You can twist further when you use the Play Block technique
Alice is at her sister’s home. Her niece is building a tower with her play blocks. She slowly stacks one block on top of the next until she has a tall tower in place. Each block that she places is twisted slightly to the side. The tower is spiralling upward.
Alice is surprised at how much this stack of blocks resembled the instructions her teacher gave her when she started doing a new twisting pose. In fact, her teacher even called it the play block technique.
What is the play block technique
You think of your back and spine as a stack of play blocks. Each block in the stack represents a part of your back. Starting from the bottom of the stack and working upward you have:
- Block 0 – Your hips
- Block 1 – Your lower back and abdomen
- Block 2 – Your ribs
- Block 3 – Your shoulders
- Block 4 – Your head
You twist your back and spine by starting from the bottom of this stack of play blocks, your hips, and work your way up to the top block, your head. You twist each block a little bit and then move on to the next block. By the time you get to your head you have quite the twist in your back.
Let’s look in detail at how to do a twist using the play block technique.
How to do the twist
Getting setup
For this example we will use Mirchayasana C which is a simple seated twist. To get started you are seated on the floor in Dandasana with your legs straight out in front of you. Now close your right knee, lift your knee straight up in the air and bring your heel towards your hip. The toes of your right foot are beside your left knee and about two hand widths away.
To accomplish the twist in this pose you are going to twist towards your raised thigh. Your left shoulder is coming toward your right knee.
Now let’s look at how to do the twist following the play block technique.
First we start with Block 0 – Your hips
This is the foundation block of the play block tower. Usually this block does not move. It is the same in this yoga pose. Your hips do not move. They stay facing toward the front of the mat.
Second we move on to Block 1 – Your lower back and abdomen
Engaging Uddiyana Bandha by drawing your belly button in toward your spine and up toward your ribs. This action will engage your core muscles and provide some support to your lower back. Also engaging Uddiyana Bandha draws your abdomen in out of the way as you turn your abdomen toward your raised thigh. Once you have turned your abdomen as far as it can go you move on to the next play block in the tower.
Next Block 2 – Your ribs
Building on the twist of your lower back, you turn your left ribs toward your raised right thigh. Creating length in your spine you move your ribs as much as possible beside your thigh. Once you have moved your ribs as far as possible you move on to the penultimate block in the play block tower your shoulders.
Almost there Block 3 – Your shoulders
Here you have your left shoulder beside your right knee. Now building on the twist that you have developed so far, you move your shoulders beyond your knee. Now your left shoulder is resting against the outside of your right knee. There is still, believe it or not, a little bit of twisting left in your spine. It is time to move on to the last block, your head and finish this twist off.
Finally Block 4 – Your head
Once you have moved your left shoulder as far as it will go you work on your head. You turn your head to the right and look over your right shoulder. This last movement completes the twist.
You should be feeling a delicious stretch in every muscle of your back as you hold the twist for several breaths.
Why do you start at the bottom?
You do the twist by working from the bottom up because it is easier to move each part of the back this way. Establish the hips, move to the abdomen, then the ribs, shoulders and head. If you go the opposite way from the top down you will not go as far into the twist.
Should you round your back?
When you first start working on a twisting pose you may discover that you get stuck with the knee beside or behind the knee rather than on the outside of the knee.
It is tempting when this happens to want to round your back and get your shoulder on the outside of your knee. This is not a good plan. Rounding your back while it may accomplish your goal of getting your shoulder on the outside of your knee will be causing some problems to your back.
When you round your back you are compressing your abdomen. We are trying to create space in the abdomen not compress it. From a pose point of view we are moving the wrong way.
The other thing that happens is that stability of your back is destroyed. The spine is built to be tall and straight not rounded. The vertebrae support each other when they are above each other. When they are not in alignment then you could cause a herniated disk
You should keep your spine tall, creating space between your vertebrae. This increased space will help you with your twist as well.
What do you do if you get stuck
The first thing to do when you get stuck in a twist and you are not getting as far as your teacher did when they demonstrated the pose is to remember the Edge. Following the Edge concept you challenge yourself to go as far as possible but you stay in a comfortable but challenging place. You do not go beyond the Edge into pain and discomfort.
You can use your arms to help develop your twist a little further.
An Example using Marichyasana C
You are stuck with your shoulder beside your knee rather than on the outside of your knee.
From here bend your left arm, bring your hand up toward your face and your elbow down toward the floor. Now press your elbow into the outside of your knee.
Once you have your left arm in place, put your right hand on the floor in line with your shoulders. Push into your right hand and take your right shoulder back.
These two actions, pushing your left elbow into your right knee and taking your right shoulder back by pushing into your right hand will help to stretch the muscles in your back and get your spine to turn a little bit further.
Summary
Alice’s niece looks at the tower of blocks with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. Looking up at Alice, she swipes at the tower and the blocks go flying all over the floor accompanied by much laughter and vigorous hand clapping. Alice is glad that her back is not really a tower of play blocks and that her niece is not around to swipe at her when she is working on a twisting yoga pose.
Work on your twist from the bottom up using the play block technique and you will get further into your twist than you have before.
Next Step
Ask your teacher to help you build your twist from your hips up to your head.
