Rolling the head for more neck flexibility. August 2022
A warm-up needn’t to be exhausting. It’s not necessary to do five sun salutations A and five or three sun salutations B to warm up the body. For me these greetings to the sun are demanding. One can do them sloppily or intensively. As I don’t want to cheat, I usually give my best. I realise that I start sweating right from the beginning of my Ashtanga yoga series. My pulse goes up.
Yet if one plans a second practice within a day it might be enough to do less of a warm-up in the beginning of the second practice. In addition the body is already more flexible later of the day. This is what I learned from the intensive back bending videos with Ugi, the contortionist on Omstars (Kino’s yoga channel).
A practice with her starts with rolling the head in both directions ten times.
Then she asks the students to stretch the arms to the sides. Firstly the ten circles with the arms are small, then medium, then large. Ten times the arms circle backwards, then the other way round.
At the end the hips shall make huge circles. That’s it.
The back bending exercises start modest. These exercises warm up the body as well. The back bending exercises slowly become more and more challenging.
There is enough energy for the middle part of the practice when the warm-up is sufficient, but modest.
Your work out is my warm up, sounds cool. For me it was often disappointing that the most challenging asanas came at the end of my yoga practice, when I was already exhausted from 90 minutes of practicing. I remember that I used to practice two and a half hours. After the first series and the first asanas of the second Ashtanga yoga series I finally tried kapotasana, this advanced back bending asana. I was done by then. I had no strength anymore. To work on ‘difficult’ asanas when still fresh makes more sense for me.
A warm-up shall prepare the body for the exercises. It shall avoid injuries. It’s not the aim to exhaust the practitioner.
There is also a cool down phase existing of three dynamic movements.
The student lies on the back on the floor and lifts up both feet till they are in 90 degree to the body, not further. At the end the hips move away from the floor slightly. To do this 10 times is the recommendation. For whom this is not enough can do it 20 times.
Then this little movement at the end of the first exercise is done seperately. The feet point to the ceiling. Muscles lift up the hips away from the floor. Abdomen are engaged.
Last exercise aims at strengthening the abdomen as well. The hands move to the feet and back. All the movements are dynamic.
Happy baby pose finishes the cooling down phase. It’s time to relax the back. It’s a counter pose to all the back bending asanas.
When the beginning and the end of a yoga practice are not so long and exhausting more energy can be put into the middle part. Then one additional hour of stretching is doable. The mind can still concentrate. Mind and body can work together in harmony, supporting each other when not totally exhausted. 🥱 There is no inner self-talk that wants to stop, while another voice wants to keep practicing. This weakens the practice.
The videos with Ugi, the contortionist on Omstars are eye-opening. I’ll write more about it.