"My teacher (Pattabhi Jois) would recommend that students who felt very tight in their hips hold this pose for up to fifty breaths". Kino Macgregor's - The power of Ashtanga yoga.
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| hasta vinyasa options during a long stay in Baddha Konasana |
Krishnamacharya often recommended long stays in certain postures, perhaps he passed this along to Pattabhi Jois, whose son Manju mentions that his father would often stay for a long time in some postures. Baddha Konasan may well have been one of these long stays as Pattabhi Jois recommended staying in the posture for up to fifty breaths.
See also the Ashtanga Rishi Series
'Then, once one has mastered all of the asanas, one can practice "the rishi series", the most advanced practice. One does the 10 postures that one intuits will be the most beneficial and appropriate for that day, holding each posture for up to 50 comfortable breaths'. David Williams loosely quoting Pattabhi Jois.
I tend to rotate postures in my practice that I stay in for an extended period, given the time I'd stay ten minutes or more in Baddha Konasana every practice. I often bring it into my later Pranayama prep. practice which tends to consist of a sun salutation, maha mudra, baddha konasana, padmasana, sidhasana kapalabhati, japa nadisodhana pranayama and a sit.
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| This vinyasa is good for the kidneys supposedly Simon talks about coming into the posture (ideally almost any posture) hands free and only as far as is comfortable. spend some time there and allow the posture to come along in it's own time which could take years. Your knees may never touch the floor, which is perfectly fine, they don't have to for the posture to count as the asana. Richard Freeman would suggest you're one of the lucky ones in that you get to feel the effects of the posture at an earlier point. |
Here I'm following Simon Borg-Olivier's tips, suggestions and recommendations ( I'm currently following his YogaSynergy Fundamentals online course), entering the posture as hands free as possible. I find nutating the tailbone in helps as well as thinking move the sit bones towards the feet and bring the belly button forward. I'm also practicing abdominal breathing. These are all tips from Simon that I've been exploring in this posture.
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| Pṛṣṭa Añjali - hands in reverse prayer Really bugging me that I'm tilted slightly to the side |
We still have Krishnamacharya count to and from the posture but once there we hit the pause button, explore the vinyasas, the longer stay, here Krishnamacharya's later hand and arm variations (hasta vinyasas that Ramaswami introduced me to on his TT) as well as the kumbhaka's t(he breath retentions after inhalationa and/or exhalation and udiyana kriya that Krishnamacharya writes of in his early Mysore text Yoga Makaranda). In the later text formally known as Salutations to the teacher, the eternal one, that AG Mohan has rearranged and referred to as Yoga Makaranda Part II Krishnamacharya mentions padmasana as being a pratkriya, a counter posture, to baddha konasana.
The video below is ten minutes long, at times it looks like it's frozen or come to the end, unfortunately there are too many shadows to show up what's happening with the abdomen, the uddiyana bandha kriya indicating the kumbhakas.
Appendix
Krishnamacharya's baddha konasana instructions, Yoga Makaranda and Yogasanagalu
Baddhakonasana
This has 15 vinyasas. The 8th vinyasa is the asana sthiti. The 1st to the 6th vinyasas are like the 1st till the 6th vinyasas for pascimottanasana. In the 7th vinyasa, just like the 7th vinyasa for pascimottanasana, keep the hands down and bring the legs forward in uthpluthi. But instead of straightening them, fold the legs and place them down on the ground. Folding them means that the heel of the right foot is pasted against the base of the right thigh and the heel of the left foot is pasted against the base of the left thigh. When the legs are folded in this manner, the soles of the feet will be facing each other. Hold the sole of the left foot firmly with the left hand and hold the right sole firmly with the right hand. Clasping the soles together firmly, do recaka kumbhaka, lower the head and place it on the floor in front of the feet. After practising this properly, press the head against the top of the soles of the feet. While keeping the head either on the floor or on the soles of the feet, make sure that the seat of the body does not rise up from the floor and remains stuck to the floor. This sthiti is baddhakonasana. After this, from the 8th until the 15th vinyasas, practise as in upavishtakonasana and then return to samasthiti.
Benefit: Coughing, urinary diseases (constant dripping of urine, burning urine), genital discharges, collapsing of the navel inward — such diseases will be cured.
If women practise this especially during menstruation, it will cure all men- strual diseases and will clean the uterus. It will be very helpful for women who wish to conceive.
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BELOW:Later pictures added to the 3rd (1970s) edition of Yogasanagalu (originally published in Mysore in 1941).
Earlier long stay video
I've explored fifty breaths, also twenty-five long slow ones for the Rishi series of posts, this time ten slow breaths with recheka Kumbhaka ( retaining breath after exhalation) with deep uddiyana. I added Gomukhasana as a counter, here holding the bottom knee rather than the top.
Krishnamacharya writes about exploring the breath this way. See blog post,http://tinyurl.com/mqbw2kf
