The Fish Asana

[Guest guest]

Namasté fellow ashtangis, <br><br>I am seeking

advice concerning The Fish asana. Although I have good

teachers and I am sure to practise the postures in an

appropriate manner, I often feel a pain or tension in the

neck. I think this has something to do with The Fish.

This is odd because The Fish is actually supposed to

be healthy for the neck and spine. The underlying

cause may be an old neck trauma from a car accident.

The doctors say my neck is fine (?). <br><br>Has

somebody else made similar experiences with The Fish? What

did you do about it? Just leave it out from the

Primary Series? <br><br>Thanx<br>Thomas

[Guest guest]

Mr. Stilz: If you have teachers from whom you

take instruction, I would suggest that you ask your

teacher to observe you in matsyendrasana(sp?) or fish

pose. Perhaps your teacher will be able to help you

adjust the pose to make it more comfortable.<br>I used

to have an aversion to this pose because when I

would perform it, I used to feel slight nausea and

immediately would feel hotter, but in the last 6 months or so

those effects have disappeared. It is always wise to

inform your teacher of injuries that may affect your

ability to perform an asana comfortably because they can

help you avoid further injury. <br>Good luck and

Namaste.

[Guest guest]

Were you able to determine why you had this aversion? Did your teacher help with

an adjustment? If so, what exactly was the adjustment?

[Guest guest]

Supposing that you leave the fish pose out of the

finishing sequence, it should be as plain as the nose on

your face that you won't be able to do head stand

afterwards. As you yourself rightly pointed out in an earlier

post, the sequence of postures in the astanga series

has an inner logic. Matsyasana & uttanapadasana act

as important counterposes to the shoulder stand as

well as to the halasana series. Simply leaving them

out and continuing with head stand like business as

usual could spell trouble for your neck. <br><br>So, if

you want to do without the fish pose &

uttanapadasana, you might have to change the order of the

postures in the finishing sequence, doing head stand

first, then shoulder stand.

[Guest guest]

Dear Pantierm: I did not seek assistance from my

teacher with this particular posture. I asked a fellow

practitioner and she suggested the discomfort might be related

to the stimulation of the glands in the back of the

neck or releasing toxins. I do recall a teacher saying

in a hatha class that it was a heating posture

whatever that means and she did adjust me once or twice

just to increase the lift in my chest and get me up on

my head a little more, but that was not the

variation we do in ashtanga. It does have a little bit

different feel in full-lotus and I have to pull on my feet

to get the lift. It wasn't really hurting me

physically that I could tell, so I kept practicing, the

nauseous feeling and aversion went away at some point and

I now rather enjoy the pose. I suppose if it was

hurting me physically, especially my neck I wouldn't keep

doing it or would get help. I have asked for help from

my teachers with other problems. I have been having

trouble with pain in my hands and asked for help in my

hand placements in up dog and down dog. Turns out I've

been doing the surya namaskaras and vinyasas with my

hands too widely separated and have been working on

keeping my hands placed under my shoulders. Seems to be

helping. My jump-backs definitely feel more solid. I am by

no means anything close to a teacher and would not

tell anyone how to do anything. I have only my

personal experience and what has worked for me. Namaste.

[Guest guest]

Thank you for enlightening me on this in such a friendly manner.