Here's day two of a recent Patricia Walden workshop. We'll work through this sequence.
PW Sunday Morning Asana Standing Poses and Backbends.
AMVirasana
AMS
Jump to uttansana did this twice
Urdhva Hastasana and bind elbows above head and extend forward into uttasanasana.
Paryankasana without block
Tadasana Hands in paschimo badanguliasana keep hands at buttocks and go into uttansana keeping hands stretch up to ceiling.
Prasarita Padottansana II
Parsvottansana Full pose.
Prasarita Padottansana II
Vira I, lots of emphasis on back legwork, ground big toe, move from inner heel to outer heel to keep outer heel down, broaden top of back thigh and turn pelvis around. Hands on hips can use hands to help with leg actions, ie opening back of thighs, bringing outer pelvis around. Then Vimanansana turning torso with motion keeping back leg stable as much as possible then full pose
Virasana ankles together. Parvatasana arms.
AMS strong work lift inner arms up and open armpits more.
Vira III with arms in paschima badanguliasana, keep hands at buttocks. Extend collarbones and chest forward, work to level pelvis in all aspects
AMS with the inner arm lift.
Vira III full pose arms and chest like AMS lift inner arms up and shoulder blades in away from ceiling. Get this action while in the transitional “take two breaths” stage.
AMvrk one leg then other leg, the weaker leg again. Keeping hands in same place between holds. Pretty long holds. pointing toes
Uttanasana
Sirsasana,
Virasana in Sirsasana really strong pointing toe action down toward the floor.
Sirsasana
Amvira chin on the floor.
AMVrk working on balance taking one leg and then the other away from the wall. Balance if not now when?
Ustrasana Ankles Belted did a lot of work with cervical bend, then thoracic just extending up and looking back, keeping thighs parallel with front of room. then imagine pillow in lower back and you are lifting over and up the pillow to go back. After working to touch ankles with both hands, we Also dropped back with the hands in Sarvangasana II helps with rotation and also touching hands at the same time. We did a like twenty of these.
Bhujangasana ankles belted leg action, broaden back of the thighs, extend through all ten toes, come up but emphasis was more on coiling. Did twice.
Dhanurasana ankles belted here there was an enormous emphasis on how much this is a leg pose. Lift the root of the thighs straight up. Didn’t really lift chest much. Keep knees close together. Then we weren’t really getting leg action so
Eka Pada dhanursana so we could lift the leg up and back more. The lift of the legs is going eventually toward extended phases of padangushta Dhanurasana ganda bherundasana.
Dhanurasana again and the lift of the legs was definitely better. All together we did this four or five times.
Urdhva mukas svanasana hands on blocks feeling freedom in upper body we unbelted the ankles. Very free feeling
Urdhva Dhanurasana from chair. An interesting analogy to the chair being like our body, back legs of chair for the legs, front legs like the arms. lifting tailbone lift chair off the floor. Did about 4 times. Her order of work was sitting straight get extension in spine and shoulderblade coiling, then lay down and take buttocks through. Then press chair arms to get verticality, then slide off more and move arms down to get coiling, then bring arms over head, lift up from legs first and then lift shoulders off chair once you have the full height in legs walk in as you can.
Urdhva Dhanurasana off bolster hands at wall, several times. Same emphasis on the legs first walk in as you can, take chest closer to the wall but by walking in and lifting inner shoulders up not by pushing chest forward. Can use blocks for hands if necessary and two bolsters if necessary probably did about 5 or 6 times.
Parsva Uttanasana with leg you are shifting toward bent bring abdomen to thigh, very different release with the leg bent.
Bharadvajasana One from table pose (chaturdanadsana) on height when sitting as needed extend arms up then turn.
Bharadvajasana Two up on height as needed from table pose (chaturdanadsana) going into these twists this way keeps weight off the spine after backward bending notice different in the two twists in lower back.
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Halasana strong outer thigh lifting up.
Sarvangasana use fingers to lift where the spine sinks. Same emphasis on abdomen tone not flopping down not sucking in but supporting internal organs.
Eka pada Sarvangasana pointing toes again… keep top leg lifting up and turning in.
Parsva Eka pada Sarvangasana lift kidney of down leg up very strongly and extend from buttock to the heel.
Sarvangasana
Supta Konasana weight supposed to be on little toe side of foot more than toes.
Halasana lots of lift in the thighs
Supta BK or Supta sukasana legs on bolster if sukasana belt legs. We got to choose which one.
Savasana can keep bolster under legs.