Florida: January 21 – 22 and 24 – 26, 2020

Workshop at Miami Beach Iyengar Yoga Center

Another workshop, another Pincha Mayurasana, this time with the outer edges of the wrists pressed down into the floor.

Workshop at Community Yoga, Fernandina Beach, Florida.

Adho Mukha Svanasana with a long yoga belt. Abhijata Iyengar in her online workshop in May 2020, extolled the importance of working with props especially during the pandemic we are living through..

Adho Mukha Svanasana. This set up helps the student understand where she is stuck: when she bends forward, her lower back tends to pop out.

Uttitha Trikonasana. Correcting knock knees. It takes seven years!

Uttitha Trikonasana. Do this with a partner, and observe how much the space opens up in the pelvis. This student couldn’t be persuaded to take her legs a little further apart.

Mulabandasana, one leg at a time.

And now for six smiley faces….

2)

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5)

6) Use the slant board to press the heels away from the pubic bone. 

Raising the feet facilitates a greater extension through the inner thigh muscles, and therefore more mobility in the hip joints.

Chair supported Sirsasana.

This is important: Press the shins against the wall, and the toes toward the floor.

Roll the outer elbows in.

© 2020 Bobby Clennell

Panama: October 4 – 5, 2019

Workshop in Panama

Ardha Chandrasana with a chair. Move the standing leg buttock forward and revolve the torso up to the ceiling.

”Focus on keeping the spine straight. It is the job of the spine to keep the brain alert”. BKS Iyengar.

Working with a long belt – tugging it down –  to re-educate tight trapezeum muscles. Counteract this action by moving your tailbone in and rolling your inner thighs back.

 

© 2020 Bobby Clennell

Retreat in Kamakura-City, Japan: December 6 – 9, 2018

Yoga retreat at Amrita Ofuna

To remove rigidity, we need fluid in the joints. The element of water is accessed through movement, which is associated with the element of air.

Fast jumping pranisizes the legs with the element of water. Your legs will not become strong. You will however, sharpen…

…the intelligence, especially if in a class the jumping sequence is not repeated…

…the same each time by the teacher.

When standing poses are practiced from Tadasana, the legs become pranisized with the element of earth and the legs become very strong.

I was much taken by this certified Iyengar Yoga teacher who attended my workshop.

She is over 8o years old.

Here she is in a very light looking Parivritta Sirsasana.

Her name: Naoko Itoh.

The enormous bronze Buddha is located on the grounds of the Kotoku-in temple in Kamakura City. The monument dates all the way back to 1252 and was originally gold-plated. The statue has stood in the open air since the temple building was destroyed in the tsunami of September 20, 1492, and only traces of gold-leaf remain around the ears.

© 2019 Bobby Clennell

Beijing, China: November 21 – 24, 2018

Workshop at the Iyengar Yoga Institute of China, Beijing

Practicing Uttanasana with the legs separated allows for more mobility and a deeper forward extension than when the legs are together.

Practicing Uttanasana with the legs together compresses the abdominal area against the thighs (except where the student has tight hamstrings, and the trunk moves away from the thighs). This massages the abdominals, and helps keep the area healthy.

Tadasana. To ensure that the abdominal organs move up, roll the tops of the thighs back and take the tailbone in.

Uttitha Trikonasana. Revolve the tops of the femur bones out at the sockets. This ensures that the thigh bones will move into the sockets in a healthy way.

Rope Sirsasana. To ensure a deep internal alignment of the abdominal organs, make sure the belt is place exactly on the sacral bone.

Parsvakonasana. Similarly to Trikonasana, turn the tops of the thighs out.

Ardha Chandrasana. Turn the trunk and pelvis away from the standing leg. Can you touch the lifted leg shoulder blade and buttock to the wall?

Parsva Upavista Konasana. Turn from the navel toward the front leg. Everything below the navel is influenced by the activation of the left foot — press out through the left foot big toe mound.

Sirsasana. To avoid eye pressure, be exactly on the center of the crown of the head. Press the forearms down. Lift the shoulders.

Chatush Padasana over a chair. Raise the pelvic area off the chair, and placing the trapezius on the front edge of the chair, curve it around the edge of the chair. The upper back/shoulder skin will  get dragged away from the head and area just below the collar-bones will open.

Supta Konasana/Chair Halasana. This gives low back relief. It’s also a better way to go for those with long spines, where it’s not so easy to climb through the chair.

Coming out of Viparita Dandasana over Crossed Bolsters. Allow the lower back to spread.

Bolster Supported Setu Bandasana. Make sure the shoulders just touch the floor (and that you haven’t slid too far off the bolster).

 

© 2019 Bobby Clennell

Taipei: November 2 – 5, 2018

Workshop at Shelly Yoga

Pincha Mayurasana makes me look thin.

Raise the left leg hip maintaining it level with the right as you move into Eka Pada Sirsasana.

Photo bombed by my interpretor.

In this version of the head-up stage of urdva prasarita ekapadasana, the belt provides a fulcrum from which the spine can be curved and extended forward and upward. Sometimes, it’s hard to find the strength to do this without the belt.

Parivritta Svastikasana at the wall. These students are maintaining the fixed inteligence at the base of the pose by pressing their right knee to the wall as they rotate to the right.

Parivritta/Ghomukasana, legs only, combined with a spinal rotation.

In this Celestial Beings class, we practiced Ghomukasana again, this time the complete pose. Cows are held in high esteem in India.The reason has to do with cows’ agricultural uses and gentle nature. Hindus rely heavily on cows for dairy products, for tilling fields, and for dung as a source of fuel and fertilizer. So, cows are seen as a ‘caretakers’ or maternal figures.

More Celestial Beings – Eagle Pose,  Garuda was the mythic “king of the birds,” the vehicle of Vishnu.

