Ashtanga shala

The seated sequence has taught you three things so far: how to sit honestly in Dandasana , how to fold from the hips in Paschimottanasana , and how to undo that fold in Purvattanasana . The fourth seated posture asks for something genuinely new. Ardha Baddha Padma Paschimottanasana puts one foot into half lotus, folds you over the other leg, and sends one arm behind your back to catch that lotus foot. It is also the first posture in the Primary Series where the honest answer for a lot of beginners is "not yet" — and knowing that is part of learning it. Ardha Baddha Padma Paschimottanasana - right foot high in the left hip crease, right hand binding behind the back What the name is telling you Ardha means half. Baddha means bound. Padma means lotus. Paschimottanasana is the intense stretch of the west — the whole back body, from heels to the base of the skull. Put together: the half-bound-lotus intense western stretch. Every word in the name is a piece of the instru...

For three long rounds you have been folding forward. Your hamstrings have been complaining, your spine has been rounding toward your shins, and the whole front of your body has been quietly closing. Then the count says inhale , your hands go behind your hips, and you lift into the opposite shape entirely. That shape is Purvattanasana, and it is the first place in the Ashtanga Primary Series where the practice openly teaches you a habit that matters more than any single posture: what goes one way must, shortly afterwards, go the other. Purvattanasana - hips lifted, legs straight and together, chest opening toward the ceiling What is Purvattanasana? The name is built from three pieces. Purva means east, or front. Tan means to stretch or extend intensely. Asana is the seat or posture. So Purvattanasana is the intense stretch of the east side of the body — and the east side is the front, because the traditional practitioner faces the rising sun. The pose you have just left, Pasch...

After the long standing sequence, the practice sits down — and the first thing it asks you to do is fold. Paschimottanasana is the seated forward fold that opens the Primary Series proper, and almost every seated posture that follows borrows its logic. Learn to fold well here and the next twenty poses become far less mysterious. Paschimottanasana - spine long, chest reaching toward the shins rather than the head reaching toward the knees What is Paschimottanasana? The name breaks into three pieces. Paschima means west, uttana means intense stretch, and asana means posture — so, literally, "intense stretch of the west." In the older texts the practitioner faces the rising sun, which makes the front of the body the east side and the whole back line — calves, hamstrings, the sheet of fascia along the spine, the neck — the west. That is exactly what this pose lengthens: not the hamstrings alone, but the entire back of you, from heels to skull. Practitioners commonly d...

After a dozen standing poses, the Ashtanga Primary Series asks you to sit down — and the first thing you sit in is Dandasana. It looks like nothing at all: legs straight, hands on the floor, back tall. But every seated posture for the next half hour borrows its alignment from this one, which is why experienced practitioners treat Dandasana as a pose to work in rather than a pause between poses. Dandasana - sitting bones rooted, legs straight and together, spine tall What is Dandasana? Danda means staff or stick in Sanskrit, and asana means seat or posture — so this is the pose of the staff. The staff is your spine: upright, supported, carrying the weight of your torso without collapsing into it. In the counted method, Dandasana is where the seated sequence begins, held for five breaths before you fold forward into Paschimottanasana. What it offers is less obvious than a deep stretch, and that is exactly why beginners skim past it. Sitting with straight legs and a straight ba...

For the last dozen posts we have taken the standing sequence apart one posture at a time. Today we put it back together. This is a checkpoint: no new pose, no new Sanskrit to memorise — just the whole standing sequence, in order, practised as one continuous thing, which is the only way it ever really teaches you anything. If you have been reading along since Sun Salutation A , you already know every piece of what follows. What you may not have done yet is string them together in a single session and discover that the sequence has a shape of its own. Samasthiti - feet together, arms relaxed at the sides, weight even through both heels What a checkpoint practice is for Learning pose by pose is efficient, but it hides something. Practised separately, each standing posture feels like a puzzle to solve. Practised in order, they stop being puzzles and become a sequence of temperatures: the sun salutations warm you, the first two folds quiet you down, the triangles wake up the sides ...

Chair Pose asked you to sink down and stay. Warrior asks for the same patience with your feet a full stride apart, and then asks you to keep breathing while you hold it. Virabhadrasana A and B are the last two postures of the Ashtanga standing sequence — four held shapes in a row, twenty breaths of honest work — and the day you can move through all four without gritting your teeth is the day the standing sequence really belongs to you. Virabhadrasana A - front knee stacked over the ankle, arms reaching straight overhead What are Virabhadrasana A and B? Virabhadra is a warrior from Indian myth, born out of Shiva's grief and rage. Asana simply means posture or seat, so the name is usually given in English as Warrior Pose. It is worth noticing, though, what kind of warrior the practice actually has in mind: not the one who fights hardest, but the one who can stand still inside difficulty and keep breathing evenly. Virabhadrasana A is the upright version. The front kne...

