yoga routine

I was trying to do a better job of noting what I do for my “yoga” routine (quotations because it’s not 100% yoga), and remembered having a few people ask me what I do, so am going to write it here.

I break my routine up into 4 or 5 groups. I hold things until I can feel them, but not that long, depending much on which exercise. I do everything in each group once, then repeat everything in the group, and do all of these exercises as part of one session. If I’m in good shape, the entire group takes about 1.5 hours. If I’m lazy or tight, it can take longer. I sadly remember very few actual pose names, so at some point I’ll come back and clean this up with names for the poses that have them, and maybe some pictures of the non-”canon” poses. The poses are all either from standard yoga, from my favorite teacher in portland Diane Wilson, or made up by me occasionally. Diane has a very non-traditional approach, and takes things from many styles of yoga, from pilates, and invents some.

Group 1

I start out with exercises and asanas focused on the hips and legs.

I have pretty tight hips, and my trochanter rotation is fairly poor. I start out with a hip-opener looks like doing cobra but with the trochanters rotated out, knees to either side. Sometimes I have the bottoms of my feet touching, sometimes not. I then move my torso slightly forward and back focusing all the while on maximizing the outward trochanter rotation.

Not-quite-lotus practice. This I got as a lotus trainer from one of my old teachers .. I tore something in my left knee doing lotus with poor technique once, and am doing this now instead. Sit as though in lotus, with the right leg down first, but don’t point the foot back towards you, allow the calf to sit parallel and in front of you. Almost at a right angle to the knee, probably more like 40 degrees. Then place the left leg overtop the right exactly the same way, allowing the calves to follow the same line and touch each other. If it’s a good day, your knees will touch your feet on both sides. Then reverse which leg is on bottom and which on top. Focus on rotating from the hips, as in lotus, and not in the knees.

Running splits, leaving rear foot on the toes, with ball of foot pointing towards floor, rather than rotated or with shin/knee to the floor. Light almost “bounce” while in pose.

Side splits. Move between having legs rotated such that sides of feet lie flat on ground and such that heels only touch the ground, toes pointing up. Light almost “bounce” here as well.

Rounded-back roll-up from bent over to slowly, vertebra at a time, standing.

Bend over with curve still in back until the back begins to flatten, and remain there for a few seconds, increasing the stretch in the hamstrings and keeping proper back posture until releasing and bringing palms down to touch the floor while still standing.

From this pose, wide stance and bring self partly between legs, hands coming through and around to cup heels from outside, torso trying to fit partly into space between legs.

Downward dog.

Pose with legs folded at the knee, calves folded under thighs, lying on back, forelegs slightly to the outside of the thighs and soles of feet almost cupping the buttocks, torso lying back on ground. Then sit slightly up, and try to lower the lower back to the ground as much as possible before lying again. Focus on quadriceps stretch and good lower back posture, and lengthening back.

Group 2

“Stretch pose”. Probably a variation of something from pilates. Lie down on back, then raise legs slightly above the floor, and the upper body slightly above floor, leaving arms up and pointing straight towards feet. I try and hold this 3 minutes at a time for each repetition of this group. When I’m in really good form I can go 4 or 5, but it’s been awhile. Diane used to have us do breathing exercises like breath of fire meanwhile, and I find this often helps me while doing the asana. This exercise is awful if you don’t do it pretty often, but if you do it a few times a week and stick with it, it gets better and better.

Diamond pose. “Stand” on forelegs/knees, not on feet, with knees bent and forelegs pointed backward. Hands in prayer position. Arch back while still in this “standing” position until your head touches the floor behind you, then return. I repeat this 5 times. I feel a lot in my lower back and quad muscles when I’m doing it poorly, when I’m doing it better mostly just in the lower back and abs, and not so much in the quads .. partly this has to do with trying to keep the exercise about the arch and not letting the thighs bend back much.

