Urdhva mukha paschimottanasana, Feb 2021
It’s March. February somehow went by so fast, that I missed to blog. Here I am again. The focus of this month is the Vinyasa.
When we speak of the vinyasa count in Ashtanga yoga, we count the number of breath that are required from a starting position to an end end position.
The above asana ‘urdhva mukha paschimottanasana’ has 16 vinyasa according to the book ‘Ashtanga yoga’ by Patthabi Jois. It assumes that the student starts from a standing position and returns to that position.
In a daily practice adho mukha svanasana (or down dog position) is the starting point.
When yogis talk about vinyasa they usually refer to a difficult transition like jumping forward or jumping backward. Yet there are much more transitions than the jumping. Every asana is connected with the next position or the next asana.
There are challenging vinyasa and easier ones. Sometimes it can make a huge difference how a yogi moves into an asana. It can make an asana possible or impossible.
Vinyasa is part of the Ashtanga yoga practice.
Other yoga styles have awesome combinations of asanas as well. Yet the vinyasa are not really a focus. In Ashtanga yoga the vinyasa are a focus. They are an invitation to work on strength. The vinyasa system makes the Ashtanga yoga practice rather dynamic and exhausting.
So let’s start this month with fresh energy.
Thank you for reading