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Pose #5 for Women – Setu Bandhasana

March 5, 2016

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I remember when I first started practicing yoga, the Setu Bandhasana (Bridge Pose) used to be my least favourite pose.  It felt really uncomfortable and even gave me a back ache sometimes.  I put it down to being overweight.  I thought that because I was heavy, my hands were unable to support the weight of my lower body.   Of course now I know better.  And now I come across so many people who don’t!  So many people tell me that their arms are not strong enough or their thighs/hips/butt are/is too big/heavy which prevents them from doing this pose well.  Study your technique.  The key to any yogasana lies in the technique.  Study your technique.

Benefits of the Setubandhasana:

  • Stretches the chest, neck, and spine
  • Strengthens the core muscles and the legs.
  • Enables blood flow to the brain and this helps in reducing stress and bringing about a feeling of rejuvenation and wellbeing.
  • Provides an excellent massage to the abdominal organs.
  • Massages the Thyroid gland.
  • Helps in reducing discomfort during
  • Reduces discomfort and pain during menstruation.

To avoid making the mistakes I did when practicing this asana remember to:

  • Evenly distribute your weight on the soles of your feet.
  • Push your soles into the floor evenly.
  • Engage the thighs and the core muscles.
  • Roll your shoulders back and away from your ears.
  • Using your legs push your chest closer to the chin.
  • Keep the back of your neck long and pushed against the floor.

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Pose #4 for Women – Trikonasana

March 4, 2016

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In an interview with Prannoy Roy, BKS Iyengar said that he was still working on his Trikonasana.  In my yoga class we work on Trikonasana every day and the teacher always frowns in disapproval.  In an interview I watched a couple of weeks ago Maty Ezraty talks about how she can judge the level of a student by how they perform the Trikonasana.  Personally, the Trikonasana has a heavy influence on my practice.  Some days I break into the asana with great ease.  Other days (like this morning) there’s some stiffness and soreness and I creak through the asana.  Maybe it’s a combination of shoulder and hip opening.  Or maybe it’s the stretch along the sides of the body or the release of tension from the shoulders….but this pose makes me want to linger.

Benefits

  • Great for the legs and torso.
  • Relieves pain and tension from the lower back.
  • Maintains the flexibility of the spine.
  • Provides a great massage to the abdominal organs and stimulates them.
  • Good for digestion since it provides a massage to the abdominal organs.
  • Relieves backache, especially through second trimester of pregnancy
  • Helps in managing flat feet (I’ve seen it even reduce the condition).
  • Helps in managing and preventing osteoporosis and sciatica.

 

When practicing the Trikonasana, remember to:

  • Keep the legs straight.
  • Keep the chest open.
  • Keep the spine long and strong.
  • Bend the torso laterally (from the hip).
  • Keep the hip joint open.
  • Reach out with both hands.
  • look down if you get migraines or have a BP condition.
  • look down if you have a heart condition or neck pain.

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Pose #3 for Women – Parsvakonasana

March 3, 2016

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Another standing asanas which I practice almost daily basis is the Parsvakonasana or the Side Angle Pose.  Usually when I practice the standing asanas, I include this one also.   It gives the hip joint that little bit of an extra stretch   I usually transition from the Virbhadrasana II to the Parsvakonasana.

Benefits of the Parsvakonasana:

  • Great to strengthen the quads, knees and ankles.  Basically good for the entire leg.
  • Opens up the hip joint.  Therefore great to massage the reproductive and abdominal organs.  So useful in conditions such as PCOS/PCOD.
  • Alleviates menstrual discomfort by providing a relaxing stretch.
  • Helps in toning the sides of the body.
  • Great to open up the shoulders and the lungs.

 

When practicing the Parsvakonasana remember:

  • To extend the arms outwards and engage even the fingertips!
  • Keep the knee stacked on top of the ankle for the front leg and make sure the inner edge of the foot is pushed into the floor.  (Most people tend to put their weight on the outer edge of the foot.)
  • Pay lots of attention to the back leg.  Ensure that the back foot is pushed firmly into the floor.  Make sure you tighten the knee.
  • Sink your hips down.
  • Never ever let your chest collapse!  (Keep the Warrior spirit going.)

