We’ve all seen those shows where a comedian stands up and asks the audience for words or scenarios. Then with the material they go on to tell a long and complex joke with a ripper of a punch line.
So Uday stands in front of us and we are expecting him to tell us what we will be working on for the morning of this one day workshop. Not at all.
The question comes ‘what would you like to do today’. Silence. We weren’t expecting that. Then someone on the back row pipes up ‘Hanumanasana’. We all laugh - some more nervously than others. Other suggestions - shoulder mobility - sciatic nerve release - among them.
We work on standing back on our heels. We feel how it affects the curvature in the lumbar spine. Is it too curved? Are we pushing the chest out. Can we flatten that lumbar curvature and pull the chest in-line so it’s not puffed out? We have been honing Tadasana. And we are invited to consider how it may be that we need to revise habits which may have become automatic and should be challenged. Uday gives the analogy of driving in Pune for 10 years in comparison with what was required on a driving test in the UK.
We move on to the shoulders. A succession of variants of Urdhva Hastasana to feel the extension outwards of the shoulder blades but without compromising our now broadened lower backs. Stretching the arms out. Now let’s do all that prone. We have to be careful with our arms the room is so full. Not surprising this is an Uday Bhosale workshop.
We now move into Virabhadrasana 2. We’re concentrating on the arms and the shoulders. Not so much the legs. But hell- pride, we do our best there too.
Now in Virasana we anchor our bums to our heels and stretch forward slowly into Adho Mukha Virasana. But not so far as to compromise the poise of the lower back and making sure to feel the mobility in the shoulder blades, not pinching in at the back but broadening. We use our finger tips to raise our arms from the floor to help show us what’s going on there. I am again reminded of the ripple effect that the extremities, fingers and toes, heels, have on the rest of the body.
Now let’s take all that to Urdhva Mukha Svanasana and then Adho Mukha Svanasana and now if one lifts the right leg forward, and ooops I might want some support to my sitting bones here, between the hands and voilà we’re heading to Hanumanasana.
In the afternoon we move onto hip mobility with precise guidance, clear insight and careful direction.
Now I know this isn’t a totally accurate nor totally precise account of the day. But I also know that I have had the pleasure and benefit of taking part in a masterclass. Thank you DHIY committee and thank you Uday.