Something tells me I was supposed to deepen my understanding of backbends this weekend. I practiced backbends extensively with Shiva Rea, Edward Clark, and now Rodney Yee. One would think that two really uplifting classes on backbends would be enough for a person, (don't get me wrong I was really beginning to understand what a backbend should feel like after the first two classes), but I think I really needed Rodney Yee's class to solidify the intelligence in my body.

Rodney has some magical aura in his voice that made me want to get everything perfect in this backbending class. Perhaps it's the way he's so precise in his instructions. Or maybe it's because I heard him gently correct other students (and his assistants), and I didn't want to be next. More likely, though, it was the chat he had with us about what our yoga practice should be doing for our lives.

"Yoga isn't about stretching," he says. "It's about eveness."

He talked about how he recently worked with the most amazing athletes, but even though they were at this superhuman level of fitness they weren't happy with their bodies. Sure, our practice should challenge us and keep us on our feet, but it should also make us love bodies and ourselves.

"Sometimes you need to take a step back and just ask yourself: Why am I pulling at my leg like this?" says Rodney.

Anyway, I was inspired and I can honestly say that I worked harder than I've ever worked in a yoga class. Even though this was a backbending class, I don't think my Downward-Facing Dog will ever be the same. I found strength and eveness.

When I returned to my room, I tried to do, Eka Pada Rajakapotasana (One-Legged King Pigeon Pose), a backbending pose I've been practicing on my own for weeks upon weeks, and I actually backbend far enough to touch my head to my foot!! And I didn't even collapse in the lower spine! This is what yoga conferences are all about, and I am SO grateful for this opportunity.

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The class I took with Ana Forrest was called "Forrest Yoga Without Struggle," which sounds like an oxymoron to anyone who's taken Forrest Yoga before.

Ana's style of yoga is a struggle for even the most athletic, seasoned yogi. On my third day of strenuous yoga, I knew it would be a struggle, even if the class description said it would help me free myself from "breathlessness, struggle, and panic." Just to make things more interesting, I think Ana "Abs" Forrest pulled out all of her most breathless, panic-inducing tricks to teach us to breath into poses and relax.

I like to practice Vinyasa yoga as much as possible. So I tend to be really fidgety when teachers invite me to hold poses for any amount of time. I don't enjoy the way it feels to stay in Warrior II, so without really thinking, I brush the hair out of my face or re-adjust my foot placement 16 times. I do whatever I have to to try to make the time that I'm uncomfortable pass so that I can move on to the next pose. I realize this is not one of my better habits so it's good that there are classes like this one to help me realize how important it is to be patient and breath when things get hard.

I got lots of practice being patient in this workshop. I tried to push myself when I felt like giving up, and I realized that when I stopped thinking about the discomfort and focused on the sound of my breath things got a lot easier and I could hold difficult poses for much longer. I really could let go of my struggle, stop fidgeting, and enjoy the sensations.

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Whether you have knobby knees, bowed legs, or hyperextend knees, chances are you've strained or injured a knee joint at some time or another.That's why Mary Dunn's class today on "Saving and Protecting Knees" was an essential for anyone hoping to prevent injuries.

Lesson number one: knees come in different shapes and sizes, and you have to understand the structure of the knee before you can determine how to care for it. "It's like painting with gree paint on green paper," says Mary. "It's not going to look the same as it would on white or grey paper."

Not everyone has the same skeletal structure at one of the body's most delicate joints. For example, I'm pretty sure my legs fall under a category Mary would call knobby kneed. That means my thigh comes in at an angle,then my shin bones extend out slightly. It's kind of an undesirable hour-glass effect, which, of course, is more dynamic in one leg than the other. I also have a bit of an overextension in my joint. So I lock my knees when I'm standing.

Another lady in the class was the perfect example of "bowlegged." Her knees were further away from her midline, making her legs curve outwardly.

As it turns out, the key to protecting the knees may not lie in the knee itself. (I'm assuming most people know about the whole lining-the-knee-over-the-ankle concept in poses like Warrior I and II.) According to Mary, we can train ourselves to take care of our knees through how we work our feet and hips.

"The feet are only the foundation of everything we do!" Marys says as she instructs the class to evenly distribute the weight on the feet.

