Ashtanga Short Forms
I wasn’t inspired to continue Dave Farmar’s podcast today, so I decided to do the 15 minute Ashtanga short form from David Swenson’s Ashtanga Yoga practice book. (This usually takes me about half an hour…) I switched some of the suggested poses: after the Suryas I did Trik, Parsva, and Prasarita C, followed by Marichy A, Navasana, Halasana, shoulderstand, Matsyasana, a simple twist, happy baby, and finally Savasana. I also skipped the vinyasas between the seated poses.
Now, I’m pretty sure this sequence had nothing to do with Ashtanga, other than being inspired by Swenson’s short forms. You Ashtangis out there, how orthodox are you when it comes to practicing the Primary Series in sequence? Do you always practice Primary in sequence, or do you sometimes play around with both length and form?
My home practice is usually limited to about half an hour. If I feel like doing an Ashtanga inspired practice, what should I do?
- Start at the beginning of Primary and just stop when I run out of time (and end with Savasana)?
- Do a short form as recommended in Swenson’s book? Can I swap out some of the short form poses occasionally to get some variety?
- Instead of a breathing count of 5, can I shorten it to 3 to save time? (I realize “saving time” isn’t really a yogic argument, but if I wanted to cover a few more poses.)
I’m no authority, having only practiced Ashtanga for 6 or 7 months, but if I have 30 minutes I do the David Swenson short form. If I have a tiny bit longer, I might throw in a few more asanas, but I do them in order, and I do the counterposes to any major bends or twists.
I think twists and backbending are pretty important, so I wouldn’t just stop anywhere. And from my teachers and books I’ve read, breath isn’t the best thing to sacrifice if you’re short on time. I think leaving out vinyasas, especially in between switching from left side to right side in the seated poses, would be a better way to shorten the practice.
Anyway, that’s just my thoughts and how I approach it. But if you felt like you needed those asanas, that’s also important.
Thanks for the feedback, April! I agree with you that you shouldn’t sacrifice the quality of the breath, but what about holding the poses for a shorter time initially? This way you also get the chance to build strength in the different asanas before moving on to a full 5 breath count.
I also agree with the not sacrificing the breath. My teacher told me once to “never ever compromise the breath”…
Usually when I only have a limited amount of time I do the practice as usual, with the five breath count until where I can, leaving half an hour for the full close.
The closing is very important as the body is mostly turned upside down and gravity helps the lymphatic system to clean up… (this said in a very simplified way of course). Also the inversions have tons and tons of benefits…
I have done a ’3 breath practice’ with Dena Kingsberg, and John Scott said at a workshop that if he is running low on time, he even does a ’1 breath practice’ – he said that this way, he can do full primary in 1 hour! So I guess doing fewer breaths is fine, as long as they are good deep and focussed ujayii breaths.
Leaving out the vinyasas between left and right sides is fine, but vinyasa between each pose is fairly important, otherwise you lose the heat. When you’re low on time, it is ok to just do suryanamaskara (at least 3 A’s and 3 B’s), standing sequence and then closing.