So you wanna put your leg behind your head…..

Congratulations! You’re weird! Here’s your weird card, though you don’t need it. We’ll recognize each other in the Mysore room when both of us have a leg behind a head and we wag our feet hello in that secret “I’m weird” foot-shake handshake. In truth, I love that the Mysore room is a place where weird is the norm; here are your people, those for whom putting a foot behind the head or catching ankles are daily mundanities like brushing the teeth.

Then again, getting that leg behind the head is not so easy. Hey–I’m petite, a short torso, long legs, I’ve birthed a baby and I’m pretty flexible so it should be cake for me, right? I should be all Richard-Sharath-Kino’ing dwi pada (both feet behind head) like I could do a ten day vispassana mediation in this position–

Nope. (and I’ll have what Alexia Bauer is having).

Due to my fickle leg behind head status (a status I’ll describe as “WTF”), I’ve learned, and keeping learning — quite a few things from these postures. But first, a little history, as currently you might think of me as one who stands up with one foot behind head.

Once upon a time in 2012-2013, I battled daily with supta kurmasana (my teacher wanted me to bind unassisted before moving me forward into second). In Spring 2013, I worked with a teacher who gave me all the second series leg behind head postures from eka pada to tittihibhasana in one swoop. My guess is that he did this (1) to lengthen my practice to bring me up to pincha, building up my strength. My flexi body needed pincha; and (2) because he didn’t see me that often, and so on.

My dwi pada at this time was more like dwi nada.

Fast forward to my “yoga monster” years– just last year I strained my ileocostalis (upper back bugger) upon exit from dwi pada. I now attempt a little third series with all my limbs still attached (though I check daily, just to make sure) but I approach all leg behind head (“LBH”) with breath and prayers. Without further ado and without a degree in anything but my own experience, here’s what I’ve learned and keep learning from LBH:

(1) Find tadasana, Ekam, samastitihi in all these postures.

Just look at Richard in this pose. Just look at Richard standing up. Look at him sitting down. He looks like god.

Me, I’m Prone to a decapitated daisy kind of look.

So I think about good posture.Ekam. Don’t think about leg behind head. Think Richard. God. I try to avoid bending my head forward (see Day Christiansen IG post, below). I take my leg it to side,I turn profile. I try to keep good posture all the time, even and especially as those legs are going behind the head. David Garrigues says, “it’s all about the set up.”

Are you setting up to be a decapitated dandelion (ducking and curling forward) or God-like Richard? You decide, but

Your central channel does not want to be suffocated.

2- What aren’t you doing in these poses and all throughout practice? There’s more at play here than the physicality of foot behind head. Is your leg engaged? Your core? Are you using all your muscles or just the obvious ones?

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”
— John Muir (Thanks Tim ferris for the quote)

The postures that I think about to make LBH happen include  EVERYTHING:

• all forward folds (keeping my collarbones and upper body open and straight and samastitihi-like),
• krounchasana (the core keeping that raised leg in the air, keeping my upper body straight, tall, open, good posture –not shoulders caved, not leaning back). Can I keep my raised leg up there without my hands? That’s coming from my belly, and that’s the same feeling in chakorasana (lifting up with leg behind head).* Where do you think those ashtanga abs come from?
• those friendly little seated twists before the first eka pada– I really milk them for opening up my hips),
• every damn backbend from upward dog to shalabhasana for tapping into my upper back (this is what helps me stretch up in durvasana — is it just me or are all third series LBH poses named for an angry rishi)?**
• And primary series, oh it’s primary: dandasana– sit up straight! Kurmasana– that feeling of straightening out through my chest instead of collapsing, that feeling of lengthening. The janu series and every lotus and half lotus, not being lazy in those positions but using the muscles in the legs– it’s the same thing I’m doing with that Leg behind my head. Finally (or not, as there is no end) let’s not forget humble padahastasana– keeping samastitihi in the forward fold.
• I like to imagine for these leg behind head postures what it takes to get into them without using your hands (I got this from Mark Robberds, below). When the muscles in my leg and in my core are “on” I fell less brute weight from the leg behind my back– on my back!
• Yogi Nidrasana –this pose comes after eka pada and dwi pada, but in this supine position i can feel and work and experiment (dare I say research?) the positioning of my legs and feet behind me, how far across the leg is, etc). I try to work the toes of both feet to the ground, and imagine this pose, today, as tomorrow’s dwi pada.

