Wednesday 15 August 2012

Duladandasana – Balancing Stick Pose - for beginners


Get yourself set just as surely and solidly as you did with the Standing Bow Pulling. Straighten your steeple and move the head and shoulders back as far as they will go, farther than ever, allowing the chest to puff forward. That is exactly the torso position you are going to keep throughout the pose – at least you can try.

As in the Standing Bow Pulling, this is a totally front to back, up and down, parallel position. So, as you take your big step forward with the right foot, check your left hip. If you have allowed it to angle slightly left, adjust both hips and torso to face the mirror directly, and keep them level.

As you pivot forward, use all your strength and determination. Be sure you are moving all in one piece (that means maintaining exactly the position you started in). To make this easier, pretend the floor is a pit of hungry crocodiles. Your standing leg is in no danger, being quite fortunately encased in crocodile repellent. But every other bit of you is in grave danger. The only way to keep your tummy and chest and left leg safe is to stretch your torso forward like crazy by lifting, ever lifting your arms and head, while you stretch more and more backward with the pointed foot and ever more forward with the fingertips, all the while lifting at front and back.

If you can pivot forward only two inches today, so be it. Tomorrow it will be ten. Remember to keep that left hip level. The more you press it down, the more pull you are going to feel in the back of your standing knee. This is good. Pull more

Make up your mind you are going to do it for 10 seconds, and don’t give up! 

Everybody wants to let their hands collapse and rest on their heads for an instant before doing the pose to the left. For reasons of stamina and discipline, do not succumb to this temptation!

By now you realize how difficult it is not the feed the crocodiles!!!

Benefits

The Balancing Stick perfects control and balance by improving physical, psychological, and mental powers. In addition, it firms hips, buttocks, and upper thighs, as well as providing the same benefits for the legs as the Standing Head to Knee. It increases circulation, strengthens the heart muscle, and stretches the capacity of the lungs. It is one of the best exercises for bad posture; strengthens the flexibility of latissimus, deltoid, and trapezius muscles; and improves the flexibility, strength, and muscle tone of shoulders, upper arms, spine and hip joints.
Read more about this poses benefits, pictures, video and tips from here!
Drawings and info from "Bikram´s Beginning Yoga Class " Book, 1978.

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