Thank you Rafael - not only for showing how to do the asana, but also explaining to eloquently the physiological benefits of the posture and why it is so effective. Your videos have greatly helped me do yoga on a daily basis. Thank you.
We do not use the same brain cells over and over. Don't make like a neurologist and speak to something you don't understand. The brain is a dynamic organ, very complex. You can simply say the pose helps with sleep/wake cycles and stop there.
Also try pressing the floating hip down and see how this effects your posture. When performed correctly there is an outward "springy-ness" that forms within the loop of the grabbing arm and kicking leg... Imagine the way a hula-hoop resists when you try to collapse it, that is the same tension you are trying to create in the spine, grabbing arm, and kicking leg. I usually encourage people to lead the movement with the kick first and *then* press the chest toward the floor, with the heart leading the descent. This introduces the effort of the kick before the balancing becomes more challenging. Ideally the torso comes nearly parallel in relationship with the ground, rolling sixty percent of the weight into the ball of the foot will help to drop your chest another inch or so as you kick the leg even higher.. =)
I loved this video!! Honest! :)).. Its so important to never give up..I really liked what you said and picked up loads of encouragement from it :)) bless ya ..am subscribin ! Lol xX
Thanks for this video! I've been practicing Bikram consistently for three months now, and standing head to knee and toe stand are the two asanas that I tend to struggle with. I figured since I practice at least 3 -4 times or at maximum 5 -6 times a week that I would have those two particular postures executed. However, after hearing that it can take some folks at least six months to a year to fully complete the posture I can be lead by the process and do what my body is ready to do.
Sorry to hear that your studio closed. Please know that this video has been extremely helpful in clarifying the details of this pose. I love this pose!
I would say drawing the knee cap up into the quadriceps is much more effective and anatomically superior to the 'lock' and hypertextension method which will over time (for most people) create a real break-down in joint integrity in the knee. Thanks so much for your video. Namaste. :)
I absolutely love your videos and your depth of knowledge. From an alignment point of view tho, the model demonstrating this posture is hyper-extending her knee, which also demonstrates a lack of integrity in the joints. Whilst she many or may not have a genetic per-disposition that would help to defer some of the negative and quite probably damaging effects of hyper-extension,
Well , actualy the real problem with seddentary lifestyle is in the lack of extension both in the hip and in the upper back, elong with lack of strength in the glutes and lower abdominals.
I appreciate you addressing the modifications for lack of knee flexibility. I do a home practice and have Bikram's books and audio class cd but have found this posture very difficult to achieve and little information on modification. Thank you.
Thanks for these great videos. I've been practicing Bikram for several years but have never heard the physiology behind the postures. Awesome stuff. I might just pop in for a class when I visit NYC this December :-)
The instructor says that you should keep your hips touching your heels throughout all the posture, and however the girl who demonstrates the pose raises her hips from her hips. Is that correct?? :?
the goal is to keep the hips on the heels but more importantly it is to bring the head below the heart. over time as the spine stretches the hips will stay on the heels. But to begin, the forehead should touch the floor, the pinky fingers should touch the floor and then you keep stretching forward, one day the nose will touch the floor. it takes tremendous strength to achieve all that, as easy as it looks, it is not. that is the beauty of Bikram yoga. you see progress over time!
@@le7062 My friend, you’re the real MVP, replying to an 11-year old comment. Thanks for your reply. I learnt to do this posture properly when I was hardcore into Bikram yoga - around the time I wrote that comment. Sadly I don’t do this pose anymore - got hernias in my lower back. Forward bends are not my friends now. I feel a bit betrayed by yoga since avoiding back injuries was the reason why I did it and I got injured anyway. I’ve been meaning to take it up again with a curated series of postures not bad for my lower back, but I’m still salty. I’ll give it another go when I’m out of my resentful era.
@@Sylphadora sorry didn’t realize that your comment was that old!! Sorry to hear that you are not practicing any more. Hope you can get back into the practice. Once a yogi always a yogi especially te Bikram practice never gets old
Thank you Raffael and Paola. I am a Bikram student from Chicago and I will think about the information from this video when I do triangle pose tomorrow.
I like that you mentioned the reproductive organs. This might be TMI, but Bikram yoga healed me of menstrual cramps in TWO DAYS. For about 9 years, I have had cramps the first day or two of my period, every single month. I just started doing Bikram. My first two days of Bikram happened to coincide with the first and second days of my period. NO cramps, NO lower back pain, NO tummy troubles. I'm SO happy I gave my body the chance to heal itself instead of loading it up with painkillers.
Simple, yet thoroug and helpful instructions/explanations of postures. I especially like the holistic approach. Greate for those of us who must relie on our own understanding of instructions performing a major part of our practise at home.
I put two and two together after reading the NY TImes article about Jeanne. It's very inspiring to hear her story. Maybe someday I will have the pleasure of meeting her, seeing as I'm planning on attending teacher training in April. And thank you for sharing these videos! :)
@mrsmariatobias The hip is truly a marvel of architecture and the biggest joint in the body. It's designed to take a lot of pressure. However, it's also meant to rely on these intrinsic or internal muscles to do their part of the job. If the muscles around the hip are weak and uncoordinated, this will cause instability problems like the one you describe. Get to a Bikram class right away and give it several months! You won't be sorry!
@mrsmariatobias This indicates a lack of integrity not just in the hip joint but in the muscles that surround it. In Bikram, we are constantly working these joints and strengthening the muscles that immediately interact with these joints. Typically, people have weak musculature around the hip area, and the hip is left to bear all the weight and do a lot of work on its own. (more....)
Thank you for this instructional video. This is not an easy pose. For me it was one of the most difficult asanas to learn. I could not do this exercise for many years, but by practicing this pose almost every day, eventually my hips, thighs, knees and feet became flexible enough to even relax in this pose.
@AnnaDenise77 OUR ADVICE: Work with these concepts in mind when doing the posture. If you fall, you fall, just get back in and keep training your mind to concentrate. Kick with muscles in your back you've never felt before and don't just go where your flexibility will take you and rest, keep super engaged! Yyour blood will filter back to the side you were kicking with and the deepest cells of your body will be nourished and revitalized... at the end of the day, that's what we're after.
@AnnaDenise77 Creating this tension of kicking and reaching is what keeps you in the posture, and what improves innate balance in the whole body. Falling is typical and it's something we all have to do to improve. Always, we fall because of a disruption of this balanced tension of kicking and reaching, push pull. If you are very flexible, contrary to popular belief, yoga is actually harder. To do the postures and to get the medical benefits, highly flexible people have to work harder. (more..)
@AnnaDenise77 This is a good question. When you're in the posture, in the "heat of the moment", it's sometimes hard to figure it out, and you're feeling so many sensations! It's important to remember that once you start the Bow Pulling Posture, stretch forward with one arm and kick the foot back with all your strength. Push it back smoothly, don't jerk it and push the foot out powerfully against your cupped hand. The arm and shoulder of the kicking side should be relaxed. (more....)