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Pose #2 for Women – Virbhadrasana 2

March 2, 2016

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Virbhadrasana 2 is another standing asana that I practice almost every single day.  Just lifting my hands up and reaching out makes me feel powerful, like a Warrior.  Something about this pose feels uplifting and in the final posture I always get this feeling of empowerment.  As though I’m ready to face life with courage and power.

The benefits of Virbhadrasana II (Warrior II):

  • Expands the chest so enables better breathing.  Better breathing leads to more oxygen being assimilated into the system.  This leads to more toxins being flushed out.  Which leads to better skin and hair, amongst other things.
  • Helps in treating and managing a slipped disc.
  • Great to stretch and tone the thighs.
  • Great to stretch and tone the hips (excess fat be gone!)
  • From personal experience I can say this helps in relieving lower backache.  I instantly feel my lower back relaxing when I practice this pose.
  • Helps pregnant women deal with back ache!
  • Helps in opening up the hip joint and keeps the joint flexible and supple.  So you are less likely to injure it.
  • Keeps the knees and ankles strong and supple as well.

A few things to remember when practicing this asana:

  • Open up the chest.
  • Relax the neck and shoulders.
  • Extend the hands out as much as possible, down to the fingertips.
  • Make sure the back knee is locked and thighs are tight.
  • The front thigh should be parallel to the floor.
  • The knee and the ankle of the front leg should be in one straight line.

And a very personal tip:  When practicing this asana try to focus on the fact that this pose commemorates Virabhadra, the Warrior Shiva created to avenge Sati’s (his wife) death.  Try and channelize your inner Warrior and watch how your struggles and hurdles melt away into insignificance.

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Pose #1 for Women – Virbhadrasana 1

March 1, 2016

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Let’s start this series with a standing asana.  When planning a yoga routine, it’s always good to throw in a couple of standing asanas because they increase strength and vitality.  They also make you feel more energetic and warm the body up for the remaining session.  Most standing asanas work on strengthening the legs.  Along with this (because yogasanas work on multiple aspects at the same time), standing asanas work on balance and in Virbhdrasana 1 you are also working on opening up the hips.  Which is why this pose is great for women.  Any hip opener will work on toning and stretching the muscles of the lower back, which is imperative for pregnant women as well as for people who sit a lot.

The benefits of Virbhardasana 1 (Warrior 1):

  • strengthens the legs
  • strengthens the arms (yes!  because you’re not only raising your arms up you are reaching up and spreading your fingers wide and ensuring that all the muscles of the arms are activated.)
  • opens the hips and ensures that blood circulation around the hip joint and abdominal organs is increased.
  • blood circulation to the reproductive organs is also increased, which is what helps in alleviating symptoms of PCOS/PCOD.
  • opens up the chest (in the final pose lift the sternum up).  This helps in opening up the lungs, which helps in better quality of breath.
  • better breathing helps in more oxygen being assimilated into the system and this energizes the entire body.
  • improves balance (it looks easy but balancing in this asana can be a challenge for some)
  • with an improvement in balance comes an improvement in concentration levels.

This pose can be practiced by everyone, except those who are suffering from hip, knees, back or shoulder injuries.  If you feel that you are not practicing this pose correctly, ask your teacher for help, or leave me a comment.

Also – pregnant and menstruating women can practice Virbhadrasana 1 too.

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On the Yogi’s Bedside

February 21, 2016
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‘Light on Yoga’ is currently with a student.

All yoga practitioners reach a point when they start to look beyond their yoga class for resources to explore more.  Some look for more guidance and some for answers.  Usually we turn to the internet and look up all the books and their reviews we can find.  We start to look for teachers and students see if we can find the light through the avenues which they are seeking answers.

