Wow! The Power of a Good Inversion Assist

In yoga teacher training today, we were working together on a variety of peak poses (including arm balances and inversions) that we might use for our final teachers.  In groups of four, one of us taught, one of us practiced, one did adjustments/assists, and one observed.  It was really so much fun and very revealing.

In assisting others into inversions, I noticed that I’m not that worried that I will get kicked in the face, but I am more concerned that I will pull the person practicing off balance or create a situation where he/she is not getting as much out of the inversion as he/she could, because I’m getting in the way.  However, doing the  practice of it definitely helped with that feeling, and made me feel more confident that I can be of assistance.

And then I practiced.  I got to be assisted in several poses, including adho mukha vrksasana (handstand), pinca myurasana (peacock tailfeather or forearm stand), and sirsasana (headstand).  Some of the adjustments were very informative, a tilt of the hipbones in pinca to create more length in the lower back, a lifting of the hips to ease the process into handstand, etc.  As I went into pinca myurasana, my assisting yogi, Yvonne, had her feet bracing my hands and her knees behind my shoulder blades.  Once I was in position up the wall, she encouraged me to push my shoulders into her knees and my lower back lengthened like crazy.  Neat!  Then later, in headstand, she had her feet outside of my elbows, keeping them from splaying out to the side.  Just that bit of extra help gave me some sort of oomph that I haven’t had ever before in the pose, and part way through I realized that my head was actually about 1/2 inch off the ground.  It was crazy and cool and crazy cool! (Have I mentioned how much I love inversions?)

We also did a little brainstorming of ideas for workshops or series.  Maybe it was all the blood that rushed to my head in the inversions, but I felt like there were so many great possibilities just running through my mind.  Sweet!

Yep, this is why I om.  😀

Namate,

L