Yoga for Every Body: An Interview with Janet Wieneke (Rerun)

by Nina

September Photo from 
the Yoga for the Larger Woman Calendar

“Around the same time, the thought hit me that I had been dragging this body around for all these past 50 years instead of really living in it. It came to me that I had not claimed this body, not moved into this body. I was renting it, but I didn’t live there. I didn’t want to live there—in the “undesirable” section of town.
 
“That began to change though when I realized no amount of wishing, bargaining or promising will change the fact that this is my body and that it benefits me greatly to “step up” and partner with my abilities, instead of wishing that things were different.” — Janet W

I was so moved by this quote from Janet Wieneke from the Yoga for the Larger Woman Calendar that Baxter mentioned in his post Healthy Eating and the Digestive System that I decided I just had to interview her. For I believe it’s so important for everyone to understand that anyone, of any age or body type—small or large, flexible or stiff, strong or weak—can not only do yoga, but will all benefit tremendously from it. Now, let's hear what Janet has to say!

Nina: What was your life like—and your relationship with your body—before you started doing yoga?

Janet: For the first 40 years or so of my life I didn’t think too much about my body. In fact I made an effort to avoid seeing or connecting with it. I had a lot of aches and pains but figured it was my own fault for being so fat for so long. I did get some exercise—I did Volkswalks for a while, did jazzercise for a few years, swam laps at the local pool and even joined a gym a few times. None of it was something I was really enthused about but did it because I knew I needed to keep moving.

My diet then was probably better than people would assume. I usually tried to “shop around the edges” at the supermarket and visit farmers’ markets and avoid heavily processed foods. I had a few food sensitivities at that time (citrus primarily, whole wheat) but nothing to difficult to deal with.

Then, in my early 40’s I started having more GI problems. I tried all sorts of OTC drugs to deal with the pain/gas and nausea but nothing really made it better. I had my gall bladder removed as that was assumed to be the problem. After that things got worse and my diet options narrowed considerably. I spent a couple of years trying to force my body to accept and process what I wanted to eat. My body fought back by upping the intensity and frequency of the gut “attacks.” It was a continual battle. It got to the point that I realized if this was going to be the rest of my life, it didn’t want it.

Nina: How did you get started with yoga, and how did it change you?

Janet: I got started in yoga when I realized I really didn’t have an exercise plan that I wanted to do. There were lots of things I could or should do, and I did, on occasion. I enjoyed taking the occasional class through our local community college, and one day when I was leafing through the booklet I saw “Yoga for the Larger Woman” advertised. I thought, “Wow, I’d have half a chance!” I was in a book group that met at the same time though, so I just shelved the idea away. The next term I looked again to see if perhaps they had changed the time. They hadn’t. I decided to back out of the book group and give yoga a try. I really didn’t think I’d like it that much as I’ve never been very flexible.

The first few times were a struggle. I was so ashamed of bending over in front of others, exposing my extra-large ass to the masses. I cringed inwardly anytime it was suggested.  Then Vilma started doing the “Sellwood salute,” which is basically Downward Dog at the bar, where we would envision “beauuutiful tail feathers” that we would proudly display in a waving motion. It cracked me up every time. Gradually as I quit forming opinions of myself that I could fob off onto other people, I looked around and noticed I didn’t stand out so much in class. Sure most of the women were smaller than me but a few were larger, and—big picture—it really didn’t matter. Within a few months I noticed I was having far less back pain and even my gut “attacks” were less frequent.  I started to really pay attention and noticed other things, like how great a stretch felt from the inside out or which muscles activated when I raised my leg. I started to consider my body and excess flesh with more awareness and less judgment. During this time I was also doing some counseling and the two modalities together brought to light how I was “caring” for myself, and I began to question if what I was doing was actually working for me or if I was just existing on habitual thoughts and habits.

Eventually I realized the more time I spent on my matt, the more attached I felt to this body, in a positive way. I started to care about what I was eating and was more willing to accept the responsibility of my actions. This last year I began seeing a naturopath who put me on a regime of nutritional supplements and I continue to feel better. Today I still struggle with eating what my body needs/tolerates over what I want to eat, but I feel my yoga practice gives me support in making better choices.

Nina: A couple of our readers wanted me to ask if you’d seen any improvements in your balance and flexibility.

Janet: I have noticed a slight improvement in flexibility, nothing dramatic—my nose will never meet my knee cap. But after the first year of yoga though I headed out to do a good spring clean up in the yard and reached down for something and literally smashed my fingers on the ground. I remember how surprised I was as the year before that never would have happened! My balance may be slightly better as well. I’m certainly more confident on my feet but whether that is a balance thing or just general alignment I can’t say for certain.

Nina: Is there anything else you'd like to tell our readers?

Janet: I’ve always been more of a thinking person than a feeling person. Now after having a fairly regular practice for a few years, it’s almost as if a third way of being has come into play. It is more of an intuitive way of being. It’s something I cannot fully explain with words or isolate within my body. It’s almost a middle ground—a balance? When I can operate from this level, my stress level decreases, I make better choices from everything between what I eat to how I show up for others and it is far easier to live in this body. I wish I had “discovered” yoga long ago.

The years I’ve spent wishing I looked different, acted different, was different—all a waste of time but apparently held the lesson/s I needed to learn. I never felt that yoga was available to me, a fat person. Yoga was the domain of the lithe and “enlightened.” While I think that is still the predominant thought, I KNOW yoga is available to anyone willing to let go of their “cerebral” inner voice and listen to the wisdom of their own body. It’s a tough sell, especially if you’re fat, but it is so worth the effort.

