cobra

[Guest guest]

I have found while helping my students in the pose that it is not the lack of

flexibility in the spine they are lacking but the strength needed to hold the

flexibility of the spine.

When I physically do a manipulation they can go a good six inches deeper into

the pose. I have experienced this myself as well.

I think flexibility is not always the main thing needed to work on when working

with a pose but strength. As strength builds then one is able to go deeper and

hold longer.

Sat Nam,

Sangeet Kaur

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

> spine. My Mum's a good example, she has some

> arthritis in some joints and

> has quite a curved spine. She manages but sometimes

> she's in quite a lot of

> pain. I see so many people with back problems and I

> truly believe yoga can

> help us all.

 

 

It was a year ago, this time, when I visited my home

in India, that I realized that yoga is the

way to go for anyone and everyone. My mother had

arthritis too, 3 years ago, to the point that she

had severe pain, and will take considerable amount

of time to get up if she sits on the floor. And,

sitting here, I was worried about her all the time.

When I saw her last year, I was in for a big surprise.

She was walking properly and even without the

ambling motion often associated with elders. She then

told me that she has been doing yoga for a year, by

watching yoga programs on TV, and she is also doing

the

sirasasana or the headstand. In fact, she told me

about this over the phone, but, frankly, I did not

believe her

and I thought she is probably a little too excited

about trying out something new. And, I also believed

( till i saw my mom demonstrate it )

that this headstand is an ultra-yogi thing to do.

My mom's health-improvement, indeed, was an eye-opener

and a myth-shatterer

for me. In fact, I could not do some of the other

stretches she demonstrated to me.

She was far more flexible than me (and, I have been

into running, hiking, biking..)

 

My mom was 59 years and with terrible arthritis when

she started on yoga. She also told me that initially

she found it very difficult to work on even some

of the simple stretches, and she felt intense pain.

She daringly confronted it, and kept on at it.

 

Motivated by her and my sister's ( who had been

suffering from severe constipation problems )

diligence, I started doing yoga regularly, and

very soon, I was very impressed with the results

and how it has helped in drastically reducing the

cramps I used to get after hiking, biking, etc.

Being a researcher, I make an attempt to figure out

the logical and scientific reasoning behind the

different aspects of yoga, and convey and explain

these interpretations to my family members and

friends.

I believe it is far more easy to motivate someone into

doing an asana, if the sense and science behind doing

the asana is made clear to the person (THis has been

my experience in helping my family

members and friends with their health problems). The

person,

then, will also have greater awareness in trying

out an asana and work on improvisations on his own.

So, I have been trying to set up a website to explain

the asanas as clearly and scientifically as possible.

I am no super-yogi myself, but I have

gained a lot from doing a few of the simple asanas

everyday. And, I have also been able to do some

of the poses I once thought was quite impossible

to do -- such as the headstand. The website is still

half-done ( I have put up half of the asanas I can do

), but today being my birthday, I thought

I will share the contents that I have already put up

in the sincere hope that this move will bring good

health to many (Thanks for the birthday-gift idea,

Gururattan ).

 

Please check out

 

http://voth.hec.utah.edu/~gayathri/yoga_poses.html

 

I would very much appreciate your

comments/suggestions/mistakes

you find on the webpage.

I tried to use small pics, but they might

still take time to download. If you have

suggestions on improving the rate of pic-downloads,

I would appreciate it.

 

Thanks very much,

gayathri

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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