The ability to expand the chest with air held out (exhalation retention) and the abdomen fully relaxed in the manner described to be Uddiyana bandha in Mr Iyengar’s “Light on Yoga” is not accessible for most people.

What is the ‘core’, this slightly esoteric concept? The core is physically located roughly in the centre of your body between your navel, your fifth lumber vertebra, your iliac crest and the pelvic floor. In internal martial arts, they call this region the dan tien or energy centre, and in the Indian yoga system, it […]

Preparations and pre-requisites for headstand: In traditional yoga teaching you could only progress to a more advanced posture after you had satisfactorily demonstrated to your teacher that you could do the postures that have come before it. This guarantees that the new more advanced posture can be performed safely. To be adequately prepared for the […]

In the world of exercise and yoga there are many misconceptions about the topic of breathing. The main points in this blog are : If you are doing specific breathing exercises you will have a better physiological result if you actually breathe less than normal The safest and most effective way to breathe for most people […]

Here are some some instructions and tips for doing difficult postures such as the half bound lotus unsupported headstand (ardha baddha parsva sirsasana), and also for doing inversions in general. ARDHA BADDHA PADMA SIRSASANA instructions and tips: The hardest thing about doing this posture in this beautiful posture was the incredibly large number of insects […]