Class Notes 3/11/2025
Class focus is vinyasa – moving from pose to pose.
1: sūryanamaskāra five times. I urge you to find your own way of getting from pose to pose. David Swenson from Austin Texas does a beautiful version of sūryanamaskāra
(Swenson 1999 – with permission – https://www.ashtanga.net/collections/the-practice-manual)
I like to add a hint of caturaṅgadaṇḍāsana between 5 and 6 because I can’t get enough of this pose.
2: If you search vinyāsa in the Sanskrit dictionary you get:
विन्यास
movement, position (of limbs), attitude
arrangement, disposition, order
scattering, spreading out
establishment, foundation
putting together, connecting (words &c.), composition (of literary works)
3: We then worked on moving from adhomukhaśvānāsana to some of the basic standing poses. utthita trikoṇāsana , parivṛtta trikoṇāsana, pārśva koṇāsanasana, vīrabhadrāsana, pārśvottānāsana and prasārita pādottānāsana . Then utthitahasta pādāṅguṣṭhāsana , uttānāsana and pādāṅguṣṭhāsana.
I know I have not yet had a chance to deeply analyze some of these poses in the Tuesday class but the goal was movement not perfect alignment.
This featured most of the standing sequence in the first part of the aṣṭāṅga practice.
(Swenson 1999 – with permission – https://www.ashtanga.net/collections/the-practice-manual)
4: Jatara Parivrtasana – (leg lifts)
5: JanuSirsasana and PrivrittaJanuSirsanasa
6: Backbends and Kapotāsana
Introduction to Pigeon pose which is one of the most accessible start to advanced backbends.
7:: Shoulderstand with abdominal strengthener
8: Viloma Prāṇāyāma