Janet Wieneke is a native Portlander, works in health care as a dosimetrist, and is the personal servant to two animals (one cat and one dog). Her favorite pastimes are fused glass, yoga, photography and being out in nature. She studies yoga with Vilma Zaleskaite at The Yoga Project in Portland, Oregon,  and she is “Miss September” in the Yoga for the Woman Calendar, which you can purchase here. 

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Home Practice: The Best Way to Improve Your Health and Well-Being (Rerun)

by Timothy McCall

Bed in a Mirror by Nina Zolotow

"If you are taking yoga classes but not practicing at home, you may be missing the best—and potentially most therapeutic—part of yoga. Your personal practice is where the deepest work happens, when you go inward and go at your own pace."—from Yoga As Medicine

This quotation from my book got posted on Facebook the other day and generated quite a bit of interest. But not everyone, particularly those who only take classes, agrees with the statement. A woman came up to me at a yoga conference earlier this year to say she’d heard me make a similar comment at a workshop I taught in Los Angeles a few years ago, and it made her really angry. It’s easy to understand that reaction when your experience in class has been so positive, and even healing.

But now scientific research seems to back up the notion that a regular home practice really is the key to health and well-being, perhaps particularly so as we get older. A study recently published in the journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine by researchers at the University of Maryland and the National Institutes of Health found that, among more than 1000 practitioners of Iyengar yoga, the frequency of home practice predicted positive health more than how long you’ve been practicing or how many classes you attend per week. According to the article Frequency of yoga practice predicts health: results of a national survey of yoga practitioners:

“Frequency of home practice favorably predicted (p < .001): mindfulness, subjective well-being, BMI, fruit and vegetable consumption, vegetarian status, sleep, and fatigue.” 

In other words, those who practiced at home the most reported better health and well-being, greater awareness of themselves and others, improved sleep, less fatigue, and healthier body weight. They were even more likely to eat their vegetables! 

The study bore out something else I’ve been teaching for years: when you combine the various tools in the yoga toolbox including asana, breathing practices, meditation and even study of yoga philosophy you tend to get even better results. As the authors put it, “an intense practice involving all aspects of yoga practice may be more beneficial to health than a less intense practice that includes only one or two aspects of yoga practice, such as just practicing the physical poses or breath work.”

There also appeared to be additional benefits for combining different types of asana practices, such as standing poses, vigorous practices like Sun Salutations, restorative poses including Savasana, and inversions like Shoulderstand. Different practices appeared to be particularly beneficial for specific conditions. Vigorous asana and inversions seemed to help the most with insomnia and body weight, whereas, according to the authors, “because breath work and meditation appear to influence mindfulness and well-being, they may be particularly useful in treating conditions such as depression and anxiety.”

One finding that may be of particular interest to readers of this blog has to do with fatigue. Overall, older practitioners had less fatigue than younger practitioners, but both groups improved when they did yoga. But it appears to take less practice for older practitioners to experience improvements in energy.

As for the woman who was mad at me for saying that a home practice was more important than going to classes, she went on to say that, almost despite herself, she did try doing her yoga at home. Now she does it regularly and believes it’s the most important part of her practice. She thanked me profusely, though of course most of all she can thank herself!

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Practice As Many As You Can: T. Krishnamacharya's Yoga (Rerun)

by Nina

T. Krishnamachrya in a "New" Pose

I thought this would be a good post to rerun this week because it may help inspire some of you to start practicing yoga at home or to change up what you're doing! —Nina

In my post Authentic Yoga, I mentioned that most of the yoga asana we do these days were invented in the early 20th century. In his book on the origins of modern posture practice Yoga Body, Mark Singleton focuses in particular on the innovations of T. Krishnamacharya, the teacher of three very influential 20th century yoga teachers who had a tremendous impact on yoga in the western word, Iyengar, Jois, and Desikachar. Krishnamacharya was clearly a genius, whose system, as Singleton puts it:

"can be fruitfully considered a synthetic revival of indigenous exercise (comprising yogasana alongside other types) within the context of Westernized curricular physical education in late colonial India."

Because so many people are reluctant to practice yoga at home due to concerns that they might not be doing it “right” or don’t have time to do what they would do in one of their full-length classes, it’s worth taking a little time to look at what Krishnamacharya (who was, for many of us, the original teacher of our teacher, or our teacher’s teacher) was doing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Dear readers, he was making stuff up! For details you can see the wonderful book The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace by N.E. Sjoman. But for now let’s just look at this quote in Yoga Body from T.R.S. Sharma, one of a group of students at the yogasala in Mysyore, which confirms that Krishnamacharya’s teaching was intended to be, and in practice was, experimental:

"was innovating all the time in response to his students. He would make up variations of the postures when he saw that some of his students could do them easily. “Try this, putting this here, and here.” He was inventing and innovating. Krishnmachrya never emphasized a particular order of poses, there was nothing sacrosanct about observing order with him. He would tell me “practice as many as you can.”

The quote as whole really brings home the idea that, regardless of what we may have been told by certain teachers, the practice of yoga asana traditionally was not a rigid system that you have to follow or else it won’t be effective. And it seems to me, if you’ve been reluctant to practice at home due to time restrictions or concerns about doing something wrong, this quote contains a great motto for home practice in general: 

Practice as many as you can.

Since it is December already and you may be thinking about New Year’s resolutions, “practice as many as you can” also seems like an excellent resolution for starting or deepening a home practice next year.

P.S. Hey, Krishnamacharya's alignment in Utthita Parsvokasana (Extended Side Angle pose) in the photo above doesn't look the same as what I've been taught is "correct," so that must mean....

