Squeeze your sphincter?!

[Guest guest]

Anyway, I went to an ashtanga yoga class this

weekend and the teacher kept saying "squeeze your

sphincter! squeeze your sphincter!" over and over during the

class. What is this, anal retentive yoga? I liked the

class, but this part was weird. Someone please explain

this to me.<br><br>Thanks,<br>Scott

[Guest guest]

Hi again, Scott.<br><br>Unless you really

practice isolating the various pelvic floor muscles,

contracting the sphincter will also contract the perineum,

which is what your teacher was after. This contraction

is known as mula bandha ("root lock"). It's

important in ashtanga for reasons having to do with the

control of the flow of energy in the body. Also, it helps

in the peformance of certain balancing postures and

in my view is a bulwark against injury in many

forward bends. Maintining mul abandha throughout the

practice is a wondeful aid to concentration.<br><br>With

practice you can engage mula bandha without also

contracting the anal and oro-gential muscles (sorry for the

bathroom chat, chamoya). Then it doesn't feel so

instrusive.<br><br>Peace<br>Homer

[Guest guest]

Thanks again Homer.<br><br>Interesting, not an

area I've really worked on before. Helps balance and

prevents injury huh? I'll have to study this more during

my next class.<br><br>I'll spare your friend and

refrain from the obvious butt-plug

jokes.<br><br>Thanks,<br>Scott

[Guest guest]

LOL,<br>the oro-genital muscles? Homer, you devil you!

[Guest guest]

<<oro-genital>><br><br>A Furodian slip, perhaps.

[Guest guest]

Hi ya,<br><br>The idea of maintaining this

posture to guard against injury is a good one but I am

still in the dark about the "energy" part of yoga. I

know it is the foundation of it but I guess I am so

westernized I just don't buy it..someone explain in a more

scientific/medical way and I will probably understand the energy

part better, thanks.<br><br>Robin M.

[Guest guest]

oro-genital? that's a new one..giggle.

[Guest guest]

New? Not so new. Perhaps it's one of those karnapidasana things.

[Guest guest]

>someone explain in a more scientific/medical way ....<br><br>Get the book,

Moola Bandha, The Master Key<br>   By: Swami Buddhananda <br><br>Amazon has it.

[Guest guest]

no apologies neccessary - in ashtanga yoga we are

absolutely fascinated by this particular technique that

promises so much power once mastered. This elusive

technique. Richard Freeman once said something along the

lines of "never assume you have mastered this".

[Guest guest]

"A Furodian slip, perhaps. "<br><br>homer<br>i

(hate to) confess that i don't get this. I know

freudian slip. What is furodian a take-off of? I hope it

is a slip within a slip which would mean there was

nothing i missed.

[Guest guest]

Dude, you almost made me spit my smoothie all over my screen! <br><br>Quit your

day job. : o )

[Guest guest]

Not a slip, just the bastard offspring of "Freudian" and "uro" -- you missed

nothing (and got nothing) from this asinine crack.<br><br>Homer

[Guest guest]

Is karnapidasana the one at the end where you really come face to face with

yourself, if you know what I mean? Man, I gotta learn that pose.<br><br>Scott

[Guest guest]

""Man, I gotta learn that pose.""<br><br>"Do your practice, all is coming"

[Guest guest]

"...this asinine crack."<br><br>Ahem.

[Guest guest]

Thank ye kindly,<br>Robin

[Guest guest]

see, i don't know what "uro" means- i a missing something. help.

[Guest guest]

def not euro..

[Guest guest]

OK, OK.<br><br>When I wrote that mulabandha post,

I had just come off a late-night practice followed

by a triumphant piece of mathematics (smple

geometrical formula extends to the genral case! delightful

symmetry! joy!), so I was a bit dotty. I had meant to type

"uro-genital" rather than "oro-genital".<br><br>So maybe I

should have said "Forodian slip" rather than "Furodian

slip". A slip within a slip, after all.<br><br>Case

closed (hopefully), and we can lift our brains from our

pelvic floors -- after a little bout of evening

pranayama, that is.<br><br>Peace and Perineal

Delight,<br>Homer

[Guest guest]

Mulabandha, in Ashtanga, is a delight both perineal and perennial.

[Guest guest]

and peri-anal

[Guest guest]

see,i new you were smart and i had to understand

what happened and knew you understood. It is the

punishment of those not dumb quite enough too need to know

what they don't. And we harras those that do. But

thanx. Schluss.