Chakrasana (hey, an actual asana name!) .. I do this starting by standing, slowly arching back without letting my head fall back, more and more until I finally allow the head to arch back, arms to go over head, and then drop into it. Then I increase the arch a little bit more at a time until I feel like I’m at my limit. Then I drop to my elbows in chakrasana, and work it a little more. Then back to hands, and rise back to a stand. If I’m a bit out of shape, I sometimes will get a wave of dizziness after standing, so I usually relax standing for a few seconds after just in case.

Reverse neck roll: Lie on back, use hands not at all or as little as possible on floor, and lift body up so that all weight is on feet and back of head, then walk feet back so that head begins to roll farther and farther back, allowing the neck to bend completely, and keep rolling until you’re on the top of the head, then the forehead, the nose, and then so that you can actually kiss the groudn with your lips. Then reverse completely, and repeat again, 2x per execution of the group. I can’t tell you how impossible this seemed (diane did something not exactly like this but similar, and always said “pretend as though you can get to the point of kissing the ground”, which I took literally until I could do it. Every single time I’ve had neck problems, doing this a few times a day fixed it. Every time. Do not use the hands to support you any more than you must, ideally not at all, let them float.

Headstand, scissor legs directly up straight rather than scrunching knees first. Try and take all pressure and balance away from the elbows and toward the head, and really try and feel a low center of balance, rather than milling with the feet.

Shoulder stand – first the traditional shoulderstand until I feel in position, then raise arms so they are parallel to torso for most of the time holding the position. Only the neck and back of head will touch the ground.

Straight-back plow – ditto, arms straight up.

Round back plow – work between walking the feet out as far as possible and back in, then drop knees and work between knee-ear pose and knees-down roundback plow.

Yogic sleep – bring knees aroudn behind shoulders, cross feet behind head, torso completely between legs, hands locked behind lower back.

Side bend – stand with feet apart, bending toward right and then left as far as possible from waist, upper arm straight out from torso.

Group 3:

Scissors .. from lying on ground flat, bring legs straight and arms and upper torso straight up to touch each other (ideally feet touching arms at top of scissor) and then lowering,a ll with control. I am doing about 30 of these each execution of the group right now, I think when I was doing more yoga we used to just do this for 3 or 4 minutes.

Handstand .. I’m not great at balance here, so I start against the wall and then take myself off of it trying to balance as long as I can without touching it.

Scorpion .. I can maintain this off the wall, but am having trouble entering it off the wall right now, so again start on the wall, move off it, and maintain it off the wall.

Handstand Scorpion – ditto as for scorpion.

Full-bound bow. This is the bow, but a much better (harder, but changes the effect completely) binding .. instead of arms essentially to the sides and remaining in the bow, this makes much more of a circle. You essentially start out in bow pose but for the hands .. instead, rotate the arm out, and grab hold of the ball of the foot / inside of the sole, then swivel the elbow up so that the arms actually form an arch over your head and the hand grips the front half of your foot. Try and keep the elbows directly over you, not splayed out, and work the full body arch. Then start rocking back and forth in the bow. This really helps my lower back problems .. after so many poses with lwoer back arches, this pose with this binding really forces the arch to be in the entire back. I find myself hyperflexible int he lower back and not enough in the upper back, and this really unlocks my upper back and takes some of the “kink” out of my lower back, even though it starts out seeming like the opposite.

Locust .. this name seems to refer to several distinct exercises. The one I refer to involves having the hands/palms in volleyball-serve position, underneath you, while you lie over them, then raising the entire torso and legs overtop of you until it arches up and over your head and approaches the groudn in front of you, with your weight mostly on your chest and a bit on your neck and chin. Stretch out the neck and relax it a bit int he pose before rising into it. There are several “cheaters” Diane used to use for this pose, including using a basketball under the chest at the beginning, kicking into it one leg at a time, etc .. the kicking into it was helpful, and the leaving the butt up before entering it and legs sort of squatting was helpful to me. I hate props, though. Now that I can do it without cheats of course it’s even better.

