder is forward) it pulls back into a retracted position

(2) pulls the scapula (shoulder blade) up.

(3) We also need to note the position of the muscle which is approximately 45 degrees in a downward direction.

Now that we understand the action of the muscle and its position, we can then reverse then actions of the muscle to get maximum effective stretch.

If we continue with the eagle arm stretch, we know the rhomboid is stretched the more we take the shoulder blade away for the spine therefore the more we take the arm across the body the deeper the stretch instead of keeping the arms in the traditional mid-line of the chest.(1) If we are stretching the right rhomboid and we bought the right shoulder forward as much as we get by taking the arms to the left side as much as we can then to then increase the Stretch. (2)  We pull the right shoulder downward towards the floor as the muscle action pulls the shoulder blade up.(3) To make the stretch even more effective we can start to bend forward by hunching the upper back which lengthens the upper back and so increases the stretch once again due to the angle and position of the muscle.

This year is a wonderful opportunity for us to grow and learn together and discover the incredible journey of "Creating Space".  Series 1 is the first in the series of 5 planned for this year.  Understand a new scientific concept to stretching. Enjoy a series of in-depth workshops on how to isolate and lengthen individual muscles using unique techniques that increase your flexibility without pain. 

Namaste,
With Metta,

Michael

"Putting the Science Back into Yoga"
























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To Hinge or not to hinge, that is the question.......

Michael Sutton works for Pure Yoga Singapore

If we hang some rope lights, we will quickly notice that the middle droops or sags due to the  earth’s gravity constantly pushing down upon it.  You can also observe that it always hangs it a natural uniform way.  If we pulled the rope lights in two opposite directions then the rope would become more taught the more force that is exerted upon it.  The spinal column has the same effect as the rope, so when doing asana practice we need to make sure our muscles are active in supporting the spine at all times to prevent the spine from collapsing on to itself and alleviating compression.  Sometimes damage to the spinal discs also begins to occur when too much force is placed on a particular area due to conscious or unconscious relaxed muscular states, or a chain of restrictions in the muscles and fascia that prevent our movement. The body then tries to make various corrections in order to get us in to the pose the best it can.

Let me explain…….

Figure 2 Demonstrates two different people showing the same pose, but how they both achieve the pose is very different.

Global extension curve vs a Lumbo-sacral hinge 

Clearly the man in the photo below on the left has a substantial amount of hinge at the lumbo-sacral joint just above the buttocks. The man on the right however, shows a good example of a uniform extension curve through his lower back as well as his upper back.

Figure 2

Much like the rope light that hangs in a uniform manner, we are much less likely to get injured if we do not have a hyper mobile segment in the spine, as the load/pressure is spread over more segments instead of isolating just one. This segment over time becomes highly unstable and as a result causes back pain due to muscular spasm, bulging disc or a slipped disc.

Figure 3 Demonstrates two different people showing the same pose again, but how they both achieve the pose is again very different.  Looking at the arrow pointing up you can see the compensation of the spine by way of a hyper mobile segment. This compensation give the appearance that she has achieved the pose. This compensation is the end result from a series of chain reactions. Her thigh muscles are being held at her highest point, the angle of the red line through the legs show she has short thigh muscles which restricts any further movement higher. This restriction then holds the pelvis in an anterior tilt which is shown by the upward sloping line.  This then has another chain reaction causing a hyper mobile segment of the spine.

Figure 3

Figure 4 again demonstrates a lumbo-sacral hinge and a hypermobile segment of the spine which is caused this time through completely relaxing the spine and surrounding muscles allowing it to hang, droop and sag towards the floor.  This area is felt as a compression sensation on the lower back instead of actually feeling the stretch sensation through the front of the torso at the abdomen.  This ill effect is  corrected by activation of the transverse abdominis muscle which we will discuss in the next article.

Figure 4

All pictures and reference material is for non-judgemental, demonstration, educational and for evaluational purposes only.

Namaste,

With Metta,

Michael

The Art of Vinyasa

Understanding the Practice

Vinyasa simply means to "flow".  To flow from one posture to the next in a beautiful fluid movement.  Vinyasa should be much like a dance, rhythmic, fluid, captivating and once mastered, quite effortless.  In the beginning,  everything is a hardship and requires a vast amount of effort but with on going practice and attributes such as dedication and commitment as well as the right attitude the flow becomes effortless.  This is due to something called Prana or life force energy.  A big wave in the ocean is formed due to winds and even the moon's magnetic pull which are all forms of the same thing which is energy.  Energy pushes the big waves along and a surfer simply rides the waves of energy.  The energy flows and one simple moves with the flow.  Kinetic energy even potential kinetic is very powerful once it is harnessed.  We normally live our daily lifes on increasingly smaller amounts of energy or prana which results from stress, tension and leads to fatigue.  Someone who looses too much energy become a tiny snowflake and so "flake out".  Instead, we need to be snowballs at the tops of mountains that begin to roll downward slowly or quickly building kenetic energy,  growing in size and stature building to an immeasurable force.  Our movement become automatic like the snowball rolling downhill or a big wave.  When we cultivate  the true art of Vinyasa, postures become completely spontaneous due to the energy flowing and it feels like we are moving automatically without doing anything,  therefore we become the surfer riding the wave.

