After 15 years of doing this practice pretty much daily, I’m writing it out for the first time as requested by the folks in the December 2019 5-day sequencing immersion at triyoga in London.

Everything described here should be modified such that complete comfort takes precedence over everything else. I usually do this practice for 45-60 minutes; as always and with everything in yoga, explore modifying! Please refer to any of my books regarding contraindications with the pranayamas, only some of which are noted here. For basics on breathing and teaching the pranayama parts of this practice, see Chapter 8 of Teaching Yoga or Chapter 21 of Yoga Therapy. Please forgive me shifting back and forth between writing as though for teachers and for students…hopefully we’re always both!

Enjoy doing and sharing this practice for fully waking up and getting on top of the day.

The Practice

Start in a simple seated position (Sukasana, Padmasana...) for a few minutes (3-10), at first simply si...

The conditions of men and women change considerably across the broad span of one’s life. Most of the changes are similar when considering the broad scope of human physical, emotional, and mental development from early childhood to the latest moments of life. Yet along the way there are several factors that bring us to give the conditions of women in yoga special consideration in crafting yoga sequences.

While there is no question that the onset of puberty is very significant in boys, the changes in boys pale in comparison with the hormonal and larger physical and physiological changes experienced by girls with menarche (the onset of menstruation) and the cyclical recurrence of menstruation until menopause. While sharing in the experience of pregnancy and childbirth can be very significant to men, this experience pales even more in contrast to the experience of being pregnant, giving birth, breast-feeding, and healing in the postpartum period. And while men often have a variety of...

Excerpted from Teaching Yoga, Chapter 4 sidebar on “MULA BANDHA AND UDDIYANA BANDHA”

Earlier we looked at the cultivation of pada bandha, the energetic awakening of the feet through the stirrup-like effect of contracting the tibialis posterior and peroneus longus muscles on the lower leg. The fascial attachments of these two muscles interweave with those of the hip adductors, which have origins in and around the ischial tuberosities (the sitting bones). The sitting bones are the lateral aspects of the perineum, with the pubic symphysis at the front and the coccyx at the back. The front half of this diamond is the urogenital triangle, a landmark for the urogenital diaphragm, a hammock-like layer that is created by three sets of muscles: transverse perineal (connecting the two sitting bones), bulbospongiosus (surrounding the vagina or bulb of the penis), and ischiocavernosus (connecting the ischium to the clitoris or covering the penile crura) (Aldous 2004, 41). Contracting this se...