At the advanced level or with the better physical development the warming-up can be enhanced to become more efficient. First of all I recommend to start with a self-massage (usual and a pointillage), and after warming-up the joints to add some aerobic exercises, working out the cardio-vascular system, and in addition to that some exercises to warm-up viscera (bandhas and kriyas), voice warm-up (simhasana) and dynamic complexes Surya Namaskar (in a sunny time of the day) and Chandra Namaskar (especially good at a full moon).
Self-massage #
The self-massage can include a contact and non-contact facials, mas-sage of ears, head, neck, viscera of abdominal cavity, of legs and arms.
Warm-up enhancers #
Those practitioners, who are used to all warming-up exercises, can look at their fingers. There is a simple test: stretch your arms before you, your fingers straight, and hold for some time. Gradually you’ll see that some of your fingers automatically folder. Those fingers that crook less are the less energised. So the respective meridians are weakened as well. In this case, warming-up palms, you should pay special attention to these fingers and musculotendinous meridians. An additional effect can be achieved, if you clench the wrists or make a mudra during the warm-up. The warm-up should be done with Muladhara set-up, i.e. with the feeling, working out tendons.
The simplest way to enhance the legs warming-up is to raise legs higher than usual. The tension rises according to the angle. Another al-ternative is to draw the leg aside, turning it — in this way other mus-cles are worked-out. Depending on the angle of drawing the leg, we can activate different musculotendinous meridians.
Bandhas and kriyas #
Bandhas and kriyas are done either as separate exercises or to-gether with asanas and pranayamas. They can also be used as warm-up elements. Because they work with viscera, it’s logical to do them in the end of warming-up («from periphery to the centre»).
Mulabandha #
मूलबन्ध [mūlabandha]
Starting position. This exercise can be done practically in any po-sition. In warming-up it’s ok to do it standing, but the biggest effect it gives in padmasana (lotus posture, not even the half-lotus), because groin muscles are specially stretched. The rest of starting positions make no difference.
Technique. Concurrently squeeze your muscles of the anus sphincter, the pelvic floor and of the genitals. This exercise can be done in the quick tempo or with long holding of muscles.
Inside criteria of doing mulabandha correctly is the feeling that all viscera «rise».
Uddiyana bandha (fisherman pose) #
उड्डीयनबन्ध [uḍḍīyanabandha]
Starting position. This pose makes exercises easier, taking off the tension from the belly.
Technique. Exhale fully, drawing your belly «to the spine», slightly lift-ing it to the ribs. Sometimes it makes sense to do djvaladhara and Muladhara bandhas at the same time. Inhaling, exit the fisher-man’s pose, relaxing your belly. Uddiyana bandha is usually repeated three times in a row.
Particularities. As it was already said, the inhalation should last as long as the exhalation. There is no need to do bandha till everything goes dark before your eyes and then to gasp for some air. The time of doing should let you do the inhalation with no rush.
The action of bandhas is described above.
Uddiyana bandha kriya #
उड्डीयनबन्धक्रिया [uḍḍīyanabandhakriyā]
Starting position. As in the previous exercise.
Technique. After taking uddiyana bandha relax your abdominal muscles, so that your belly «falls out». Repeat several times, accelerat-ing tempo. Ideally raise it with the speed up to 2 times a second. How-ever it’s more important to find your our rhythm and to change tempo so that you don’t get habituation.
Nauli #
नौलि [nauli]
Starting position. Fisherman’s pose.
Technique. Draw your belly in and throw out the rectus, then try to revolve it. Once this muscle comes out, there will be no more prob-lems. Your back must be straight — it helps the energy to go up.
Criteria. While doing nauli one must feel the heat lifting.
Particularities. In the first phase of doing this exercise you should hold the djanaladhara bandha, otherwise the energy can move from the head down. When the heat reaches the throat, djalanhara bandha should be unlocked to let the energy come to the head. In this case there is a feeling of «enlightenment» in the eyes, i.e. as if everything became clearer. This feeling determines the duration of this exercise for everyone personally.
| WARNING! Nauli raises the male¹ sexual energy. In this case it is useful for those who practice brahmacharya or sex without ejaculation — it pre-serves from congestion causing prostatitis, but, if you don’t drive the energy to the head, it easily falls back almost out of control.
Uddiyana bandha, Uddiyana bandha kriya and nauli can be con-sidered as hygienic gymnastics, good for everyday practice. Exercises done in series, men should do odd times and women even times.
Respiratory warm-up #
Simhasana (lion pose) #
सिंहासन [siṃhāsana]
This exercise is good to do in warming-up after nauli, because at this moment the energy is raised up.
Starting position. Standing or sitting.
Technique. Do a full yoga inhalation. Firmly press the tip of your tongue to the upper palate, so that the throat would be strained. Draw-ing your head and your neck ahead, do some full rotation movements by your head. If you’re doing it correctly, the tension in muscles moves in the neck ring — when head is up, the tension is down and vice ver-sa. Stick out your tongue as far as you can, so that you feel tension in the throat and in the back of your tongue) and let out a roar like that of a lion. Roar till the air leaves your lungs. Holding the breath after the exhalation, again press your tongue to the palate and rotate your head.
Action. It is easy to see by one’s own experience, that pressing the tongue to the palate, we strain our muscles of the throat that usually almost never get strained. Rotating the head, we «drive» this tension around: when the head is up, the lower, anterior zone of the throat gets strained, and vice versa. The higher the tongue is pressed (to the teeth, to the near palate, to the far palate), the deeper zones are activated. So the first and the last stages of the exercise provide the inside massage of the throat by the muscle tension — there is no other way to massage this zone, because it is out of access.
The roar should be done not by the throat, not by vocal ligaments, but with the whole inside, as if doing the vibration massage. Roaring with the throat, you’ll just strain your voice and get no effect. To do the exercise right, you must not just show your tongue, but stretch it out at the maximum. Note that the farther you stretch out your tongue (be-ing relaxed), the deeper your larynx gets strained. This makes it pos-sible to vary the therapeutic effect from this asana.
There is a variation of simhasana, where the tongue is stretched not down, but up. It helps to activate some throat muscles that are not used in our everyday life. In this asana the neck should be strained in the posterior part, then the effect will come.
Maha mudra (the great mudra) #
महामुद्रा [mahāmudrā]
ATTENTION! Unlike Paschimottanasana, maha mudra is done with the straight back. The bending is done only by the pelvis. Mudra is done with three bandhas and holding the breath after inhalation. This is an advanced exercise. I don’t recommend practicing it with-out additional clues from your Teacher.
Note
1. For women the same effect is done by viparita karani. ↑