fitness | mistergabrielblog

The Process of the Press

I had practiced yoga for ten years without caring much for doing inversions. I loved crow pose, wheel, strengthening movements, standing poses, quadriceps stretches, and above all Hanuman Asana. Hanuman was one of the hardest asanas for me as I am a cyclist and have tight hamstrings. I remember seeing one of my primary teachers practicing Hanuman when I was eighteen with hips perfectly on the ground and it was like he was Hanuman to me in that moment. I worked very deeply to be able to do the pose for the next five years, and eventually I had it! Next I started focusing on deeper back bends and became enticed with the idea of doing the back bend postures with the foot to the head, and with lots of regular practice that came too. I still didn’t care about inversions, I would do them when they were taught in a class but I was more interested in jumps, splits, and back bends. I had been teaching yoga for seven years at that point and loved making class challenging with standing poses, slow push ups, and back bends but it never crossed my mind that someday I would be an inversion specialist. In 2008 a flip switched, I was talking with a friend of mine and she was describing a teacher who was excellent at handstand and who also had students who were quite advanced at their inversion transitions. She seemed so inspired by this scenario I thought that perhaps it would be a good way to inspire my students if I could do a handstand without the wall too.

So I set forth practicing and soon realized I loved handstands! It was the winter time and it was a great way to save money on running the heat less just by doing a bunch of handstands throughout the day. I didn’t realize this until I began but inversions are excellent for your immune system, reducing lethargy, and are a natural anti-depressant (all very helpful benefits especially in winter). I learned to jump into handstand with both legs at once and was soon balancing at the wall but without hitting it or using it, just having it there for security. Soon I went to try balancing in the middle of the room thinking I was so good at sticking my handstand near the wall but not touching it… well when I went to the middle of the room at a gym I was teaching at I lifted my head to jump forward and THE ROOM WAS FUCKING HUGE! I was totally intimidated and I couldn’t get up into it in the middle of the room… too scary;) I kept at it though and soon realized that I could tumble pretty safely and that I always for whatever reason fell to the right. So long as there were no glass tables to the right then I felt fine, the worry went away and I was sticking my handstand in the middle of the room with great enthusiasm on a daily basis. I started jumping up from a crouched position as a bunny hop, and I could also jump with both legs straight as a half pike movement. I learned these transitions on my own just through intense and repetitive home practice. Next I started jumping from a wide leg forward fold into it, first through handstand knees to chest and then eventually straight legs. I wasn’t used to balancing without the wall by kicking up one leg at a time, and even though that method takes less strength then jumping with both legs I had a harder time balancing it. It took me a little time to learn which is funny because most people learn to balance that way first but I had always used it to get to the wall and never to try and balance. I knew for teaching purposes it was important to be able to show that so I made a point to work on that and after I became proficient with that method I had about a half dozen different ways to get into hand stand.

At that point I plateaued for a while with the different methods I could use to get in and out of handstand, but I kept practicing like a fiend and became stronger in my torso and my ability to balance and consistently stick it without the wall. I was trying for a long while to go up to handstand from crow but never succeeded and felt like I just couldn’t do it because I didn’t have the strength. I had been practicing inversions daily for a year sometimes doing forty handstands a day, sometimes practicing late at night which I really think is a bad Idea as handstands variations are the coffee drinks of yoga asana. On the winter solstice I decided to do a dedicated austerity practice of doing 108 jump throughs as the sun set on the darkest day of the year. It was super tough and took a long time, but I was able to do the practice and felt very light and elated afterward. I was really sore for a few days but then two days after Christmas I was playing around with crow and a light bulb went off. I needed to not just muscle up into it but rather to roll my hips above my shoulders and then lengthen from there. I made a couple of close attempts and thought to myself wow I’ll probably get this in a couple weeks. I decided to give it one more try five minutes later and I got it! I continued to use it as a regular transition and was so happy to have finally slayed that dragon. Speaking of breathing fire, I was becoming a more confident some times arrogant young man from all the fire I was bringing to my third eye. I joked with my dad about how I was a better person before I could do handstands and he looked back at me and said with a straight face “it’s true you’re right” I kept practicing a ridiculous amount of handstands a day and soon could press from sitting too. First from virasana, and then from cross legged. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7gWA_vpLsk

I was getting too stiff in my upper back and chest and some teachers and body workers noticed and commented that I was getting tight in my chest, and my twists and back bends suffered as did the openness of my emotional heart. I also got tight in my traps and developed some injuries in my upper back. Naturally I needed to learn the hard way, but learn I did and I shifted my approach from it’s never enough to doing just one handstand attempt a day for a while… if I didn’t stick it, than I had to wait for the next day. It taught me that austerity could be restriction not just excess intensity… it also taught me to stick every attempt as I didn’t want to go a day without my inversion fix.

