First time I met Gary Kraftsow
After I finished my graduation as 500 Hours yoga teacher, I chose Ashtanga to be my personal practice because the way I saw practitioners practice made me hold my breath and say (OMG how these guys practicing these complicated poses then I started to take it as a challenge I was focusing 100 % on the physical part of the asana (the shape of the asana).
Watch our Egyptian guy he is doing asana
Then I realized there is a category in yoga called yoga therapy and it’s not related to Ayurvedic medicine after that I came up to know that there is a very unique yoga therapist, and he was a direct student to Krishnamacharya (the father of yoga) , then I decided to invest in a trip in 2016 to attend one of his workshops at Kripalu ( Massachusetts ) USA talking about “Yoga for headache and hypertension”.
While we were practicing in the yoga room, as he was teaching around 30 persons, he told my mentor “Watch our Egyptian guy he is doing asana.“!! as I was the only Egyptian in the room .
It took a moment with me to understand what Gary meant by that as in my mind I was coming here to practice yoga which means asanas.
I listened to his lecture after our practice then I realized there is something called asana form and asana function.
Mainly when we say form it means we are talking about our physical body which means the structure of our body (Skeleton, muscle, fat, hair, digestive system, respiratory system nervous system and fascia) and this is the tangible body in another meaning it is the anatomy of the body.
However, when we say the function of the body, it usually refers to how these body organs integrated together to perform and certain function which should be useful when we move in the right direction, to achieve the prober function, “we move with our structure toward the right direction “in another meaning function is the physiology of the body.
When it comes to yoga, we should think about how the structure will serve the function in the right way for example, how does the asana prepare the breath for pranayama, and how the pranayama will prepare the mind for meditation (It all connected).
In this video I’m talking about warrior one ( Virabhdrasana one) if we focus on the function of the asana, we should mention the intention of the asana and the intentions of the asana could be primary, secondary and tertiary
In warrior one the primary intention is to stretch the front of the chest; secondary intention is to stretch the hip flexors, and the third intention is to strengthen the thigh group of muscles.
This will require from us to understand that the stretch will be achieved only if we mobilize the T spine (thoracic spine) so our attention will be directed to the upper spine not to the lower spine (lumber spine)
Lumber spine is already having a natural curve with certain angle range from 40 to 50 degrees, so our focus should be toward flattening the upper T spine, and this will be done by moving the front of the chest forward and up and using arms adaptation as mentioned in the video
If we focus only of the shape or form of warrior one because lack of awareness or lack of knowledge subconsciously, we will tend to arch the lower back more which will lead after a while to serious injury because of the cumulative stress .
Why, where and how ( W.W.H.)
Every time I show my mentor Kathy Jamison, (C-IAYT, E-RYT500) a sequence she always asking me “Where the risk in this pose?” and this question made me shift my attention toward the safety of the pose.
Before we perform any asana, we should ask ourselves 3 questions:
Why am I doing the pose?
Where is the risk in the pose?
How to adapt this pose in a way suits my body structure.?
If you need to know more about asana biomechanics check out our sequencing online course which will be released on 1st of December.
Summary:
Asana is a very powerful tool in yoga if we used it an efficient way definitely it will help us to improve the function of particular part of the body but if we misused, abused or overused it, this asana will lead to dysfunctional pattern rather than functional one.
References
- Yoga for wellness by Gary Karftsow
- American Viniyoga institute.