Friday Asana Aid: Salamba Sarvangasana

Steve has asked me to take over the very popular Friday Asana Aid post, and I hope to do him proud this week with shoulder stand–a much neglected pose. I struggle with teaching this pose in my Intro class–things are moving fast, students are tired from back bending. And they’ve been cautioned not to look to the side to see what’s up–bad things will happen. At the same time, I can’t go all Iyengar on them and bring out the chairs and the piles of blankets (we only have three blankets at my shala). It took me a long time to enjoy this pose, to find its therapeutic qualities. Some help is needed. So we begin with the excellent David Garrigues and his wonderful Asana Kitchen:

And here’s Chris Croft’s take:

Here’s David again, showing two adjustments. His instructions let you know where the action of the pose is. Note the blanket with the rolled up sticky mat. Also, the tone of a serious workshop, with notes scattered everywhere:

Next, Kino. Because this is an older video on “eHow” (how quickly things change and become dinosaur-like), you’ll need to click though the link (it’s worth it). Here’s Kino MacGregor, framing shoulder stand as a therapeutic for the thyroid. You’ll want to navigate back for the finale.

The finale, worth it for the green screen (that’s the California coast, people!) and jazzy music:

Posted by Bobbie