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February 9th Rajalaxmi

Tamara Hockey

Updated: Jan 21

stick lady

Carrying big bundle of sticks on head.

As I went into the institute I bumped into Zoe who I hadn’t seen for a few days, she explained she’d been having terrible problems with her knee and had an MRI scan on it, giving her the good news that it was an injury that could heal, rather than arthritis. As I took my place in the hall I prepared my knee support, as it’s forward bend week it was likely I’d need it. My neighbour, a local lady, took a great interest as I put it on as she too had a knee problem. So guess what the theme for tonight’s class was?? Yep you guessed it KNEES!

Rajalaxmi taught us a number of methods of working with the knees and we repeated baddha konasana several times – we had to spread the buttock bones wide apart and then lift up off the floor and draw the buttock bones upward into the body, keeping them up, we had to release the flesh of the buttocks down to sit – almost only hovering. This made us wide open in the groins and vastly improved the baddha konasana. We learnt to make space in the knee joint and fill out the outer knee which tends to be concave. This was all very helpful and as I walked home I could feel a great improvement in my bad knee and in the way I was walking – the weight was falling more evenly so that the slight collapse that caused the knee problem in the first place wasn’t there.

Rajalaxmi got so involved in teaching the class that she didn’t notice that time was way over – it was already 7.45pm and class was supposed to end at 7.30pm and she was telling us to go up into full arm balance. She gave such a great look of comedy horror when someone pointed out the time and made us all laugh. Class was big and busy with lots of local people mixing with the foreigners and I made friends with a local girl and swapped numbers so we can meet up for a coffee.

You may have noticed that I haven’t reported on any of Prasant’s classes – I made the decision this trip not to go. The 7am start doesn’t suit my natural rhythm at all and I feel that at this stage of my yoga journey, the intermediate classes are more beneficial to me.

Women’s class in the morning, but I haven’t so much as caught a glimpse of Geetaji since arriving, so I’m assuming it will be Abhi.

park 2
park 3
park

9th February – Rajalaxmi


How many people have problem to sit in Virasana? Take piece of sticky mat, brick, bolster, and belt.

Vajarasana – ankles tightly tied together –observe how the inner knee is well lifted away from the floor. This we want to keep in virasana.

Also rolled backwards and forwards on the tips of the toes, still with the belt tied tight.

Virasana – Inner knees up, sitting on outer shin

AMS – what do you observe about the knees? For me I observed a tightness on the outer knee ligament, a concavity there. This it turns out was exactly what she hoped we would observe. The concavity on the outer knee, compared to the fullness of the inner knee.

Tadasana with the brick between the inner knees and belt around the mid shin (the bulge). Brick must not tilt front or backside upward. Patellas aligned to the front. Now the the outer knee has to press directly inward toward the inner knee (NOT rotate inward, direct movement like an arrow from outside in) and then against that inward pressure, the inner knee has to hit directly toward the outer knee – can you fill out the indent on the outer knee?

AMS – with the brick same work – have you made progress on filling out the outer knee? I had.

Baddha konasana – 1) Spread the buttock bones out wide to the sides 2) Make the back thigh the front thigh, rotate there 3) Lift up off the floor /or your support – lift the buttock bones up into the body and release the flesh down 4) Use the belts to lengthen the inner knees away (you have to be clever with the belt, one way lengthens the calf muscle, one way the hamstring)

Baddha Konasana – brick between the feet, repeating the above adjustment.

1 leg upavista, 1 leg marichyasana, turning the marichyasana foot out 90 degrees. Lift up and spread the buttock bones and turn foot out more, lift the bones up and release the flesh down.

Repeating the above and coming up onto the toes of the marichyasana foot (sankatasana???) making sure the knee stays down

She explained that many of the ligaments that affect the knee and the groins originate deep up inside the body. And that tightness there can also be emotional in origin – some turbulence, trauma there.

Baddha Konasana twist – lift the sit bones up to turn, otherwise the pelvic won’t turn.

Parsva Upavista Konasana – Here also lifting up, spreading the buttock bones to the sides, lifting sitting bones up releasing flesh down. Turning and head to brick.

Paschimottonasana – Brick up on its height, sternum to brick. Then brick flat and head down.

Virasana variation – one foot across the other, both sides

Full Virasana – see how easily you can sit between the feet now, but see how much you have to rotate the upper outer thigh to prevent the inner knee from rolling down. We learnt to genuinely sit on the outer shin.

Supine kamalasana – either at the wall or in the centre – if in the centre you can release the knees down towards / onto the floor.

Seated kamalasana – bend forward to release the groin to take foot up, other foot on the brick and slide it across

Pachimottonasna – head supported

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