Jason Crandell Workshop
Image from jasonyoga.com
“Jason Crandell cares about the placement of your collarbones, thighbones, and arches of your feet, but not for aesthetic reasons. “I’m a technique-oriented teacher—but not for technique’s sake,” he says. “The detail is there to help focus the mind, go inside, and have a rich, calming experience.”
(http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/2697)
Jason Crandell’s workshop was actually my favourite of the conference- it focused on core integration (an area that i’m already really interested in) and he taught with such precision, laid back humour, innovation and so many useful tips and techniques that i am still integrating into my teaching and practice. The class was strong, but his manner was gentle, always reminding us that “Childs pose is all yours if you hear it calling”. He also explained takes more strength to let go than it does to hold on, often that is often the challenge for students.
He began the workshop by explaining strength is about integration- it is much more useful to have the whole body working together, than one strong muscle carrying the load. He invited us to ‘Think of the body like a constellation or adult join the dots’. He then explained that he structures each class like a story- introducing the characters and then letting their relationships and interactions with each other unfold, in this class the characters are parts of the body and the way the connect and work together is the story.
A great core integration exercise is to start in Sphinx pose (laying on the belly, elbows under shoulders and heart lifting, then - pull up lower ribs, belly, hipbones, thighs(maybe even knees with toes tucked) then roll down to counter stretch. You could return to this feeling in down dog or even warrior 2 pose. I loved that there was a lot of core poses that weren’t based on flexion (an action many of us already do way too much in everyday life), or repetition that can quickly get mindless and boring. Instead we often learnt a simple action like peeling the body off the floor and integrate that awareness into many different postures.
Jason also had a revolutionary way of approaching each posture, encouraging us not to focus on the ‘big stretch’, as you’ll always be aware of it anyway- instead bring your attention to the more subtle and interesting actions of the body (in the class this was often pelvic floor). His detailed instructions were really helpful, especially to ‘draw sit bones, pubic bone, tailbone in towards each other, then let pelvic floor dilate on inhale’. He also used blocks in a really innovative way, getting us to place a block between thighs, squeezing it, then feeling like we were pulling it up towards the body, then integrate that action into asana like downdog, uttanasana and uktasana. In warrior 1 and Parsvottanasana, Jason invited us to ‘imagine the pelvic floor as a dial and turn that dial towards the front leg’. In the wide legged standing postures like Warrior 2 or Trikonasana, we imagined standing on a see-saw, or with the legs on scales and evenly weighting each leg. In each of the Standing poses you could tune into your center by putting your hand or your sacrum and drawing belly towards it.
He explained how the body is designed to withstand the effects of gravity, with lots of arches and bridges, that all connect. The arches of feet are a big deal- when you lift the arch, you engage the claves, inner thighs, pelvic floor, further and further up.
We also explored gravity in different ways relating to arm balances. Lay on back and practice- bakrasana, parsvabakrasana, tittibhasana, bhujapidasana- all great abdominal workouts, but also great way to make the neural pathways for practicing them as balances. Plus even though we were working hard, we didn’t have to stand up! Bonus!
Jason Crandell is also a great writer- i was pleased to find out that you can download his podcasts from yogajournal.com and read his articles at Jasonyoga.com
