Yoga Beyond Belief: Insights to Awaken and Deepen Your Practice

If you sit or stand and start folding in half from the hips, you are only able to keep your back straight as long as the hamstrings have the flexibility to lengthen. As soon as the hamstrings are taut, you can only continue forward by bending and rounding the spine. If you pull downward and forward too aggressively, the give will usually have to come from the posterior spinal joints, which can undesirably weaken ligaments. This is why it is important to slowly stretch out and lengthen the hamstrings over a period of time. People who have overly shortened hamstrings are likely to stress the posterior spine every time they bend forward or pick something up. This is one of the common causes or aggravators of low back pain. Loosening the hamstrings is part of the formula for relieving back pain, as long as the forward bends are done without aggravating the posterior spine. Flexible hamstrings are crucial to mobility; hence the expression “hamstrung” is used to denote hindered efficiency and frustration.
    Similar to the way hamstrings limit forward flexion, when you bend backward the limiting factors are usually tight quadriceps and psoas. When you start bending backward, the ability to tuck the tailbone, rotate the pelvis back, lift the chest, and take the foundation of the back extension down into the hips and legs will be limited by tight or shortened quads and psoas. These muscles must lengthen to allow the pelvis, chest, and spine to lift and extend backward. Stretching and lengthening these muscle groups can have amazing, beneficial effects on hip and spinal mobility and help relieve and prevent low back pain. I’ve seen this time and again with students and have experienced great benefit myself through keeping these muscles long and flexible by stretching them on a regular basis. Poses like the Lunge, Reclining Warrior, Upward Dog, and even simple backbends can be used to bring flexibility to these muscle groups. You may have enough information here to learn properly to work with and balance these muscle groups yourself, but if you are not clear about it, please consult a knowledgeable instructor.

Seven Classes of Asana
    At least seven types of asanas can be delineated. A complete and balanced practice will contain some form of all seven. These types can overlap each other, and many asanas contain elements of more than one type. Increasing your awareness of the different types and key principles of each type will help you to envision and design your personal practice.
Moving Sequences
    A philosopher once said, “Mobility is nobility.” All life is movement and in movement there is great joy. While one of yoga’s unique principles involves coming into a specific posture, and holding it without movement to get specific benefits and effects, Hatha yoga also containsmoving sequences. The most well known are the various Sun Salutations. Many other moving sequences are made possible by linking different poses in Headstand and Shoulderstand cycles and in various standing series. Moving sequences give the most opportunity for cardiovascular work and they can teach us to flow gracefully and bring dance-like elements to our practice.
    I first learned the joy of movement through swimming and experiencing the delight of gliding weightlessly through water. Later I found the same feeling in yoga, the pleasure of moving Sun Salutations, Headstand series, and Flow yoga. Many elder yogis have advised that to maintain our mobility throughout life, we must keep moving—“Use it or lose it.” I’ve observed native peoples all over the world staying mobile into old age by keeping themselves moving no matter what the challenges. Movement is the basis of life and an important element to consider and to include in our practice.
Standing Poses
    Standing poses develop strength, grounding, and rootedness. They strengthen and tone the whole body, and over a period of time they prepare us for more difficult movements. Standing postures can provide a full range of movements and stretches that can give a complete workout. They can be practiced at the beginning, middle, or end of a session. They strengthen the nerves to the legs and teach the ability to keep attention over the entire body. They teach concentration and focus and bring awareness of the building blocks of geometry and bodily architecture.
    In any asana, and especially in standing poses, it is good to build a good and properly aligned foundation from the base of the