Hi, my name is Clay, welcome to my video series Sliding Into Home. The focus today is on extreme yoga. A 30 year old person demonstrating extreme yoga would be considered, extreme.
But last year I turned 80 so when I talk about and demonstrate extreme yoga it is Extremely EXTREME. What I am going to perform today is a demonstration not a lesson. These moves are difficult and possibly dangerous without the proper preparation. The purpose of this video is to demonstrate beyond doubt the capabilities of an 80 year old body.
This is a not so extreme position called Crow. Notice that my head is below my body and that I am balancing on my arms and hands. So these are my criteria for extreme yoga, arm balances and/or inversions (head below the body). I call these moves extreme strength yoga because they require and build upper body and core strength. Strength yoga offers a good complement to strength training in the weight room.
I use Crow as a warmup. Crows are relatively easy to perform and as you can see they prepare my wrists, elbows and shoulders for the more difficult moves ahead. And when I bounce my head it also warms up my neck. Today I am going to demonstrate a number of extreme yoga positions. I will perform these positions on solid ground in various scenic environments. In a future post, I will attempt to perform some of them on a stand up paddle board (SUP) at Lake Tahoe Nevada.
From Crow I advance to Side Crow which triples the difficulty and qualifies for extreme by most standards. But I am still warming up for more demanding moves by stretching my core and side muscles.
From the Crow series I move to Crane which is hard core extreme and physically challenging. Please notice that with Crane my knees are resting on my triceps which puts heavy stress on my triceps and elbows and is difficult to hold. Finally the most challenging position, ridiculously extreme, even for a 30 year old, is One Legged Crane. Water birds make this look easy, but for people, this arm balance is hard to wrap your head around and harder yet to execute. One Legged Crane places incredible pressure on one arm and knee and requires exceptional core strength.
My first headstand is called Tripod, one of seven different headstand positions in advanced Ashtanga yoga (in a later video we will demonstrate more of these). As you can see, I approach Tripod from Crane by dropping my head to the floor and lifting my legs. My goal here is to exit Tripod slowly and rock back into Crane. Easier said than done.
I want to pause here to explain that my video series, Sliding into Home, is not about extreme yoga, but about maintaining physical and mental fitness throughout your life and especially in retirement. Check out my website stopsliding.com for more information.
My next headstand is called Forearm Headstand because my body weight is on my head and forearms. Once I am into the headstand, I attempt to modify the inversion by lifting my head off the mat leaving my total body weight balancing on my forearms. This is actually a different yoga posture called a Forearm Stand (head off the mat), but transitioning from one to the other is challenging for the shoulders. I am now performing Forearm Stand with all my weight on my forearms. This inversion can be transitioned into another posture called Scorpion by doing an inverted back bend. My back is too stiff to perform the complete expression of Scorpion.
Why do arm balances at all? Think about this, we spend most of our life and exercise moments on our feet, utilizing and strengthening our feet, ankles, knees and hips. We do very little outside the weight room for our hands, wrists, elbows and shoulders. Arm balances build strength in these underutilized upper body joints, strengthening muscles and tendons and increasing joint health, bone density and range of motion.
My next posture, called Peacock, requires extreme core strength. Notice the inverted (rear facing hands) wrist position which adds to the stress on hands and wrists. A modification of Peacock is this arm balance with forward facing hands that I call Awkward Face.
This ground supported backbend posture is called Half Wheel. Backbends are difficult for me (such as with scorpion) because my body is not flexible. Due to inflexibility, I have never been able to fully extend my arms in Half Wheel. Maybe by the time I am 85 I will master it!
Other extreme positions include Hand Stands and the dreaded and frequently butchered (badly performed in most yoga classes) high and low pushup series in the Ashtanga tradition called Chaturanga (sanskrit). We will discuss these more in future videos.
I want to dwell a moment on what you are seeing here. I have never been a gymnast or an athlete and have spent most of my life behind a desk. And I want you to pay close attention to what I am going to tell you next. I DID NOT START YOGA UNTIL AGE 60.
So for all you 30, 40 and 50 year olds who are losing control of your body, don’t give up!