It's a lot easier on the knee if we let our hips and ankle joints do some of the work, too, in poses like Utkatasana. To demonstrate this, we practiced Utkatasana with our heels up on a folded blanket so we'd have to use our ankles. She had each of us keep our feet three inches apart so bow-legged folks "can't complain that they can't get their feet together." Then we were instructed to press through the balls of our feet and pull our toes up so we weren't collapsing in at the arches of our feet. So that's how you lift your arches--I never knew!

Even though I haven't had a lot of knee issues yet (knock on wood) it really made me think about what I need to do to ensure that I don't develop knee issues in the future, and also gave me some things to look for as I continue on in my yoga teacher training.

photo by Susan Slattery

Posted by Erica Rodefer at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

The life of a yoga student is one revelation after another. As soon as you think you've mastered one movement, you realize that you've compromised the integrity of another part of pose.

The more teachers you take from, the more frequent these revelations become. I haven't been keeping count, but I've been humbled so many times during this conference. None of these epiphanies have been as dynamic as what I experienced in Edward Clark's class.

After watching Edward Clark in the Tripsichore performance I wasn't really sure what to expect for his class on the Tripsichore technique--but I hoped I wouldn't be expected to stand on my forearms and put my leg behind my head.

Thank goodness he didn't expect us to be that advanced.

We talked about keeping the shoulders down and lenghthing the Uddyana to raise the chest both as we fold forward and as we come up from fold into Tadasana with the arms extended above the head. Not only is this far more beautiful, but it lengthens the back, front, and side body throughout the motion and feels a lot better than allowing the shoulders to rise up toward the ears.

From the top of that reach, we could begin to bend backwards through our height (without crunching the back). Since I've never really had much instruction on how to do a standing backbend, I was thrilled to begin to get a foundation. I have read many times that you have to bend from height, but I wasn't sure how to really achieve that height.

I was also really pleased when we used the same principle of lengthening the Uddyana to come into a handstand split, which is a pose that Tripsichore performs beautifully. I felt like we were really learning a little of the Tripsichore technique. I mean, I didn't actually get my feet off the ground, but I have something else to work toward now.

But the subject that prompted my major revelation was not part of the class topic.

Throughout my practice, I've noticed teachers make the same few adjustments on me. I tend to jut my rib cage out and collapse in my lower back, and sometimes my shoulders roll forward instead of down my back during Cobra and Upward-Facing Dog. So I'm very conscious of these things, especially if I'm in the first row like I was in this class. But I was surprised when Edward told me I over-extend my elbows. I've never had a teacher adjust my elbows--ever! So now I have a new thing to work on in my body, which is a really good thing.

So I'm not enlightened yet, but at this rate I might be someday!

Photos by Susan Slattery

Posted by Erica Rodefer at 06:49 PM | Permalink

Anyone who's practice yoga for a while knows that it's not all "butterflies and unicorns" as Seane Corn put it. But just in case you forget, one class with Seane Corn wil quicklyl put things into perspective for you.

"Things come up that you haven't thought about in 20 years--that you haven't wanted to think about," says Seane Corn.

In "The Body and Beyond," we touched on some pretty heavy subjects. Students were challenged phsycially as well as emotionally and spiritually.

Seane said believes that if all people are at peace within themselves, all the bad things that are going would eventually stop--all the wars, terrrorism, and violence would just cease to exist.

Even if you're a skeptic of this optimism, you have to respect Seane for her passion in speaking about yoga. It quickly became clear to me why she is admired so much by the yoga community. She speaks with heart and authority.

That's such a huge, abstract idea it was hard for me to even imagine. So I was grateful when Seane said there are ways I can help facilitate that by working on myself.

All the those bad things happening on a global scale originate in people's individual thoughts and actions, so first we have to let go of all our hurt and negativity and find the joy and love in everything.

Vinyasa yoga, Seane's specialty, is a great way to release some of the tension in our lives so we can transform our bodies, and learn to be present so we can transform our minds. In this class we were invited to move quickly, let out our agressions, and leave behind bad feelings we might've been fostering.

"Those people who may've hurt us are our angels, our guides, our teachers," Seane says. "Use them to learn something and then move on."

I was really touched by how candidly Seane spoke about devoting our practice to God or other people in our lives who we'd like to lift up. She asked us to stop our vinyasa practice a couple of times, and think of someone who we love and devote the next vinyasa to them. It's amazing how much that intention changed my practice in that moment.