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Pet More Downward-Facing Dogs: Yoga Resolutions for the New Year (Rerun)

by Nina

Back in the Day: My Brother Danny and Our Dog Nikki

"Hear now the wisdom of Yoga, path of the Eternal and freedom from bondage.

No step is lost on this path, and no dangers are found. And even a little progress is freedom from fear." —The Bhagavad Gita

When my son was in the fourth grade, he came to me with a problem. His teacher had asked him to write a list of ten possible resolutions he could make for the new year, and the thought of coming up with ten things he needed to change about himself was making him utterly miserable. But to this dedicated student, skipping the assignment was not an option. “What can I do, Mom?” he asked me sadly. “Well,” I replied, “how about if you came up with some resolutions that would be very easy and fun to keep?” “Like what?” He looked at me doubtfully. “Let’s see,” I mused, “how about something like: pet more dogs?”

He lit up with a smile and then went off in much better spirits to write a list of resolutions for his teacher (and keeping the “pet more dogs” resolution throughout the year did turn out to be a lot of fun.) I’m bringing this up now, because if you are planning on making any New Year’s resolutions regarding yoga this year, I’d advise you to take the same lighthearted approach.

If you want to start a home practice, rather than deciding to do full-length class everyday—a rather overwhelming commitment—think small. As my son did, try to come up with a resolution that will be easy to keep and fun to do. How about:

1. Do one Downward-Facing Dog pose a day five days in a row for one week. (You can pet yourself afterward.) 
2. Look through a yoga book and find a picture of a pose you’ve never done and just try it. (Be sure to laugh if you get totally confused or fall out of the pose.) 
3. Download a yoga nidra practice or guided relaxation onto your iPod and try it once. (You might become addicted.) 
4. Clear some wall space, figure out what to use for props, and set yourself up for Legs Up the Wall pose at home. (If you decide to do again some day, you’ll be ready.) 
5. Practice seated meditation for five minutes a few times in a week. (If it feels good, try it for a second week, then a third, then....) 
6. Buy yourself an eye pillow and “test” it at once or twice in Corpse pose (Savasana). 

Anyway, you get the idea. The thing is, that resolutions that are too challenging and time consuming are likely to fail, while any small, easy, fun steps can help you get started on the path to a home practice. That’s what happened to me: I started practicing just a few poses at home, and gradually over time my practice grew organically. But even if your practice stays small, as The Bhagavad Gita says: “No step is lost on this path, and no dangers are found. And even a little progress is freedom from fear.”

Readers, I’d love to hear about any yoga resolutions that you’re making for yourself or that you’d recommend for others, especially some simple and/or colorful ones.

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Four Ways to Survive the Holidays (Rerun)

by Nina

Hegel's Holiday by Rene Magritte*

We’re quickly moving into the full-blown, end of the year holiday season that is Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa topped off by New Year’s Eve. For many of us, this time of year is very challenging. We have too much to do. We’re traveling through snow and rain to get some place and then a few days after that slogging home again. And when we’re together for days at a time with family members, old behavior patterns and conflicts can raise their ugly heads. Or maybe we can’t be with family—or don’t have one—so the whole season looks nothing like at all like a Hollywood movie. And yet there are always those expectations for having a “wonderful” time. So it’s no wonder this time of year many of us experience disappointment and sadness, not to mention stress and anxiety.

But this year we have our whole yoga toolbox at our fingertips, so I’m sure we can all do a better job of surviving these challenges with a measure of equanimity and grace.

After some thought, I’ve decided to suggest a two-part strategy. The first is to use the wisdom of yoga to change your attitude toward the holidays. It seems that in great part it is our plans going awry or hopes being crushed that cause so much emotional difficulty during this time. By changing your attitude, you can do your best not to get stressed out in the first place. Then because, well, some amount of stress is inevitable—even when we trying our best not to let things get to us, we tend to crack once in a while—you can use your favorite yoga stress reduction techniques to calm yourself  down and quiet your mind.

YOGA TIPS FOR SURVIVING THE HOLIDAYS

 1. Consider your attachment to your plans and hopes for the holidays.

The Yoga Sutras tells us in sutra 3.3 that attachment to pleasure and aversion to pain are two of the “afflictions” that cause human suffering.

And it seems to me that one of the pleasures we become attached to is our fantasies about how our lives will turn out (see Attachment (Raga) to Our Ideas About Ourselves). So start by recognizing your attachment to your plans and hopes for the holiday season. And admit to yourself that your attachment to those plans IS an affliction. (As I wrote in Attachment (Raga) to Our Ideas About Ourselves, I sometimes think we cling to our attachments in a form of magical thinking, because we feel as if holding on to our plans and hopes will make some kind of magic that will allow us to obtain what we desire.) Then see if you can work your way to letting go of some of those attachments. 

And maybe the discomfort we feel while traveling and while witnessing—or even participating in—family conflicts is pain to which we feel aversion. Can you try to shift your thinking a bit about whether the suffering these situations causes you is inevitable? 

As the Bhagavad Gita says, “When a man has mastered himself, he is perfectly at ease in cold, in heat, in pleasure or pain, in honor or disgrace.” And speaking of family members, the Gita says this, too:

He looks impartially on all:
those who love him or hate him,
his kinsmen, his enemies, his friends

the good, and also the wicked.

2. Go ahead with your plans, but do your work with “detachment” or “skill in actions,” as the Gita recommends. 

The wise man lets go of all

results, whether good or bad,

and is focused on the action alone.

Yoga is skill in actions.

So take your trip, help with all that cooking, give your gifts, spend time with your family members, and open your home to others, all without worrying about success or failure. This is the combination of active engagement and acceptance that we’ve been writing about since the early days of the blog (see What We Need to Practice and Acceptance, Active Engagement, and the Bhagavad Gita), which is the way to achieve equanimity in your everyday life. And equanimity is definitely something we can all use a bit more during the holidays.

