Area Yoga Brooklyn

Hanumanasana

The Hindu mythical monkey Hanuman represents pure love and devotion and his corresponding yoga pose asks your body and soul to stretch to their maximum. As we approach our holiday season of charity, giving, and reflection, practice Hanumanasana to bring some fearlessness to your love. 

Tina gives over to Hanuman

Getting In: BKS Iyengar is known to have torn his hamstring demonstrating this pose in his youth. Explore hanumanasana toward the middle of your practice, when your muscles are at their warmest and your energy at its peak. Useful props for this pose are a blanket or towel (for your front foot to slide easily along the floor, as opposed to on your sticky mat) and blocks (to use as support under your hands or underneath your front sitting bone and thigh). Start on bended knee, with your right foot forward and your left knee and top of your left foot on the ground. Consider what is the best way for you to get into the pose with your floor and mat. If you’d like a bit extra slide, place a folded blanket or towel on the floor at the head of your mat and then scoot forward so your right foot is on the blanket and your left knee is directly below your left hip. Be sure your blocks are placed on either side of your waist within easy reach. Begin to allow your hips to sink forward, aiming your right sitting bone toward your right heel. Find the stretch along your front left thigh and begin to lift your right toes off the floor so only your right heel is on the blanket. With the blocks under your hands, slide your right foot slowly and directly forward to explore the depth of the stretch in your left thigh and the new stretch in your under right thigh, under your right sitting bone. (The blanket on a hardwood floor will slide very easily. Take it slow!) Take a look behind you to ensure that your left leg is directly behind you and not off to one side. Align your left foot with your knee and hip. Begin to creep your right foot forward, to extend both your legs. If your hands are on blocks (see photo below),

Using blocks in Hanumanasana

resist the urge to sink your weight into the blocks and instead, think of lifting your hips and body weight up by almost drawing your legs’ energy back in toward you. Once you’ve found your maximum stretch, either keep your hands on the blocks or place one block under your right thigh near your sitting bone at the height appropriate for your stretch. The block has 3 heights, low, medium, and high; choose the one that best fits beneath you. Stick with the stretch and breathe deep and even breaths. Take time to back up out of the pose and to rest in child’s pose before moving to the left side.

Lining Up: Many of these adjustments may require you to get out of the pose and realign yourself. Flex your right foot and use the muscles of your right thigh to draw your right knee cap up your leg, to protect your leg from hyper-extension (especially important if you are not sitting completely on the ground). If your right leg isn’t straight, focus on moving your right heel away from you. Your right big toe and knee should be pointing directly up. Without turning around to look, identify your left toes on the ground behind you and press the top of your left foot into the ground to encourage your left leg to go more straight. Your left knee should be pointing directly into the ground. Use your right heel and the top of left foot in the ground and your inner thighs drawing together to energize your legs in, like scissors, even as you move forward to open into the pose. Your sitting bones knit together underneath you and create a supportive cushion of air and energy. This will help to keep your hips from sinking beyond your control. The scissoring of your legs subtly directs your left hip forward while your right hip crease deepens and sends your right hip subtly back. Draw your abdomen up from your pubic bone to the bottom of your rib cage to send your tailbone down and smoothe out some of the arch in your lower back. Hug in your lower ribs to lift your torso perpendicular to your legs. Roll your shoulders up, back, and down from your ears and slip your shoulder blades together and down your back to open up the front of your chest. If your hands are on blocks, lift out of them to move your shoulders away from your ears. If your hands are not on blocks, find a shape for your arms that best supports your balance and stretch: perhaps hands on your hips, in prayer or lotus mudra at your heart, or above your head in a V-shape. Turn your gaze parallel to the floor or even up and beyond the horizon. Lengthen the back of your neck by reaching the crown of your head for the sky. Let the release of your jaw and your third eye trickle down to help relax and release your hips and legs deeper into the pose.

Hanuman embraces Lord Ram

Tuning In: This demanding pose stretches your calves, hamstrings, hip flexors, and thighs and develops your hip flexibility as the two sides of your pelvis open in opposite ways (your front hip opens underneath, while your back hip opens from above). With your legs extended, see yourself making a great leap of faith that you can stay in this pose with your breath and stretch. In Hindu mythology, Hanuman saved a beloved companion who was kidnapped by an evil demon. Emboldened by love to defy limitation, Hanuman made a flying leap from India to Sri Lanka rescue his friend. By channeling a similar sense of boundless love and devotion into this demanding pose, your experience of the extreme stretch and challenge transform into an offering of love.

