YTT 200 Hour Program 12 Weekend Format Schedule

hi guys, here is the schedule from Mila :)

Puppetji from Wendy

Thanks Wendy!!!

Puppetji versus yoga:


And puppetji versus complaining:

NYTimes Travel Article about a tourist's trip to India for Yoga

hi guys,

I saw this article in the Times today and thought it might be of interest to the group. It's about a Franch tourist's day at an ashram in Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu. This is a wonderful part of India (wish I could say I've been there myself) with tons of different cultural influences, even dating back ~2500 years or so with trade with the Romans.

The author struggles with a headstand, the villagers are still coping with the aftermath of the Tsunami, but yet they all seem to share so much joy amidst the chaos, even if the cows seem to be the only ones "meditating."

(link)

anatomy homeworks

hi you all!
here are the anatomy homework answers from the first two weekends' assignments:

ANATOMY QUESTIONS WEEK 1



1) Describe the difference between Muscle, Ligament, Tendon and Cartilage.

Hyaline Cartilage: A tough elastic fibrous tissue found on articulating surfaces of bones. It contributes to the synovial capsule and also protects the underlying tissue. It can be damages by trauma or excessive wear.

Ligament: fibrous band-like structures composed of connective tissue. They link bone to bone and stabilize joints while allowing movement. They cannot actively contract or stretch.

Tendons: attach muscle to bone. They do not contract. they have a limited blood supply. and hence benefit from a heated room or proper warm up.

Muscle: Skeletal muscle. or voluntary (striated) muscle. is responsible for all movements that result through contraction of muscles that attach to bones (By comparison. smooth muscle contract without voluntary control; stomach. intestine. bladder)

2) What do ligaments and cartilage have in common? Why is it important know this?

Answer: They passively reinforce the joint and prevent undesired movement. They are avascular (little or no blood supply) so they heal very slowly.

3) What is a synovial joint? How is a vigorous daily yoga practice beneficial to these joints?

Answer: Synovial joints are freely moving joints.

Articulating bones of a joint are held together by ligaments and sheathed in a joint capsule filled with synovial fluid. Synovial fluid is viscous (thick) at rest. Movement stimulates the production of synovial fluid and makes it more liquid. This enables more freedom of movement. Use it or lose it.

4) Name the two calf muscles that meet under the sole of the foot to create its arch:

Answer: Peroneus longus and tibialis posterior

5) What kind of contraction are we referring to when we say "hug the muscle to the bone"? For example; in Utthita Hastasana in Tadasana (arms overhead), when we contract the muscles on both sides of the humerus - draw the biceps and triceps into the bone at the same time? Why is this action important?

Answer: Static. (isometric). It stabilizes the joints above and below.

6) Name the anatomical joint position in Virabhadrasana 1 of the joints listed below

Ankle (front leg) :dorsiflexion or neutral
Knee (front leg) :flexion
Knee (back leg) extension
Hip (front leg): flexion
Hip (back leg) :extension
Shoulder: flexion
Cervical spine: extension

7) In what plane of movement does Virabhadrasana 1 primarily move?

Answer: Sagittal






ANATOMY QUESTIONS WEEK 2

1) What type of joint is the hip joint? What actions can be done in the hip joint?

Answer: Ball and socket. Full range: flexion. extension. abduction, adduction. Internal and external rotation, circumduction

2) What is the name of the nerve that lies underneath the piriformiS muscle?

Answer: sciatic

3) What muscles are the major hip flexors?

Answer: psoas. rectus femoris (minor flexor: Sartorius).

4) Name two poses that stretch these muscles and two poses that strengthen them

Stretch: Virabhadrasana 1 (back leg), high lunge (back leg), Dhanurasana. Ustrasana. Bridge pose. Ardha Bhekasana. Supta Virasana ..

Strengthen: Uttihita Hasta Padahasana. Navasana, Urdhva Prasarita Padottanasana,

Virabhadrasana 2 (front leg). Trikonasana (front leg).

5) In backbends: What is the position of the pelviS? Why is this important to the lumbar spine?

Generally in backbends, the student should work to keep the pelvis in a posterior tilt. in order to keep length and prevent compression in the lumbar spine and lumbo-sacral connection.

6) What type of rotation do we emphasize in the back leg in Virabhadrasana I? What muscles do this action?

Answer: Internal rotation. Gluteus medius, gluteus minim us, tensor fascia latae.

7) In Vrksasana, the pelvis should be neutral in all three planes. (Refer to pp 90-93 in Yoga Mind, Body, Spirit) In Virabhadrasana 2 the pelvis is:

•

NEUTRAL in the sagittal plane NEUTRAL in the coronal plane

ROTATED in the horizontal (transverse) plane, towards the front knee.

Friday night, Sept 26

Hi everyone! tonight is going to be a little philosophy regarding surya namaskar, and an asana practice. please come with the asana section of your student manual and a yoga mat and be prepared to practice and practice teach and learn hands-on adjustments ( in other words, dont eat too much too late!)
see you tonight!
namaste, sarah bell

inappropiate yoga guy

observing 1/2 class

hey there

just wondering if there was room for me to sign up for monday 7:30-9pm class on the westside??

hey everybody,

planning on observing the YogaWorks 1 class this Sat. at 12pm at the downtown studio...anybody else going to this one?

