David Roche, Days 6-8: Mula Bandha, Mari D, Supta K

Sorry for the brain dump, but since I haven’t recapped practice in a while, I thought I’d do it before more practices accumulate!

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Friday’s Led class was, again, a variation on a theme. This time, the theme was Mula Bandha. We did the Suryas (5 As, 3 Bs), before going into an in-depth deconstruction of Surya B with a heightened awareness of activating and holding Mula Bandha throughout the movement. It occurred to me that he’s using the led classes as a chance to ‘workshop’ the basics of the Primary series with us. To break it down so that we discover familiar poses in a new way, and bring a new awareness to how we carry our bodies, which will hopefully translate into our practice. I guess you could say that since a Led Primary class is going to be pretty much the same from one teacher to the next, these Roche-style classes are his ‘value-add’ for us in a group setting.

We began the Mula Bandha experiment with feet hip width apart and hands in prayer at chest level, a few inches away from the heart and elbows lifted. Then, inhale and lower the torso into a squatting position, activating the inner legs and outer edges of the feet, tucking the navel in and ‘spreading the butt’ at the same time. There’s a lot going on here, but surprisingly, once he got to the butt spreading instructions, I felt a ‘lightness’ in the stomach/pelvic region, almost as if my belly had turned into a balloon. Then, exhale fold forward, inhale, look up and jump on the spot. Tiny, light jumps, like mini-handstands. He called them ‘kangaroo jumps’, and we were supposed to focus on initiating the jump from the pelvis, i.e., from Mula Bandha, which meant keeping most of the weight in our core and only using the hands and feet for support. That was the preface to jumping back, chaturanga, upward dog, downward dog – all the while keeping the pelvic area engaged – and then it was time to jump back: bend the knees, look up and jump, again, moving from the core. For the first time ever, I managed some semblance of a controlled, semi-floaty jump from downward dog. “Mula Bandha is not a myth!!!!” I thought to myself. Duh.

With that exercise in hand, we did the rest of the standing sequence until Parshvottanasana, and then a couple of seated stretches before calling it a day.

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 Monday’s practice was a light one. Did a half-Primary with no vinyasas between sides and only 3 UDs. I was still feeling some of the after-effects of a horrible migraine over the weekend, and with each vinyasa leaving me more light-headed than the last, I figured it would be best to take it slow and easy. I was left alone for much of the practice until Marichyasana D when David looked at my entry before asking “Do you really need to lift your sitting bones to get into the pose?”

I confess. I’ve been doing it the ‘easy’ way all this while. To get into Mari D, I set up the legs, then lean my weight into the bent knee, basically squatting on one leg, to help me get a deeper twist and bind more easily. I picked up this habit from watching another shala mate do the trick, and hey! it’s so much easier!! I’m binding effortlessly!!

{sheepish BAD LADY moment}

Now, the correct version is to keep the half lotus leg grounded while sucking in navel and trying “to bring your hip bones together”. It’s more of a visual guide than an actual instruction – to tuck the navel in so strongly that I could, theoretically, bring my hip bones together. The essence of the pose is in building up a strong and engaged core that would serve as my ‘base’ from which I could then lift up through the crown of the head and twist to wrap the arms. So now I know that this is what Kino referred to when she said that we should be twisting “from the solid foundation of the pelvis”.

I did two Mari Ds on my own after this correction, and managed to get through without too much hassle. What this pose asks of me now is a deeper awareness of how I activate and hold the pelvis, and ground the half lotus leg. In David’s words: “You’ve been using your extremities to get to your core, now I’m trying to get you to start from your core to get to your extremities.”

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Did the full practice today, but no vinyasas between sides, so that I’d still have some energy left tomorrow. My right QL is acting up again and hurts so bad that even UDs are painful. Could only manage three today and three hangbacks with Ms A. Apparently, I’m trying to drop back with a flat spine, which is compressing my lower back. All well and good, but I have absolutely no awareness of the nuances and articulation of my thoracic spine – where I’m supposed to be keeping lifted and arched throughout all the backbends. This is frustrating, but it’s all I can do to just put on a pain patch, roll on the tennis ball, sleep and try working on it again tomorrow. If anyone has any suggestions for exercises that help to awaken one’s awareness of that part of the spine, I’m all ears.

Today’s adjustment was in Supta Kurmasana where David managed to put both my legs behind the head, reminding me as he did so, that “the feet and knees need to be flexed” because the flexing of the knees helps to push the feet further down the back. By ‘flexing knees’ I deduced that he was asking me to squeeze my thighs around the torso – it seemed to work and made for one of the most compact and light Supta K I’ve done in a while.

Only three, maybe four, more practices with David before I head off to Austin for a week. I’m starting to feel a little sad that I’ll have to miss one week of practising with him, but oh well. Life happens.

David Roche, Day 5: Backbending

Kept things simple at practice today. Felt a little heavy and tired at the beginning, so I skipped vinyasas between sides. Part of me was also preparing for a potentially intense dropback session with David (see previous post) and so I wanted to save some energy for that.

