Spiraldynamik® Workshop – Rotational Postures in Yoga

Backbends are considered “heart openers” in yoga, but more chest opening and rib mobility are brought by the twisting poses: They are the true “heart openers” or “openers for a free breath”. This becomes clear when you realize that almost exclusively all trunk muscles are diagonal/oblique. Evolution has organized this well for us as cruisers (the apes are passers-by). These muscles are definitely addressed in the forward or backbends, but their full stretching or shortening extent is only achieved through rotational postures.

However, to achieve this heart and breathing space opening effect, constructive and coordinated turning is needed. Honest turning is what I call it 🙂 No on-block movement of pelvis and ribcage, no pulling out of the plumb position by the shoulder-arm unit. The chest leads – the head follows… not the other way around.

In this workshop, anatomical knowledge is imparted in an easy and comprehensible way, perception is trained and thus a new experience of movement in the twisting postures is made possible:

Contents:

• What actually turns where? The bones in focus
• Where does the impulse for the rotating postures come from? Muscular focus
• How can I control myself?
• The role of the ego in yoga

Spiraldynamik® Workshop -3D Precise and powerful hands

In the course of evolution, man has developed from a quadruped to a biped and the movement system (bones, muscles, etc.) has adapted to the changed conditions or explicitly formed itself in such a way that man can move dynamically and stably in the gravitational field. In this process, the hands were freed from their task of locomotion and were able to develop into true precision instruments: Grasping and releasing, touching and massaging, gesticulating and gesturing, striking, playing instruments, drawing, painting, etc..

The hand – unlike the foot – has a spherical vault, resulting from the longitudinal and transverse vault lying one above the other. From this vault we generate the authentic power for precise action with the hands. Decisive for the spherical arch are the curling movements between the base joint of the little finger and the thumb – a C-bend is formed. The opposite is a dished hand, which lacks strength and stability, often there are incorrect loads/arthritis of the thumb saddle joint (so-called rhizarthrosis) or the other finger joints.

This workshop is about the inherent potential of the hands in terms of strength, flexibility and precision and here also about the relationship to the shoulder girdle, through which the hands in turn get a clear connection to the torso.

Contents:

• Teaching the basic structures and the coordinated use of the hands
• individual analysis of the hands and mediation of the individual potential for development
• Development of the coordinated function by means of suitable exercises and subsequent integration into the function of grasping and supporting.
• Clarification of all questions

Spiraldynamik® Workshop – 3D Stable Pelvis in the Standing Asanas

The connection of Spiral Dynamics^® and Hatha Yoga is not a new style of yoga, but includes a clear, evolutionary-based alignment and organization in the asanas, regardless of the style of yoga (Asthanga, Iyengar, Vinyasa Flow or others).

Each asana has a focus and effects on the physical level, but at the same time also effects on the soul-spirit-mental level. For me, the functional-sensible and clear alignment is an essential prerequisite to make all effects possible.

Here is an example Vrksasana (tree): One of the one-legged asanas, this asana internalizes the connection to the earth (rootedness) and the sky (opening), and – with proper alignment – allows for a high level of calm and serenity. And that needs the clear three-dimensional alignment of the pelvis on the stance leg side: outer spiral of the hip bone. This brings grounding and stability and allows the thoracic head to become mobile/free upward. If, on the other hand, I sink in on the standing leg side, I lose not only physical stability, but at the same time grounding and the possibility of opening upward to heaven. Tension elsewhere – such as in the chest or shoulder-neck area – in the body is often the result.

In this workshop I would like to teach this clear alignment of the pelvis step by step and make it possible to integrate it into the standing asanas for more stability and confidence:

• Getting to know the movements of the pelvis and their effects on the hip joint, sacroiliac joint and lower back.
• Getting to know muscle loops of the pelvis (most important muscle group: the muscles of the pelvic floor).
• Learning functional pelvic abduction and uprightness
• Integration of the learned pelvic movements into the standing asanas

Spiraldynamik® backbends in yoga

Backbends are considered “heart openers” in yoga even though the greater potential for this comes from the twisting poses. Backbends, on the other hand, involve the risk of unstable hyperextension in the region of the transition from the sacrum to the lumbar spine and up to the lower thoracic spine. This stresses the hyperextended area, which is bony and unstable in depth, and the actual chest opening – and thus heart opening – does not take place at all.

The prerequisite is a stably erected pelvis and the ability not only to perceive the middle thoracic spine, but also to be able to control it. And many people lack this due to the incorrect postures in everyday life (e.g. office job) and in yoga the “wrong” movement pattern is then repeated.

In this workshop, anatomical knowledge is imparted in an easy and comprehensible way, perception is trained and thus a new body awareness/movement experience in the backbends is made possible:

Contents:

• Learning the pelvic straightening
• segmental control of the relevant thoracic spine regions
• Integration of what has been learned into the backbends of the sun salutation, among others.
• The role of the ego in yoga