There are many many books written on the subject of yoga.  From coffee table books to instruction manuals.  YouTube gives you access to teachers old and new.  I’ve been through my fair share of texts.  Some have been forgettable, some have been good and some I consider essential.  The books below have not only given me food for thought, but have also helped with my asana practice, philosophy etc.  I still have a bunch of books that I’m waiting to devour (birthday shopping), but until now, the below are books I consider indispensable

  1. Light on Yoga by B.K. S. Iyengar.  None of the other books on this list come close to being as detailed as this one.  Published some time in the 60s (the earliest editions I could find are from 1965), it is astounding in terms of the sheer attention to detail.  I guess this is only a reflection of the practice of Iyengar yoga.  You’ll find the asnwer to almost any question about yoga in this book.  I also love the simple and crisp tone of the book.  There are no frills and cup cakes.  It’s forthright, businesslike and super technical.  When in doubt, this is my go-to resource.
  2. Hatha Yoga Pradipika by Swami Muktibodhananda.  I’m currently  reading this one. I borrowed the one published by the Yoga Publications Trust of Munger (the Bihar School of Yoga).  I like the fact that the appendix contains the Sanskrit text as well as the English translations for the Sutras.  It has illustrations which help in understanding asanas and ideas.  This is an excellent, easy to understand, comprehensive translation for anyone who can take the time out to patiently go through it (the book is a thick one.)
  3. Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha by Swami Satyananda Saraswati.  This text focuses on the physical side of the practice.  So there are lots of illustrations and the descriptions of the asanas, mudras etc are detailed and amazing.  I haven’t been through this book cover to cover, but I have come back to it every once in a while when I need to understand the nuances of an asana.  The drishti and the bandhas for each asana are also specified, which is important as you deepen your practice.  In this way I think this book serves beginners and advanced practitioners alike.
  4. Yoga Mala by K Pattabhi Jois.  I hadn’t heard about this (or much about Ashtanga for that matter) before I went to Mysore.  I love this book because I felt it broadened my approach to yoga.  In Mysore, not only was I practicing Ashtanga yoga but I was also interacting with long time Ashtangis.  Reading this book around the same time put a lot of things into context. Being an Iyengar practitioner, I’ve never really looked to read books by other teachers, and I felt that this book changed my perspective about yoga as a whole (in a good way).  After reading this book I realized that it’s important for yoga practitioners to actively pursue the teachings of a range of teachers/traditions.  The value of the teachings of all great teachers should not be underestimated.
  5. Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by B.K.S Iyengar.  This book is quite intense, so you need take your time with it.  In fact, you can even use this book as a reference book.  Some Sutras will make sense to you right now, some will make sense to you 10 years from now.  But every Sutra has been explained exhaustively in Iyengar’s easy, free flowing and concise style.  You’ll read a lot of translations of the Sutras and meet a lot of teachers who will expostulate about them, but this book is a great way to start your studies of the Yoga Sutras.
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The only kind of shopping I can indulge in.

 

 

 

 

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How Yoga Can Help Create a Better India…and a Better World

January 25, 2016

I’ve been watching a lot of videos of master teachers Saraswati and Sharath Jois lately to glean wisdom from their philosophy.  Yoga is a living breathing philosophy.  The way it was taught and practiced a hundred years ago was different from how it is being taught and practiced now.  The world is changing.  And with that, yoga’s role in this changing world.

Just 50 years ago perhaps the greatest challenge in the yoga world was the lack of awareness of the practice.  Now the challenges are greater.  Advances in science, increases in population, changes in lifestyle etc., have brought along an increase in stress and psychosomatic diseases.  Which has resulted in an increase in crime.

Sharath Jois, in one of his many interviews says that besides asanas we have to practice Ahimsa and Satya.  And if hundreds of people practiced Satya and Ahimsa, then it will be good for society.  There will be no violence and no bad things happening.  That’s the message that yoga is trying to give us.  Sharath goes on to say that our responsibility is not only to think about ourselves but also to think about the plants and the animals and other living beings.   I guess here he’s trying to tell us that to live in harmony is perhaps the best way to co-exist with each other and with the life around us.  And if every one of us practices Satya and Ahimsa, we can change the world.

In recent years a lot of young people have started coming forward to drive change.  Whether it’s in politics, entrepreneurship, social work, education etc., the youth has made an impact.  However, at a deeper level, to make a change in the fabric of the social psyche itself, maybe we need to practice Ahimsa and Satya with ourselves.  Know when to push forward and to hold ourselves back.  To know which battles are worth fighting and which are just fueling our ego.   To sometimes accept that though we tried our best, but our best wasn’t good enough.  (Which is OK because there are too many more mountains to climb so wallowing in self pity isn’t a good idea.)

