Stretching the East

This is a record of my observation of Suzette's all-levels class at Whole Life Yoga on 5/21/09, at 4:30-5:45 p.m.

For this assignment, we were instructed to pay close attention to back bends, to note where the students' movement into these postures originated, and what release valves, if any, were visibly employed by the practitioners as they moved in and out of these bends.

It was a small group consisting of four practitioners, one other observer besides myself, and the instructor.

After introductory attention to the breath and the usual upward arm sweeps, three kneeling postures preceded the first back bend, upward-facing dog. It was immediately preceded by cakravakasana, which provided a natural transition, and I noticed right away that all four practitioners looked to be experienced yoginis. As a group, they showed a polished and confident form as they moved through the routine, and their movement into up dog was no exception. It was hard to isolate a single origin for this movement, as the four ladies' backs bowed simultaneously with their heads coming to an erect posture, facing forward, their shoulders rising just slightly from cakravakasana. I didn't see any of the four using release valves such as hunching the shoulders or collapsing their necks backward. They then lowered themselves slowly down to a prone position.

The class moved immediately into another back bend, salabhasana, the variation where the arms are spread with the hands reaching back toward the similarly spread legs. (One of the students -- the one sort of hanging toward the back, chose to do bhujangasana or a standard cobra pose here instead.) The movement appeared to originate in two places simultaneously: the low back and the shoulders, especially the latter, whose elevation seemed to set in motion the simultaneous raising of all four limbs, the curvature of the spine, and the adduction of the scapulae. Here again, no release valves were visible, and none of the students who did the posture struggled with it in any way. From here, the class transitioned to child's pose, then to downward-facing dog leading to uttanasana.

The two back bends were poses numbers five and six in the sequence, and were followed by a some standing forward bends, and then, immediately following parsvottanasana, at number nine in the sequence, the standing back bend virabhdrasana (warrior I) with "goal post" arms. This simple movement originated with the forward thrusting of the chest, immediately followed by the back-trending rotation of the shoulders, adducting the scapulae and producing the back-bend effect in the lumbar spine. Here again, there were no visible release valves. A counterpose repetition of uttanasana immediately followed.

The next back bend came at position number 14, a return to upward-facing dog as part of a flow sequence which also included plank position and downward-facing dog. As before, all the practitioners, especially the three who sort of lined up in front, moved through these sequences with ease, showing no strain and not visibly employing any releasing shortcuts.

A variation of vimanasana immediately followed the flow sequence. With students' arms and legs raised and the arms sweeping forward, the instructor called out a sequence in which first all four limbs were active, then two at a time; practitioners raised one arm and the opposite leg and continued in this vein alternating sides. The origins of these movements was quite clearly along the whole spine, with the thoracic spine raising up as the lumbar spine curved to enable leg elevation. None of the students appeared to have any difficulty with this strenuous movement, which was followed naturally by apanasana, then a supine twist.

Dvipada pitham was the final back bend of the practice, followed by the heels-to-the-sky urdhva prasrta padasana. Winding down, students relaxed into supta badha konasana, a supine posture of their choice, and a very quiet savasana to end the day.

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