As a physical practice,  vinyasa is much more challenging than a static asana practice (based on a Hatha 1 vs vinyasa 1 @ Pure Yoga).  Although, from a psychological stand point,  vinyasa is easier than a static practice.  One on the main goals of yoga is -  Yoga chitta vritti nirodhah.  To cease all fluctuations of the mind.  Therefore,  when we practice a static class like Hatha 1 because we are holding the posture in stillness for 10 breaths, we are instantly faced with the challenges of the mind for we have the time to think, think about the posture,  think about our legs burning in side warrior pose, think about our upsets and our bank account.  Conversely,  vinyasa due to it's ceaseless flowing movements,  we do not have time to think about anything apart from the present moment.  If the mind does fluctuate and one spontaneously starts thinking about something else, this results in one quickly missing the next posture, or in some cases,  several postures but this is only applicable to beginners,  or those who have difficulty maintaining focus.

Traditional sun salutation is a wonderful tool passed on by the great masters which is a complete practice in its own right.  It contains asana, pranayama, bandha, mudra and meditation.  If carried out correctly it quickly invokes a state of  "meditation in motion".  The body begins to move spontaneously and the series of fluid movements begins to positively effect the mind to be calm, focused and yet alert.  Although, alertness or attentiveness can quickly diminish once we understand the sequence of 12 postures for the right side which is then repeated for the left.  This is a result of us remembering the series of postures and then simply repeating them over and over.  If we are not attentive we quickly become like a robot, hence the reason why the great sages gave us more to do in order to hold all rays of attention at one point or various points.   Once we understand the sequence and have mastered a good amount of flexibility to perform the asanas as well as it's intimate link with the breath, more is then added.  Bandha, mudra for redirection of the energy and awareness of Chakra, which according to the great masters magnifies the effect of the postures.  Once understood we add colour visualization and/or bija Mantra which are the seed sounds to positively effect and amplify the chakras or vortex of energies. 

All off these applications and more cause intense focus and concentration whilst maintaining a calm passive state of mind, providing the practitioner with a state of equilibrium.

At the beginning of this article I mentioned that vinyasa is much like a dance.  When we dance with a partner like dancing a waltz,  the man always leads his partner around the room.  The same can be said of a vinyasa, the breath leads.  We do not move the body and then breathe,  we allow the breath to flow and the body simply follows.  The breath leads us all the way through the movement until we reach our destination of full posture, then as the breath begins to flow again the body simply follows the breath through to the next posture. 

When we dance,  the goal it not to get to the opposite side of the room,  the goal is to simply dance.  When we play music, goal is to listen and enjoy the entire song, if the goal was only to get to the end of the song there would be no need for a beginning or a middle we would simply play the end.  When we dance we simply dance,  when we practice vinyasa we simply do without any pre-conceptions,  ideologies or goals.  We are only present in a state of full awareness, observing whilst surfing a big wave of energy.

Namaste,

With Metta,

Michael

Vinyasa & Science of The Sun Salutation

Vinyasa 1 @ Pure Yoga Chevron House Pure Yoga

Follow up from my Saturday 6th March 12:30pm class 

Class focus was traditional sun salutation building the sequence slowly to understand each individual posture and then rhythmically, in order to learn how to connect the breath with each posture.  There are many positive physical and psychological reason why we would want to do sun salutation far beyond using is as a warm up.          



In traditional sun salutation we do 12 postures to the right side and then 12 postures to the left equalling 24 postures for 1 set/round. The 12 postures represent the 12 zodiac signs in astronomy.  

“Their performance, in a steady, rhythmic sequence, reflects the rhythms of the universe; the twenty-four hours of the day, the twelve zodiac phases of the year and the biorhythms of the body. “ - Asana, Pranayama, Mudra, Bandha - Swami Satyananda Saraswati

And that's all we are really told, so lets look into it a bit deeper…… 

The Earth due to the gravitational attraction of the Sun and Moon it causes the rotation of the Earth to wobble on its axis like a fast spinning top. This unique motion results in the precession of the equinoxes. equal to about one degree of arc every seventy-two years, according to the British physicist and mathematician Sir Isaac Newton. 

