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Abdominal Inhibition and Mula Bandha

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Please help provide some clarification on the

practice of mula bandha and the problem of abdominal

inhibition. I recently read Stephen Cope's remarks about

abdominal inhibition, and it seems as though the practice

of mula bandha would lead to this. He refers to

abdominal inhibition on page 225 of his book "Yoga and the

Quest for the True Self," and writes: "By tightening

the pelvic muscles between the pubic bone and the

coccyx, it puts immense pressure on all of the muscles

and organs..." He goes on to say that as result of

this "process, blood flow to the pelvis is inhibited,

with the result that life force, sexuality, and a

sense of 'core strength' is in the center of the body

are all diminished." Doesn't tightening of the pelvic

muscles occur in the practice of mula bandha? Is this a

philosophic disagreement between Kripalu yoga and ashtanga?

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Well, here's one idea on that. He may be talking

about chronic tension (permanent subconcious tension).

When we practice conscious contraction of a muscle or

muscle group (especially tighten and release, tighten

and release), this can actually help to get in touch

with and relax chronic tension. The practice of mula

bandha should help to gain control over muscles which

we<br>may have no control or awareness of and which may be

chronically tight.

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Well I'm no expert, really just a beginner

myself. You may want to get ahold of the book Moola

Bandha - The Master Key, an excellent book which covers

the subject in GREAT detail. You can get it from

Amazon:<br><a href=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/8185787328/

target=new>http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/8185787328/</a><br>It seems

like I read somewhere that laying down is

not the best position to work on this, but I found

that when laying in Savasana at the end of a class I

was able to pay a lot of attention to working on mula

bandha. I think for some people it can take a lot longer

than for others to start getting in touch with these

muscles. There's a lot going on down there. Have a look at

an anatomy atlas. I checked out the page in Cope's

book. I'm pretty sure he is talking about a pattern of

chronic tension. Chronic tension in any muscle is a drain

on the body's energy. Chronic tension in muscles of

the pelvic floor can lead to problems such as

hemorrhoids and anal fissures. One cause of tension there is

related to toilet training in childhood. I'm not sure if

there is a difference between "contracting" and

"tightening". His words there were not in the context of

discussing the practice of mula bandha. Anway, I really

recommend the Moola Bandha book. Swenson and many other

Ashtanga teachers will recommend it also. In fact you can

also order the book from Swenson. I read Cope's book a

year or so ago and greatly enjoyed it. I wouldn't say

that it is any kind of a technical guide for asana

practice, though. I also doubt that there is really any

great discrepancy between Kripalu yoga and Ashtanga

yoga on this point.

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