3. Practice yoga for stress management to quiet your nervous system and your mind.

Reducing your stress levels will support your ability to put the wisdom of yoga in to practice. After all, yoga’s relaxing practices, including meditation and pranayama, were developed specifically to help quiet the mind so a yogic approach toward life would be possible. See The Relaxation Response and Yoga. For those who are pressed for time, here are a few suggestions: 

• Mini Restorative Practice (see Featured Sequence: Mini Restorative Practice)
• One or more Supported Inverted Poses (see All About Supported Inverted Poses)
• Meditation session (see Starting a Meditation Practice)
• Body Scan or Yoga Nidra (see Audio Tracks for guided versions by Baxter)
• Breath Practices that calm you (see Friday Q&A: Breath Practices for Anxiety)

4. Let contentment lead to joy.  

Both Ram and I have written about cultivating santosha as an important part of yoga practice (see Santosha: Happiness and Longevity and Yoga and the Pursuit of Happiness). Santosha means "contentment" and TKV Desikachar defines contentment as "the ability to be comfortable with what we have and what we do not have."

To help you cultivate contentment, the Yoga Sutras recommends meditation, pranayama (breath practices) and detachment. And then there’s this:

1.33 Through cultivation of friendliness, compassion, joy, and indifference to pleasure and pain, virtue and vice respectively, the consciousness becomes favorably disposed, serene and benevolent.

Well, that certainly seems like a good approach for the holiday season. So I wish you joy—no matter what your plans are this year.

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When I'm 64

by Caroline Haydon

Paul McCartney wrote the song “When I’m 64” when he was just sixteen. I was seventeen when it was released. To both of us baby boomers 64 probably seemed a good age to nominate as something unimaginably far off—"real" old age. Looked at from my perspective now, though, it’s just the age that I completed my training in the UK as a 240-hour yoga teacher—a neat conjunction, I thought at the time. Life gallops on, of course. That was already last year, and I’m pleased and grateful I was able to enter into such a life-changing phase.

Why train so late? I’d been practising since my twenties, but going through various stages in my ability to appreciate what yoga could offer. At first it just felt good. Much later on, I noticed that my joints felt a bit creaky as I came downstairs in the morning, and when I went along to yoga class, instead of enjoying being able to take “Option 1” instead of “Option 2” I secretly felt rather un-yogically resentful (“Option 3” was usually out of the question given most of the class was often decades younger). Should I give this yoga thing up altogether?

Then two things happened. With age came the ability to step back from my fast paced, all-consuming job. And members of my regular class started to sign up for teacher training with our inspirational teacher, Katy Appleton, in London. It felt beyond the bounds of possibility that since I couldn’t even do a Headstand in the middle of the room or sit in Paschimottanasana in a full fold that I could ever do the same. But gradually the idea grew on me. I needed to get those joints moving. What better way to make sure I really kept practising? And, even better, wouldn’t it be good for me to be a living demonstration that “Option 1” wasn’t something to be shunned, that it was an enjoyable pose where you could work to your edge? Could I even change up the way I talked about options in a class where people of my age might be in the majority? 

So last year I got my certificate. And I’ve been teaching with a preference for catering to the plus forties or fifties—and on to my seventy-plus year old students—ever since. It’s a physical and mental (remembering sequences?) challenge, of course. But the reason I want to keep teaching is the same as for so many—the desire to pass on the benefits I’ve felt, like my joints no longer creaking as I come downstairs in the morning. 

I’m passionate about demonstrating to people that they don’t have to end up with some of the postural changes Baxter wrote about in Friday Q&A: Jackknifed Posture. I want them to know that you can strengthen bone with the right poses held for the right length of time (I’m an avid follower of Loren Fishman’s work on osteoporosis). These are exciting times scientifically as we gain more information about what works—and how it works—in our practice. I would like those who haven’t come to yoga yet to know all this, or if they have practised before, to know that if they have an issue or condition, as I do with osteopenia, they can modify what they do so that yoga can become “a companion for life,” as Melina Meza so wonderfully put it. No, of course I can’t demonstrate everything. But after reading the latest literature I don’t teach Headstand and teach Shoulderstand only with props. Many full poses are not going to be advisable for some of my students, who are dealing with issues from arthritis to vertigo. Also my yoga hall cupboards are full to bursting with props to help out. If props are not enough we use chairs—wonderful for allowing those working to gain balance to concentrate on alignment. 

But 64 has another meaning for me—it was also the age that my father died of pancreatic cancer. So I share the feeling Nina expressed so eloquently in The Pains Which Are to Come that in the end the cultivating of equanimity through wisdom and practice will be the most important reason that I want to both practise and teach all aspects of yoga. I have been lucky to live longer than the last generation. Moving towards the last asana, or Savasana, understanding “letting go,” working out why I don’t meditate as often as I need to—there is still the rest of a lifetime’s work ahead, however long that turns out to be. 

In the end we can all appropriate yoga to our age and need (see the recent post Rksana: Protective Practice to Sustain Women as We Age on how yoga practices shouldn’t remain static throughout life). We baby boomers need our own uplifting, beneficial and safe practice, as Yoga for Healthy Aging so ably demonstrates week after week. I wonder if Paul McCartney ever practises?  

