Guest guest Posted March 16, 2000 Report Share Posted March 16, 2000 Does anyone have a reply to message 693? I, too, am having difficulty getting into this particular posture effectively.<br><br>I was also wondering about the use of a few blankets in shoulder stand. My Iyengar instructor considers it dangerous to do this asana without the prop. <br><br>Care to comment? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 16, 2000 Report Share Posted March 16, 2000 if you dont have a friend to help you in kapotasana you can try it by a wall, walking your hands down it, and up again when you reach your limit. day by day it should increase. same as for chakrasana. but you might need help even with this to begin with. doing yoga on the beach can open you to backbends and show you how to adjust yourself into more challenging postures.<br><br>shoulderstand is problematical for people with tight shoulders and necks and can lead to problems from irritation of the top spine and neck due to excess pressure falling on top thoracic and cervical vetrebrae. this pressure should not be there. iyengar evades it with mats. an alternative is to learn the correct lifting technique. however some people just cant. they need to use mats or do the halfshoulderstand which makes this lift very easy as the hands and elbows take so much more weight.<br><br>you have to use your hands from the grounding action of shoulders and upperarms to lift the back upwards taking pressure off the spine and lifting all the vertebrae off the floor so there can be no pressure. i was shown this simple action by david swenson. this lift makes it easier to line up the body so that the bandhas are not inhibited by the collpase of the trunk. this lift from the foundation needs to be supported by the rest of the body resisting gravity, all the way to the toes. the toes lift the toes and all below, the feet the feet, the legs, the pelvis etc. this advice was given to me by john scott in the context of how to go up into a handstand from uttanasana, but it holds true for all inversions.<br><br>good luck.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 16, 2000 Report Share Posted March 16, 2000 For most of us, even those who've been doing astanga a LONG time (not naming any names), getting into kapotasana by one's self ain't easy.<br><br>So don't feel bad.<br><br>Usually one has to be helped into it -- as you can appreciate, there's very little leverage left to the arms, in that position, so it's quite difficult to move them to the toes by oneself.<br><br>A good intermediate pose to help open the back and shoulders would be to set yourself facing a wall, about 3 feet away, do headstand and bring your feet to the wall, feet toghether, then lift up the headstand with head fully off the floor, thusly stretching the armpits.<br><br>From there you can push off the wall with your toes, working into a backbending stretch.<br><br>If that's possible so far, then bring your feet down to the floor from that position, while doing you best to keep your head lifted off the ground.<br><br>From there you can adjust your arms by your shoulders and do urdhva dhanurasana . . . all of this will help open the upper and lower back, as well as stretch the hips.<br><br>A wall is an excellent source of leverage, if you don't have a yoga instructor around to adjust you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 17, 2000 Report Share Posted March 17, 2000 Thanks very much, Godfreydev & Trayam for your thoughtful responses. I am definitely going to try your suggestions! <br><br>Namaste. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.