How to feel light in Yoga

A wonderful feeling in the body is the ability to feel light when we move. Let’s take a look at what we can do to enable ourselves to bring a sense of lightness and agility into our pracitces.

A motivation to write this post was from watching a cat move that I am currenty cat sitting for a friend.

Lil G

Cats move very well. Elegantly and controlled. They are very precise with thier movments and each step is articulated in a thought out way. They have excellent agility and reaction skills. This is embedded into thier DNA and comes effotlessly from years of evolution born out of necessity.

For us humans this doesn’t come so natually but it is definitely something we can work towards and obtain. Mobility definitely helps with agility, but what helps us with the feeling of lightness is strength. Especially the strength obtained from learning how to press into the ground to generate lift and and an upward moving force.

More on this here in my jump back article:

In this post I am going to focus on a specific asana and some tips on how you can integrate this into your yoga practice.

Lolasana

Holding Lolasana

There are many arm balances in yoga, and they all have thier benefit in thier own way to build strength, but Lolasana in my opinion is one of the most effective to teach you how to build strength in your yoga practice, but also the mechanics of pushing and squeezing. Compression.

The squeezing of opposites. Bandha.

More on Bandha here and the relationship between opposite forces.

It is relatively simple in terms of it’s method, but hard in terms of it’s application. To be able to press into the ground and straighten your arms as shown in the image above, and at the same time keeping your thighs glued to your stomach, requires a fair amount of core strength and pressing strength.

When this is mastered in this way you would have embodied the strength needed to lift up and jump back as practiced in the Ashtanga Yoga system with more ease and control.

There are many variations of this posture that you can work towards that help build strength and give you the necessary feedback so you are getting stronger.

With blocks crossed legged.

Using the feet

Using the feet for leverage

Alternative drills for body awareness

L sit with blocks for compression work

These drills and many more are structured in my online tuition to work through to build your jump back and jump through as part of my Jump Back Breakdown guide.

The Jump Back Breakdown

‘How do I incorporate this into my practice?’

All of these types of pressing drills and techniques can be incorporated in specific places which I cover in The Jump Back Breakdown. But a natural place would be the transition from Utkatasana in Ashtanga yoga’s Primary Series.

Utkatasana

Working intelligently with variations on this transition will help build your Lolasana and pressing strength. What you are looking to build is the ability to hold your weight in the air without collapsing. Defying gravity.

Other places to practice Lolasana are when you exit the back bends in Ashtanga’s Intermediate Series or my Element Series for example. Especially postures such as Ustrasana.

Ustrasana. The Element Series

Exiting Ustrasana

A simple lolasana to exit

In this transition from Ustrasana I am coming into a simple form of Lolasana using my feet to demonstrate the shape needed to build strength and the opposite movement from the back bend. Pranic to Apanic.

Incorporating these transitions into your yoga practrice and building strength in asana’s such as Lolasana will completely change your yoga practice so it becomes something that has a deep feeling of lightness. This is something I enjoy immensely in my own practice as it gives such a lovely feeling of flow.

Using the cat as an analogy is that a cat has evolved to move in the way it does through presssure. This evoluition came from resistance and a need for change. You will only build this type of strength by asking your body to help make this change happen through effort.

I have often heard yoga teachers and in particular Ashtanga teachers say that if you keep practicing, this type of strength will just naturally come. In my opinion this is not true. You need to make a specific concerted effort that is deliberate and purposeful.

For a complete breakdown of how to achieve this in your own practice check out The Jump Back Breakdown guide.