How the #@!? do you jump through?

I've been asked this so many times.
How the #%&! do you jump through?
?

Well...

Magic. My long monkey arms. I don't eat meat. I'm a girl.

Just kidding.

I decided that it is my duty to share with the world how I learned the jump through and maybe it will help you too. For those of you who are experts of the jump through, please send in your feedback, tips, videos, etc. Together, we can get the world to jump through! Ah, that's sweet.

I've divided the journey of jumping through into seven parts. The important things to remember are that everyone is different, Rome was not built in a day, you have to really try. Keep in mind that you might be working on one of these stages for a long time. That's okay!

How to jump through (Part One)

The basic basics

Let's start at the very beginning--the very basics of the jump through. These simple instructions are important to master before the fancy stuff that comes later.

Breathing

Start in downward facing dog. Make it a short downward dog. Take an inhale and as you exhale, hollow out your belly (like a greyhound), bend your knees, look past your hands. Inhale and lightly jump your hips up and forward into the air. Exhale and lightly land on your shins between your hands. Inhale, take your legs forward into dandasana.

I know, you wanted to just jump through right? Well if you could do it, you wouldn't be reading this... So, first we start with baby steps. The things to focus on here are the breathing patterns, not holding the breath, moving with the breath, getting the hips high, landing softly, and learning to be in control of your body in space. Imagine a little kid walking a big dog. Who is walking who? This is you and your practice. Take the lead!

Part Two:

Cross your legs and jump for the sky

Once you are in control of your breathing and you are landing lightly, do the same thing, but this time land with your legs crossed. This will help you face your fears of breaking your toes, it will help you learn to make new habits, you'll be able to continue to apply the skills you learned above, and you'll be one step closer to the full jump through! Continue to focus on your breathing patterns, not holding the breath, moving with the breath, getting the hips high, landing softly, and learning to be in control of your body in space.

Part Three:

"Bumble bee" spine and uddiyana bandha

Learn to cultivate the actions of the jump through in the other parts of your practice. Really, the jump through is the final culmination and outward manifestation of lots of internal work. So, while you are working on parts one and two listed above, also be sure to work on the lift ups before your jump back and uthplutih at the end of your practice. A wimpy jump back equals a wimpy jump through.

For your lift ups, focus on a strong uddiyana bandha. From whatever posture you are in, exhale and cross your legs while you put your hands down by your sides. At the bottom of your exhale, hollow out your belly and then inhale and lift your body up. In both the lift ups and uthplutih, make a "bumble bee spine". Puff up the space between your shoulder blades, hollow out your belly, and turn your tailbone (your stinger) toward your head rounding your spine. You are making yourself little so that you can fit through your arms. These actions will help you to develop strength and muscle memory for the actions needed to jump through.

Part Four:

Let it be ugly and use the wood floor

I'm not a magician and neither are you. You were probably a mess when you first walked into yoga and now look at you! You learned so much and are no loner the yoga newbie falling over in triangle pose. At this point, you have to let go of your ego and expectations and let your practice be ugly so that you can develop the information to make it pretty. Move off your mat onto the wood floor. Come to a short downward dog. Exhale and hollow out your belly like a greyhound. Bend your knees and look past your hands. Inhale and jump. As you jump, lean your weight into your fingers so that your shoulders are past your wrists. Land with your legs crossed as you exhale. Then inhale and wiggle your crossed legs through to sit. Remember to keep breathing and move on your breath. Work on extending your breath so that you can inhale as you jump and wiggle/slide though.

Right now you are probably whining about your arms being too short and you need to stop that right now. No more excuses. You have all the tools to make this happen, you just have to keep practicing. Let it be ugly.

It is important to remember that you need to puff the space between your shoulder blades like you do when you are making the bumble bee spine. It is like the cat part of the cat/cow warm up. Also, you need to work on leaning your weight forward so that your shoulders go past your wrists. If you don't, you'll land behind your hands instead of between them.

Part Five:

Mat wiggle through

Now you put yourself back on your mat and do the same thing you did on the wood floor. It will be hard because you can't slide. Again, let it be ugly. Your body will be like "this sucks!" and will find a way to make it easier i.e. jump through without touching the floor. Patience my friend. You'll build confidence, awareness, control, and strength.

Part Six:

Air born

Don't touch the floor.

Part Seven:

Keep the vinyasa

Land in the pose.

There you have it. My personal journey through the jump through. Feedback welcome!

Jumping into paradise

I'll be the one wearing the Havaianas.

It is official. Yesterday was our first 70 degree day since October and the flip flops are out and staying out. On some blocks, I can smell human pee and tree blossoms. Spring is surely on the way. It was so painful getting used to closed-toe shoes after India. I fought it to the very end last fall until my toes were painfully cold. And now, I've got little pink "almost-blisters" as my feet transition into warm weather attire. But it isn't just the early signs of summer that makes the Havaianas so needed, its that they are incredibly squishy and the balls of my feet are tender from my pincha "timbers".

I spent the afternoon playing around at New York's Om Factory with Paul, Emily, and Fara. I was giving them jump through tips (not that they really needed them) and Paul was giving us "press" handstand tricks. We were in the middle of the room, at the wall, on blocks, straddling to handstand, jumping, "bakasana-ing", lifting, etc., all with bellies full of Indian food. I figure if I could make a handstand-to-bakasana (among other things) happen then, that says something. So Paul (whom I regularly steal vinyasa sequences from because he is great) has me on this little extra-curricular "lift-up therapy" program. I promise to youtube it if (like he promises) I can lift up to handstand from uttanasana with a straddle minus props.

