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Yoga notes

Hey hey! Here's some notes I jotted down for yoga poses and techniques, in order to hold on to the insights I get during my practice. This page is forever a work in progress; I'll try to update it frequently.

Breathing (Pranayama)

There's a lot of annoying pseudoscience surrounding breathing techniques in yoga. I think only the following really matters:

The point of keeping your breathing in check is that it calms your body down. I like breaths in and out lasting around 4 seconds each.
Breathing with your movements is nice and a good base, but don't force it. The point is to relax your body, so breath between poses if you need to.
Breath in when your pose makes your body "open" (take up more space); breath out when your pose makes your body "close" (take up less space). This is ambiguous, but it's a good rule of thumb.

Notes on poses

Down dog (Adho Mukha Shvanasana)

If you're feeling a little stiff, start with bent knees and focus on folding at the hips, to straighten your lower back. Only then straighten your legs.
Hold the head parallel to the arms, don't look back.
Nice transitions include bending deeply through the knees and hopping to a forward fold, lifting one leg and moving to low lunge, or shifting to plank.

Up dog (Urdhva Mukha Shvanasana)

Really push through the arms, until your shoulders are pushed down.
Weight should be mostly on your hands, and a little on the tops of your feet; the rest of the body barely touches the ground, if at all.
I usually transition to down dog, by pushing through the arms. Feels nice.

Forward fold (Uttanasana)

Primarily bend from the hips, only bend softly from the back.
Don't force the back to bend forward; it's okay to not touch the ground at first
Bend your knees slightly if you need to, that's fine.

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