Sad news from Yoga On Center

Yoga On Center will hold a candlelight memorial class for Rhiannon Hull, who died suddenly while swimming in the ocean in Costa Rica.

Dear YOC community,

It is with our deepest regret that we write to share some tragic news from within our community. Many of you remember our former yoga teacher and longtime student Rhiannon Hull. Sadly, Rhiannon passed away in Costa Rica this past week when she and her youngest son Julian were both pulled under by a strong tide while swimming in the ocean. Rhiannon was able to save Julian's life, bringing him to the surface where nearby surfers were able to rescue him. Tragically, Rhiannon was then pulled back by the strong tide and they were unable to save her. She died saving her son's life.

We remember Rhiannon as she lived, with great energy, caring and passion. A former college and professional runner, she turned to yoga during her competitive years to help improve her running. She became certified in Prana Flow with senior Yoga teacher Shiva Rea and liked to describe her classes as a "groove of one's self". Besides teaching yoga, Rhiannon was a free-lance writer and self-proclaimed "Eco-Mama", spending her time balanced between writing for her online blog "The Eco-Family" (http://ecomama.squarespace.com/), studying to become a Waldorf teacher, and home schooling her two young boys.
Rhiannon leaves behind her husband Norm, her oldest son Gianni (8) and her son Julian (6). We ask you to join us as we send them our love, light and support, keeping Rhiannon's smile, bright light and enthusiasm for life in our hearts. At this point the best thing we can all do for them is send them our love, light and support and keep Rhiannon's smile, bright light and enthusiasm for life in our hearts.

Yoga on Center will be hosting a Candlelight Memorial Class in honor of Rhiannon.  We invite you to join us November 11th, Friday, 5:30-7:00pm. More details will come soon.

Richard's new yoga class

Starting November 6, 2011, I'm launching a new yoga class in Graton. It's Sundays from 4 to 5:30 at the Stone Creek Zen Center in Graton. This is part of the Graton's Got Yoga thang and I'm excited about linking forces with Corina and Cheryl.

The class comes out of my recent immersion into the Ashtanga Yoga Primary Series with John Smith at the Westside Yoga Studio, coupled with what I learned some years ago in a teacher training program with Rodney Yee, Patricia Sullivan, Mary Paffard and Richard Rose at the Piedmont Yoga Studio.

Anyway, come by a Sunday afternoon to check it out.

One of a series of amazing photographs (FB) by Kristie Kahns of Kino MacGregor and Daylene Christensen practicing at Moksha Yoga in Chicago. Lots of yoga photography and other kinds of images at Kristie's FB page.

Curing wrist pain in Chataranga

People complain about wrist pain in Chataranga Dandsana (push-up posture). The usual remedy you hear from teachers is to drop your knees to the ground. But as this article points out, dropping the knees does nothing to help with wrist pain.

The problem is with the usual instruction to stack the elbows directly over the wrists and to emphasize driving the chest forward. That essentially puts all of the upper body weight bearing down on the wrists. And dropping the knees makes the pose somewhat easier by not requiring activation of the legs, but doesn't change the amount of weight on the wrists. Indeed, it might make it worse by removing the legs from helping lift the weight.

However, David Keil says:

The further forward the shoulders are from the hands, the more strain ends up in the shoulders. This happens because bulk of the upper body weight is too far out in front to be supported by the hands under it. Imagine holding a twenty pound weight directly over your shoulder, shouldn’t be a problem, but now move it forward just a few inches and gravity starts to work on your shoulder in a very different way.

As far as general alignment rules for stacking joints is concerned, don’t apply it to the wrist and the elbow for chaturanga. OK, there may be a few people who are an exception to this last statement, but most people putting their elbows over their wrists in chaturanga will be putting way too much strain on the shoulder. Not to mention it also increases the wrist angle and can cause problems there too. Most people should have their elbow slightly behind their wrist, which brings the center of their chest and their weight closer to the line between their two hands.

So keep the elbow slightly behind the wrist, and the shoulders not quite so far forward ....

Oh, now I see how far I have to go ...

Just watch it.

Why Ashtanga is the hardest yoga style...

Funny tongue in cheek article on Elephant Journal that explains why Ashtanga is the hardest yoga style.




Some of my faves:

The length of the series. I’ve never really counted how many poses their are in the primary series but that shit is LONG. Someone actually listed out the whole thing. See how intimidating it is? The first 18 poses are the standing series, and the last 14 is the finishing sequence. Technically only the middle part is the primary series. But you’re supposed to do all three parts during your practice. And no skipping either! One of my favorite teachers said one time that each pose preps you for the next, so you shouldn’t skip.

Bhujapidasana to Tittibhasana to Bakasana. You’re like, bhujamawatshis?  In the primary series (a.k.a. the “starter” series in Ashtanga) there’s a pose called Bhujapidasana, or the arm-pressure pose. Depending on your own talents, this is one of the hardest poses in the primary series because (a) it’s an arm balance, (b) you’re supposed to jump into the pose, and (c) you’re supposed to exit out of the pose in a very specific way. I know, right?


The tradition of daily practice. Yep, I said DAILY. As in they want you to do this everyday. The longest I’ve been able to do is a week. Yeah, you can call me on it, my lack of discipline.

Supta Kurmasana. Yeah, right.

(changed the photo to supta kurmasana for ginny)

Starting with sweat

"Penetration of our mind is our goal, but in the beginning to set things in motion, there is no substitute for sweat."
- B.K.S. Iyengar

From a CNN interview:

I saw lots of people practicing yoga where there is absolutely no foundation or firmness in the presentations, and I thought that this type of yoga is not going to help anyone, because it's going to die, because it's like a dust, gathering dust. So I made up my mind, that in order to attract people, I said that each and every fiber of my body, while presenting the asanas, without contortion, without distortion, without attraction, that each and every part of our fibers, sinus, muscles should run parallel to each of them in the core areas. So I started practicing to bring alignment on the joints, on the wrists, on the fingers, on the muscles, on the right and the left, the back and the front... Then it gave me an idea that asanas have to be presented in a measured form.Something struck me that this is not enough, so I had to bring my mind and my intelligence to spread as I stretch, to contract as my muscles contract. And that created a new dimension of presentation, and that new dimension of presentation attracted people more and more. They realized that the body has to be balanced to the level of the mind, and it should be in par with the intelligence of the highest wisdom.