Not many assists during practice. Ms A came by to help in UHP, and gave tips on activating uddiyana bandha before folding forward in the Janus. Got the usual Supta K assist, and David assisted in Baddha Konasana by putting pressure on my lower back and pressing the knees to the floor. It felt SO. GOOD. Seriously, this is one of my favorite poses of the series. I could stay in Baddha Konasana A forever! In Baddha Konasana C, he kept the pressure on the thighs, leaned into the back and told me to sit tall (i.e., pushing into him) while keeping uddiyana bandha active and the chest lifted. For a skinny, wiry man, he packs a lot of weight into his torso when he squishes you in forward bends. Sorta feels like a heavy bolster pushing you down.

But that wasn’t the best. The highlight was in backbending. While I did the first couple of UDs, he came round, put his hand underneath the pelvis to lift it up while telling me to straighten the legs. This adjustment helped to really ground and activate the legs, made the upper body feel very light on the arms and provided a real stretch for the lower back. It felt like he was pulling my pelvis towards the front, which, in way, he was. We did this three times, on the last one he got me to stand up from UD, which was way easier than I thought it would be. Of course, having someone ground your weight in the front certainly helps with this!

We then did assisted dropbacks. Three hangbacks where I got really close to the mat, and two drops into backbend, walk the hands in, he did the same sacrum/pelvic adjustment thing, held for five breaths, then rocked up to standing. It was, by all accounts, a much more pleasant, less dramatic backbending experience than the previous one. Perhaps it’s because he now knows where my limits are and is stepping away from that, just a bit.

All in all, eight backbends today, a lucky number for the superstitious Chinese in me. Although I began with the familiar thick, heavy and painful knot in the right QL in the first backbend, it was gone by the time we were done, and the back felt much more open and lighter, without the tender, tingling sensation I sometimes get when I’ve probably pushed my backbends to the limit.

As I got squished in Paschimottanasana, I felt a wave of gratitude for the opportunity to study with a teacher with his depth of experience for more than just a weekend. He shared on Sunday that he’s stopped doing weekend workshops because it’s too compact a schedule to bring about any real change or progress. With a full month, at least there’s the beginnings of a teacher-student relationship of some sort, even if it’s just an annual relationship. I was most impressed (for lack of a better word) with his range of techniques for adjusting the room during backbending, adapting it for different levels and flexibility. A knowledge borne out of more than 20, maybe even 30, years of teaching experience perhaps. It’s the sort of experience that you want to take your time to savor, like fertilizer for the practice, where just a few drops everyday will go a long way. I can’t wait to go back tomorrow.

David Roche, Day 4: Human Nature

This update is a couple of days late. Did a short home practice yesterday as I had a big photo shoot. Ended up having a crazy, 15-hour day, which meant unwinding with a couple of glasses of wine and a deep, hazy sleep this morning that I couldn’t shake off. So no practice this morning. I may go this evening though…

Sunday’s practice was pretty chill. Ms A did most of my adjustments, including dropping me back, but David got to me in Supta K where he assertively helped me to bind. It was, as is the case with all his adjustments, intense, but I appreciated it. He manages to put you in a place where you’re really surrendering to the breath, letting go of any ‘WTF’ thoughts and just stay in the moment.

We had a welcome party for David on Sunday evening at a fellow yogi’s house. Or perhaps I should say, their hilltop estate. Lovely views, huge garden replete with pool, hammock and trampoline….I have to admit that part of my interest in attending the party was to check out what the houses looked like in this neighborhood that’s very much a part of the ‘one percent’.

As we were sitting around sharing chips and artichoke dip, I asked David about what he’s learned about human nature from all his years of teaching yoga. He talked about our concept of progress, and how very few people stick with the practice for the long-term (10, 20 years) because it’s hard. Hard not only in terms of balancing a committed practice with everything else in life, but also with regard to working through injuries and obstacles that come up in the course of the practice.

“When students get injured, they blame everything – the practice, the teacher, the weather….they look outwards instead of looking in,” he said. “It takes a lot of fortitude to work through the injuries and stay with the practice. Sometimes you need to fall back before you can move forward, but not everyone gets that, and they give up.”

In other words, the degree to which a dedicated yoga practice (be it Ashtanga, Iyengar, Bikram, etc) can change/save your life depends entirely upon how much you want to invest in it. It boils down to a few simple questions: “How badly do you want it?”, “What are you willing to sacrifice for it?”, “What is your dream/ambition worth?”

David Roche Day 3: Backribs & Butt Spread

I sure hope I don’t get a whole bunch of spam bots for the title of this post…

Anyway, today was the led class with David, but it was completely different from any other class I’ve taken before. Basically, “Backribs” and “Butt Spread” pretty much sums up his focus. At every point, he was reminding us to draw awareness to the back ribs, or to lean into it or to do something that would open it. And in the seated postures, it was about “spreading the butt cheeks” and activating the inner legs. I’d say about 30 percent of his descriptions sounded rather esoteric to me, with my not-fully-aware back ribs and pelvic region.