Sharath also says, “Life is very precious, life is very important.  So how you lead your life is very important.”

A little more Satya and Ahimsa with the usual Asana will help us create a better world.

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And the Theme for This Year Is…

January 5, 2016

And the first weekend of the year is already over.  There’s a certain amount of superstition associated with the first day of the year and this time the first day also led us into the first weekend of the year.  In Bangalore they implemented the law mandating a helmet for pillion riders.  In Delhi they started initiatives for pollution control.  I guess even governments aren’t immune to the charm of the first day  of the new year.

I spent the first weekend of the year at home, relaxing.  I had re-organized my bookshelf and my closet so I was basking in the after glow of accomplishment.  I’d already made my resolutions but I wanted to hang out a bit by myself to think about and to ‘sense’ where I am headed this year.  A couple of years ago I stopped making life impacting and life changing resolutions and started becoming more realistic about things.  That move evolved into the 80-20 approach I follow in life.  80% of the time I stick to ‘good’ and ‘constructive’ habits (eating well, exercising, meditating) and 20% of the time I let go (cribbing, bitching, drowning my sorrows in chocolate).  So this year instead of telling myself that I was going to run a marathon or finally do a pull up, I told myself I would focus on what would get me these goals.  And that would be training every day without fail.  (Here I allow myself the 80-20 rule, however, if I see the balance shifting to 79-21, then I ruthlessly force myself to make it 100-0.)

I also took some time to think about the work I do and to plan where I want to take it.  I thought about the projects I’m involved with and whether they are in line with the larger goals I would like to accomplish.  I looked at my schedule and cleaned it up.  For those commitments that I simply can’t let go of, I looked at how I can work on them to serve me rather than feeling helpless or dreading the work.

And also, I thought to myself that this year I should let time and life unfold before me and be a passive observer.  The last few months have taught me that fighting and resisting never works.  What works is to become fluid and go with the flow.  Not all battles need to be fought.  Most, in fact, are a waste of time.  Conserve your energy for those things that matter.   My theme for this year is Interaction.  Interaction with readers, followers, students, teachers, colleagues, friends..etc.  Fruitful interactions may lead to great collaborations.  Great collaborations may lead to amazing projects.  And amazing projects can change peoples’ lives.

Check out a few videos that I did (on behalf of HealthifyMe) with TheHealthSite.  We spent an exhausting but fun day in Bombay filming these.

 

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Resting. Reflecting. Ruminating.

December 27, 2015

I’ve been reading ‘A Town Like Alice’ obsessively for the last few days and am so engrossed in the book that I decided to hole myself up the entire weekend and do nothing but read.  Towards the evening (when I was about 74% through the book according to the Kindle), I happened to glance at my calendar and realized that this is the last Sunday of the year!  Next weekend is the first weekend of 2016 (and that calls for another blog.  Any  suggestions?).  I always do a kind of stock taking at the end of every year.  This blog was on my mind for a while, but I’ve been busy getting back into the groove of things post Mysore, and of course, procrastinating.  Last year I was so excited about learning something new that I didn’t even wait until the end of the year to put up the blog.

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I know, how could I look at this only towards the end of the day, right?

There have been many ‘firsts’ for me this year.  I went to Mysore to practice Ashtanga yoga under Saraswati.  For 15 days I was just another yoga student, practicing and connecting and exploring Mysore.  It gave me much food for thought, and ties I hope get stronger with time.  It also added a new dimension to my practice.  While I just discovered Ashtanga, I have to  say that I’ve practiced it without fail every single day since I left Mysore.  I find that I enjoy the physical rigor of an early morning Ashtanga practice.  However, the Iyengar style engages my mind.  (Don’t get me wrong, Ashtanga also does, but I’m too new to the practice to be able to look beyond the physical aspect.)  Post my Ashtanga practice I feel energized to take the day on, post the Iyengar practice I feel calm and meditative.

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The main Shala, the venue for our Saturday conferences.

