dodgerroger

Mary Jarvis came to the Pasadena studio and taught a master class saturday morning 9-11:30ish, posture clinic 12:30-6:30ish and a sunday morning 10-12:45ish that was like going to church. Here is what I remember she said (I didn’t take notes).

You should not be “killing yourself” in class. She does not believe in No Pain, No Gain. You should not be suffering in class. Yoga is meant to heal the body not cause suffering.

You don’t have to prove yourself to anyone in class.

Just do the postures.

 taught class from the back of the room.

She also made all the teachers practice in the back. She believes teachers need to be humble and the students should get the best spots.

Pranayama Breathing

Don’t breath with your throat, breath with your lungs.

You may feel slight pressure behind your sternum.

She emphasized sucking in your gut.

LIft.

Keep your shoulders relaxed.

Trace your eyes parallel to the lines on the ceiling.

Rhythmic.

Begin your inhale while your elbows are still together.

There is a backbend in your neck spine.

Backbend

Your neck nerves are in your hands.

You really have to lock the elbows and squeeze the shit out of your palms, that is the most important part. Make sure your elbows are in and not flaring out. Pull your elbows over your face.

You need to lock your knees to stretch the front of your hips.

in the transition to head to knee, reach out towards the mirror as you go down so that your butt doesn’t stick out.

Head to Knee

She doesn’t believe in the yoga cha cha.

Grab the heels after the backbend because you can.

She emphasized the upper body to lower body contact.

Push your knuckles into the floor to get deeper after you’ve pulled as much as you can.

I know that I have to lean forward more and suck in my gut even more.

Awkward

Make sure you don’t see the arc of your inner heel in the mirror. It’s almost better to have the toes turned in slightly. 

Toes out will affect your other postures, like the bows.

She said second part awkward was the first time you are fully in the present moment.

Eagle

she emphasized alignment, shoulders and hips in one horizontal line, chin, forearms and knees in a vertical line.

she also suggested we sit down lower towards the end but evidently no one did.

You have lymph glands under your armpits. These ductless glands use muscle contraction to move the lymph, which in turn releases a lot of energy. This is why you may feel a little woozy after eagle.

She doesn’t believe in party time.

Standing forehead to knee

Extend up and out of your hips while sucking in your belly before rounding down to grab your foot. She called this standing forehead to knee fuel/food.

She said people fall backwards because their ankle is weak. It is not strong enough to support the 90 degree angle on one foot.

Heel should be the closest thing to the mirror when kicking out.

She said awkward can help with this.

Push your butt forward and suck in your gut. Opposing actions.

She believes in straightening the arms but not in straightening the back in the second part. 

I asked her why we straighten the arms. The answer I liked best was it was a center of gravity thing.

I think she also said it looks cool.

Standing Bow

You shouldn’t be able to see the kicking leg shoulder in the set up.

Arm behind the ear.

Knees touch.

Extend up while sucking in your gut (standing bow food/fuel)

Kicking leg goes straight back into the kick like a doggy door, brushing against the standing leg. Kicking leg does not go out to the side.

She is very big on putting two shoulders in one line.

Contract the kicking side scapula.

She is very big on getting the body down low enough.

Many people have their arm too high.

Armpit on the same level as the crotch.

Stretch the knee skin of the kicking leg (instead of kick kick kick)

Imagine a string from your finger tips to your toes. You want to make the string taut by moving both at the same time.

She had many cool pictures.

A good backbend is when the space between the butt and the ribs is small.

Competitors should have a 15 second count.

Count down from 15 to 1, after 10 seconds you don’t make any corrections.

Often times people fall out because their eyes move.

Falling out to the side is a sign of weak ankles.

Falling back means that you are afraid of going down far enough, you are afraid of falling out.

After class I asked about hamstrings and told her about how sometimes my hamstrings are screaming in standing bow, preventing me from going down. She gave me some interesting advice. She told me to puff out my chest, really bending my upper back. Erin and I tried deciphering this strange advice after class the other day. Erin says that making an effort to bend that upper part of the spine really gets you to move your weight forward off your heel. When you have your weight in your heel it really tweaks the hammies. Makes sense to me…

Balancing Stick

Second pose you are fully in the present moment.

One chance.

Set up like half moon.