Caroline Haydon is a former TV and print journalist now teaching yoga in Gloucestershire, UK. You can find her on Facebook at Pure Yoga Tetbury or email her at caroline@haydontaylor.co.uk

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What a Year of Balance Poses Taught Me

by Baxter

Vincent, Age 51, photographed by Sara Bennett

If you have been reading our blog during 2015 or following either our Yoga for Healthy Aging or my Baxter Bell Yoga Facebook pages, you know that since the beginning of the year, I have been introducing a new balance pose every week to my students in Oakland and around the country. (You can find videos of all my balance poses of the week on my YouTube channel Baxter Bell Yoga.)

I was motivated to do this after reading studies that showed the benefit of improved balance on reducing the risks of falling (see The Importance of Preventing Falls), which can be a devastating turn of events for some. Some of the new poses I made up were either closely or loosely aligned with existing yoga poses (for example, my Cypress pose was a variation of Vrksasana or Tree pose) and others were more of a stretch (Pirate’s pose 2.0, for instance!). And each week I was involved in the creative process of coming up with a new balance pose, no small feat for someone not accustomed to such endeavors. (Special thanks to those out there who shared with me their balance creations, such as 4 Corners, which took the pressure off for a week now and then). I personally discovered this process was both daunting and delightful, but more importantly I found my students were open to trying out my new inventions, even renaming them on occasion!

Through my personal studies on balance, I rediscovered the complexity of balance, which integrates many levels of the mind, both conscious and reflexive, with input from skin, joints, muscles, fascia, eyes, and ears. And in looking into recent research on balance, I discovered that a variety of scientists—from gerontologists doing research on improving balance in their vulnerable patients to sports medicine academies looking to improve athletic performance and reduce sports injuries—were looking for new ways of improving balance. From these fields of study I found several core concepts that I began to integrate into my classes and teaching, such as that of challenging or stressing a person’s limits of stability (the area outside of his or her base of support he or she can go without losing control of the center of gravity) via “controlled instability” and “cognitive distracting drills” (see The Great Balance Pose of the Week and Adding Distraction to Your Balance Poses). I found the following guidelines particularly relevant for yoga practice:

1. Moving from simple to complex (for example, doing Tree pose and Warrior 3 independently, then creating a dynamic sequence combining them (see Tree-to-3)
2. Progressing from known to unknown (for example, practicing Tree pose and then introducing Cypress pose)
3. Progressing from static to dynamic (for example, practicing static Eagle pose and then Dynamic Eagle pose) 
4. Progressing from stable to unstable (for example, Packin' the Trailer with a foot on the ground to standing on a block)
5. Progressing from eyes open to eyes closed (applicable for classic yoga balance poses, such as Half Moon pose, or any of my new poses)
6. Emphasizing quality over quantity (practicing a single pose mindfully rather than moving quickly through several poses)

By returning to the topic of balance each week in many diverse settings, I also came to discover that by and large the goal of improving balance was universally embraced by people of all ages. And many of my students reported practicing the new balance poses on their own and noted personal gains in better balance over this past year. And because of the tendency of many students to be highly self-critical and judge themselves as “bad” balancers, I made it my mission to remind them all that it is not about perfecting any one new balance pose, but that the mere engagement in trying the poses has positive benefits on long-term balance.

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Video of the Week: Boat (Navasana) on a Boat

In yoga we don't always balance on our feet. So today Baxter adds a balance challenge to a seated balancing pose (Boat pose), where you balance on your sitting bones.

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Friday Practice Pointers: Spinal Rotation

by Baxter 

Barbara Haxo Phillips, Age 64

You know flexion
and extension
and side-bending, too;
but do you recall…
the most famous spinal movement of all? (dup-a-dup, dup, dup, dup do-dooo!) 

Okay, I ‘m obviously starting to get into the holiday spirit, and you are right—spinal rotation is not really the most famous spinal movement of all, but it is an essential movement for all yoga poses that involve a little or a lot of twisting. These include seated twists, such as Sitting Twist (Parsva Sukasana), and Marichi’s pose 3 (Marichyasana 3), reclined twists, such as Belly Turning pose (Jathara Parivartasana), and forward bending twists, such as Revolved (Parivritta Janusirsasana—check name). There are also several standing twists, such as Revolved Triangle pose and Revolved Extended Side Angle pose, but all the asymmetrical standing poses require at least a little rotation, including Triangle pose (Trikonasana), Extended Side Angle pose (Utthita Parsvakonasana), Warrior 1 and Warrior 2 (Virabradrasana 1 and 2) and Pyramid pose (Parsvokonasana). The same is true for the asymmetrical seated forward bends and backbends.

As with the other three movements of the spine (forward bending, side bending, and back bending), different areas of your spine are better at rotating than others. The ability of these areas rotate are, in descending order: your neck (cervical spine), the intersection of your lower ribs and the upper part of your lower back (your thoraco-lumbar junction), and your lower lumbar spine, which is capable of very little rotation. It is important not to expect a restricted area to be more mobile than it is and not to force movement especially in the restricted low back area.

There are a few conditions for which any twisting at all should be avoided, including poses that include just an element of twisting like Triangle pose.  (There is a bit of wiggle room here, if you can do a modified Triangle pose or Head to Knee Forward Bend without provoking symptoms, you can probably safely do a small amount of rotation. But if these types of poses worsen symptoms, you should avoid all twisting of any kiind.) There are also many conditions for which you should avoid deeper twisting but doing a gentle twist is fine. In general, a gentle twist is one that takes you only 50 to 75 percent of your full capacity. Poses that include an element of twisting, such as Triangle and Head to Knee Forward Bend,  fall into the category of a gentle twist.)

Who should avoid any twisting of the spine? Those with:

• Degenerating or bulging disks with symptoms that worsen with twisting (see Degenerative Disk Disease and Yoga)
• Arthritis anywhere in the spine with symptoms that worsen with twisting (see Arthritis of the Spine).
• Spinal stenosis with symptoms that worsen with twisting (see A Pair of Serendipities Re Spinal Stenosis).