If something so small can have such a big effect on our individual thoughts and actions, maybe Seane Corn is right, and our intentions really will change the world someday.

Photo by Susan Slattery

Posted by Erica Rodefer at 11:37 PM | Permalink

We wore a red dot on our shirts representing each our heart centers; we chanted mantras about how the heart is the source of happiness; and we pulsated our bodies to remind us of the physical and spritual heart present within us. If anyone who registered missed the essence of Shiva Rea's "Expanding our Heart's Field Within Yoga" class, it's because he or she overslept.

Shiva is a master at setting the tone for her classes. Everywhere in the room, were reminders of what we were hear to do: expand our heart centers.

When you put your heart and soul into anything you get a lot more enjoyment and fulfillment out of it. Of course, this is one of those things people sometimes say without really thinking about it, but Shiva made some pretty convincing arguments that scientific reasoning backs this up.

In our culture, we tend to be brain-oriented, Shiva said. (Perhaps, that's why we had to have a scientific based talk on the heart instead of philosophical.) But our brains are overworked and overwhelmed because we're designed to do some thinking with our hearts, too.

She said our hearts emit an electromagnetic field of energy, which can be measured by scientists. Interestingly enough, the heart's electromagnetic field measures much higher than the brain's. So maybe we really should allow our hearts to guide us more.

Our hearts' energies are constantly reaching out to evaluate people, "like dogs sniffing each other." So anytime we're not really meshing with someone else, it's usually because something doesn't feel right within your heart's energy field.

All of this was amazing and thought-provoking, but when we put it into action through asana I really began to feel my heart's energy radiating out. I think I could feel other people's energy, too, when we got moving. (The room was really warm, and Shiva joked that we'd be able to smell our neighbors' energy, too.)

When I started to get tired from Shiva's strenuous Vinyasa sequence, which obviously consisted of backbend after backbend, the sound of drums beating reminded me to ride my hearts energy wave and I was able to keep going. This was all it took to give me a new appreciation for my body's most vital organ.

Photo by Susan Slattery

Posted by Erica Rodefer at 10:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

You know that saying, "There are no small parts, only small actors?" Well, after seeing the Tripsichore Yoga Theatre proformance, I'm convinced it could be applied to yoga.

One theme during the performance made a big impression on me: If we could only get past the stiff, robotic way of thinking about asana and extend yogic principles into our lives off and on the mat, anyone is capable of having a beautiful and inspiring practice.

Whether you practice yoga on a stage for hundreds or in alone on your own livingroom floor, every practitioner has the potential to do his or her part to inspire, uplift, and make the world a better more beautiful place.

For the first half of the show, I was just thrilled and amazed at the strength, flexibillity, and ease of movement of Edward Clark and the two ladies on stage. The movements were fluid and complex; the choreography was beautiful; the music and the backdrop were lovely. I completely missed what they were expressing because I was so awe-struck by the glory of it all.

Thankfully, it began to make sense when they brought a yoga mat to center stage. The music became choppy and mechanical, and the yogini/actress went through two fast, rigid Sun Salutes, a couple of Triangle Poses (where she counted to five with her hands to demonstrate she was just waiting for it to be over), then she plopped into Savasana. This is when I stopped looking at the stage with my big, impressed saucer eyes and I actually related to what I was seeing.

Who hasn't been in that place in our lives and in yoga class--just go through the motions so we can get to something else? This is like the antithesis of yoga, of course, because in these moments we're anything but present.

When the yogini moved away from the yoga mat, she went back to practicing beautiful, advanced postures, but when she went back to the mat, her movements were robotic once again. It was a subtle reminder to me that yoga should be about personal exploration, not just an exercise.

We hear people preach about extending yoga into our lives all the time, but seeing it take place before me on a stage was so much more powerful. It makes it a lot harder to think, "Oh, that was meant for the person beside me! My practice isn't stiff and robotic!"

It also reminded me that even the most advanced practitioners probably started with the basics: Sun Salutations and Triangle.

I went to the performance expecting to be amazed, entertained, and inspired--and I wasn't disappointed. But I came away with a refreshed perspective on my yoga practice. I am so thankful for that.