Roll the hip down. It won’t be level until it feels too low.

Triangle

She got Jeff’s crotch down by pulling on his shorts.

Push lower elbow into knee, push lower shoulder forward, push upper shoulder back to get the spine twist.

Upper arm points above the ear not the shoulder.

Standing separate leg forehead to knee

She insisted on hands in prayer. No tripods.

Extend up before rounding down, sucking in the gut.

Tree and Toe

She talked about how important it was to be able to have the foot high enough before attempting toe stand, or you could blow out your knee.

She talked about how your posture may look pretty in the mirror but it looks bad from the side and duck butt and sucking in your belly.

Wind removing

The alignment of your shin affects your bow(s).

Cobra

Don’t move your hands after the set up ever.

Lock your knees, ankles and toes together.

She said something else really deep and insightful but I don’t remember what it is.

Locust

She said that carpal tunnel actually originates from the neck/upper spine, not the elbows.

Lift one leg up, now suck in your gut and move the weight into your sternum/clavical.

When you do both legs you should go as high as when you do one leg.

Full Locust

Don’t adjust coming from locust. Even if you feel crooked, locust has you lined up straight.

Do the posture uncomfortable, because that is the proper alignment. When you move to get more comfortable you are moving your body out of alignment.

Another posture where you are fully in the present moment.

Bow

She showed us a variety of pictures so that we could appreciate the differences.

Symmetry is important, but the best one is Ball’s who has his ribs off the ground.

She talked about how it’s like you are just hanging from your feet.

Roll forward while lifting your bottom rib off the floor.

Your wind removing pose reveals your bow, if your heel goes in then you will probably have wide knees in bow.

Keep your knees and ankles the same width.

We did the pose while looking in the mirror.

Fixed firm

is a posture that can’t be rushed.

try to touch your shoulders to your tailbone.

Originally, this posture was done with a flat spine.

Half tortoise

Get your ankles flat and your toes and heels touching.

When coming out try to see your face in the mirror as quickly as possible.

Camel

Hands high on your back so that your fingers are in the bruised part of your lower back where there’s a bundle of nerves. I believe she used the word starburst.

Never skip camel.

It is the crescendo of the whole series.

When M was recovering from a horrific car accident there was a period where the only time she wasn’t in pain was when she was in camel. Going into camel - pain. Coming out of camel - pain. In camel - no pain.

Rabbit

Don’t use your towel to grab your heels.

Kaspar’s rabbit (in the red white and blue shorts) was the best rabbit bikram’s ever seen (other than his own). Kaspar pinched a nerve in his neck warming up for this performance… amazing.

The goal is to stretch your spine.

Look at your knees instead of your belly. Don’t over roll onto your neck/back of the head.

You really gotta suck in your gut.

Lift your shoulders.

Creating volume - there’s width as well is length.

Stretching

Lay your stomach on your thighs.

The point is to stretch the back of your body, not to keep your back flat.

Flop onto your belly, then knees, then shins like a piece of seaweed.

Spine Twist

Suck in your gut and lift your chest, wrap the arm that’s not grabbing the knee.

Push one elbow into your knee and the other elbow towards the mirror.

Breath of Fire

push big toes into the floor, suck in your gut, and push with your hands.

getting rid of excess CO2

The heat of the room infuses your body with oxygen, which contains prana and chi.

The only other way to get a comparable infusion is to go 12 feet below sea level.

When sucking in the gut go in and up.

Bikram - “The purpose of yoga is to prepare yourself so that you can sit in lotus and notice yourself.”

Bikram - “Enlightenment is easy. Just see the best in everyone. Let’s go eat.”

 says she is a practicing physical immortal.

 kept telling us that life is good.

 thinks that the first two years out of TT new teachers are lost and go thru a rough period where it is too much about them. They can be insecure and want to prove something. Many new teachers often have asshole-ish behavior at first. Long time students need to show compassion towards new teachers.

The teacher is the least important person in the room.

She kept emphasizing humility, compassion, and being a good person.

Being relaxed was a theme she kept mentioning. Tori was working on putting her stomach to her shoulders in stretching and you could see the tension in her shoulders.  shook her shoulders to loosen them.

It takes 45 minutes for your body to process 4 ounces of water. Drinking water in class is unnecessary and provides a distraction.