Your internal generator

COLD SNAPS IN THE AIR
At this time of year it can be hard to regulate your body temperature. One day it is a gorgeous wintery mild day and you are turning down all the heaters, and the next day you wake up and spend the day adding layer after layer of winter jumpers trying to get warm to no avail! Your practice can support you with your ever changing requirements. This sequence will be one to print out and keep to hand when the temperature suddenly drops over the winter months. It’ll have you glowing from the inside out with lots of juicy twist and strong legs standing poses.

WARMING FROM THE INSIDE OUT
Twists are one of the best family of poses to add to your winter practice. There are many benefits of twisted poses – they aid good digestion and nutrition absorption; ease constipation; increase metabolism; support the nervous system; release physical and mental tension; help your body to eliminate toxins; and boost the immune system. On top of all these amazing benefits is an added bonus of heat! You eat food and breath air to create energy for all these metabolic functions – these functions release a lovely natural heat in the body. Twists also increase circulation and distribute this heat throughout the whole body. Keeping you warm, cosy and glowing from the inside out!

EXPLORING YOUR INTERNAL GENERATOR IN YOUR PRACTICE
To take a twist you need a strong foundation. Before you move into a twist find this foundation by grounding down into your feet for standing poses, or your sit bones for seated poses, and lengthen up through the whole spine to the tip of your crown. Lengthen through both side, front and back of the body, take a deep inhale and let your belly soften and expand. Twist slowly and gradually on your exhale as your belly contracts. Explore going to 90% of your max range of motion. Moving into your deepest end range of motion twist can both tighten your breath, pull on your outer hip muscles and you pelvis to spine connection.

ALIGNMENT CUES
The peak pose in this sequence is Parivrtta Parsvakonasana/Revolved Side Angle which is a very challenging twist for the spine and hips. Follow these alignment cues to approach it from a different direction and rethink your expectations of where your final pose should be. Remember to continue to reach through the tip for the crown as you twist:

• Place a brick to the outside of your right foot. From Anjaneyasana/Low Lunge, bring your hands together into prayer position, hinge forward and twist to your right. Place your left elbow to the outside of your right knee. Reach the crown of your head forward and lengthen through the spine here.

• For the next step place your left hand on the brick with the elbow either to the left or the right of the right knee. Place your right hand on the back of your pelvis to check your hips are level. Keep your hand here to stabilise the pelvis or reach the right hand up.

• Finally, tuck your right thumb into your right hip crease. Take an inhale here and on an exhale lift your left knee up. Place your right hand on the back of your pelvis to check your hips are level and peel the right shoulder open, or reach the right hand up. Work towards stacking the shoulders and opening the chest to the side of your mat.

• Right hip draws back, left hip draws forward. Bottom waist rolls forward, top waist rolls back. Gaze to the side of the room or to the extended arm.

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Ruth Delahunty Yogaru

Wintertime flow

COMFORT IN FAMILIARITY
Now that we’ve officially stepped into winter I find I’m looking for a slow and steady practice, full of familiarity, comfort, a nice bit of heat generation, and poses I know will nourish me. This sequence is based on a recent article I wrote for Wellfest on Mini Winter Yoga Flows – which gives you four mini flows to combat four different winter challenges. Here I have given you an option to include a bit of everything – from standing poses, twists, backbends and hip openers – all in one sequence that will help support you over the winter months.

WARMING FROM THE INSIDE OUT
The gradual change through the seasons from Summer to Winter is much harder on the system than the change from Winter to Summer. It takes a while to get used to the colder days, and to make it even harder, as the weather adjusts we often have very mild days mixed with bitterly cold days. Twists fire up your internal generator and and get your circulation going. Warming yourself from the inside out is a much healthier and sustainable form of heat than cranking up the heating. This sequence also has lots of standing poses which utilise the big muscles of the legs and quickly generate a lovely bit of extra heat too.

STAYING WELL THIS WINTER
When it comes to a strong immune system prevention is better than cure. The gut produces 80% of the immune system. Backbends and twists stimulate the lining of the gut to help boost and maintain a strong immune system, and keep you fighting off those winter bugs. This is not the time of year for embarking on extended intermitted fasting! You need all the warming winter earthy foods and spices to help fuel every cells of the body, and keep you thriving over the winter months.

WINTER BLUES
You might find you are more inclined to feel more emotional and stressed at this time of year. It may be a consequence of work pressure, family commitments or just the lack of daylight. Symptoms of stress crop up in many different way – you might feel tension in the hips or shoulders, a busyness of the mind, a lack of focus or a general lethargy and tiredness. We hold physical and emotional tension in our hips. When we are stressed the muscles of the hips tense ready for fight or flight. This causes the body to hold physical tension as a result of the emotional tension. When you release the physical tension through hip openers you release the emotional tension too.