There were a lot of ‘first’ for me in terms of food and diet.  I learned how to bake.  For a long time I’ve been toying with the idea of baking my own bread and this year I finally got down to it.  Not only did I bake my own bread, but there have been other experiments with the oven as well (and I’ve shared a few as well).  Baking bread was a bit more of a challenge as I wanted whole wheat and vegan.  A lot of people told me that it can’t be done, that ‘whole-wheat’ meant ‘a bit of maida‘ but I was going to give it a fair shot, before I accepted that.  It helps to have colleagues who will politely swallow your experiments and encourage you for your next loaf regardless.

I explored veganism a bit more this year.  I attended a talk by Dr. Nandita20151219_110140[1] and as usual, assimilated that which made sense.  I blogged about it here. It is only natural then that I marked the last weekend of the year by baking a vegan cake.  I also attended a talk by Rujuta Diwekar and was super excited and happy for so many reasons.

Apart from Ashtanga yoga and baking, another ‘first’ is registering for a run.  Everyone around me seems to be running all kinds of marathons.  Bangalore has numerous marathons and runs year round and I never got around to registering for one.  So when a student sent me a link to register for the SBI Pinkathon Bangalore 2016, I decided to register.  I’ll try my best to train for the run, although it may be a bit difficult given my schedule.  And since the run is on the 31st of Jan, the last day of the first month of next year will also be a ‘first’ for me!

Also, the one thing that needs to be done every year is to throw out that which doesn’t serve you anymore to create room for that which does.  This can be the most mundane and tiresome of things (for me clearing out my closets and donating a bunch of stuff) to things like unsubscribing from all those mailing lists that take up precious space in your inbox (I spent some time doing this too today).  Clearing out your inbox, HDDs and closets is easier than clearing out your mind.  In the next few days I intend to take a good look at people, habits and thoughts that are taking unnecessary space in the shelves of my mind, and attempt to reason them out of there for good.

And before I forget, 2015 is also the year when I shot my first video for The Health Site.

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Being Enlightened by Rujuta Diwekar

December 20, 2015

20151219_130154[1]For the last one week or so my friend Geetanjali and I have been excited about the Rujuta Talk that was held yesterday at Sadhu Vaswani Mission’s Little Lamps Pre School.  The excitement was palpable at the venue.  The seats up front were already taken and the camera people were ready.  The best thing about Rujuta’s ideas and beliefs about food is that she preaches a holistic approach to food.  There is nothing fitness fad-ish about what her advice, and her diet guidelines are ‘accessible’ for the masses.  With this in mind I went prepared with pen and paper.

Rujuta’s talk focused on overall family wellness.  So she spoke a lot about children.  There was a Q&A afterwards, where enthusiastic fans needed answers  to all their questions.  I tried my best to note down as much as I could.  Here are my notes:

EXERCISE

  1. 90 minutes of exercise a day is recommended for children.
  2. 150 minutes a week for adults.  Rujuta recommends that you have three sessions a week: weight training, yoga and cardio.  According to Rujuta, men develop a paunch when they lose strength and muscle in their lower body.  Womens’ hips grow wider.  Weight training is an excellent solution for the paunches and the wide hips of this  world.
  3. For every 30 minutes you sit, stand for 3 minutes.  (I’ve already started this by setting an alarm on my phone.)
  4. Diabesity = diabetes + obesity.
  5. Exercise 3 days a week AT A FIXED TIME.  (I believe this has a lot to do with discipline.  In my experience people who don’t pencil their workouts into their calendars are the ones who do them ‘later.’)

SLEEP

  1.  Don’t look at anything that emits light an hour before you sleep.  An important point she made is that fitness bands (the current fad) also emit light and fall under this rule.  So bands that are supposed to measure the quality of your sleep are actually promoting bad quality of sleep.  In her irreverent manner Rujuta said that if you want to know how well you slept then look at the person sleeping next to you.  If you haven’t tossed and turned and snored the entire night, then they would be sleeping peacefully, and that’s a more accurate measure of the quality of your sleep.  (I would like to point out that you maybe have tossed and turned for reasons agreeable to both of you…)
  2. Body chemistry and biology is determined by the HPT axis – Hypothalamus Pituitary Thyroid. (These actually correspond to chakras!)
  3. The HGH (Human Growth Hormone).  With the decreases of HGH there is a also a decrease in muscle tissue and a corresponding increase in fat stores.  And lack of sleep contributes immensely to the decrease of HGH.  (The lack of quality sleep is perhaps what is causing the increase in childhood obesity?)
  4. HGH also decreases with age, which is why you gain weight as you age.  This is why it’s imperative that you continue to workout as you age.