Full bound shiva lord of the dance .. stand on one leg, take free foot and arch back over the leg holding the foot. Use the same binding as for the full bound bow, not the half-bound aroudn-the-side, but twisted around up into a full over-the-top arch. I suppose theoretically eventually you can start out directly reaching over the top to your feet in these poses, but for normal humans rotating into the full binding works fine.

Tree pose .. on one leg, free leg straight out in front, bend over free let holding sole of feet. Same for other leg.

Group 4

Intertwine fingers behind back, bend over forwards and rotate shoulders out as much as possible while bending forwards. Then sit down, intertwined fingers behind you, raise torso so weight is on hands and feet only, and rotate shoulders as you work the stretch by pushing torso weight towards feet away from hands, and allow the angle of the arms from the shoulders to be steeper and steeper. Reverse the intertwine (there’s always one thumb on top) and repeat.

Behind-back grab. The “i can wash my own back thanks” pose .. One arm over and behind the head, reaching down back, the other coming up from behind, binding either by holding hands behind back or ideally holding each other’s wrists. Work which shoulder/arm is moving more into the pose to stretch both sides. Reverse for other arm over/under.

Reverse prayer position – prayer position behind back, really try and open/relax the shoulders and keep good flat-hand prayer position behind back.

Chest-opening lock .. essentially the same as the first exercise in this group, intertwine fingers behind back, but focus on using the binding and position to really open the chest. I can usually feel my chest crack a little if I do this. I actually often do this without the hands at all, just focusing on opening the chest with completely internal muscles until I feel something release, which sometimes causes the crack.

Group 5

Seated twist .. one leg out straight, the other foot down knee up on the other side of teh first leg’s knee, twist aroudn in direction of folded knee working spinal twist and not being too hunched in lower back posture. Use inside elbow to work against knee. Then fold the straight leg until the sole of foot cups buttocks and both buttocks are still down on ground, more like the traditional version of pose. Continue to work the twist. Then bring inner arm through the knee and behind behind back with the outer arm. Reverse for other side.

Standing twist. Stand with legs slightly apart, and move freely and dynamically to twist, with arms either straight out or with elbows bent and upper arms still out .. feel weigth of body carryingyou .. give initial impulse from core, then allow the weight, the momentum to carry the move. Try not to let the twist be in the legs at all, the twist is along the spine. Do this until you get farther and farther into it, then stop getting any farther. Then rather than letting yourself “end” a twist by simply letting your body slow down and then beginning the other direction, initiate the reverse twist from the base/core about 1/2 – 2/3rds of the way into the twist, completely divorcing the upper part of the body from the lower so that the upper part of the body is still going the original direction and the lower the new direction, making a bit of a snap when eventually it comes along. This simultaneous-contra-direction is great. It should feel like a good boleo, for you tango dancers. I developed it as boleo practice, and now I just like how it feels.

Garudasana .. not well grouped, but I alway sliked it. Twist right leg over and aroudn left leg until the toe hooks back around to be visible in front. Twist right arm over and aroudn left arm until hands are in prayer position again. Then lower self a bit, relax arms, then stand back up into it, relaxing into the position well. Reverse sides.

Cat-? exercise. There was another animal name, which I forget. “Stand” on palms and knees as though you’re going to have a kid ride horse on your back. Then arch back like a scared cat, convex, then concave completely. Let your head move with the arch of the back, continuing the curve. When the head is up (the back being arched down) open mouth like a tiger and breath out through mouth, when it’s down breath in through nostrils. I actually reverse this occasionally and breath in through the open mouth, but I don’t know why, I like the variation. I looove this pose. It seems simple, but if I do it really well for a good minute back and forth of concave-convex I feel a huge amount of energy, like a pump, pushing through my lower back, my lines .. it feels almost sexual, like blocked energy down there is getting completely freed up. My usual technique is to think of a rope tied aruond my lower back pulling my up from the back, not from the knees or buttocks or arms or upper back, but from the curve of the lower back, then another pulling me down from the same place. The legs begin to feel extremely light, and I start to feel slightly light headed, also in part due to the heavy breathing in and out, and i feel completely energized after.

That’s it!