Class Observations

hi guys,
would you mind please putting in the comments which class you're going to be observing this week? Thanks!
Nina

Warrior poses: inspired by the legend of Shiva, Sati and Daksha

After Sarah's suggestion, I decided to spend a coffee break refreshing my memory of the stories of the warrior poses, and to share with you what i dug up on the legend of Shiva and Sati :)

Ahem, ahem, so....according to wikipedia, (link) this story "appears in detail in Tantra literature, in the Puranas and in Kālidāsa's lyrical Kumārasambhavam, an epic that deals primarily with the birth of Subrahmanya."

The legend is briefly as follows...Shiva had been living on Mt. Kailas with his wife the goddess Sati, but Sati's father Daksha was not happy about the marriage. Not long after, Daksha threw a party and invited all the gods and goddesses in the universe except Shiva and Sati. Sati convinced herself that they weren't intentionally not invited, but just that such formailty among family would be absurd, and she went to the party. Nonetheless, she was received coldly by her father, and not only this, but that her father had loathed Shiva because of the dishonor he believed the god endured by marrying his own daughter. Not surprisingly, Sati was enraged and humiliated by her father's disdain, and she was so angry that she burst into flame after invoking her yogic powers.

Shiva, hearing of this catastrophe, was himself so enraged that he tore off one of his dreadlocks, and then out of the earth exploded the "Virabhadra" a great warrior. This warrior decapitated Dhaksha and placed his head on a stake. After all this destruction, Shiva was so sad that he gave Dhaksha new life by placing his decapitated head onto a goat, but he could not bring back his beloved (she was later reborn as Parvati, but that is another story!!!)

The warrior poses are a re-enactment of Virabhadra's rise from the earth and slaying of Dhaksha. Vira I is the Virabhadra rising from the earth, exploding upwards--Vira II as he chops off the head of Dhaksha, and Vira III as he places the decapitated head on a stake.

These actions may sound violent, but may be taken as a metaphor, expecially if we think of the head as a metaphor for the ego...what is important enough to make us want to explode through the barriers above us? What injustices do we fight against? and how do we feel when we've won?

A nice telling of the story can be heard as told by Alana Kaivalya, jivamukti instructor here in New York City (link). Enjoy (and back to work)!

"High-heel asana"

There was an interesting article in the Daily Mail the other day about the risks of high-heeled shoes that reverberate all the way up the spine by concentrating more weight in the front of the foot unnaturally, leading to higher risks of bunions, hammertoes, sciatica, falling, and injuries to the Achilles tendon, to name just a few. Who knew high heels could be so expensive! (Link)

Friday

I think my computer ate my earlier post - but does anyone know what we're to wear tomorrow? Are we going to be moving around or just straight lecture? Also, are we going to need any books/manual?

Thanks!
jesy

Bow Pose - Pinky Toes Rotated In?

Hello. Based on the reading and classes, I recall instruction for pinky toes being rotated in for Bow Pose. Does anyone know if this is correct? And if the "objective" of the asanas are for neutrality, how is this consistent with such objective? Also shy wouldn't this put undue pressure on the knees? Thanks!

Dress for this evening

Hi.

Although it's a night dedicated to Anatomy, does anyone know if we need to be dressed for practice?

Thanks,
Steve

am I over judging?!?

As we said in class, after the TT we'll have more of a spirit of observation of the postures of people, especially on the street. Well, I guess I am already starting to experience something like that, since yesterday I found myself criticizing the Utthita Hastasana of Iyengar... shouldn't he be more relaxed in the shoulder?? Well, then I thought I should have seen him also from the back before writing him an e-mail... ; )

See you tonight!

"core strength"

Yesterday in class we were talking for a while about muscles in the core and "sucking the belly in and up" and how a complimentary action might be to tilt the pelvis towards the lower ribs and how this might be a more specific action, especially since it seems that in this culture we tend to overemphasize flat abs and core strength.

I couldn't help but think back to my indian art history book in which there was a picture of a beautiful Harappan (Indus Valley) torso from Mohenjodaro (circa 2500-1500 BCE), with no legs, no arms, and no head, but such a nice, soft belly...because it was so realistic some scholars initially thought it might have been from Greece or Rome, especially because it wasn't very far underground, and so realistic (so it couldn't possibly be from India, right?!!?). But at the same time, this belly, so soft, so unlike those muscular torsos from Greek and Roman traditions, might be an artistic expression of yogic prana.

Although this argument is somewhat controversial, and I can't pretend to have been following it, I really like the sculpture because it makes me think a little more highly of a "one pack" in a culture obsessed with "six-packs." anyhow, see for yourself!

(images from http://www.stolaf.edu/courses/2002sem2/Art_and_Art_History/265/images1.html )