Although most of us will never be able to hold a foot behind our head while someone else does a handstand on our back (I was cringing through that because it looked incredibly painful), those of use with tighter hamstrings have a different, but equally important role to play. No matter how small our efforts may seem, they can only contribute to a calmer, more uplifted society.

Photo credit: Susan Slattery

Posted by Erica Rodefer at 06:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I learned to be a snob today in Richard Freeman's all-day intensive, "Intensive Rhythms of Consciousness: The Internal Forms."

I can't believe I never thought of his approach to Virabhadrasana I (Warrior I) and Utkatasana (Chair Pose) before, but now that I know the secret I think it may save my neck in the future--literally. I'll let you in on it, too:

Freeman advised us to keep our arms at a 45 degree angle below our ears, hold our heads up, and keep our gazes down toward our thumbs like we're noble men and women looking down on the peasants during the poses.

When we try to put our arms outside our ears it puts unneccessary strain on our necks, but keeping our gaze down allieviates much of that tension. Both of these poses are normally agony on my neck, but I felt totally free as I practiced being a snob in the postures.

"Our arms are like nutcrackers," Freedom said, "and our heads are the nuts." I couldn't have said it better myself.

Freeman led my class in an exploration of the postures that make up Sun Salutations and a few other favorites. He focused on pranayama and the direction of the gaze.

During Sun Salutations, Freeman broke each step down and illustrated how the foundation of everything is the breath. Training the breath, he said, is like training a cat--it's very difficult and frustrating, but with a little determination it's possible.

It's always a challenge for me to slow things down and really evaluate the way I hold poses. This class was no exception. Especially since the bulk of the class was about one important detail that so many of us overlook or just don't understand: the pelvic floor and the actions of the coccic bone in relation to the pelvis.

Freeman provided delightful imagery for each pose. We became slithering snakes during Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward Facing Dog), imagined we were swimming during Sun Salutations, and grew tails (and senses of humor) during Trikonasana (Triangle Pose).

As we connected with our imaginations during the asana practice, though, Freeman reminded us that our imaginations can also be an enemy, making it hard to turn our minds off and focus on sleeping, meditation, or asana. I can attest to that. There's nothing like a thought-provoking yoga workshop to keep you awake at night... I'm too excited to sleep! :)

Photo by Susan Slattery

Posted by Erica Rodefer at 06:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Chad Capellman is a former sports writer, a Simpsons addict and a huge fan of Maryland Basketball and NBC's The Office. A University of Maryland graduate, he has worked for The Washington Post, SportsLine.com and AltaVista.com. After five years as managing editor at The Media Center at the American Press Institute, he now runs his own Web development business and works as a news producer at Boston.com. He can be reached at www.capellman.com.

Posted by Erica Rodefer at 06:51 PM | Permalink

Susan Slattery works as a freelance writer, photographer and yoga teacher and she lives in western Massachusetts. She regularly writes features and produces photographs for the daily Berkshire Eagle. In the last few months, Susan has been busy producing several hundred black and white photographs for a teacher training manual being produced at Frog Lotus Yoga, the studio where she also teaches hatha and vinyasa flow style classes. She completed an advanced vinyasa teacher training with Shiva Rea and has studied gravity surfing and backbends with Ana Forrest. Prior to this, Susan worked for news organizations, in public relations, and as a staff writer for the Lycos Network. In her spare time, she enjoys training and showing her black pugs in AKC agility trials. You can see more of Susan's photos on her Web site. Her favorite pose is pincha mayurasana—because it's one of those poses that makes you feel like dreams do come true.

Posted by Erica Rodefer at 06:31 PM | Permalink

Erica Rodefer is Yoga Journal's Web editorial intern. A recent journalism graduate from Middle Tennessee State University, she decided to leave her job as a reporter at a small newspaper in Maryland to immerse herself in everything yoga. She is a soon-to-be yoga teacher, who aspires to share yoga with low-income seniors and college students.

In her spare time, Erica enjoys exploring her new surroundings and looking for a quiet park bench where she can sit to read on sunny days. Her favorite pose is Dhanurasana.