It was Oct the following year the first time I pressed up from a standing forward fold. I was drinking only fresh squeezed orange juice and had been cycling that morning so my stomach was very light. I was by myself out side on a warm Indian summer day and started to get my feet to lift a few inches by leaning forward over my wrists. Similarly to the crow breakthrough I keep making attempts and next thing I knew I was floating up all the way to standing. All my breakthroughs happened while practicing by myself at home. Teachers can help accelerate your progress, but ultimately its regular practice inside or out of the classroom that helps you to overcome fear and achieve great things that would seem normally impossible. If you practice with dedication, consistency, and determination there are very few limits to what you can experience. Doing inversions completely transformed my body, my mind, and emotions. I had mostly been a shy person my whole life and developed a new sense of confidence and competence as a person and practitioner during my process toward developing my handstand press. I also learned how much asana can hurt you if you over do it, and that ultimately one of the best things about becoming more advanced in your asana practice is realizing the non-importance of it. After all, why does it matter if you can float to an inversion, if you don’t treat yourself and your loved ones with care and respect? The ultimate is being able to sharpen your ability and maintain or increase your kindness toward others, though if you have to choose between love and advanced asana, always choose love. Yoga is so much more than doing a handstand.

Thanks for reading

Love

Gabriel

Gabriel Benjamin has been
teaching Yoga since 2001 and holds ﬁve
certiﬁcations in Yoga and
Ayurveda. He has studied the
graceful science of ﬂow and
alignment from the TriYoga®
lineage and has been both a
student and a teacher in the Kerala
Ayurveda Academy. Gabriel leads
workshops and retreats around
the world, & offers online Ayurvedic counseling.

Slow Steps to Build the Core

There are so many wonderful and different ways to build the core. You’ll see a huge variety of sequence in modern yoga classes, from pranayama, static poses, traditional movements, and fusion core integration. Personally I prefer a more classical route with slow movements and pranayama to strengthen the core, but what I advocate most of all is for people to try different things and find out what works best for them. There are certain popular sequences that I avoid teaching due to my personal preferences, but that is not to say these fusion movements aren’t effective or that I have anything against those who practice and/or teach them. I will point out however that one can achieve great inner strength with simple and traditional practices, and I stick to these for the most part in my teaching and personal practice.

Here is an example of core strength developed without sit-ups or Pilates like exercise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl4TWk0rI3M

When you see practitioners practice light movements and intense core postures please don’t be discouraged if you feel you are a long ways away from achieving this. Remember that progress is best achieved by taking slow steps, staying patient, staying motivated, and not making frustrating comparisons. Incidentally one of my secrets to building and maintaining my core ability is taking slow steps to runners pose in thigh stretch sequences and classical sun salutations. I really love this method of building the core as it also stretches the core, builds endurance in the lungs, and calms the mind. Ideally we should gauge our core fitness not just by how strong our abdominals are but by our strength and flexibility in all the core muscles front and back.

Focusing only on the abdominals can be a big mistake as balanced strength front and back is key for the health of the low back. Though having nice stomach muscles is a great side benefit of keeping your core fit, the main purpose is to keep you pelvis and spine healthy and reduce the risk of injury. A strong core also helps with having a sense of purpose, courage, and confidence. How many muscles show has a lot to do with genetics and many people with great core fitness might not be as defined as others who have less body fat but also less strength. Really how your muscles look is much less important than feeling healthy and well rounded, body/mind/&spirit.

Here are some examples of slow steps and intense posterior core sequencing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFPPd2XT4fI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=826oH6WZvCA

It took me a long time to develop my ability and one of the best benefits from the years of hard work was learning patience and contentment.

So remember, take slow but steady steps toward progress, avoid making comparisons, and don’t forget to breathe deeply as you practice~

Wishing you all deep inner strength and deep inner peace ॐ

Namaste

Gabriel