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Day 14 - Backbend Actions in Standing Poses with Abhijata

Tamara Hockey

Updated: Mar 11, 2023




We've reached the mid point of the month and I feel like I've been here forever! Life has settled down into a lovely rhythm of practice, sunshine and lots of lovely healthy fresh fruits and veggies. We walked to the institute via the interesting route through the shanty town and gathered a little entourage of boys, extremely keen to chat in English and show us the shortest way through the maze. Given that we seem to get lost on every attempt, this was very helpful and so we found ourselves splashing through very narrow back alleys between overhanging houses right in the heart of people's living quarters, giving us bemused looks as we passed, smiling apologetically. The social stratas are still very defined here and although everyone is super-friendly, the assumption is, we must surely be lost to be venturing into this territory.


We were all delighted to see Abhi back from Australia and straight back into teaching with as much clarity and focus as ever. The class was busy, so much so that we folded our sticky mats in two, lengthways to make the room feel less crowded. I have been attending this class as an online participant for several months, so it felt amazing to be there in the flesh at last.


The class focussed on backbend actions in standing poses - we started with Salabhasana to imprint the feeling of middle buttock pressing into the body , abdominal length and dorsal in and then endeavoured to recreate it in Trikonasana, Parsvakonasana and Ardha Chandrasana. After we had attempted all three, she asked had we been able to successfully apply these actions and there was a mumbled, doubtful response - she laughed and joked 'Last twenty minutes wasted then!' and then we spent some time creating openess in hips and groins, before trying again with much greater success.


I was not able to get notes on the sequence this evening and I was distracted by a feeling of instability in my back, so we're a bit thin on details this evening. Here is my best attempt at remembering the main points:


Day 14 - Abhijata Intermediate – Abdominal Length in Backbend Action


  • Swastikasana – Fingers cupped behind, arching back, lifting the chest and looking up.

  • AMVirasana – AMSvanasana – roots of the thighs take them back, shins take them back – Uttanasana – AMSvanasana.

  • Prasarita Paddottonasana

  • Here we split into 2 groups: Men – AMVrksasana – 1) Kicking up with the right leg 2) Kicking up with the left leg 3) Jumping up with both legs. Straighten the elbows, roll the outer thighs inwards and RUB the heels up the wall. Women – Bharadvajasana 1 -sides of the waist long, chest well lifted. Then men and women swap poses.

  • Parsvottonasana

  • Uttanasana

  • Tadasana – weight on the heels. Abdominal length, chest lifted.

  • Urdhva Baddangullyasana – Take the upper arms further back. Take the elbows back.

  • Paschima Baddha Hastasana, both crosses of the elbows.

  • Trikonasana – Middle buttock has to move forward and length between pubic bone and navel has to be maintained.

  • In Tadasana she showed that we are not trying to tilt the pubic bone upward towards the navel, we are trying to move the middle buttock forward and make length between pubic bone and navel.

  • Salabhasana variation with fingers interlocked stretching back and feet slightly apart – Middle buttock into the body – we did this to bring awareness of this action to take the imprint into the standing poses x 2 changing the interlock of the fingers.

  • Utthita Hasta Padasana – Can you recreate middle buttock forward and abdominal length? Hands to upper buttock. Arching back. She got us to take the side of one hand to the pubic bone and the side of one hand to the navel, maximising the distance between the two. Can you keep the same length when you go down to Trikonasana?

  • Utthita Trikonasana like Salabhasana – Middle buttock into the body, length between pubis and navel. Sternum bone lengthening away from abdominal cavity, head back, chest open.

  • Repeat Salabhasana - your choice whether to interlock the fingers or go for classical position, focus on middle buttock pressing.

  • Parsvakonasana – Salabhasana actions.

  • Ardha Chandrasana – Salabhasana actions.

