Eka Pada Koundinyasana II (“Flying Splits”) Step by Step

Eka pada koundinyasana II (pose dedicated to the sage Koundinya II) is a split-legged arm balance that is sometimes dubbed "flying splits" as it resembles a front split hovering away from the floor.

This challenging asana has become a staple in many vinyasa classes:

"From downward facing dog, inhale, lift the right leg up; exhale, knee to chest; inhale, back to three-legged dog; exhale, bring your right knee to your upper right arm, and—if you want—you can take it into eka pada koundinyasana II."

Sounds familiar? 

Like with many arm balances, maintaining a chaturanga - like arm position is essential for a safe, sustainable eka pada koundinyasana II. As you practice chaturanga, pay special attention to keeping the fronts of your shoulders lifted away from the floor (they should remain as high as, or higher than, your elbows as you lower), and staying broad through your collarbones and chest. 

The initial flying splits setup described below starts with a lizard variation and moves into a "leg over arm lunge" (sometimes called "airplane lunge" if you extend both of your arms out to the side like "wings"), making poses like these especially useful preps.

Poses like these are great for learning to work your leg up over your arm too, and will also help to prepare your hips for eka pada koundinyasana II.

And other poses that stretch the hamstrings, like utthita hasta padangusthasana, supta padangushthasana, and hanumanasana. 

This variation provides you with another great way to stretch your hamstrings, and gives you a chance to practice walking your front foot forward at a diagonal (like you will in your peak pose) from a more stable position, making a shape that's likely more similar to the shape you'll make when you're airborne than a traditional split is. 

If you (or your students) are facing similar frustrations with eka pada koundinyasana II, or if you're just looking to more deeply explore and refine your "flying splits," you might find the following step-by-step breakdown to be useful. And while there are certainly those who will prefer the three-legged dog transition, or find it to be easier initially, you may even (like me) discover that after playing with coming into the pose via lunge for a while, incorporating it into your vinyasas (via the three-legged-dog transition) seems a lot more accessible!

How to to it

• Come into a lunge with your right foot forward, and bring both of your hands to the inside of your front foot. 
• Lift your back thigh (especially your back inner thigh) up toward the sky and sink your front thigh down and forward. Stretch your legs apart from each other like you're stretching your mat in two as you reach your chest (not your chin!) forward, leading with the sternum like you would in warrior III, so that the weight of the upper body begins to balance out the weight of the hips.
• This is where you work your right shoulder under your leg (just like you would for the deep lunge or "airplane lunge" variation mentioned earlier). Some people find it helpful to walk the right foot a little more to the right for this, but personally, I find that walking the foot a little more toward the left (so it's more toward the center of my mat) helps me to feel more stable coming into the pose, and to work my arm under my leg more easily. Experiment with both and see what works best for you. 
• Then, to work your leg under: Lift your right heel up off of the floor (like you're wearing a shoe with a high heel); bring your right hand to the back of your calf, and lift the flesh of your calf up. Then move your right thigh back (out toward the right) to make space to work your shoulder under. Continue to work these actions: calf up, thigh back, shoulder under, until you get to the point where your shoulder is as "under" as it's going to get! 
• Once you've worked your arm under your leg, lower your right heel back down, and plant your hands on the floor (on either side of your front leg; think chaturanga arms here). Broaden through your collarbones and lift the fronts of your shoulders up away from the floor. 
• Start to walk your right foot forward at a diagonal, toward the upper right corner of your mat. Then, lift your right heel up off of the floor, and see if you can inch your right foot forward (at that same diagonal) a little more. Then, see if you can spread your toes and lift your entire foot up off of the floor! Keep your elbows bent, your collarbones broad, and your gaze slightly forward.
• With your right foot lifted and your right leg extended, start to shift your weight a little more forward to come high up onto your left toes (keep your collarbones broad and maintain chaturanga arms), and, using your toes like a lever or a seesaw, shift your shoulders and chest forward, and see if you can lift your back foot off of the floor too. You'll have to "negotiate" your weight as you shift forward and back a bit, perhaps eventually finding the "sweet spot" where both feet can hover away from the floor. Until then, hopping up and down on your back foot is totally fine! Keep the fronts of your shoulders lifted, level, and not dipping below your elbows. Spread your toes and stretch out through both legs with your gaze slightly forward. 
• Return your back foot to the floor, then step back to downward facing dog. Take a few resting breaths, then repeat on the other side. 

