Yoga Quest by Fox Paul

Author:Fox, Paul [Fox, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Core Strength Yoga and The Self-Publishing
Published: 2016-04-12T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 62

The first thing Joe noticed in the studio where his Iyengar class was being held was the focused atmosphere. There were some nods and brief exchanges, but no loud jollity. Joe also noticed a huge age range, from women in their 20 to ones in their 60s or older. And a fair sprinkling of men.

At precisely 7.45pm the teacher began the class, and there was no fussing around. No sitting with your eyes closed, breathing or lying down. She welcomed and introduced Joe, and the class went straight into the standing pose, Tadasana.

Not all yoga teachers give detailed attention to the everyday activity of standing up. Joe was used to giving this pose some focus from his experience of ashtanga where the same outward form of asana was known as Samasthitihi. However, it was never held for long; mainly for the opening and closing chants and the neutral point to come back to after each vinyasa. Joe had never been taught to stand like this, in such minute detail.

“Tadasana means mountain pose” the teacher said “so root down through your feet. Heels and toes together, inner ankles touching.” The class lifted their toes and stretched them forwards, then lifted their heels and stretched them back. “Keep the toes down and lengthen them. All of them. Even the little toe. Now keep the weight of the body evenly on the inner and outer edges of the feet, and the heels and toes. Lift your arches.”

Blimey thought Joe, five minutes in and we’re still on the feet! The process continued up the legs, with instructions “lift the inner and outer ankles”, “lift the shin bone” and “suck the knee-caps into the knee joint”. The instructions went on and on in micro detail, bringing a huge amount of awareness to every aspect of a pose – standing up – that everyone did every day without thinking about it. Joe could see the merit in that, but was wondering whether they would get through more than three poses in the 90 minutes at this level of detail.

By the time the teacher had worked her way right up to the crown of the head and got the class to raise their arms overhead and hold the pose for 30 seconds (Urdhva Hastasana), Joe felt quite exhausted. He never knew standing up could be so much hard work.

The teacher used Tadasana to build focus and concentration among the students, and having achieved that, the class moved on more briskly. Joe found Trikonasana (triangle pose) interesting. Again, it was incredibly hard work holding the pose for much longer than the five breaths he was used to. The teacher continued with her precise instructions. “Turn the right foot out 90 degrees and the left foot in 15 degrees. Line up the right heel with the left instep.” The detail continued up the legs, with encouragement to pull up on the knee caps and move the skin of the inner thigh outwards. Joe was still enjoying the detail,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.