Posted by Erica Rodefer at 02:25 PM | Permalink

Lauren Ladoceour is Yoga Journal's assistant editor and media editor. She joined Yoga Journal as the Web intern after graduating from Boston University in 2005. In addition to YJ, Lauren has worked at Sunset Custom Publishing and written for Rolling Stone, Boston Magazine, the Boston Phoenix, and the Spokesman-Review. Lauren is an avid gamer and cook, and enjoys refinishing antiques and competing in small trivia tournaments.



On Sundays, you can usually find her trying to answer NPR's weekly puzzle with her legs up against a wall in Viparita Karani.

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Andrea Kowalski is the Yoga Journal Web Content Editor. Andrea came to YJ from Okinawa, Japan, where she taught journalism and music at Kubasaki High School. Prior to living in Japan, Andrea worked on Prevention magazine at Women.com, for Earthlink and as a reporter in Southern California.
Andrea received her Bachelor's degree in music from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and her Master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. She's certified in Living Foods by the Ann Wigmore Institute in Puerto Rico and has studied Thai medicinal massage at Wat Pho in Bangkok.

Offline, Andrea enjoys spending time at Spirit Rock meditation center, teaching Kundalini yoga, surfing Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz and preparing vegan raw/living foods. Her vice is soy chai and her favorite pose is Sarvangasana.

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Rodney Yee is codirector of the Piedmont Yoga Studio in Oakland, CA. He is featured in 30 yoga videos and DVDs and is coauthor (with Nina Zolotow) of Yoga: The Poetry of the Body and Moving Toward Balance. Rodney conducts workshops, retreats, and teacher trainings worldwide.

Posted by Erica Rodefer at 05:41 PM | Permalink

Patricia Walden, renowned for her international retreats, teacher trainings, and workshops is one of the two Americans to hold a senior advanced Iyengar Yoga teaching certificate. She was named one of “25 American Yoga Originals Who Are Shaping Yoga Today� by Yoga Journal and featured in Time for her work with yoga and healing. She has a special interest in yoga for women and yoga for depression.

Posted by Erica Rodefer at 05:41 PM | Permalink

Rod Stryker holds the title of Yogiraj and has taught tantra and hatha yoga for more than 25 years. Founder of Para Yoga, he is one of the foremost meditation teachers in the country and leads trainings, workshops, and retreats all over the world.

Posted by Erica Rodefer at 05:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Beth Shaw is the founder and president of YogaFit, which has trained more than 30,000 people to teach classes that blend yoga and exercise science. She and her company have produced yoga videos for a variety of audiences, including beginners, seniors, kids, and the prenatal population. She lives in Redondo Beach, CA.

Posted by Erica Rodefer at 05:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Desiree Rumbaugh is co-owner of Arizona Yoga and has been teaching yoga for more than 15 years. A senior certified teacher who studies with John Friend, Desiree is the leader of global workshops and retreats that celebrate the transformational healing power of Anusara Yoga.

Posted by Erica Rodefer at 05:38 PM | Permalink

Natasha Rizopoulos, who is the featured teacher in the video series Yoga Journal's Yoga Step-by-Step, has been teaching at Yoga Works in Santa Monica, CA since 1997. Her primary practice is Ashtanga, which she studied in Mysore, India, with K. Pattabhi Jois. Natasha has also appeared in magazines, on TV and in the photography book Yoga: A Yoga Journal Book.

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Shiva Rea explores the art of yoga in practical, creative and life transforming ways. She is known for bringing the roots of yoga alive for modern practitioners through the integration of movement meditation, yogic philosophy and art, nature's vitality, and spontaneous humor and joy. She is a leading teacher of vinyasa flow yoga worldwide, writes for Yoga Journal, and is the author of home practice CD's, videos, and DVD's.

Posted by Erica Rodefer at 05:37 PM | Permalink

Saul David Raye has been a student of yoga, healing, and meditation for more than 15 years. He is cofounder and director of Shanti House, a non-profit foundation for yoga, Ayurveda, and seva, and the director of the Thai Yoga Therapy training program at the White Lotus Foundation.

Posted by Erica Rodefer at 05:36 PM | Permalink

Aadil Palkhivala began studying yoga formally with B.K.S. Iyengar at the age of seven. He holds one of the few advanced Iyengar Yoga teacher certificates. A certified Ayurvedic health science practitioner, naturopath, and bodywork therapist, he is the founder-director of Yoga Centers in Bellevue, WA.

Posted by Erica Rodefer at 05:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)