Supported Backbends. Knees and shins against the wall. Upper arms turned in.

Supported Backbends. This pose, Baddha Konasana in Viparita Dandasana over Crossed Bolsters helps deal with abdominal scar- tissue, associated with endometriosis.

More supported Backbends.

Pushing up from Viparita Dandasana with Chair into Urdhva Dhanurasana.

At the end of the Active Restorative Class: from Halasana,

…roll…

….up ….

….and over….

….into Paschimottanasa X 6!

 

© 2019 Bobby Clennell

Australia: Petersham, October 19 – 21 & Bondi Junction, October 27 – 28, 2018

Workshop at Yoga To Go Studio

In this women’s workshop, we practiced wide leg poses, especially helpful in getting prolonged and excessive bleeding under control (a situation that more often occurs during menopause). Here is “L shaped” Upavista Konasana.

Lifting the inner ankle – Guruji had once done this with Julia to correct her severly dropped arches.

This supported variation of Prasarita Padottanasana helps reduce abdominal scar tissue cause by endometriosis.

Another wide leg pose. This teacher is pressing on my sacrum which is decompressing my sacral area and alieviating low back pain.

Aligning knees: Julia demonstrates how to do it with metal rods and two belts for each knee. I show how to use a wooden (important!) block and belts. The knee aligns itself to the firmness of the block.

Knees respond well to Sirsasana. If there is a problem with them, align the center of the thighs, knee caps and shins.

More knees: Bhekasana. Roll the bent knee hip and torso down. Press the elbow to the floor, and raise the chest.

Supported Kapotasana: The bolster provided much lift and support.

With my host, Tamar Kelly who is adding a touch or glamor to the occasion.

Iyengar Yoga Institute Bondi Junction

I made this collage of the Goddess Durga out of colored tissue paper at RIMYI, Pune, maybe 25 years ago. Kay Parry carried it off to the Iyengar Yoga Institute Bondi Junction where it still hangs (albeit now very faded) in the entranceway, and where I taught a two day workshop.

© 2019 Bobby Clennell

Denmark: May 4 – 6, 2018

Workshop at Studie Yoga in Denmark. Props, and Drop-backs.

Ardha Chandrasana with Chair and Wall. Grip the standing leg buttock onto the pelvic bone and move the upper hip and elbow up and back.

Curving back over an upturned chair. Revolve the upper arm skin in, toward the head. Observe, she is not gripping that slant-board – it’s resting lightly in her open palms.

Dropping back to the wall. Move the tailbone in, raise the back ribs away from the lumbar spine and move the shoulder-blades down. You can walk down the wall, and also onto a chair. To come up, stamp down through the outer edges of the heels and feet and propell your back ribs forward and up.

For those unable to raise the shoulders or press the shoulder-blades in, or who have compromised cervical discs, Sirsasana with two poles.

Delicious Danish hors deurvers. Mine, in the small bowls at the bottom of the picture, was gluten free.

© 2018 Bobby Clennell.

Two workshops in the UK for teachers, April, May. 2017.

Iyengar Yoga Studio: East Finchley, London. Ropes Workshop.

Kapotasana on ropes with a partner.

Yogawest: Bristol UK. Toward Drop-backs.

Sirsasana into Viparita Dandasana. Make the shape of a wheel without loosing control of your shoulder blades.  Let your navel roll forward  before dropping back.

Stamp your heels down and press your tailbone up. Move the backs of your thighs toward the buttock crease, press your calves down and move your knees toward your chest. And most important, press your forearms into the floor, and don’t let your shoulder drop!

© 2017 Bobby Clennell.

London: May 2

Workshop at The Iyengar Yoga Studio, East Finchley.

Uttitha Hasta Padangustasana 1 on The Ropes. We help her roll her outer thigh down while moving her standing leg thigh back to the wall. She presses her standing leg foot down, and raises her spine and chest.

Uttitha Trikonasana on the ropes. Anchoring your back foot to the wall, and holding the rope will help give you the momentum needed to extend your torso away from the wall.

Ardha Chandrasana on the ropes. Turn your head back, move your dorsal spine and tailbone forward.

Rope Sirsasana. Secure the upper arm bones into the sockets — overlap the triceps onto the deltoids, and the deltoids onto the shoulder-blades.

Rope Urdhva Mukha Svanasana. Similarly, maintain the connection of your upper arms and shoulders.

Viparita Dandasana. Firm your shoulder-blades onto your upper back ribs. Walk your hands along the belt toward the wall.

I always enjoy teaching for Patsy Sparksman at her studio in East Finchley, London,

© 2016 Bobby Clennell.

Monterrey, Mexico

Workshop at Centro de Yoga Luz.

Adho Mukha Virasana. Place the lower forearms on blocks to provide space for the breast tissue to ” breathe” and shoulder joints to open.

Sirsasana. Time to get off the wall!

Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana over Crossed Bolsters. This student experienced low back pain which was threatening to interfere with her staying power. A horizontal bolster was placed under her feet. Instant relief!

Do Bharadvajasana at the wall for great leverage. Now you can lift and turn more.

…and the same for Marichyasana 1.

My long and flexible spine says I need a higher support in this pose. Now my diaphragm can open, which means my lungs are working more efficiently.

Place the hips at the wall – the sit bones should be dropped back off the edge of the support – and make sure the top of your shoulders are rolled under – opening the chest.

Monterrey

On my last night in Monterrey, on La Guadalupana Day (Our Lady of Guadalupe Day), we took the Santa Lucia boat tour on the recently built canal.

While I ate my tostadas, my hosts munched on deep fried chilies. One of my hosts in Merida lined up his raw chilies along side of his dinner plate.

© 2016 Bobby Clennell.