Just one of many props invented by B.K.S. Iyengar to improve alignment and support your asana practice, the ropes can bring your practice to a fun, new level. Anyone who has ever sat on a swing and enjoyed the almost weightlessness or swaying back and forth, being suspended from above can appreciate the fun you have when practicing yoga with ropes. As soon as I saw YH2 was offering a "Ropes Workshop", I signed right up!
The workshop was led by Jill, who, in addition to being a well-established Iyengar teacher, was also the instructor for the History and Philosophy portion of our teacher training. She is a serious student of Sanskrit, and quite skilled in chanting - at least far more skilled than I can ever hope to be - various mantras and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. She is also rather well-known for being extremely precise in her instruction. This is typical for Iyengar teachers (Erich Schiffman recounts being cuffed on the chin by Iyengar himself during practice for not keeping his chin precisely level during a pose), but for the yoga student who is less humble, this precision can be frustrating.
Jill began the workshop by reminding us to practice Ahimsa (non-violence/non-harming), Svadhyaya (self-study), and Tapas (discipline) while doing our work. This was not a "yoga class", so there were no warm ups, no savasana, just 2 1/2 hours of perfecting postures, feeling the difference with ropes and without. This was the chance to study our practice and notice how the ropes support our work in the postures, and perhaps encourage more perfect alignment. We needed to know our limits and not work past our edge, avoiding injury (non-harming). We also should approach the practice with discipline, at least giving everything a try, no matter how impossible or acrobatic it looks. (Who am I kidding? This was a level 2 class, and everyone in there was after the acrobatics!)
We were able to experience subtle variations on postures, and perhaps work smaller muscle groups that we might not normally have access to without the ropes. For instance, in a simple Adho Mukha Svanasana, we push down equally with our palms and balls of our feet to lift our hips into the "inverted V" shape. With these props, your hips are lifted by the ropes, so a different group of muscles in the upper arm are isolated and worked. With regular ropes work, I can envision it making a real difference in the sculpting of the arm. Trouble is, workshops like these don't come around often, and when they do, they are a little pricey ($45 would be hard to cough up every week).
By the end of the 2 1/2 hours, my hands were sore. I had a touch of rope-burn, and complained a little, to which Jill replied, "Oh, well, you're building strength in your hands, and when you're 80, you'll be able to open that jar of pickles on your own." I also had done some wacky iterations of Warrior 1, Warrior 2, Wheel, and even Childs Pose with the assistance of the ropes. The proverbial jewel in the crown was the final posture of the session, an inversion: We did Sirsasana (headstand) on the ropes. This is the pose you can see in the photo above, with the students' legs in a diamond shape, the ropes suspending them upside down from the wall. It was great! After the long workshop, it felt like no time at all had passed, and despite working my muscles for 2 hours solid, I wasn't tired. I felt limber, invigorated, and ready to go throughout the rest of my day with a feeling of lightness and strength. I guess that's what happens when you get to fly a little from the ropes!
"Yoga is the perfect opportunity to be curious about who you really are." - Jason Crandell
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