Janu Sirasana Yoga Asana

Often called head to knee pose Janu Sirasana is a basic forward bending asana. In looking at it I will cover some principles applicabale to all forward bending poses. Let me start by saying I don’t like "head to knee" as a description for this pose as I feel it gives completely the wrong idea of how to do it, as the head doesn’t go to the knee, nor should it.

Here then is the description of doing Janu Sirasana.

Sit up straight with legs evenly extended in front. Inhaling bend the right leg at the knee and draw the foot toward you so that the heel is in the right groin and the front of the foot touches the left thigh. The left leg is now somewhere up to 90 degrees out to the side. Turn the foot so that the bottom of the foot is facing upward and presses the bent knee down. It is important that the angle of the bent leg is comfortable, I am inclined to suggest not going past 70% of your bodies capacity.

You can put a folded blanket or yoga mat under the knee and-or under the buttocks. You can also use a belt or similar for the next part.

Having positioned the foot and knee of the bent leg correctly, extend the left leg out. Keep the sense of extension from deep in your pelvis, down the leg an into the heel. Extend through the heel and and draw the toes up and even back towards you. Feel how this opens the whole sole of your foot.

Now inhale and extend through the full length of your spine, imagining a cord at the crown of your head as an extension of the spine, drawing you upward. As you exhale, maintain this lengthening up through the cord and move forward over the straight leg. You can use a belt, held in both hands and around the foot of the straight leg, or if possible without strain, grasp the foot of the straight leg with both hands.

When doing any forward bending always remember this principle – The Spine Moves Forwards. If in attempting to get your head down your back begins to arch you are no longer doing forward bending. So only move forwards as far as you can without rounding the back. Your head should be the very last part to make contact with the straight leg for those with very open hips.

Also ensure the head remains in alignment with the spine, watch for a tendency to lift the head back andover extend the neck, or drop the head down and arch the back.

When this posture is done correctly and completely, you will feel yourself lifting up and out of the pelvis and the body extending forward over the straight leg, the spine absolutely straight from the tail bone to the head. There is also a lifting in the front of the body, up through the abdomen and expressing through the breast bone.

Stay there breathing deeply into the pelvis for several rounds of breathing.

Inhaling, release the hold on the foot of the straightened leg, come up smoothly with the feeling of extending the spin up through the cord from the top of the head. straighten the bent leg and relax.

Repeat on other side, generally for the same amount of time. If however you begin to notice that you are much more open on one side than the other I recommend beginning on the least open side, do an equal length of time on the other side and come back and do the least open side for a little longer. This is a good guide to follow for any asana that requires a left and right sided pose. In this way the less open side will slowly increase it’s openness until both sides are equal.

Benefits of Janu Sirasana

Stimulates the internal organs, Kidney, liver and spleen. Helpful to aid sleep.
For men, benefits prostrate health.
For women, benefits fertility.

Janu Sirasana is contra indicated for lower back problems. Because there is a slight twist in the spine, I also suggest taking great care if doing Janu Sirasana with a partner pushing from behind.

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The End Of Patenting Yoga

India is going all out to save yoga — a 2,000-year-old art of righteous living, from
western pirates.

Instances of self-styled yoga gurus claiming copyrights to ancient ‘asanas’, especially from the West, is now becoming rampant. This has made 200 scientists and researchers from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Union health ministry’s department of Ayush join hands to put on record all known yoga postures and techniques that originated in India.

Scientists are presently scanning through 35 ancient Sanskrit texts, including the Mahabharata, Bhagawad Gita and the Yoga Sutras
of Patanjali to identify and document all known yoga concepts, postures and terminology.

Till now, 600 ‘asanas’ (physical postures) have already been documented. The team plans to put on record at least 1,500 such yoga postures by the end of 2009.

Once completed, they will be put in the world’s first Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) created by India. They will then be recognised as India’s public property.

Read the complete article here

Read what other bloggers are saying about this yoga patenting story story

India Patenting Yoga Moves to Battle “Patent Pirates” – Neatorama – as the number of Western yoga teachers has grown, there has been a steady increase in patent applications claiming each pose in their class is not part of the ancient discipline of mind and body, but their own unique invention. …

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India Actively Sharing Knowledge Base Around The World To Stop … – In fact, it appears that the only entity trying to patent yoga positions is India, though I was unable to find a single yoga position or technique patent in the United States. I ask again, who can show me a patent for a yoga position or …

Putting The ‘Om’ in ‘Shalom’ « Precious Metal: the blog – India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research is now “working to identify all ancient yoga positions” in an effort to “stop patent pirates from stealing its traditional knowledge,” according to The Daily Telegraph. …

The Real Yoga « Merinews-power 2 people – If Yoga is not an exercise, what’s the point in comparing it to any or saying that I have designed this kind of yoga programme and I want to patent it for the entire human race! A real teacher would always customize a programme for an …

Article on cult copyrights & trademarks: Trouw newspaper … – The Netherlands is not impressed by Bikram’s strategy of patent and copyrights. Bikram Yoga is quite popular, so there is the danger of competitors. Sauna and Beauty Center “Zwaluwhoeve” in Veenendaal offers Bikram yoga. …

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Yoga Poses – Cobra – Bhujangasana

Do this in easy stages. Lie down on your mat, legs tightly together and stretched back, heels of the feet together, forehead on the floor. Put your hands, palm down, fingers together, thumbs open, just under your shoulders.

Imagine a cord at the top of your head extending outwards like an energetic extension of your spine. Inhale slowly and raise your head imagining your head being drawn upwards by this cord, feel your neck extending by the vertebra lengthening as they are drawn upward by the cord.

Next use your arms to push your upper body up continuing the extension from the top of your head into the vertebra of the back. Contract the anus and muscles of the buttocks. Maintain the sense of the cord lengthening the spine. Make sure you are not compressing the place where the skull sits on top of the neck by overextending at that point. If there is any pressure in the back of your neck, your probably are overextending.

Lift upwards, lengthening through the spine, through the neck up through the cord at the top of your head, until you are bending in a beautiful arc from your lower spine to the back of your neck. You need go no further than this.  You should feel no strain in the lower back, and remember to keep the heels of the feet together. My own advice is to not extend beyond 70% of your capacity, remember yoga isn’t stretching!

If you are supple enough, you can now straighten your arms further.  Make sure that you are not lifting the shoulders toward your ears, keep the shoulders down and the front of the shoulders open, with a feeling of lifting and opening from the sternum in the center of your chest.

Bend the legs at the knees and drop your head back towards your feet following the extension of the cord. Even if your head goes nowhere near your feet, imagine the cord touching the middle of your feet while maintaining the lengthening of the vertebra and hold the posture with deep breathing. 

Consciously relax the diaphragm as you breathe and look to find exactly where the energy is needed to maintain the posture. See if you can relax around these areas that are actually necessary to maintain the pose so that you are not exerting more energy than you need to. Keep breathing as deep into your body as you can without tension or strain for five breath cycles.

Come out of the posture very slowly, returning to the face prone posture. Relax fully and consciously with your head to one side. Repeat.

Yoga Pose Cobra – Bhujangasana is beneficial for opening the chest and shoulders, activates the kidneys and is helpful for stress, diabetes, heart disease and IBS.

  

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