Every pose in the standing sequence so far has asked you to lengthen, fold, twist or balance. Utkatasana asks for none of those. It asks you to stay. Feet together, knees deeply bent, arms overhead, gaze to the thumbs — and then simply remain there for five breaths while the thighs begin to burn. It is the first pose in the Ashtanga Primary Series where nothing is being stretched open and everything is being asked to hold. Utkatasana - big toes and heels together, weight settled back into the heels, palms joined overhead, gaze up to the thumbs The name is not "chair" Everyone learns this pose as chair pose, and the nickname does it a disservice. Utkata means fierce, intense, powerful — something closer to violent than to furniture . The Sanskrit is not describing a person sitting comfortably. It is describing held fire. I mention this because the name shapes how people practise. A student who thinks "chair" sinks down and waits for it to be over. A student who he...

The standing sequence has asked you to fold, twist, stretch and balance. Now, in Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana , it asks for something different: to place one foot into half lotus, reach behind your back for the toe, and fold forward on one leg. This is the first pose in the Ashtanga Primary Series where a beginner can genuinely hurt themselves by being enthusiastic, so it is also the first pose where the smartest practice is often the smallest one. Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana - top foot high in the hip crease, heel drawn toward the navel, spine long over the standing leg What is Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana? The name breaks apart cleanly. Ardha is half, baddha is bound, padma is lotus, and uttana means an intense stretch. So: the half-bound-lotus intense stretch, standing. One foot comes into half lotus on the opposite thigh, the same-side arm wraps behind the back to catch the big toe of that lotus foot, and then the whole shape folds over the standing leg. Three things happe...

After Parsvottanasana the standing sequence does something it has not done before: it takes a foot away. Everything until now — the folds, the triangles, the two twists — you met with both feet on the floor. Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana , extended hand-to-big-toe pose, asks you to stand on one leg and keep the same unhurried ujjayi breath you have been building since the first surya namaskara. Most people find out in the first three seconds how much of their steadiness was coming from the floor, and how little from the breath. The lifted leg gets all the attention, but the pose is happening in the standing leg. Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana A — the leg extended forward, the big toe held with the first two fingers and thumb, and the real work happening in the standing leg. The four positions From samasthiti you take hold of the big toe with the first two fingers and thumb — A is the leg extended straight forward, then an exhale that brings the chin toward the shin. B opens the s...

Parsvottanasana is the last of the standing forward folds in the Ashtanga Primary Series and, quietly, the strictest of them. It comes right after the four Prasarita Padottanasana variations, and it takes everything they taught you about folding from the hips and asks you to do it with one foot in front of the other, hips facing squarely forward, and hands pressed together behind your back. Nothing about it is dramatic to look at. Almost everything about it is difficult to do honestly. Parsvottanasana - hips square to the front foot, spine long, hands in reverse prayer What is Parsvottanasana? Parsva means side or flank, ut is an intensifier, and tan means to stretch. Intense side stretch. The name is slightly misleading for beginners, because the stretch you feel is not along the side of the torso, as in a side bend, but along the back of the front leg and through the whole length of the spine as it reaches forward over that leg. The "side" refers to the fact that e...

Prasarita Padottanasana C and D close out the wide-legged section of the Ashtanga standing sequence, and they are where this pose stops being only about hamstrings. C hands the work to your shoulders. D hands it to your fingers. Same stance, same hinge, two entirely new demands — and both of them reveal habits that A and B allowed you to hide. Everything from Wide-Legged Forward Fold A & B still applies here: the stance width, the outer edges of the feet parallel, the fold coming from the hip creases rather than the waist. If those are not settled yet, practise A and B on their own for a week before adding these two. Prasarita Padottanasana - feet wide and parallel, hips over the heels, crown of the head reaching toward the mat What C and D actually are Prasarita means spread out or extended, pada is foot, and uttana means an intense stretch. Put together: an intense stretch with the feet spread wide. In the Primary Series the pose appears four times in a row, labelled...

Prasarita Padottanasana is the moment the standing sequence finally lets you breathe. After five poses balanced on a narrow base and twisted against it, you step your feet wide, let your head hang, and stay. It is the first standing pose in the Ashtanga Primary Series where a beginner can feel genuinely comfortable — which is exactly why it is the one people rush through. Prasarita Padottanasana - feet parallel and wide, hands under the shoulders, crown reaching toward the floor What is Prasarita Padottanasana? The Sanskrit name is a plain description of what you are doing. Prasarita means spread out or expanded, pada is foot, ut means intense, and tan means to stretch: an intense stretch with the feet spread wide. Nothing mystical, just an accurate label. There are four versions — A, B, C and D — practiced one after another with only a few breaths between them. They share the same stance and the same fold, and differ only in what the arms do. Today we take A and B; C and D ...