  • Baddha Konasana

  • Here she asked – Were you able to recreate those Salabhasana actions in the last 3 poses? Most people said no they couldn’t and she joked ‘Last 20 minutes wasted then!!’ and asked Why? What was preventing that action from being felt? Which we all struggled to articulate. To illustrate the problem she asked us to take feet hip distance apart and turn the right leg out – observe the moment you turn the right leg out the buttock goes back.

  • Anantasana – Full pose (laugh if you can’t manage the balance, it will make your body lighter!) Line up your body on the back edge of the mat. Heels, buttocks and head in one line. Take the hand further and further away to open the armpit fully on the floor. Go up into the full pose (leg extended, catching the big toe, head supported on the hand). Pubic bone to navel length. Once we had attempted both sides, she asked us what we do in this pose, how we cheat to get the balance? – we take the bottom leg forward and the buttock falls backwards. Understand that we do the same in the standing poses.

  • Ardha Baddha Padmottonasana (facing wall if required) – Rotating thigh outward thoroughly so that the action reaches the hip socket.

  • Rolled blanket just under tailbone – Supta Baddha Konasana – Blanket lifting tailbone, taking knees closer to the floor.

  • Then bend legs up to Marichyasana and put right foot on left knee, rotating in the hip socket to take the right knee further away.

  • Baddha Konasana – alternately taking right knee then left knee to the floor.

  • 1 leg Baddha Konasana, 1 leg Virasana. Pick the Baddha Konasana foot up (with your two hands one holding under the foot, the other holding the outer ankle )and rotating in the hip joint repeatedly take the knee back (towards the person behind you) and down (towards the floor). This was opening the groin, but also intensely rotating in the hip socket to lengthen the knee down. For those that are stiff in the hips / groins put the foot on one or two bolsters. Briefly place the foot in padmasana (as if you were going to do Bharadvajasana 2) before repeating on the other side.

  • Parsva Utthita Padasana Demo from behind– The front thigh of the back leg has to roll out and the front thigh of the front leg has to roll out and then if there was a thread that joined the two, as you rolled them both outward, the thread would meet at the back and get tied in a bow.

  • Parsva Utthita Hasta Padasana creating the above rotation into Parsvakonasana – Bringing the hand in front. Bent leg knee, use the arm to push it back as the buttock moves forwards. Back leg thigh, roll it back. Move middle buttock forward, length between pubis and navel, length of the front body, dorsal moving in and head back – do like a backbend. And now lower abdomen close to the hip, rotate it up towards the ceiling.

  • Ardha Chandrasana – Same actions

  • Better? (It was universally agreed that we were able to get the salabhasana actions much better now that there was freedom in the hips and groins).

  • AMSvanasana

  • Sirsasana – Sides of the navel longer. Normally we get instructions to lengthen the legs, but can you lengthen the legs from the abdomen? As if the legs started deeper in the abdomen and from there lengthen up. This created a tremendous length in the abdominal cavity.

  • Virasana Sirsasana – Middle buttocks forwards, lengthen the fronts of the thighs up and roll the knees over more and see here can you create that same length on the sides of the navel, abdominal cavity.

  • Setubandha, hands in back chest in Sarvangasana position and legs bent (Feet on the wall, legs extended if back is paining or buttock is dropping). Suggested support, one or two blankets under the shoulders. Buttock into the body has to maintained. If buttock is not into the body, then take the legs higher up on the wall. Pose cannot be held continuously, so come down and rest when needed and then go up again.

  • Supta Tadasana legs extended, feet together and pressing into the wall. Come a little closer to the wall, grasp the outer edges of the mat, bend the legs and move the buttocks away from the waist. Press the feet into wall and straighten the legs creating traction on the upper buttock away from the waist, giving length to the abdomen. Turn your eyes to inwardly observe the abdomen. Excavating inhalations in the abdominal cavity – so from the pubis to the navel excavating the back of the body with the inhalation.

  • Savasana – you can keep the feet at the wall if you like, but let the breathing be natural now. Brain should not dominate - it is just another organ with functions to perform, like any other organ. Brain should be an observer.


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