Sharath is known for telling students "no dancing" when leading UHP, so much so that there is a t-shirt that reads so. And no dancing is no easy feast for me as seen at 0:45". I have my days in which I actually get totally focused and do not dance, but they are rare.
I have actually noticed a relation between how I hold my balance in UH and how I hold my equanimity throughout the day later on, so much so that I have began to pay very close attention to the quality of the pose, and to be real present for it, least it breaks my peace when it counts the most, out of the mat.
I started practicing UH almost 6 years ago when I was building up to practicing the whole primary series and I just remember that I used to do it by a fire place in my old house in New Jersey, and holding on to it. It is amazing to me to see the progress, how the fire place becomes background, a pretty one indeed, after a while, and how practicing UH in the middle of the room is an every day assumption. Oh the wonders of daily practice! I am so ever grateful.
Mysore teachers out there, what can you tell just by looking at a practitioners do U.H.P?
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i am not sure i agree with the uhp and backbend connection, but only because my uhp is nothing special yet i can backbend till the cows come home.
ReplyDeletei would recommend connecting with your standing leg. it has to hold the rest of your body up, and it is harder to do that if the leg is bent.
Hi Anonymous, thank you for your comment, my association is more with the dropback, (and coming back with it) rather than the Backbending from the floor. When you are dropping back, if you go slowly backwards you will feel it in the psoas, they are the big muscles that can hold you.
ReplyDeleteThere is of course other details, like you say, connecting with the standing leg is also very important indeed.
Hated this pose for so long. Mine's still not great but I tolerate it and even have a begrudging respect. I even add on the Vinyasa krama one legged squat between UP and UEP, a real killer, especially the coming back up. I found that the standing marichi helped ( I have a link on my sister blog under 'on one leg' ) or at least lifting the bent leg knee up high close to the chest just before going into UHP, recently noticed kino does that (2nd series video I think). Saturday's I tend to have a martini and a little jug of Sake with some japanese food, not much but I noticed Sunday morning I dance about more than any other day.
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha, you crack me up Grimmly, you dance around more after the martinis, that is funny. I don't think I am aware of that squat move and got really curious, next time I'm at the computer instead of on the road I will look for it, and also Kinno's, thanks for the pointer
ReplyDeleteNot very good but here it is, too exhausting to do more than one take.
ReplyDeletehttp://vinyasakramayoga.blogspot.com/2010/08/42-on-one-leg-p-93-uttita.html
I usually come up and do the ashtanga UEP
Hello Claudia,
ReplyDeletemy UHP is not great, and neither are my dropbacks and standups, but I prefer doing dropbacks and standups to doing UHP. With dropbacks and standups, you get this powerful prana surge, kinda like downing a double shot of espresso. Whereas with UHP... well, I've never been a dancer, so unlike many yogis who used to be dancers (and I know there are quite a few of them out there), I've never been good at standing on one leg, and I dance in the pose more than I care to admit (maybe this is to make up for those many many years spent not dancing, hahaha...). But I do my best in the pose, and give it all due respect.
I also have to say, Claudia, that I have great respect for you posting these videos of your practice online. It takes a lot of courage, humility and seeking spirit to constantly show your practice to the world and actively seek feedback. Namaste.
I am writing this while in the middle of a decadent junk food binge (espresso, dark chocolate, and potato chips...) Strange combination, I know, but I think Tolstoy once said that all happy families are alike in their happiness, whereas each case of unhappiness is entirely unique in and of itself. I think the same can be said of decadence vs. wholesomeness: All wholesome behaviors are alike in their wholesomeness, whereas each case of indulgent decadence is unique in and of itself. Well, I am going to go off now and further indulge in my unique decadence.
Best,
Nobel
Thank you Grimmly for the link, now let's see how I copy paste with the iPad...
ReplyDeleteNobel, Thank you. I totally relate to your thoughts on the decadent binge, which, by the way, sounds kind of good to me.. A few months ago I wrote a post about just that cause I had eaten marshmallows, and not the good kind... Thing is when we try to hard to become satvic, say, by eating right all the time, that automatically makes us rajasic (hectically pushing) hence sometimes the real yogi thing to do is to just go for those chips, matter of fact, I just finished a little box of prickles from the minibar...
OH MY Goodness Grimmly, that video made me hurt just by watching, and now of course I will HAVE to try it... I wonder if it will be as hard as I imagine it
ReplyDeletehi claudia, this is the anonymous from above. i would still make the argument that dropbacks and standing up are more quadriceps than psoas. i say this as a body worker, and also as someone who (i should have been more clear) is fairly adept at the dropbacks, chakra bandasana too. but whenever i see my uhp, i cringe. i think the use of both psoas at the same time as in backbending is a completely different animal than one at a time. my supta pasangustasana kind of sucks too. and i can't do 'the splits'. my ususal mysore neighbor can do the splits, but is nowhere close to a dropback on his own.
ReplyDeletei am not trying to be argumentative with you, but i know that the dropback is important to you, so i would urge you not to get caught up in something that the backbend is not.
Hi Anonymous from above, I appreciate your further explanation, thanks for clarifying, as a matter of fact, after you left the first comment I started thinking more and more about the connection of the quads and the psoas at the time of dropping back. My question then, from my modest understanding would be, so when we are dropping back from standing, in the beginning I can clearly see how all the strenght is on the quads, then as you go back, back, way back, and your hands are almost touching the floor, then what muscles other than the quads are working? My guess is that there is a communication between the two... a constant dialogue, but I was wondering if you could guide me through what muscles "light up" (so to speak) as the bending becomes progressively deeper
ReplyDeletedo you have anatomy of hatha yoga? it has some very interesting stuff about the mechanics of backbending.
ReplyDeletefor me, and i understand that this is not everyone, i engage quads, adductors, rectus abdominus. i am sure the psoas plays a minor role there, but i would say its flexibility is more important than its strength. i think of a friend of mine with a very deep backbend and her major issue is on days when her psoas feels tight, not weak.
now i am going to talk right out of my rear end, because i am not close to my anatomy texts to say for certain, but i don't think that the psoas goes far enough down the leg to offer a whole lot of hip flexion as you are going further and further back. i would venture to guess that psoas doesn't really kick in unless/until the femur is anterior to the body.
i would have to pay more attention to my backbend, but when i hang back, it is most certainly the strength of my legs that is allowing me to stay upright, not the strength of my hips.
hope this is somehow helpful :)
Hi Anonymous, yes this is helpful, I am not sure I own that book but I have something similar, If anything your comment has sent me deeper down the rabbit hole, and more investigation is on the horrizon for me.
ReplyDeleteFascinating! For me, too, UHP is the whistleblower pose. If I have missed a few days, if I'm distracted, this is the one that shows it. It always confounds me that while it has gotten generally better over the course of time, and there are days when it surprises me with effortlessness, when it is bad, it is the same bad, and on days when I can't do it, it is usually simply impossible to do it well, despite a dozen attempts.
ReplyDeleteAs for dropbacks, since I have a home practice, I have so rarely had the opportunity to try them with a teacher, and so that is my rationale for not trying them at home alone. Definitely fear, and now your connecting them to UHP gives me yet another reason to be cautious LOL
Hey Fran, thanks for your comment, I cannot even imagine if I was to miss a few days on this one, actually I can, I was not able to practice for over 10 days a few months ago due to sickness and now it is coming back to me, it was not pretty to return to UHP... good luck with the drop backs, hope you can get to a teacher soon! :-)
ReplyDelete