Who needs to avoid deep twists, but can do some gentle twisting? Those with:

• Second and third trimester of pregnancy.
• Abdominal conditions with symptoms that worsen with twist. Common conditions include Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Hiatal Hernia, constipation, and Reflux disease.
• Osteopenia and osteoporosis (keep in mind that Loren Fishman, MD, feels that his osteoporosis study subjects actually did quite well with basic twisting poses)
• Acute nausea
• Untreated high blood pressure. Avoid long holds of standing twists such as Revolved Triangle pose (Parivritta Trikonasana) and Revolved Half Moon pose (Parivritta Arda Chandrasana).
• Sacroiliac pain that worsens with twisting
• Lower back pain
• Scoliosis. Those who have different rotational ability on their left and right sides due to their underlying spinal structure may need to twist to different amounts on each side. On the side on which you can twist more easily, I recommend not rotating maximally but instead focusing on lengthening your spine. On the restricted side, I recommend mindfully encouraging more rotation, but without pushing too hard.
• After a holiday feast!

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How We Balance

by Nina

Kim Schleicher, Age 60, by Melina Meza

It turns out that our ability to balance is surprisingly complex, requiring the cooperation of three different systems in our bodies. I thought today we should have a look at all three of those systems, as understanding what influences your ability to balance will help you see what you can improve with yoga practice and what you cannot affect. The three different systems in your body that affect your ability to balance are: 

Vestibular System: The three canals in your inner ears provide your brain with information about linear and angular positions of your body with respect to gravity. For example, are you standing on a flat surface, such as a floor or a sidewalk or are you standing on an uneven surface, such as a rocky path or walking down a set of stairs? 

Visual System: Your eyes provide your brain with information about the position of your body relative to other objects in your environment, including their depth, velocity and motion. And you use that information about your environment to orient yourself. For example, when you’re walking outside, you use the horizon to tell you what an upright position is, and inside a house, you’re using the angles of the room in which you’re standing in the same way. If you have poor eyesight, have you noticed what happens to your ability to balance without your glasses or contacts? Or have you ever closed your eyes in Tree pose? 

Somatic Sensory System: Sensors in your body provides your brain with information about where your body is in space so you know how to make adjustments to keep your balance. There are two different somatic sensors: exteroception and proprioception. 

Exteroception is the ability to feel what is interacting with the exterior of your body. Sensors on your skin allow you to feel the outside environment. For example, if you are walking outside, are you walking on solid ground or sinking into mud? Even if you’re not on your feet, you take in information about the surface you’re balancing on, for example, try kneeling on a stack of blanks vs. on the floor. 

Proprioception is the ability to tell where one body part is in relation to another. Sensors in all your muscles and joints allow you to feel from the inside how your body is moving in space.The classic test for this is to have you close your eyes and then use your hand to touch your nose. And, in fact, proprioception is what allows you to walk around in the dark. 

Although you cannot use yoga to influence your vestibular and vision systems (and they do tend to deteriorate somewhat with age), you can use yoga to improve your somatic sensory system. So let’s take a closer look at both exteroception and proprioception next.

Also, keep in mind, that even with all three of these systems functioning perfectly, your body won’t be able to respond well to the information it’s receiving from your brain if you’re very weak or stiff. So working on strength, flexibility, and agility are also key for maintaining your ability to balance. Maintaining mental focus in the face of distraction—because in the real world we’re often distracted—is also key, so you can work on mental focus by practicing meditation and also by doing your poses where there is some distraction, such as at the beach or at home with some kids in the room.

Yoga and Exteroception 

By practicing your yoga asanas with bare feet you are increasing their sensitivity. That improves the exteroception on the bottom of your feet, which will improve your ability to balance. And once you are comfortable with your balance on a wood floor or a thin yoga mat, you can vary the surface on which you practice to further increase your exteroception. Try practicing on a rug or carpet a foam mat, or even a firm mattress or doing a balance pose with half your standing foot on the mat or standing on a foam block. Or practice yoga outside on the grass or at the beach on the sand. 

We also recommend practicing yoga balancing poses where you balance on other parts of your body to improve exteroception in other areas. Try Side Plank pose (Vasithasana) variations to work on hands and the sides of your feet. Try Boat pose (Navasana) variations to work on your buttocks area. Try Hunting Dog pose to work on your shins as well as your hands. 

Taking vision out of the equation also helps improve exteroception as you’ll need to work with your sense of touch to compensate for lack of sight. So you can experiment by practicing in a darkened room or keeping your eyes closed. 

Yoga and Proprioception

Doing a variety of poses takes your body into all different kinds of configurations. And practicing without a mirror—which is typically how we do yoga—helps you feel all those different positions from the inside out as you sense your own alignment without using your eyes. That will help refine your proprioception. So take some time to really feel your own alignment. Are you arms even in Warrior 2? Are you knees actually straight in your standing poses? Is your head really aligned directly over your torso?

Also, be sure to practice a wide variety of poses rather than just doing the same 10 every day. And when you’ve been practicing for a few years, you might even want to invent some new variations to keep things fresh and challenging, as Baxter has done with his Balance Pose of the Week, or at least search them out.

To take your proprioception to another level, you can try working with more subtle alignment cues. For example, you could work with your shoulder blades, your collar bones, your inner thighs, or something even more esoteric like your psoas muscles . Sometimes there is an area you are not used to even sensing and, at first, it will be hard to feel something there. But the more you bring your mind to it, the easier it will be to sense that area and eventually to move it.