Don't be surprised if one side differs wildly from the other! Once I learned to hover both legs off the floor on the right side, it took me some time before I could do the same thing on the left side! If you too discover that one side is considerably more challenging than the other, try starting with your "harder" side the next time that you practice this pose. This can help to ensure that you spend just as much time (if not a little more) on the side that could use a little more attention. 

Balance out your practice with a few favorite backbends, like shalabhasana (locust) variations, dhanurasana (bow pose), setu bandha (bridge pose), or urdhva dhanurasna (upward facing bow/wheel). From there choose one or two grounding finishing poses, like a simple forward bend variation of pigeon, or a figure four stretch before settling into a blissful shavasana!

Namaste!

Eka Pada Koundinyasana I - One-Footed Pose Dedicated to the Sage Koundinya I

Find length and stay centered to lift step-by-step into the One-Footed Pose dedicated to the Sage Koundinya I

Eka Pada Koundinyasana Ieka = one · pada = foot · Koundinya = a sage · asana = poseOne-Footed Pose Dedicated to Sage Koundinya I

BenefitsA challenging arm balance that helps you build a strong core, shoulders, and legs

Instructions

1. Begin in Tadasana, facing the right side of your mat. Keeping your knees together, come into a squat, lifting your heels and rooting down with your big-toe mounds, hands in Anjali Mudra.

2. On an exhalation, take your right upper arm to the outside of your left thigh, twisting to the left. Gaze forward, chin in line with your sternum.

3. Place your hands on the mat pointing forward, shoulder- distance apart, with wrist creases parallel to the front of the mat. Now you’re ready for takeoff into Parsva Bakasana (Side Crane Pose): Lift your hips and extend your sternum away from your navel. As you reach your breastbone toward the front of your mat, shift your weight forward until your feet become light and you can draw them toward your buttocks. Continue pressing into your big-toe mounds to keep your legs active. Keep your elbows pinned into the midline and stacked over your wrists. Bring your knees as close to your right armpit as possible and try to keep your weight off the left arm.

4. Exhale and start to straighten your legs. Engage your quadriceps and vigorously push your right femur toward the wall behind you as you press into the right big-toe mound. Simultaneously press forward with your left big-toe mound to re-create the legs of Revolved Triangle Pose.

5. Now that you’ve found the basic shape of the pose, refine it. Come back to the shoulder work from Chaturanga Dandasana, lifting the heads of the shoulders away from the floor so that your upper and lower arms create a 90-degree angle. Recall the idea of a taut rope being pulled in two directions. Anchor the pose by pressing into your right big-toe mound and then set sail with your sternum and the crown of your head. Use the breathing pattern from the twists to deepen the pose: Inhale to find more length along your lengthen your front body. central axis; exhale to rotate by taking your left leg farther to the right and your right leg farther to the left. Take 4–5 breaths. Then, to come out, exhale and sweep your left leg back and into Chaturanga. There’s no secret strategy to this exit, just a continuation of the themes you’ve explored throughout the sequence. Maintain the integrity of your shoulders and the intention of staying long, head to toe.


Stay Safe

If you try to lean on both arms as you move into Parsva Bakasana and then Eka Pada Koundinyasana I, your chest and shoulders will collapse and you will lose the vitality of your central axis. When this happens, the potency of the pose is dissipated; gravity wins and the shoulders become compromised as they roll forward and down. Keep the heads of your upper arms lifted, and actively lengthen your front body.

Easter Sunday

Ready for the new day?  

