When you do yoga you do not need to worry about lifting these barbells.
Bob is laying on his back. He has his hands on the barbells. They weigh almost as much as he does. He is attempting to lift the barbells up and straighten his arms. The sweat, the strain, the effort. Finally Bob’s arms straighten and the bar bells are in place far above his body.
Completing a Vinyasa sequence is similar to Bob’s weight lifting routine without using the barbells.
What is a Vinyasa
A Vinyasa is a sequence of movements done to the breath that connects one yoga posture to the next in your yoga practice.
Why do a Vinyasa
When you do a Vinyasa sequence between your yoga poses you derive several benefits including:
- keeping the energy and heat raised in the body. The heart rate remains elevated and the metabolism is increased.
- reseting the body back to a neutral position in preparation for the next pose.
- strengthening the upper body and abdomen.
- provides a focus for the mind. A Vinyasa based yoga practice becomes a moving meditation and helps to reduce stress levels.
There are three kinds of Vinyasa
There are three kinds of Vinyasa that can be performed in an Ashtanga based yoga practice. One while standing and two when seated.
- Standing Vinyasa
- Seated Full Vinyasa
- Seated Half Vinyasa
The Standing Vinyasa looks like a Sun Salute except that you move to the next pose after you reach Downward Facing Dog.
The two seated Vinyasas are performed between seated postures. In the half Vinyasa you do not come to a standing position between yoga poses while in the full Vinyasa you do come up to standing between poses.
We will be focusing on the Seated Half Vinyasa which is the most common Vinyasa performed in the Ashtanga yoga practice.
How to do a Vinyasa
You exhale as you finish the current yoga posture and return to Dandasana with your torso vertical, legs together and straight out in front of you and your hands resting on the floor beside your hips.
Next inhaling you cross your legs, lift your hips and feet from the floor.
Then you exhale and take you legs back through your arms and lower your body down towards the floor into Chattarunga Dandasana (four limb stick pose).
Inhaling you lift your torso up into Upward Facing Dog with the top of your feet resting on the floor and your hips off of the floor.
Then exhale and move into Downward facing Dog by lifting your hips and moving your torso towards the back of the mat.
Inhale and bring your legs through your arms and sit down with your hips between your hands and your legs straight out in front of you.
You start in Dandasana and you finish in Dandasana. From here you move into the next yoga posture.
There are several places during this Vinyasa sequence that you are using your upper body muscles. Let’s have a look at all of the places where the muscles in your arms, shoulders, back, and abdomen are getting a work out. We will start at the beginning and work our way through the Vinyasa sequence.
How does a Vinyasa develop upper body strength
In each of the parts of a Vinyasa you are working and strengthening your upper body muscles. There are several places during the Vinyasa that you are lifting all of your body weight off of the floor much like Bob does when he lifts his barbells in his weight practice.
Lift torso and feet
In this first position, you lift your hips and feet off of the floor by moving your torso upwards between your shoulders. You are using your back a shoulder muscles to lift your torso and you are using your abdominal muscles to lift your legs and feet off of the floor at the same time.
Jump back and lower down into Chatarunga Dandasana
In this position you are using your back and shoulder muscles to move your body back and lower it down towards the floor. Your abdominal muscles are working to keep your back and legs in a straight line while shoulders, back and abdominal muscles are supporting your torso and legs as you hover just above the floor.
Upward Facing Dog
Lifting the torso up into this position requires you to develop strength in your arms, shoulders and back. As you lift up keep your shoulders down your back and away from your ears.
Downward Facing Dog
Moving into this position you are using your abdominal muscles to lift your hips up and your shoulders and back muscles to move your torso into position.
Jump through and sit down
As you move your body forward between your arms and sit down you are using your back, shoulder and abdominal muscles to hold the torso up and gradually lower it towards the floor.
Remember Bob and his barbells? The barbells that he was using were almost as heavy as he was and he was working hard to lift them up above his chest as he lay on his back.
You and Bob have a lot in common. In each of the positions of the Vinyasa sequence you are lifting almost the entire weight of your body off of the floor only you are not using barbells you are using your body instead.
But I do not have the strength to lift my body off of the floor, what do I do?
Press your hands into the floor and take some weight off of your hips. Even if your hips do not lift from the floor you are working your arm, shoulder and back muscles and over time your strength will gradually develop. Keep repeating this pressing into the floor with your hands and eventually your hips will start to lift from the floor.
But I do not have the strength to hover in Chatarunga Dandasana
Control the descent rather than collapsing when you lower down and gradually lower your body all the way to the floor.
If you still find this gradual descent a challenge you can lower down to the floor from high plank by first dropping your knees to the floor and then bringing your hips to the floor followed by your chest and finally your head.
Both of these movements will help to develop the strength in your shoulders, upper back and abdomen.
Summary
Bob is working hard to develop his upper body strength with his barbells, but you are working hard as well and developing your upper body strength at the same time while doing your yoga practice.
You are getting many more benefits from your yoga practice than Bob is getting from his weight lifting routine.
Next Step
Work with your teacher to improve your Vinyasa and insure that you do not injure yourself. Your teacher can offer many modifications that will work with your current strength and flexibility. Over time you will increase your upper body strength and move with ease through a Vinyasa.
