Sublime

case. Having arrived in the territory of the backbend, it still requires a great deal of internal and meditative focus to actually turn a gymnastic position into a fully functioning yoga pose and receive the benefits of that pose. Because those who are naturally flexible arrive more easily in the pose, they also run a greater risk than stiffer indi

In this restorative approach, the arm is in fact being guided by the facilitator back towards the spine. Her hands are drawing towards each other, not pulling on the arm to stretch to the foot. (It is extremely difficult to show visually such subtleties of adjustment.) The result of this is that Alex can remain relaxed and fold forward incrementall

The reconfiguring, presentation, and perception of yoga as primarily or even exclusively āsana in the sense of bodily poses, then, is essentially a modern Western phenomenon and finds no precedent in the premodern yoga tradition, although the fourteenth-century Haṭhayoga Pradīpikā does dedicate one of its four chapters to āsana.

The Iyengar method of yoga is based on a central principle of balance. Physiologically balance means several things: • Each individual muscle is capable of contracting, lengthening, and relaxing. • Corresponding muscle groups (for example, hamstrings and quadriceps) are equally strengthened and stretched. • The joints, when surrounded by balanced m

linea aspera.