You'll only see me in Bannatyne's today...
9am bootcamp
10am pilates
11am yoga

Namaste 

And of course - happy Easter! 

Spring Workshop 2017 *news*

My dear Yogis and Yoginis..

I had a really bad experience with one of our leisure centres so I decided to have the Yoga workshop in a nicer place with positive energy and nice floor heating :P

The only thing that is not so great (in a way) is that I can fit only 12 of you there - so it will be a nice little cosy workshop and I will see all of you :) Who is up for it? (I will need you to tell me asap, plus paying the fee, too, as the places are really limited - sorry about that) oh and... - only 11 places are left at this minute :)

More info -

Spring Yoga Workshop

Sat 22nd April 2pm-5pm

Markyate Village Hall, Cavendish Rd, Markyate, St Albans AL3 8PS

Fee - £30 (payable to me asap when booking - only 12 spaces are for this workshop)

What will we do -

- breathing technique (15mins)

- yin yoga to get us well stretched (60mins)

- vinyasa yoga to get the energy in our bodies flowing (60)

- hatha yoga to cool us down (15mins)

- meditation (30mins)

How to Use Your Breath In Asana Practice

While priorities may differ between styles and teachers, when to inhale and exhale during asana is a fairly standardized practice element. Here are three simple guidelines for pairing breath with types of poses.

When bending forward, exhale.

When you exhale, the lungs empty, making the torso more compact, so there is less physical mass between your upper and lower body as they move toward each other. The heart rate also slows on the exhalation, making it less activating than an inhalation and inducing a relaxation response. Since forward bends are typically quieting postures, this breathing rule enhances the energetic effects of the pose and the depth of the fold.

When lifting or opening the chest, inhale.

In a heart-opening backbend, for instance, you increase the space in your chest cavity, giving the lungs, rib cage, and diaphragm more room to fill with air. And heart rate speeds up on an inhalation, increasing alertness and pumping more blood to muscles. Plus, deep inhalation requires muscular effort that contributes to its activating effect. Poses that lift and open the chest are often the practice’s energizing components, so synchronizing them with inhalations takes optimum advantage of the breath’s effects on the body.

When twisting, exhale.

In twists, the inhalation accompanies the preparation phase of the pose (lengthening the spine, etc.), and the exhalation is paired with the twisting action. Posturally, that’s because as your lungs empty there’s more physical space available for your rib cage to rotate further. But twists are also touted for their detoxifying effects, and the exhalation is the breath’s cleansing mechanism for expelling CO2.

How we breathe in yoga

I'm getting into the preparation of our 30 Day Yoga Weight Loosing challenge and I was reading a lot about the breath last few days, because we will focus on Yoga and Breath in the first week of our challenge.

Just a little explanation why we breathe in and out of our nose during a yoga practice. We do it for a few reasons but the main one is that when we breathe like this we can’t take in so much air or expel so much air. So if we have to resort to opening our mouth to get more air it is an indicator that we have stepped into stressing or pushing our bodies. When we practice yoga, we don’t want to stress our bodies by doing open mouth breathing. Our practice should be a balance of effort with ease.

"The nose is for breathing, the mouth is for eating."

The 30-Day Yoga for Weight Loss Challenge

The January crazyness made me think of few things, plus many people were asking if yoga is actually good for weight loss - the answer is - yoga is what you want it to be!

Very soon I will put together a 30 Day Yoga Weight Loss Challenge, which will help participants lose weight through yoga. There will be day and weekly guides and exercises descriptions, plus helpful tips for losing weight and videos. 4 weeks will be divided into weekly themes - Yoga and the Breath, Yoga and the Mind, Yoga and the Body and Yoga and Beyond. 

This challenge will be ideal for beginner yoga students, but experienced yogis will find it helpful with weight loss, too. Participants will experience a comprehensive approach to weight loss that addresses physical exercise, mental outlook, emotional well-being, and behavioral patterns. 

Change your habits and change your life with this valuable program.

If you want more info, please contact me, I am looking forward to start this program very soon!