(Om Factory is this really amazing space in midtown. Danny Paradise is doing a workshop there on Earth Day, April 22, and to my happy surprise, I'll be there! Looking forward to it for sure. Now if I can only see David Swenson soon, I'll have re-created an "ashtanga mela" of my very own...)

So what inspired this little yoga sesh? Well, if you get a couple of yoga peeps together, something like that is bound to happen, but also I just got the new Kino DVD, and I've had some of the stuff she talks about on my mind. The first part of the dvd (about 20 min I think) is about Kino, her Shala, and her practice. The second part (also about 20 min) is a look into one of her workshops in which she discusses the basic principals of re-learning how to walk on your hands. Although it is hard for all of us to believe, she says that when she first saw people lifting up handstand, floating, etc., she was like "there is no way!"

So, practice, practice, practice...

Oh and I think that exploring that mysterious and uncharted area of my body that controls the lifting is the key to this whole floating/karandavasana business. Or maybe not. But it is an interesting journey.

dvd preview on youtube:

Working your edge

Jason writes:

"u recently spoke about how your teacher would talk about 'working your edge'. Do you have new any insights on how that is done in Mysore style since you have now been in Mysore for a while?"

Response:

I remember once when she said that. She had just gotten back from Mysore. She was darker than before. She was wearing a tank top that was supposed to be tight, but she was so fit it almost looked loose. I remember seeing her arms and being in awe with how fit she was. Before class she told us that she was completely inspired--

No, that's not it. That was a later time that she said it.

Guruji was in New York. She was going every day to practice. It was a vinyasa class and beforehand she told us that she was feeling completely inspired by Guruji being in town. We didn't know what that meant at the moment, but as we moved through sun salutes, she mentioned how you do what you need to do to save energy. So we tried not to fidget in the downward dogs. We tried to use an economy of movement in the vinyasas. Some people would drop their knees and sink their hips back in a child's pose to rest in downward dog.

As we clumsily tried to move with grace, she was asking us to analyze what pain is and to find our edge. (It felt like a class full of hippos trying to do yoga.) What could we work through or past? What could we breathe into? What were we capable of? What was the difference between good pain and bad pain?

Sometimes it feels like there is a line in the sand between those who are flexible, strong, those who seem to easily perform the poses without breaking a sweat and those who struggle and pant and sweat and give up and shake. I remember this line was drawn when she asked us to jump from downward dog, through our arms, to a sitting position. I bawked at this. Everyone in the room did except my friend Susan who is one of those ex-dancer, super fit, beautiful and amazing types. My teacher laughed and asked us to watch as she demonstrated a jump through. She was so light and soft as she floated effortlessly though the air, landing in a seated position with her legs straight in front of her. "How do you know that you can't do this?" She was asking. "Find your edge." She kept saying this, "find your edge?" I kept asking myself what that meant.

(Watch the jump backs and jump throughs in this video. For a second, he his hovering, suspended in the air like a balloon. A Jivamukti teacher once compared the jump throughs and the hovering balloon effect to dance a similar experience in dance. "Ballon [is] the appearance of weightlessness and of being airborne. A dancer is said to have ballon if (s)he seems to be in the air constantly with only momentary contact with the floor.")

This phrase has stayed in my head ever since. Like a mantra, it echoed in the back of my mind when I started to back out of a pose, or to tell myself something was not possible.

It seems funny imagining me being able to find my edge here in Mysore where my practice has been shortened significantly. It seems like it would get boring like I was repeating 5th grade, three times. And on some days, I admit, it was. I would run through my practice, doing the things I was always comfortable with doing. But then, I started to watch other people and to see how far you can take things. The edge means a different thing for everyone. For me, it comes up often in regards to strength. It took me so long to even be able to do a bad chaturanga dandasana (see picture on left). Really, I mean like a whole year. And even then, I was not looking forward to struggling through it.

So here in Mysore, finding my edge was seeing people fly, and being able to believe that it was possible. It was. It is. All I had to do was try and keep trying. And it has been so hard, but for me, that is the edge. How can I make this vinyasa soar? How can I maximize this stretch or this extension? How high can I lift up and how softly can I jump back? How closely can I get to the edge without falling over?

Working just in primary has been ideal for this transformation. I'm comfortable in primary. I feel like I've explored all the nooks and crannies and then discovered that there is a secret passageway leading here or there and there are more nooks and crannies to explore. That's the edge. Being brave enough to follow the passage into the unknown. To be willing to be surprised.

It hasn't just been physical. The edge has also been being able to leave the comfort of daily life to come here in the first place, alone. It has been getting up every morning and not giving up. Finding the edge has been about exploring what I've got inside and opening my eyes even when I don't see what I like.

Ever heard of parkour? I love this quote that describes parkour as "a playground for strength, freedom, courage and discipline". But its also so much about finding the edge of what we think is or isn't possible. Like walking on walls. Or jumping from roof top to roof top.

So, back to the original question: "how have I found my edge in mysore style?" I have made an effort to do everything full-blast, even if I haven't done it before or thought I couldn't. Like literally looking at my nose in nasagrai drishti. Why not? Or trying to work towards (and sometimes succeeding in) jumping back and forth in sun salutes with straight legs. Or lifting up between navasanas with the left leg on top even though its my weak side and I can't lift as high as with the other side. I've been looking for my edge by asking "why not?" and really understanding that here, everything is possible.

I think more and more about what my teacher said about how she came to ashtanga yoga because she wanted to learn how to fly. Finding your edge is about seeing your body and your capabilities and limitations and saying you're going to try anyway. It is about jumping out of the nest and trusting that your wings will work, because that's why you have them. It is about not seeing your body or your past or anything else as a limitation. It is about seeing possibility and making small or big steps toward it. It is about returning to your practice every day and noticing that you have a clean slate and that maybe today will be the day where something impossible will happen.