Hala-asana (plow posture) Basic info
Hala (pali + sanskrit) = plow
Asana = posture.
seema.com › an-introduction says:
Is Plow Pose good for you?
Plow pose has many health benefits that include giving strength to your spine, shoulders, neck and stomach. As your neck and shoulders are open, this is an ideal way to stretch the neck, spine and shoulders. You're also able to lower your blood pressure as you focus on calming the brain and having a restful mind.
A couple of short videos showing basic plow pose:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1i54Ejpq98Vz5Jeh0fqcdrQ1fermU7PSy
Plow Helicopter: major improvements over basic plow
prerequisite: First, make sure you can do the basic plow above safely, without pain or discomfort.
This is a 6 min. video where I demonstrate several things, the plow pose starts at 1:40
I start with a standard yoga plow pose, and then I go into a series of gorilla improvisations that add an infinite variety of stretches that the standard plow just doesn't reach.
What makes the plow pose so amazing?
(1) hit the hot spot where you need it the most
There so many ways to stretch the back with forward bending motions, from standing, sitting, lying down, etc.
The plow, what makes it special from all the other forward bends, is that your body weight pressing down on your upper back, shoulder, and neck area, ensures that the stretch will loosen and stretch that tight upper back area. When you stretch in general, the stretchiest part gets most of the stretch, but the tightest part, the part you really want to stretch the most, gets the least stretch.
What the plow does, by anchoring that tight region in the upper back with gravity pushing most of your body weight down on it, allows the radius of that tight region to all get stretched.
Here's an example to illustrate the principle. Suppose you have an old rubber band, parts of it are dry and brittle. If you stretch the rubber band, the stretchiest part of it gets most of the stretching, rather than the tight dry parts you want to stretch the most. But if you anchor the tight brittle area of the rubber band, for example hold your fingers down on that tight brittle region, and then stretch, than that tight part will get most of the stretch on both ends of the tight region.
(2) Opens up the main blockage for most people who are working on first jhana
(more details another day)
Qigor RDA
(Qigong Gorilla Recommended Daily Allowance)
At least once a day.
Always pair the move with a back bending counter stretch (the video showing yoga ball backbend is the best for many reasons, but any backbend pose will suffice).
I do it before every sitting meditation session, typically at least 2 or 3 cycles, but often 5-10 if needed (1 cycle = 1 forward bend + 1 back bend).
for example:
alternate 3 seconds plow, 3 seconds backbend, for a few cycles.
Gradually increase hold times if desired, better to constantly experiment with hold times and do what you need for that day, that time. Early in the morning maybe I only do 2 seconds hold, later on, maybe 10 seconds.
assess to progress, finish diminish, finish the mission of exploitation:
assess to progress: Using sati to remember what a limber loose upper back feels like, as you're doing the plow, note the current condition and compare to memory of limber state. That will give you an idea of how many reps, how many minutes you'll need to achieve limber state.
finish the mission of exploitation: Do enough cycles of reps alternating plow and backbend until you're feeling good and limber in that tight region. Don't just do one mechanically without sensing what your body needs and call it a day, saying you met your quota of Qigor RDA for the day. I will spend 10-20 minutes on this move when necessary. How do you know if you've done enough?
finish diminish: The point of diminishing returns. When doing more repetitions isn't improving your pliability, and/or you stop getting endorphines and pleasure chemicals from the increased blood flow (measure for pleasure).
measure for pleasure, no pain to gain: While doing the gorilla plow helicoptor suite, note how good the move feels, that will guide you on how long to stay on each phase between forward bending and backbending. Try to keep the timing balanced, so that whichever is the bottleneck, say you can only do 2 seconds in plow comfortably, then do about the same time on the backbending counter stretch. If you don't feel you're getting enough time backbending, Do more reps of the whole cycle (alternating forward and back bend).
important point: explore lots of subtle movement, don't freeze into static positions. Of course if it feels great while frozen, explore it, but you'll find find you unblock a lot of energy channels by developing this habit of exploring all the nooks and crannies. We're not limited robots with joints that can only rotate in a line or plane. Explore movement in spherical three dimensional space. Jiggle and wiggle in 3 dimensions. You'll see me "going off the rails" in most of my videos, but what you probably can't see in the video is that even when I seem to be frozen in a static position, I'm often exploring tiny movements both physically, and with internal energy.
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