Setting up in Awkward, the teacher will remind everyone to focus. A one pointed focus and determination is fundamental to this posture.
Keep breathing!
Most students set up correctly, but as soon as they start to execute the posture, they move their feet. Get six inches between the feet and keep them parallel. Knees are six inches apart too. Shoulders, arms, hips, knees, feet and ankles should remain in one line in the front mirror.
And here is another detail easy to forget. Shoulder are relaxed down away from the ears. But stretch your arms forward like you will touch the mirror with your fingertips.
Elbows locked!
The fabulous Yogini above is Tereza. Tereza is one of my training mates and currently the owner and director of Bikram Yoga Prague, in The Czech Republic. I like her web site.
www.BikramYoga.cz
The technique you want to copy from the above posture, is the happy smiling face. No kidding, it helps. But get your hips down as if you are about to sit on a chair. Once you are sitting in the chair, bring your chest up to create a curve in your back.
Now the next part of Awkward Pose is fun. Think of yourself in a big room with lights, camera, sound equipment and an audience of about three hundred.
Next, suck your stomach in, hold it, and sit down without moving your feet. There is a big tendency to turn your toes out. If you keep your feet parallel, when you adjust your knees to six inches, you will open your hips.
The technique you want to copy from the above posture, is the happy smiling face. No kidding, it helps. But get your hips down as if you are about to sit on a chair. Once you are sitting in the chair, bring your chest up to create a curve in your back.
Now the next part of Awkward Pose is fun. Think of yourself in a big room with lights, camera, sound equipment and an audience of about three hundred.
This is Rowena. Rowena is one of the most accomplished Yogis in the world. I captured her here before she had her hips all the way down to where her she would be sitting in a chair. But notice her straight spine, shoulders over her hips. There were a lot a cool kids in my teacher training:)
Rowena has made Bikram's dream of having a studio in India happen. Rowena runs Bikram Yoga Mumbai. She has run it from its inception and Bikram tells me it is prospering.
A real challenge in the third part of Awkward is to keep the spine straight as you go down very slowly. Keep a little gap between your hips and heels, squeeze your knees and thighs together. And smile!
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