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I've been yoga prop adverse in the past but have slowly incorporated more props into my regular practice. The more and more I practice, the more I see props place in yoga. Even for someone who is relatively flexible, props allows me to move further and/or relax into the pose. The yoga strap has found it's regular place in my practice. It's been with some trial and error that the strap has found it's place. My inability to loop the strap has been my biggest challenge! :) And as usual I've fished around to get a couple key points about yoga straps. Here's what I found: Typically yoga straps are made of hemp or cotton and are between 6 to 8 feet long. I opted to get two straps with different lengths just to be sure (and honestly, try to encourage my husband to use one to help with his posture!) Duskyleaf.ca states three main reasons to use a yoga strap. #1 - Strap in and Relax Essentially let the strap secure your specific body part into a pose or let the strap carry the weight of your body part to increase the stretch. #2 - Binding your Time Allow the strap to make connections between hand and foot or hand to hand. #3 - Better Blindfolded In the end of practice while in savasana, use the strap just like an eye pillow to encourage the eyes to relax and block out any extra light. What prompted my exploration of yoga straps this week is that I tried a new DVD called Hatha & Flow Yoga for Beginners by Tamal Dodge. During the Hatha portion of the DVD, he uses the strap in many unique ways that I have never tried before. For example, using the yoga strap with the upper body during a modified warrior I pose (seemed to help stack the shoulders over the hips better and engage the arm muscles more) and single leg happy baby pose (allowed for greater hip range of motion). Again, I can't reiterate how much I still need to learn about yoga and how to incorporate the yoga strap into poses. All this work is building on my knowledge and experience to be a teacher one day! LW
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I have a hard time believing that I've made it 40 weeks of practicing yoga AND writing about it each week. I feel like I'm in my infancy of learning to be a yoga teacher. This week, appropriately, I focused on happy baby pose or otherwise known as stirrup pose (Ananda Balasana). The more I look into this pose I see its relation to the knees to chest pose (Apasana) and how it is a hip opener that I wish I started years ago. In the book, Anatomy of Hatha Yoga, it outlines a perfect sequence of moving from knees to chest pose into happy baby pose in five simple steps. The book gently reminders its' readers to keep the low back (sacrum) on the floor by activating the low back musculature. It wasn't until I started to practice yoga on a regular basis that I realized I might have been doing the knee to chest pose somewhat wrong. My low back loved to curve off of the floor. So now it is my main focus, physically, during the pose. I progressed through the listed poses until I reached happy baby pose. *Sigh* What a releasing pose. It just makes sense that babies hang out in this position. My hips (and low back) got a release. And based on the Anatomy of Hatha Yoga book, it is the head of the femur in the hip socket (acetabulum) that is really making the move and thus, impact on my hip range of motion. I also tried other options to the happy baby pose such as placing my feet flat up against the wall for support. I absolutely love any wall supported poses. They are slow, calming and relaxing. Sarah Powers also writes about happy baby pose in her book, Insight Yoga. She states that: "[The] pose stimulates the Kidney meridian (as well as the Liver and Spleen) as it flows up your inner legs." I'm not totally sure how the meridians work at this point but based on how close your legs are towards your torso, it makes sense that it would have an impact on those organs. I have also heard it is a great pose to connect with oneself because your connecting your hands to your feet. Interesting, wouldn't you say? Yoga Journal notes additional benefits of: "stretches the inner groins and the back spine and calms the brain and helps relieve stress and fatigue". Well, who doesn't want that! I'm happy and still in my babyhood of teaching, LW Photo credit: Flickr
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Aspiring Yoga TeacherI've practiced yoga since I was a pre-teen and have always found it to keep me centered. I will be a teacher one day and this is my journey to discover teaching and practice. Archives
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