Some people called it the Yuga cycle, others called it the Grand cycle and others the Perfect Year...But the most common name found in use from ancient Europe to ancient China, was simply the Great Year”."The term Great Year has a variety of related meanings. It is defined by NASA as "The period of one complete cycle of the equinoxes around the ecliptic, about 25,800 years." - Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Year  

But mathematically to me this does not make any sense as -

72 (one Degree according to Sir Isaac Newton)  x 360° (Full circle) = 25,920 

It takes 25,920 years, which constitute one Great Solar or Platonic Year or Yuga (indian tradition), each one of the twelve constellations of the zodiac occupies a position at the vernal equinox for nearly 2,160 years, then gives place to the previous sign of the zodiac.
2160 x 12 = 25,920

Coincidently enough 2160 miles is the diameter of the moon.

Tibetian monks and Indian yogis all use a mala with 108 beads, even the Catholic Church uses a rosary which is 54 beads, half of 108. This will become relevant in just a bit.

Back to the Sun salutation:

12 postures to the right side and then 12 postures to the left equals 24 postures. The 12 postures also represent the 12 zodiac signs in astronomy. =

*12 × 2 = 24 = 24 hours of the day. 

*24(hours in a day) x 108 (beads on a mala) = 2,592 

so if we add a zero we get.....

25,920 = 1 great year :)

This is why it is important to incorporate the sun salutation into our regular practice even if we only do 9 rounds,  or if time allows as well as endurance we do 27, 54 or 108 rounds.  This act will help us to align us with the rhythms of the universe and create equilibrium.

*Please note these observations and calculations were made by me after years of wanting to understand the secrets of the sun salutation and how it mathematically connects us to the universe,  I do respect the great yoga masters and their teachings who learnt their knowledge through deep meditational practices, however my logical mind likes to understand it mathematically and scientifically so that i do not follow someone/something blindingly as in faith/belief or dogma. 

Which leaves me aptly with......

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.” -

The Buddha (Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C.)

Namaste

With Metta,

Michael

For my previous post click here

The importance of a Stable Pelvis for Posture

Michael Sutton works at Pure Yoga Singapore

I am a true advocate of yoga for the tremendous benefits that it bestows upon us.  When we practice safely and with awareness we will wholeheartedly receive these positive benefits.  Unfortunately, when we practice without good basic understanding of posture, then any posture regardless of how powerful it is can truly have a detrimental effect upon our bodies.  Most people who never practice yoga will experience lower back pain at some point in there lives.  There are many various factors that can cause this condition but today we will focus on just one.

Anterior Tilt - This is a common issue amongst men and women but generally women which can be worsened due to wearing high heel shoes.  It is caused due the the fact that the thigh muscles and the psoas muscles, which is used when we lift the knee to our chests or when walking up stairs.  These two, but not all, are the main reasons for this condition.  Ironically, someone who carries themselves in this manner without ever practicing yoga will live relatively pain free for many years until the age of thirty plus.  At which point they may start visiting their local general practitioner to improve their condition due to increased pain levels.  However, if the same person decided to practice yoga, instead of it taking years before they experience any pain, their situation will quickly escalate and they will experience back pain within just a few months of regular yoga asana practice unless their anterior tilt is correct first.

here's why.........

When someone has an anterior tilting pelvis they are placing a lot of unnecessary pressure on the lower back (lumbar spine) as well as the vertebral disc which active as shock absorbers and prevent bone on bone impacts.   If someone is simply living a normal day to day sedentary life style then the body can cope to some extend with the load.  However, when we add the addition of extension to the spine like an arching posture in a yoga class for example, the additional load on the spine becomes too excessive and the body quickly breaks down. Watch the short video clip below for a clear visual understanding.

Figure A

Figure A is an example anterior tilt with a back bend which is subsequently applying vast amounts of pressure to her lower back particularly the L5 joint and S1 joint.  Note the red line that shows the angle of the pelvis with regards the the rest of the body.










All pictures and reference material is for non-judgemental, demonstration, educational and for evaluational purposes only.

Welcome

Welcome Friends,

This is the beginning, the start of the book, the very beginning of a long journey into the Art and Science of Yoga. Through it, may we all attain a deeper knowledge and understanding which is filled with wonderful opportunities to learn through a light hearted investigations and non judgemental views, but most importantly.....may i quickly learn how to type faster by using more than two fingers at a time. ;)

So be it, Namaste

With Metta, Michael