Pavritta Trikonasana (Rotated Triangle)

Melinda in rotated triangle.

Bakasana (Crow)

The winds of fall are swirling around us, bringing changes in the weather and our physical world. Trees are releasing their leaves and  birds are taking to the skies for their journey south. In this season of transition and wind, learn to defy gravity and harness the power of wind with bakasana (crow pose).

Erin finds Bakasana

Getting In: Start in uttanasana (standing forward bend) with your feet hip distance apart. Bend your knees deeply to bring your hands to the floor about 6″ directly in front of your feet. Your hands should be about shoulder-distance apart. Your elbows can be soft, but draw them towards your center, like in chaturanga dandasana. Aim your knees so the more you bend them, the more they connect to the outsides of your shoulder sockets. Raise your heels to come up on tip toe and nestle your knees against your shoulders. Look forward and begin to pitch your weight into your hands as your toes slowly peel off the floor. Focus your breathing so that you exhale deeply to draw your knees in closer, your feet towards your sitting bones, your belly button up from the floor, and your elbows towards straight.

Lining Up: Press the space between your thumb and first finger into the ground to help spread your weight evenly through your palms while simultaneously pulling at the ground with your finger tips to draw energy up from your hands into your arms. Give your arms an outward rotation, moving the eyes of your inner elbows to face forward, moving your upper arms into your shoulder sockets. This rotation encourages your arms to move towards each other and hold your heart above your shoulders. The more you encourage your heart to move forward, the more your shoulders move away from your ears and free up your neck. Magnetize your knees in around your shoulders to find lightness in your feet to lift toward your seat, even as your hips lift higher. Use the emptiness of your exhales to make yourself even smaller and lighter to rise out of your hands and straighten your elbows as much as you can — your elbows don’t need to be locked straight. Hollow out your belly on your exhales and hug your rib cage toward your center to encourage more of your energy forward. Keep this compact quality in your torso even on your inhales. Turn your gaze ahead of your hands to lengthen the back of your neck and open the front of your throat.

Tuck your feet, lift your heart, and take flight.

Tuning In: Bakasana helps us to build arm strength, but your abdomen also plays an important role. By shrinking your abdomen when you completely exhale, you activate what we call uddiyana bandha or the “flying-up lock”. Your complete exhale helps you to access your pelvic floor, the very base of your complex abdominal muscles in the lowest part of your pelvic bowl. The action of the exhale draws these muscles up, and in doing so, creates a gravity defying lift. In bakasana, this lift carries your hips and legs along for the ride and makes your feet feel light. You float, coast, and fly in much the same way that birds use up-drafts of wind to minimize their effort in flight. Find your source of lift and you can soar.

Salamba sarvangasana (Shoulderstand)

The weather is shifting and fall is on the horizon — school is starting and our biggest harvests are ripening. The extroverted days of summer are coming to a close. Take salamba sarvangasana (shoulderstand) to give in to the last heat of season and begin to turn your attention inward.

Tina demonstrates salamba sarvangasana

Getting In: We highly recommend you practice shoulderstand with a folded blanket under your shoulders to avoid crunching or pressing your neck into the floor. Yoga Journal has a clear photo demonstrating how to use a blanket in shoulderstand. Place a neatly folded blanket (an inch or more in thickness) at the middle of your mat. You will eventually put your shoulders on the smooth edge of the fold; take the end of your mat and fold it over the smooth fold of the blanket. Lie down, with your shoulders about an inch down from the end of the mat and blanket. Your head is off the mat and on the floor; when you touch your shoulders, you should feel an inch of mat underneath your neck. Bend your knees and place your arms along the sides of your body. Lift your knees toward your head and beyond to lift your hips. As your hips move higher, place your hands with fingers pointing towards your feet at your mid-back. With bent knees, shimmy your shoulder blades toward each other and narrow off the space between your elbows. Once your hips are directly above your shoulders, begin to lengthen your legs towards the ceiling. The higher your legs lift, the more you may want to walk your hands down your back — towards the ground and your shoulders. Take your gaze to your toes, your breathing belly, or close your eyes.

