Beijing: November 21 – 24, 2019

Workshop at Iyengar Yogashala, Beijing, China.

Adho Mukha Svanasana. Work this way to roll the tops of the inner thighs back, draw the anterior lumbar spine back and up, and release the posterior lumbar spine down. This is extremely helpful for those with low back compression or pain.

Adho Mukha Baddha Konasana with Three Blocks. This is the biggest hip opener ever!

The wide leg poses access space in the pelvic region, facilitate mobility in the hip joints, and supports health for women’s reproductive systems.

Half Padmasana with a figure of eight belt holding it all together.

Nirlamba Sarvangasana is particularly helpful for women. It reduces hot flashes, helps relax a tense throat and stimulates the thyroid.

The Chinese Translation of Watch Me Do Yoga! The English text is retained along side of the Mandarin.

Ming’s nieces practicing their version of Padmasana.

Tadasana with attitude – practicing along with my book.

Kids the world over love Lion Pose!

Yoga for Breast Care – Chinese translation!.

The Chinese students are enthusiastic about selfies, and will stop at nothing to get their picture taken with the teacher.

This Chinese “mudra” means love, I think.

My favorite pic of all time. This young student took my entire workshop in that outfit.

 

© 2020 Bobby Clennell.

London: May 7 – 8, 2019

Workshop at Oakside Yoga Studios

Adho Mukha Svanasana. The blocks under the elbows support and correct a carrying angle. The belt holds stubborn elbows in.

Here is Dave Dayes (who runs this studio from his home) with a belt below his elbows and just his head supported which quiets the brain. It also gives him another point of contact with the solid ground from which he can better sweep the sides of his hips up and back.

Adho Mukha Svanasana. The belts are organized in such a way as to strengthen the lower back spinal muscles.

Urdhva Dhanurasana from a Chair gives tremendous upper body expansion, and space through the shoulder joints.

Urdhva Dhanurasana from a chair and a half-round block. Push up from a chair (and develop your pushing power) if pushing up from the floor seems like it’s a long way off.

If pushing up from the floor with stiff or weak wrists is painfull then try pushing up into Urdhva Dhanurasana with a slant board under the heels of the hands. Next time this student practices this pose, if she first observes this picture, she she will see that she needs to move her shoulders forward to eventually align them above her wrists. The foam block gives us a reference point: do not turn the toes out! Touch the block with the entire inner edge of the feet.

Similarly, Urdhva Dhanurasana with a (widthwise) block between the feet, and a rolled blanket under the hands. Move the arms toward the wall. Push the heels and hands down, roll the outer knees to the inner knees and lift the tailbone and shoulders.

Urdhva Dhanurasana. To open up the space behind the knees, move the backs of the thighs toward the buttock crease. You are looking to get the forearm bones and shinbones parallel to each other. Another instruction for this super flexible student: ” Maintain good resistance in your joints: roll your upper arms in toward your head; fix your deltoids back onto your shoulder girdle”.

Once you can push up from the floor in Urdhva Dhanurasana, you are ready to drop back to the wall and then walk down. Coil your front body around your back body as much as you can (not forgetting to raise you back ribs) before taking the arms over.

Here’s Dave, flipping up and over from the chair support to the floor.

Dropping back from Tadasana to Urdhva Dhanurasana. Just before your hands touch the floor, move them back toward your feet.

I’m not sure that the belt around his hands was such a good idea…

We helped this student lift her shoulders and chest so she could straighten her arms.

Recovery.

©2019 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

More kids

Kids approach yoga with great enthusiasm; it’s more like play than practice!

Tadasana, Mountain Pose. Stand at attention! Cecillia Danson sent pictures of her nieces Daisy Blair, age 7, and her little sister Doris Blair, 5 years old. They were playing in Cecillia’s yoga room in Umeå, Sweden.

Vrksasana. The trees are waving at you. Can you wave back?

Adho Mukha Svanasana, Urdhva Mukha Svanasana. Down and up, and up and down!

Chatturanga Dandasana — push, push, push!

It’s more fun when we do it together! Aileen Kingerlee, from Kerry, Ireland, ran a week long yoga camps for kids during the summer at the Muckross Traditional Farms in Muckross National Park. They started each day with a yoga class, then spent the day out in nature, bread baking, butter making, milking cows, etc. Later, they did quieter poses, finishing with Sarvangasana. They each had their own yoga journal in which they wrote and drew about their day and their favorite poses.

Adho Mukha Vrksasana, Upside-down Tree Pose Facing the Wall. Climb your feet up the wall.

Kick up into this safety version of Adho Mukha Vrksasana, Upside-down Tree Pose.

Upside-down Tree Pose with the feet together.

… and spread the legs wide!

Setu Banda on the Ropes. The world looks funny when you’re upside-down!

Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana on a chair. This is what chairs were made for!

Dhanurasana, Bow Pose. Anaya, 9 years old, and her sister Isya, 4 years old, love yoga.  It’s fun to rock back and forth…

….. to push up from the floor: Urdhva Dhanurasana, Upside-down Bow Pose….

… and to feel your hair tickle your toes. Fern in Kapotasana with arms up. Photo by Suzy Dodd.

Bekhasana. Balancing is fun, too. This boy is strong!

Savasana. And now it’s time to relax.

Thanks to everyone who has sent me photos of their kids who were inspired by my book, Watch Me Do Yoga; please keep sending them in. I try my best to correctly credit all the photos, but if I’ve forgotten your child’s name, please send it to me, and I’ll update the post.

© 2016 Bobby Clennell.

Kids Love Yoga

These kids are serious yoga students!

Ivan Zabrodina, visiting us in Swanage, Dorset, UK, is carefully studying the poses in my book Watch Me Do Yoga. Soon he’ll be able to assist his mother Julia Zabrodina who teaches Iyengar yoga in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Utthita Hasta Padasana (Upright Hands and Feet Pose).

Adho Mukha Vriksasana (Tree Pose).

Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward Facing Dog Pose).

Simhasana (Lion Pose).

 

You are never too young to start practicing. Nuala, daughter of jewelry designer Maeve Gillies, is almost two and already into yoga.

Urdhva Hastasana (Arms Above the Head Pose) from Tadasana (Mountain pose). Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend Pose) with hands in Paschima Baddangullyasana (Hands Interlaced Behind the Back Pose).

 

Nicole de Jesus sent these photos of her five-year-old niece Malaya (“Freedom”), along with this note:

“I gave my amazing niece Malaya, a copy of Watch Me Do Yoga. She is already quite the student…and her toys seem to be benefiting from the method already!

Malaya is going through your book again and again. She’s going to bring it to her yoga class at school!

She and the animals practiced Bobby’s entire yoga book in my living room. Now she wants to make a yoga movie…!”

Kurmasana (Tortoise Pose).

Baddha Konasana (Bound Angle Pose).

We are looking at a row of Malaya’s toys practicing some inversions.

Urdhva Dhanurasana (Bow Pose).

Maybe I’ll have her on my publicity team!

 

Meanwhile, Kaira, in Hangzhou, China has also been hard at work. Her mother Carmen, a yoga teacher in Hangzhou, writes:

“I just received Watch Me Do Yoga yesterday from Amazon, and my daughter Kaira just loved it. She was reading the book the whole morning, and insisted me teaching her all the asanas from the book”.

Vriksasana (Tree Pose).

Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward Facing Dog Pose).

Simhasana (Lion Pose).

Kaira is holding the book perfectly straight!

Text © 2015 Bobby Clennell. Photos used with permission.