We did all of Standing – but with his own take on things. Before getting us into UHP, he told us to ‘commit’ to the left leg and swing the right leg back and forth while keeping our torso stable and straight. Swing, swing, swing, then on the last swing up, catch the right foot to go into UHP A and the rest. Same thing for the other side. I like the concept of ‘committing’ to the standing leg, it sort of primes the mind for what is to come and helps enhance the awareness (and hopefully, the stability) of the standing leg. We did Tree pose instead of Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana – maybe because not everyone in the class could do it properly – and then Utkatasana and Virabhadrasana A and B.

Paschimottanasana was interspersed with Purvottanasana after every variation. I think we ended up doing about five of them in total. He made us concentrate on activating the lower back and pelvic area, to lift up with the pelvis engaged instead of leaving it soft. For the Janus, he guided us through the entries to each variation, drawing our awareness to ‘spreading the butt’ (i.e., grounding through the sit bones) and grounding/activating the bent leg. He also told us to ’round the back’ when folding forward in all the seated postures, to ‘lean into the back ribs’. This contradicts the guidance from Mitchell and Kirsten who are all about alignment, and therefore advocate folding forward with a straight back. Anyway, I much prefer the rounded back version because it’s simply lovely to rest your head on your knee and breathe deeply!

Things went differently after that. Instead of the Marichyasana sequence, David got us to sit with bent legs and our feet on the floor, then twist to place the hands on the outside of the knees. We did a few twists and turns in that position – it’s quite hard to describe – but basically with your legs bent and feet facing forward, your torso facing the side with hands on the floor, you’re sort of crouching and rounding the back on the exhale and straightening and twisting towards the back on the inhale, rotating the back shoulder in the process. After doing a few of these on each side, he then told us to put our weight in the arms and try to lift up into Ashtavakrasana A, but without wrapping the legs around the arms.

WHAAAAAT???

Yep. Apparently that helps to really open the back ribs and prep the body for the twists of the Marichyasana series. Erm, ok, good to know. But of course, I’m saying that as someone who has no problems twisting throughout the Marichyasanas. For others, the prep poses may make a world of difference. It was fun to try though.

We then went into closing – shoulderstand sequence, then headstand where I could only last about 12 breaths (on my count – David counts s-l-o-w-l-y) so I didn’t manage to do Urdhva Dandasana. In Utplutih as well, I stayed up for like 20 breaths which was agony since every count of his in that pose equates to three breaths of mine!

Wow this recap is a lot longer than I thought it was going to be. If you’ve read up to this point, thank you and I hope you found it useful in some way! Now excuse me while I go take a nap.

David Roche, Day 2: Agitation, Smells, Psoas

Practiced with an agitated mind today, which made for an unusually wobbly standing sequence, especially in Parivritta Trikonasana, Parivritta Parshvakonasana and UHP. Seated was much better. I’m starting to be able to touch the chin to the knee in most of the seated postures, with the extended leg kept straight. Never thought this would happen.

Skipped the vinyasas between sides and did three assisted hangbacks with Ms A, but only after being prompted to do so. My back is still sore from yesterday’s experiment and with Led Primary tomorrow, I want to save some juice to last through that. Woke up with a cranky piriformis which I think is a result of all the driving I did yesterday, and in backbending, felt the same “wooden board” sensation that Pakistani Ashtangi describes in her latest post. When I spoke to Ms A about it she thinks it could be a result of the psoas tensing up, that I’m letting the pelvis tilt back too much when dropping back without keeping the abdomen engaged enough. She showed me an exercise to stretch the psoas out – sit on the edge of a solid table, lie back and bring one knee to the chest while keeping the other leg engaged and hold for a few breaths, then switch sides. Because I don’t have a solid wooden table to practice on (and my kitchen counter isn’t big enough) I’m going to try it on the bed and see how it works out. She also said that doing really deep lunges before practice would help stretch those muscles out, but will demonstrate them on Sunday.

No adjustments from David today, which is kind of a bummer and a relief too I guess. Got the usual adjustments in Prasarita C (head to the floor, yay) and Supta K from Ms A. I guess if I want to get more adjustments I’ll either have to arrive earlier or later, or get a spot right smack in the middle of the room, among everyone else. I’m not so hot about the latter. Practised there yesterday and the smells from hairy sweaty men and their Mysore rugs were so nauseating that I had to stop practicing a few times and bury my face into the facetowel that I had wisely perfumed with a few drops of lavender oil. Or risk running to the bathroom to retch. Yes, I am very sensitive to smells, and yes, it is that bad. Do people wash their Mysore rugs at all????

Led Primary tomorrow. I hope (a) the back eases up by then, (b) I get a spot on the edges of the room and (c) I survive it.

Psoa update: Just did a couple of stretches on the edge of the bed, and ohmygod, that right psoa sure needed to be stretched! I did about 4 stretches each side, holding them for 5 breaths each and really pressing the knee into the chest. The back feels a little better, not as sore to the touch. I then spent 15 minutes massaging the piriformis with the tennis ball. It was so painful I had to laugh, but at least it’s not as bad now. I think Ashtanga is turning me into a masochist of sorts….