FOOD

  1. Always have breakfast.  Your breakfast should be hot and homemade.  Never have anything that comes out of a packet such as oats and cereals and tetra pack milk (!).
  2. Have your husband cook twice a week  Here Rujuta made a point that resonated very strongly the feminist in me.  She said that most of us have grandfathers who can cook.  Some of us have dads who can cook.  But none of us have husbands who can cook.  In fact our husbands may not even know how much sugar we take in our tea!  To be empowered doesn’t mean to only go out and earn a living and draw a fat paycheck.  Empowerment also has a great deal to do with how much equality exists in the home.
  3. Don’t count the composition of your food (calories, carbohydrates, protein, fat etc.)
  4. Coconuts have no cholesterol.
  5. Cashews have no cholesterol.  If you have high levels of blood sugar you should have cashews.
  6. The USDA has revised it’s guidelines in April 2015 to state that there is no link between cholesterol consumption and heart disease.
  7. Learn food systems and not food groups.
  8. Have a banana on your way to the airport and not a Subway sandwich.
  9. Are you bloated when you wake up?  Do you crave for coffee/tea post a meal?  Are you constipated?  Fear no more!  Just have a banana.  Bananas contain prebiotics, they help in fat burn and they are rich in fiber.  Prebiotics provide the infrastructure for all the millions of good bacteria to flourish in your gut.  These are as important as probiotics.
  10. Great breakfast option:  Roti + banana + sugar
  11. Great fruits with a meal: bananas, jackfruit and mangoes.
  12. “Banana zaroor khana.”
  13. Ghee helps in post pregnancy weight loss.
  14. Make your ghee from milk.  Do NOT use your mixer because the heat from the centrifugal force kills the important fatty acid bonds in the ghee.
  15. Ghee has prebiotics.
  16. Ghee reduces the GI (Glycemic Index) of food.
  17. Have single polished and hand pounded rice.  Rice has lycene, an amino acid which is linked to HGH.  HGH is at it’s peak in the night so if you have rice in the night, you give your HGH a boost.
  18. Raagi is high in calcium, gluten free and high in fiber.  It is a complete non allergen and it’s great for bones.  In an age when everyone seems to be deficient in Vitamin D – Raagi is the solution because it helps in retaining it!
  19. Sugarcane detoxes and cleanses your system.  (It’s cold pressed!  Rujuta exclaimed mirthfully.)  If you have sugarcane juice in the winter, you can prevent all the seasonal issues that come along with the onset of winters.
  20. Jaggery – another form of sugarcane!  It contains glycolic acid which prevents wrinkles and it keeps your collagen intact.  (Personally I’d rather eat wholesome food containing glycolic acid than slathering on chemical formulae on my face.)

Post the session everyone gathered around Rujuta to ask her questions, take pictures and have her sign their books.  I also took a book along but was dissuaded to go up to her by the throng of people around her.  However, Geetanjali whipped out her phone and egged me on.  And when I finally managed to get up to Rujuta and told her that I’ve taken notes and is it OK if I put it up on the blog, she said yes! of  course and what blog is it that I write for?  I told her that I have a blog called yogawithpragya and Geetanjali captured this moment:

 

Rujuta says she’s read my blog!!!! OMG!!!! Rujuta Diwekar has visited my blog (happy dance)!!!!  That explains this expression:

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All in all it was an awesome morning.  Rujuta is an engaging and intelligent speaker.  She seamlessly links grandmother’s food wisdom to solutions to modern day environmental issues such as global warming.  She talks about cooking and women’s empowerment.  She talks about the transience of food fads.  And she reads the newspapers and this blog! 🙂

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