I have been doing Iyenga Yoga for quite a few years now with a wide range of teachers but can't recall there ever being any talk of engaging mula banda during asana. However, Ashtanga vinyasa yoga seems to make it a constant element in their practice. As I do more pilates I have become more attentive to engaging my core muscles, including my pelvic floor or mula banda, in moving though or between my poses. Moreover, sometime I find myself unwittingly engaging mula banda in certain asana and becoming aware of this when I pay attention.
Do any of you explicitly engage mula banda throughout your practice or only at certain times? Also (this may sound a little funny) but how much do you engage these muscles or this 'lock'? In my pilates adventures there are different views on fully locking your pelvic floor or only a 30% contraction to be sustained thoughout your practice.
This line of questioning more broadly addresses whether 'cross training' (so to speak) confuses or adds to people Iyenga Yoga practice. Do stay true to what we have learnt or do we integrate and change our practice based on our ever changing knowledge form other yoga and bodily practices like pilates? I know my own private yoga is now an eclectic hybrid of many different teachers input, reading and other diverse training - Can this be detrimental to our practice or can we be to dogmatic?
Also, is this addressed in peoples teacher training?
Thank you.
Do any of you explicitly engage mula banda throughout your practice or only at certain times? Also (this may sound a little funny) but how much do you engage these muscles or this 'lock'? In my pilates adventures there are different views on fully locking your pelvic floor or only a 30% contraction to be sustained thoughout your practice.
This line of questioning more broadly addresses whether 'cross training' (so to speak) confuses or adds to people Iyenga Yoga practice. Do stay true to what we have learnt or do we integrate and change our practice based on our ever changing knowledge form other yoga and bodily practices like pilates? I know my own private yoga is now an eclectic hybrid of many different teachers input, reading and other diverse training - Can this be detrimental to our practice or can we be to dogmatic?
Also, is this addressed in peoples teacher training?
Thank you.
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Re: Mula banda and Iyenga
Wed, June 21, 2006 - 8:28 AMThe bandas are taught by Iyengar teachers (Ramanan Patel comes to mind), but they're not to everyone because they're considered an advanced practice.
The bandas are subtle. The understanding I've gained from Iyengar teachers is that the bandas aren't engaged by clenching the muscles in area where you think the banda is located (e.g. the sphincter or pelvic floor in the case of the mula banda). Instead they arise as a result of correctly aligning & engaging the muscles elsewhere in the body.
This can't be taught to everyone because the specific muscular actions required in the feet and legs (for example) can't be accessed by inexperienced students. I don't know about Pilates, but my experience in Ashthanga (as taught by P. Jois) is that "mula bunda" is taught in a crude way that only yields a an approximation of what you get when you lean the subtle action.
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Re: Mula banda and Iyenga
Wed, June 21, 2006 - 9:09 AMwhat benjamin explains matches what i have been taught as far as bandas, the mula banda in particular. the teacher with whom i've been studying for a couple of years has recently started including references to "lifting the pelvic floor". he tries to use very specific language to indicate that it should not be a 'clenching',
even with that though, i don't think that my awareness of the energetic layers is sensitive enough to grok what he's suggesting that we do. is yours? only you can know for sure, but a teacher can help you to know whether or not you're homing in on it.
as to the balance between one consistent teacher vs. cross-training - i lean strongly towards having a 'primary' teacher, but working to lesser extents with other disciplines. the primary teacher benefit is shown in the mula banda issue - a particular teacher should have a plan for how to progress students; they would have a sense of context for you as a student, and might emphasize certain points for you because of that sense. the potential for consistent growth is stronger, in my opinion.
of course, cross-training, or working with other teachers periodically can bring wonderful bursts of insight and occasionally help you break through various blocks.
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Re: Mula banda and Iyenga
Thu, June 22, 2006 - 10:43 PMI find mula banda is easiest to engage on the inhale. As a wind musician, I had a strong association with mula banda for years from breath training as a concert saxophone soloist.
In some advanced Iyengar classes, like Paul Cabanis' classes at yoga works, we'll work on working beyond the division between the inhale and the exhale. the engagement from the inhale continues through the exhale, and vice versa, and that integrity is a solid form that is then achieved/perceived beneath the inhale/exhale dichotomy.
So as I'm achieving a full alignment in a pose, the inhale activates the mula banda, and it's an expanding, or a "lifting of the pelvic floor" if you want to put it like that. It's a deep reaching DOWN so that the inhale is actively bringing the energy up, and it connects to the uddiyana banda, and the throat banda. All the bandas are engaged in the full expression of poses- there's an integrity and an inner alignment that includes a full body engagement, through all the crevices, engaging the bandas not as "locks" but as energetic engagements.
Nothing is locked in yoga. Not knees, not energy centers, nothing. Everything is moving towards stillness. -
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Re: Mula banda and Iyenga
Fri, July 7, 2006 - 12:51 PMCoincidentally, I had a great class with Tony Briggs last Wednesday where mula banda came up. Tony studied for many years with Ramanan Patel some time ago. At that time, Ramanan refused to teach banda's even in his advanced class. He said they were too powerful to be treated casually.
So, Tony asked him to be taught mula banda privately. Ramanan agreed to teach him uddiyana banda. He explained much later that mula banda is within uddiyana banda (meaning that if you have a good understanding of actions to activate uddiyana banda, you'll find mula banda arising, too).
Tony said that when he recently asked Ramanan why he's teaching mula banda when he refused to do so before, the response was that there's so much missinformation out about mula banda, that he thought it would be better for people get the right understanding.
Best quote from the class: "It's no mistake that correct alignment & action in the pose will trigger the banda's" -
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Re: Mula banda and Iyenga
Wed, August 9, 2006 - 1:15 AMNot only is mula bandha contained in uddiyana bandha but also jalandara bandha, vajroli and asvini mudra if it is done correctly. Anyone can notice the connection even if uddiyana is not done correctly; if you relax the body, then completely exhale and pull the navel in you will notice that the perenium will rise slightly of its own accord, just a matter of being aware of it.
Uddiyana is called the King because the others are activated through it, while not so the other way around.
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Re: Mula banda and Iyenga
Wed, August 9, 2006 - 11:06 AMThanks for the tip. I thought I was noticing something like jalandara bandha happening in my practice. Don't know about the other ones you mention, but I'll research it.
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re: Source(s)
Sun, January 28, 2007 - 7:12 PM
Interesting, this discussion on bandhas.
Personally, I like kechari mudra throughout.
About the teachers:
I know a very wise man who, when asked about his guru, has allegedly written something like, "My Self". My take on this: Realising that the real Self is the Ultimate One, his guru is God. How this affects my practise: I would like to appreciate all of those who have helped me along the way and during my practise, I use my intuition/meditation/prayers as guides.
The same man has allegedly stated that if asana is performed consciously and with awareness of the breath, correct positon will ensue.
~ namaste ~ -
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pelvic floor
Tue, January 30, 2007 - 9:16 PMI study with Leslie Howard, who, in turn studies with Manousa and Ramanand. This topic is so interesting and timely, because I'm attending a pelvic floor workshop with Leslie on Feb. 3rd. Now I'll definately have some good questions to ask and I'll have to let you all know how it went!!
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