Ashtanga shala

Marichyasana A is the moment the Ashtanga Primary Series stops asking you to fold and starts asking you to wrap. It is the first of four seated poses named after the sage Marichi, and the first place in the whole series where your arms travel behind your back to find each other. For most beginners the hands do not meet for months, and the pose still does its work long before they do. Marichyasana A - chest folded over the straight leg, arms wrapped behind the back What is Marichyasana A? Marichi is a sage of Indian mythology, traditionally described as a son of Brahma and a grandfather of Surya, the sun. Asana simply means seat or posture, so Marichyasana is "Marichi's pose." The Primary Series gives us four versions of it, labelled A, B, C and D, and they all share one structural idea: one knee folds up tight against the body, and the arms use that folded leg as an anchor. In the A version you sit with one leg straight in front of you and the other foot planted c...

Janu Sirsasana A taught you the shape: one leg long, one knee folded out, the torso draped over the straight leg. Variations B and C keep that shape and change one thing only — what the bent leg does underneath you. That single change is enough to make both of them feel like new postures, and it is also where beginners most often ask too much of a knee, an ankle or a set of toes. Janu Sirsasana - chest reaching along the straight leg, both sitting bones settling down What are Janu Sirsasana B and C? Janu means knee, sirsa means head — head-to-knee pose. The name describes an intention rather than a requirement: the head travels toward the shin of the extended leg, and whether it ever arrives is beside the point. In the Ashtanga Primary Series these three variations come one after another, right leg then left leg each time, and together they form the first long study of an asymmetric seat. In A, the bent foot simply rests against the inner thigh. In B, you sit on that heel. In ...

Janu Sirsasana A is the moment the seated sequence stops being symmetrical for good. Paschimottanasana folded you forward over two long legs, and Triang Mukha Eka Pada Paschimottanasana asked you to stay level while one knee folded behind you. Now the bent leg turns the other way — outward, into the open — and you fold over the leg that is still long. It is the first of three head-to-knee variations, and the shape you build here is the one the other two depend on. Janu Sirsasana - bent knee open at about ninety degrees, both hands clasping the extended foot What is Janu Sirsasana A? Janu means knee, sirsa means head, asana means seat or posture: head-to-knee pose. The name describes the finished picture rather than the work, which is a little misleading, because beginners who chase the head often lose the part of the pose that matters. What you are really building is a long fold over one straight leg while the other hip opens outward and stays heavy on the floor. Practiti...

After the lotus-based fold of the previous posture, the Primary Series gives you something that looks simpler and turns out to be quietly demanding: one leg stretched forward, the other folded back beside the hip. Triang Mukha Eka Pada Paschimottanasana is where most beginners discover that a forward fold can be ruined long before the hands reach the foot. Here is the shape, the one prop that changes everything, and how to keep the bent knee out of trouble. Triang Mukha Ekapada Paschimottanasana - one shin folded back beside the hip, both sitting bones pressing down evenly What is Triang Mukha Eka Pada Paschimottanasana? The name is long but it is simply a description. Tri is three, anga is limb, mukha is face, eka pada is one foot or one leg, and paschimottanasana is the intense stretch of the back body — literally the "west side" of the body, the whole line from heels to skull. Put together, the title points at three parts of the folded leg — knee, shin and foot...