So back to leg behind the head—- what aren’t you doing…everywhere?

3- Is your practice regular and do you have a teacher giving you guidance? Does someone think you’re ready for this? Leg behind the head sent me a clear message I’ll sum up as:

Four days a week ain’t gonna cut it anymore, honey.

I got these postures in the spring of 2013. This is around when I began to transition into a full fledged ashtanga 6 day a week-er. The more your leg is behind your head, the more you think about things like making practice happen from sleep to tape for your toes. The more you get weird poses the more your life gets weird all over. Once again, Congratulations.

4. Breathing. Not breathing helped me strain a muscle in my upper back pushing my obstinate body on a tight day. Shakira was wrong: the hips do lie. The breath, I assure you, does not. I pay extra special attention to it in these postures.

5- The DWI Pada Dream Team: Lucikly, experts have created helpful posts and videos so I do not have to. Please check out:

Mark Robberds: He has a bunch of great IG posts on LBH, but lucky for us he put them up on youtube too:

 

 

Kino: https://theconfluencecountdown.com/2011/10/02/kino-macgregor-two-legs-and-the-back-of-your-head/  Easy Peasy Lemon Squeeze-y.

Day Christiensen: Oh happy Day!!!! I find this to be fabulously helpful description of what’s going on with LBH. This is what helps me get the leg back there without ducking my head forward.

David Keil. First, his book has great info on the workings of the postures. Second, in person he’s extraordinary. He helped me on my way with LBH, with the simple perfection of: “How ’bout you be you?”  He gifted me a clue about this pose fitting to my body as the postures do not look the same on everyone. Read about our exchange here.

7- Home practice HEEEEEEEELLLLLLPPPP!  LBH’s (mostly double LBH’s) are postures where I could use a hand. In eka pada sirsasana, if I’m feeling tight, I will hold the foot that’s behind my head with one hand while in the forward fold. It takes pressure off.  For dwi pada, it’s a day by day check in, and it is really helpful to have regular teacher visits. I have placed my back close to a bench for extra support. When I slowly worked back to LBH after my muscle strain I played with Compass pose to feel things out.

8- LBH Humble Pie: Postures come and go. Success is a regular practice (check out Mr. Grimm Hall’s price on why bother with leg behind the head at all, here. I highly reccomend reading Iain Grysak’s post: “You stop there.” He wrote about coming to Mysore as a 4th series practitioner and getting stopped at dwi pada. This is a posture to humble us all. It might take awhile and the course might be different from what you want it to be. Find your maximum potential, no matter where you or your legs are. Find your samastitihi, your line, your central channel lit up like a Christmas tree–

Maybe even with your leg behind your head.

 

“The act of stopping students at a particular posture in the Ashtanga system is not to force everyone to conform to a set standard, but to make sure that each individual develops the posture to their own maximum potential, in a way that is healthy for them.” ~ Iain Grysak

*I got this idea of core and krounchasana from Kino MacGregor via Ashtanga Dispatch/Peg Mulqueen  a few years ago. I don’t know if it was a blog or an FB post but as I can’t find it I’ll pay credit by sharing their podcast together, here.

**Sammy Brown, authorized level 2, and my teacher in the SLC area, gave me the advice to think of these backbends in my third series postures.

***Final note: I do not mean to deify Richard Freeman. I’m more interested in the way teachers with glorious posture remind me to search for the divinity inside me.