Lining Up: Lengthen your chin away from your chest to keep an open throat for steady and even breathing. Energetically move your elbows and upper arms toward each to reinforce a strong base to hold up your lifted body. Your hands press into your back to encourage your hips to move higher up off your shoulders; narrow the sides of your waist and hips to support your pelvis from the sides and underneath. Allow your abdomen to relax and move naturally with your breath. Draw your legs toward each other, as if you were standing in tadasana on the ceiling; both knees are directly facing the wall behind your head. Draw your kneecaps down your thighs. Simultaneously reach for the ceiling with your feet to ease the weight in your shoulders as gravity sends blood and energy back down into your heart center. Relax your jaw and your eyebrows to allow your head to fully release into the floor. Once you have established your alignment, you can play with variations of your legs. Be sure to also enjoy at least a minute of stillness.

Guiding light in shoulderstand

Tuning In: Salamba sarvangasana is said to be the mother of all the poses for its healing qualities. Indeed, BKS Iyengar says in Light on Yoga that shoulderstand is, “one of the greatest boons conferred on humanity by our ancient sages.” This gentle inversion is something of an antidote to standing on our feet. Shoulderstand allows your precious blood to seep down from your feet and legs back into your heart and lungs with gravity instead of the hard work of your heart. Thus, this pose promotes better circulation, a healthy heart, and flushed glands. The end of summer often signals the end of carefree, leisurely days and the beginning of a new time for introspection and turning inward. In this pose, you cannot help but observe your own self and body. Watch your belly breathe and your legs sway without any conscious movement on your part. See your torso and legs as a candle, with a bright flame at your feet. As the flame slowly burns and the wax drips down, feel your own body melt and give in.

Ustrasana (Camel Pose)

We’re into the dog-days of summer, when the temperature outside is practically equal to our body’s natural temperature — the perfect time to juicy backbends, like Ustrasana.

Teacher Tina in Ustrasana

Getting In: Be sure you are quite warm before doing this pose; ustrasana is an excellent pose for the end of your practice. Start standing on your knees and shins, with your toes tucked under. You can stand on a blanket or double mat if your knees are sensitive to stand on. Your knees should be hip distance apart; check behind you to make sure your feet are hip distance apart as well. Take your hands to a prayer at your heart. Draw your shoulder blades towards each other and allow them to slip down your spine. Broaden across the front your chest and begin to direct your sternum and heart space toward the sky. Every inhale lifts your heart higher and every exhale holds you suspended as you begin to move your upper chest up and over your shoulder blades. Reach one hand for your heel and then the other. Move the fronts of your hips and thighs forward. Either drop your head or keep looking forward. Rise back to stand. Rest in rock pose (seated on your shins). Try the pose again, but with the tops of your feet flat on the floor.

Lining Up: Connect your mind and weight into your feet, legs, and knees to give yourself a sturdy base. To broaden your lower back, energetically move your thighs toward each other, as if you held a block between your thighs. Continue to move your thighs forward, looking to balance your pelvis directly above your knees. Notice if you are pushing forward by squeezing your butt, and instead open forward by releasing your tail down and moving the stretch into your front body — as if your body was being drawn forward with magnets. Keep your breath even, yet hug your ribs in as you crawl out of the sides of your waist and put more distance between your pelvis and your ribcage. Your breath inflates your upper body, to encourage the backbend to move into your upper back. Continue to slip your shoulder blades down your back to provide a surface for your heart to rest and offer your heart to the heavens. Ensure your throat is open to allow your breath to move freely by taking the tops of your shoulders away from your ears. Allow your head to drip from your spine.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons, taken by John O'Neill

Tuning In: Though this is a backbend, you are largely stretching your quadriceps, hip flexors, and abdomen, while encouraging flexibility in your spine and openness in your shoulders. Ustrasana means “camel pose,”  and we all know that camels store precious water and moisture in their bodies to survive in the scorching heat of the desert. Can you find your inner reserves, your inner fluidity, to open into this pose and draw the juice of your being to the surface? Imagine that you are pealing a mango as you shed layers of heart and body to find the supple and juicy pose. Or perhaps you are cracking open a coconut to spill the water from inside. When you’re fully in ustrasana, imagine that your heart’s water is pouring over you in all directions.

Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon) 

We’re just past the halfway point of the year and with the sun closest to our part of the planet, Ardha Chandrasana, half-moon pose, can be our connection to the cool of the night.

Erin plays with getting into Ardha Chandrasana

Getting In: Start in virabhadrasana 2 (warrior 2), with your right foot forward. Turn your gaze toward the floor, a few feet directly in front of your right foot. Begin to reach for that spot on the floor with your right hand and press off your left foot behind you to launch forward. Your fingertips will come to the floor or you can put your hand on a block. Straighten your right leg and stack your left hip on top of your right hip – your left hip opens to allow your left toes to face the side wall. Your left leg lifts toward parallel to the floor. Take your left arm towards the sky and broaden across your collarbones to carry your left arm perpendicular to your torso and the ground. If you like, slowly turn your gaze to rest on your left hand.

Lining Up: Press your right big toe into the ground to stabilize your standing foot and simultaneously draw up your inner right arch, all the way up your right inseam. Flex your left foot as if your foot were on a wall to help keep the whole length of your leg buoyant and floating. Notice if your left leg has crossed into the plane of your right leg, and coax it back toward center by drawing your belly in; your left leg should come out straight from your hip socket. Draw both your knee caps up your legs to protect from hyper-extension. Has your lower back arched? Take some of the curve out of your back by continuing to reach out through your left foot to draw your pelvis away from your head – even take your tailbone towards your left foot; reach the crown of your head forward. Draw your abdomen in to encourage your right lung to chase your left lung as you rotate your torso evermore toward the sky. Lengthen your waist long. The more you rotate, the more your shoulder blades will glide toward each other on your back. Allow them to slip down your back to free your neck. Continue to widen across your collarbones to send your heart’s energy into both your open arms. Soften your gaze; smooth out your forehead; loosen your jaw.

Tuning In: This standing balance strengthens your legs and opens your hips and chest while promoting the sensation of lightness and buoyancy. Just as the moon radiates a soft glow, expand your energy in all directions of your body to lift yourself into your own place among the stars. (Keep breathing, lest you start to actually see stars.) No matter what your balance looks like, remind yourself that the moon is constant transit across the sky and transformation around the earth. The moon is never completely still, so allow yourself the freedom to breathe and the room to move. Let go of any anxiety about being still and smile at the idea that you are halfway between standing and completely turning your body upside down.

Phases of the Moon via Wikimedia Commons

Virabhadrasana 2 (Warrior 2)

With the weather warming up, it’s time for open, gooey poses that take advantage of the natural warmth around us to carry us into a deeper stretch.

Lining Up: Keep the outer edge of your left foot glued to the floor and draw up from your left inner arch to support your straight left leg. Breathe up your inner arch of your right foot and take your right knee out towards your right. If you look down at your right knee, you won’t be able to see your foot because your knee obstructs the view. Your hips are even and balanced between the support of your legs; your tailbone and pubic bone reach for the floor. Your left hip sinks down to meet your right hip so your spine can grow perpendicular to the ground. Bring your belly in and hug yourself with your ribs without disturbing the balance of your pelvis. Let your shoulders and shoulder blades slip down your back, releasing your neck to grow long. Take the crown of your head to the sky, yet keep grounded through your feet. Your arms are long and conduct electricity through your finger tips. As you breathe, send your breath out of your fingers and pull in new breath through your feet.

Open up to the sun and let out some heat! Photo via will mc on flikr.

Why You’re Here: This warrior pose allows your arms, shoulders, chest, hips, and legs to open up and expand. Such an open pose can help release a bit of heat from the body, while still being active and challenging. Broad-leafed plants, like those you might see in the rainforest, unfurl and widen in the sun to expend heat, all the while drinking in the sun’s rays. Warrior 2 can be luxurious in the same way. Allow your body to widen into the pose, strengthening your ankles and knees, stretching your thighs, lengthening your spine, and spilling out your arms and hands.