Taking vision out of the equation helps improve proprioception as you’ll need to work with your sense of where your body is in a space to compensate for lack of sight. That’s how you can walk in the dark! So you can experiment by practicing in a darkened room or keeping your eyes closed.

And now can I take a moment to say that we have more than five senses—way, way more? Today I discussed two senses that are typically excluded from the big five, your vestibular system and your proprioception. And there are a lot more where those came from! 

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Two New Studies on Yoga and Parkinsons Disease

by Nina

Richard Rosen, Age 67, by Melina Meza

Just a quick post today to let you know about two recent studies on yoga for Parkinson’s Disease. Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, prevalent in 1% of all individuals over the age of 60 years. It is characterized by tremor, rigidity, slowness of movement, and postural instability. In addition, people with PD have neuropsychiatric symptoms affecting mood, sleep, psychosis, and impulse control. Because the medication currently used to treat symptoms (there is no cure for it) loses effectiveness over time and also has serious side effects, these researchers realized there is a compelling need for alternative therapies to improve function and quality of life in persons with PD.

The first study Effect of Yoga on Motor Function in People with Parkinson’s Disease: A Randomized, Controlled Pilot Study was a small pilot study designed to determine whether yoga could help improve motor function in people with PD. Remember, a pilot study is small because the intention is to find proof of concept before investing in a larger study. So for this study, only thirteen adults with PD who were unfamiliar with yoga were studied. The yoga program used was an 60-minute Iyengar sequence specifically designed for people with PD to help improve strength, flexibility, body alignment, and overall well-being. The sequence included physical postures, breathing, and meditation, and the participants practiced it twice a week for 12 weeks. Participants were assessed prior to starting the program, at 6 weeks of pratice, and immediately following 12 weeks of practice. The assessment included motor examination scores from the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale, posture, measures of extremity range of motion, flexibility and strength, and biomechanical measures of balance and gait that occurred at 3 time points. The researchers concluded: 

"Findings suggest that yoga practice improves motor function which may be partially explained by improvements in balance, strength, posture and gait. Due to the progressive nature of PD yoga programs may offer a way to maintain wellness and perhaps quality of life."

The second study Applications of yoga in Parkinson's disease: a systematic literature review focused on the impact of yoga both on physical function and psychological well-being in people with PD. This study was a systematic literature review, which means rather than doing original research, the researchers performed a literature search for randomized controlled trials, pretest–post-test design, and case studies. The outcomes of the studies included functional mobility, flexibility, balance, strength, depression, sleep, and quality of life. According to the researchers:

"The preliminary data suggested that yoga resulted in modest improvements in functional mobility, balance, and lower-limb strength in persons with PD. This has implications for gait, postural stability, balance confidence, and functional declines related to inactivity. An improved upper- and lower-body flexibility following yoga in persons with PD is applicable to rigidity, shuffling gait, and flexed posture. The presented evidence also showed positive outcomes for mood and sleep, demonstrating yoga's benefit for self-efficacy and social support."

They concluded that yoga provides an alternative method for addressing some of the reversible factors that impact motor function as well as contributing to improved psychosocial well-being.

Although more research is necessary for full proof, these two studies are very promising. And we already know from anecdotal evidence that yoga is very beneficial for people with PD (see Yoga for Parkinson's Disease, Part 1 and Interview with Vickie Russell Bell). So if you are already practicing, by all means keep it up. And if you have not yet started to take yoga for PD, perhaps these studies will encourage you to find a suitable class or teacher in your community.

And thanks to all you teachers out there who are specializing in teaching for this group. You're doing such important work!

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Techniques for Improving Balance

by Shari and Nina

Elizabeth Cooke, Age 57

Because of something I'm working on—you can probably guess what—I wanted to learn more about specific techniques for improving balance. So I turned to one of my favorite local expert on the topic, our very own Shari Ser, yoga teacher and physical therapist. I asked her a set of questions regarding techniques for improving balances, and thought today I'd share the results with you. Thank you, Shari! —Nina

NINA: Let’s say you’ve decided that you want to focus on improving your balance, where should you start? Let’s talk about the person who has really poor balance first. Then maybe talk about someone who doesn’t have balance problems per se but just wants to improve and/or maintain balance?

SHARI: I’ll start with the individual who doesn’t live with a constant fear of falling and is relatively mobile, though not necessarily agile.

We always start at the beginning and my reference point for the beginning is Mountain pose (Tadasana). Tadasana is a symmetrical pose that is never mastered and there are endless variations you can practice. Varying your foot position by bring your feet closer together challenges your balance. Start by standing with your feet hips-distance apart. Then, if your knees allow it, gradually work toward the classic Tadasana foot position, with your feet together (big toes touching, heels slightly apart).

You can also vary the pose by closing your eyes, changing the position of your head, by looking up or looking down, and by turning your head. Other movements include raising your arms overhead and side bending.

Next try changing the surface you are standing on. Try standing on a sticky mat that is folded multiple times, on a couch pillow on the floor that is very cushy, on an inflated but soft air mattress, and so—I think you are getting the picture here.

A favorite balance challenge on mine is to put a foam block on your head (like the old fashioned postural exercises some of our moms may have taught us) and first just stand in Tadasana. Then add arm movements out to the side and overhead, trying to keep the block from falling—that can be a lot of fun. For those of you who have a fairly symmetrical walking pattern, walking while in Tadasana with a block on your head is a challenge as you examine how your transferring of weight may influence your postural stability and the ability to keep the block on your head.

NINA: What types of poses should your practice include?

SHARI: I always focus in the beginning on standing poses to challenge balance because they are so much fun and very gratifying because improvements are really noticeable. The standing poses that I would recommend for balance and also to increase leg strength include: Warrior 1 and 2 (Virabradrasana 1 and 2), Triangle pose (Trikonasana), and Extended Side Angle pose (Utthita Parsvakonasana).

