Sept. 18th: Day 1 of the Jayne Orton Workshop

Our first session with Jayne was 3 hrs. Some poses from the workshop have been excluded here to keep things brief. The poses you see below are listed in the order Jayne taught them to maintain as much of the Iyengar sequencing as possible. Here are the poses and cues which stood out for me:

Supta Padangustasana (Reclining Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose) I and II - the thigh bone of the lifted leg needs to draw back into the hip socket to keep the hip joint stable (N.B. this action is used in many other poses! e.g., Tadasana, Adho Muhka Svanasana, etc), hands can hold either end of the strap with elbows to the edge of the mat to keep the chest and collar bones broad; opposite leg extends out and stays lifted off the floor an inch or two before being lowered down. Think: I need to bring the back of the thigh down to touch the floor first, then the calf, then the heel. Watch the toes! Tadasana feet with the pinky toe and outer heel drawing down towards the floor to keep the toes level.

Tadasana (Mountain Pose) - use a brick between the inner heels so as to not collapse through the inner edges of the feet, arches, and ankles. How-to: roll to the outer edges of the feet and then roll back to press the inner heels into the block; at the same time, ground through the big toes of both feet. Press the thighs back and remember to keep a slight internal rotation of the legs

Parvottasana - Keeping the thumbs together; once the conventional way, once starting with the elbows bent, backs of the hands on the top of the head and pressing up. The latter version is intended to keep the arms in line with the ears but it's a much more intense pose. That's an understatement!

Urhva Hastasana (Upward-facing Hands) - With a block between the hands, once the conventional way, once starting with elbows bent, block on the top of the head and extending up (similar to Parvottasana - linking)

Ardha Chandrasana (Half-moon Pose) - Lift the thigh bone into the hip socket as you straighten the standing leg. Brilliant cue! My stability went from nothing to rock solid.

Parivrtta Parsvakonasana (Revolving Side Angle) - Same action as AC

Parsvottanasana (Intense Side Stretch Pose) - Arms up, palms facing forward, bending forward with arms reaching forward, arms down to blocks or floor; front outer hip must draw inwards and back into the hip socket

Virabhadrasana 1 (Warrior 1) - Done on a chair. I had never tried this variation before. Sit with your front bent leg through the back of the chair, front outer heel pressing against the front leg of the chair where possible. Back leg extends so the back heel can press into a block behind you. Using the back of the chair, press your hands and lift yourself off the chair slightly. Here is where the real work comes in. Lift and lengthen the front of the body from the pelvis to the naval, to the chest. The tailbone draws in and up, the spine lengthens up, and you now have a much longer torso with more freedom in the lower back. Then "sit-don't-sit" back on your chair so as to not loose the action in the torso. And if that weren't enough, with your back leg contract your thigh and press your hip and top of the thigh forward into the back of the chair. These last steps create a strong, stable, long back leg with a more rotated pelvis.

Important note: chairs with padded seats as better here ;)

Because we hadn't had enough, we then practiced Virabhadrasana 1 without a chair. Maybe it was Jayne's teaching, maybe I was warmed up or in the "zone", but my VB 1 never left so good especially in the back leg.



Seems as though there were quite a few "lightbulb" moments. This is going to take longer than I thought..

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