EXPLORING YOUR WINTER FLOW IN YOUR PRACTICE
As you run through this sequence keep it slow and steady to help get the wellness benefits from the poses, soothe a busy mind and regulate your energy levels. The Surya Namaskaras are the adaptogens of the yoga world. When you need calming they calm you, when you need energy they energise you! Yoga can be your most supportive method of self care. Your time on your mat can be the answers to all that ails you over the coming months.

ALIGNMENT CUES
Print out the tips below, along with the sequence, and stay happy and healthy this winter:

• Start by deeping and slowing down your breath with your five rounds of cat/cow.

• For your two Sun Salutation Cs take Salabasana/Locust instead of cobra to strengthen the muscles of the back and stimulate the gut and immune system.

• Pause in Parivrtta Utkatasana/Revolved Chair for at least five deep breaths to warm up the system, stimulate the gut and strengthen the lungs.

• In your three standing balance poses press strongly into your standing leg and firm the muscles of the buttocks to find a strong foundation.

• Allow yourself a restful Savasana/Corpse pose and absorb the benefits of your time invested in your wellness.

To save the images for personal use click and hold down the image until the ‘save image’ option appears; on Mac hold down ‘control’ and click the image to get the option box; on PC right click on the image to get the option box. Scroll down in the ‘option box’ and click ‘save image’.

Ruth Delahunty Yogaru

Contain the stretch

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
I’m beginning to feel there is a big yoga elephant in the room who has hip issues! There is no disputing the many benefits of yoga, but like every activity or sport – regardless of whether they are strengthening or stretching actions, care needs to be taken with repetitive ranges of movements. Almost every yoga pose includes an element of hip activity. Without noticing it, your practice could very well be tilting more towards hip stretching than hip strengthening, which can leave you with some overstretch tenderness in the hip joint.

Recently I’m noticing my hips are quite loudly telling me to rethink how I approach my practice. This has led me to more consciously evaluate the balance of stretching v’s strengthening in my time on the mat. In last weeks post I talked about including equal amounts of mobility and strength work for a balanced, strong and flexible body. In this weeks sequence I’m looking at ways to incorporate this principle in Ashta Chandrasana/High Lunge. Yoga is not all about stretching, it’s about looking for the strength in each pose too – protecting the connective tissues and contain the stretch. You’ll sometimes hear phrases like ‘find your edge’. Playing with your edge is a dangerous game in my opinion, yoga is not about tipping over the edge! In my practice I am retraining myself to work on back off by about 10% of my end range of motion and find that sweet spot at 90%.

EXPLORING ASHTA CHANDRASANA IN YOUR PRACTICE
Using Ashta Chandrasana/High Lunge as an example, the temptation is to release the muscles that support the hip joint, and let the weight of the upper body sink the hips down as low as they can go, till you hit your end range of motion. In this position you have lost the support of the muscles in the hip joints and are more likely to overstretch any number of muscles. A more supportive version of the pose it to come to your 90% range of motion, firm the buttocks muscles of your back leg and hug your outer hips to the midline. Press your feet into the ground and draw your hip bone back in into their sockets like you have magnets in your hip. Feel strength in the muscles that are flexing and a contained supported stretch in the muscles that are extending. Get familiar with how this feels and how this principle might feel in all your poses for a more sustainable lifelong practice.

ALIGNMENT CUES
This sequence gives you plenty of opportunities to find your strong connective hip tissue in Ashta Chandrasana/High Lunge. Route your standing flow sequences through rounds of Sury Namaskara C, replacing the low lunges for the poses indicated in the sequence above. For the first Ashta Chandrasana/High Lunge see how it feels to bend the back knee slightly and allow the hip bones to lift up towards your bottom rib. In subsequent Ashta Chandrasana/High Lunge move towards straightening out the back leg, and pressing out through the heel, if the hip flexors feel warmed up. The feet are a crucial part of the pose for finding your strength. Use your feet and press into them strongly. This will trigger strength and stability up your legs and into the hip joints. Maintain this contained stretch throughout all versions of the pose in the sequence.

Print out the tips below, along with the sequence, and find a sturdy and stable Ashta Chandrasana/High Lunge:

• From Adho Mukha Svanasana, inhale, step your right foot between your hands, exhale here.

• Inhale, press into your feet to come up, reach your arms up high, shoulder width apart or palms together. Stack your front knee over your front ankle.

• Press out through your left heel, firm your back leg, lift the thigh of your back leg up, hug your outer hips to the midline.

• Press into your feet and push the floor away, firm your left buttocks.

• Lift your point hip bones up to stack your pelvis perpendicular to the ground.

• Draw your navel towards your spine, broaden through your collarbones, lengthen through your spine to the tip of your crown, gaze forward or to your fingertips.

To save the images for personal use click and hold down the image until the ‘save image’ option appears; on Mac hold down ‘control’ and click the image to get the option box; on PC right click on the image to get the option box. Scroll down in the ‘option box’ and click ‘save image’.

Ruth Delahunty Yogaru