Something else to consider is that different yoga traditions enter into and exit out of standing poses with a prescribed sequence. To challenge this habitual pattern—mental agility, folks!—you can change how you step into Warrior 1 or 2. Stepping back from Tadasana with one leg into a Warrior pose then back into Tadasana (repeating on the second side) is a balance challenge. Likewise, stepping forward from Tadasana into the pose from then back into Tadasana, switching sides rhythmically is also balance challenge. Adding rhythm in how you move in and out of a pose from Tadasana with a metronome can be fun, changing between faster and slower tempos. The concept here is NOT to do your entry and exit the same way every single time.

Another way to not only increase balance reactions and leg strength is to link poses together in a flow sequence. Baxter has done a few posts on mini vinyasas with standing poses (see Warrior 1 and Warrior 2 Mini Vinyasas), but  you can also make them up yourself by linking poses together. For example, try going from Warrior 2 to Extended Side Angle to Triangle pose and back again (repeated on the second side) is one way to approach this idea.

I also think it is crucial to make transitions from standing to the floor and back to standing smoothly and gracefully. You don’t want to move quickly through transitions because speed can increase the risk of falling because you aren’t moving mindfully but just trying to get to the next step. If you have difficulty getting down to and up from the floor, using a chair to assist you is fine but make sure you control the descent and ascent. If initially your legs are too weak or due to orthopedic issues they don’t “bend the way they used to,” it is fine to use your arms to help support your legs.

After working with the standing poses, you should also practice traditional standing balance poses, such as Tree pose (Vrksasana), Half Moon pose (Arda Chandrasana) and Revolved Half Moon, and Warrior 3 (Virabrdrasana 3). Starting with the right amount of support is important; improvement in balancing will bring the gradual lessening of the support that you need.

I also like some floor balance poses for challenges, such as Side Plank pose (Vasithasana), which you can make accessible by practicing the variations (see Featured Pose: Side Plank Pose). Other ideas are Boat pose (Navasana) and Hunting Dog pose, both of which have accessible variations. For more experienced yogis who have been practicing inversions like Shoulderstand (Sarvangasana), Headstand (Sirsasana), and Forearm Balance (Pinca Mayurasana), just the act of doing these poses is challenging your balance, but I don’t recommend them at all for beginners.

NINA: Should we be doing leg strength poses as well as balancing poses?

SHARI: Absolutely we should be doing leg-strengthening poses. Balance is an integrative full body system, and the leg muscles are part of the system. Strong legs mean you are able to lift your body weight with your legs. That means being able to stand from a standard height chair without using your arms to help. This in itself is a training activity. A yoga pose you can use is Powerful pose, either by sliding off a chair into the shape of Powerful pose or starting in Mountain pose and moving into Powerful pose. There are many ways to vary this pose (see Featured Pose: Powerful Pose).

Standing on one leg with adequate balance support and then over time removing the degree of support will also really work on strength, especially the outer hip muscles which help keep your pelvis level when your lift one leg off the ground.

To increase strength, increase your hold times you start to feel just a bit “uncomfortable” and there is more effort required. (I am NOT talking about staying in a pose and “working with the pain.” Effort does not equal pain, and, if it does, then you need to immediately come out of the pose.)

NINA: How often should you do the poses? How long should you hold the poses?

SHARI: I suggest practicing daily for even five minutes as a good way to begin. Developing the habit of practice is the key—what you do during your five minutes is more open. For someone just starting to work on balance, in a five minute practice you could start with Tadasana and Tree pose, which I recommend doing every day. Then add in one or two other standing and/or balance poses, which you should vary throughout the week to maintain a balanced diet of yoga poses.

As far as how long to hold a pose, I would recommend a simple approach. Hold a pose till you notice your leg is quivering and then try to hold 2-3 seconds longer. Come out and rest a few seconds before repeating on the second side. 

NINA: And when you get the basic balance poses down to long, steady holds, where should you go from there?

SHARI: The first thing I remove is vision because removing visual acuity really affects balance! So try either practicing in a darkened room or closing your eyes. Once you master the visual challenge, try adding head motions while keeping your eyes steady—find a visual focal point and keep your eyes on that object but add head rotations. 

Next, return to another visual challenge. Keeping your head steady, move your gaze around the room in every direction you can comfortably take it. Once you’ve mastered that, try moving your eyes in one direction with your head is turned in the opposite direction.

Another technique is to vary the surface you practice on. Try standing on a cushy or unstable surface—like an air mattress on the floor that is underinflated—and do standing poses like Warrior 2 or balance poses for a definite balance challenge! When practicing balance poses like Tree pose, as Baxter has recommended, try variations with moving your arms and head.

Other ways to vary your practice is to change where you do your practice. I, for one, am very partial to yoga on the beach. There is something about the movement of the air as well as the movement of the water that I find very nurturing. Watching moving objects while trying to remain still and steady is definitely a balance challenge.

NINA: Is there anything else you can do to improve your balance?

SHARI: Whenever possible, increase your foot sensitivity. Massaging the soles of your feet is important—there are numerous tools you can use for this. I also recommend stretching your toes individually and feeling all the small joints in the toes and how they move  (this also allows you to keep a close check on the state of your feet, especially if you are a diabetic).  You can also do toe exercises from a seated position, like trying to individually lift and replace each toe, which is quite challenging.

And as long as you don’t have diabetes or peripheral neuropathy, walking with bare feet in the house and in safe outdoor environments, such as at the beach or on the grass, is invaluable for keeping your feet health, supple, and responsive. So take off your shoes!

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