The Lower Body: Sacroiliac, Low Back and Neck Health: Working with the Layers or ‘Koshas’ of Feeling in the Fascia of the Spine — With Implications and Applications in the Teaching of Asana + Applications in Asana Practice (MORNING PORTION)

Full Saturday AM portion:

The Lower Body: Sacroiliac, Low Back and Neck Health: Working with the Layers or ‘Koshas’ of Feeling in the Fascia of the Spine — With Implications and Applications in the Teaching of Asana

Traditional approaches to therapeutic applications of yoga have focused on the ‘Koshas’ or ‘Sheaths’ of energy. These layers were described functionally — and the more deeply we come to understand the functions of fascia, the more deeply a practical correlation can be drawn between fascia and the Koshas. The fascia of the low back provides a concrete example of this.

Beginning with a focus on the influence of the deepest muscles of the spine — the multifidi — which influence the movements of the sacrum, and are a central factor in sacroiliac and low back pain, we will expand to look at the sheaths of fascia and muscles nested within them that profoundly influence low back health. At this point, research into low back pain is looking beyond trying to isolate factors in low back pain, such as individual muscles, and instead to the thoracolumbar fascia as a matrix of interrelated layers.

This has very concrete and practical implications for our understanding of asana and the dynamics of asana. This will include not just the health of the lumbar spine and sacroiliac joints, but will also include an exploration of sciatic pain, which radiates from the gluteals down through the leg and sometimes into the foot. It is one of our most ancient pain problems, appearing even in the literature of the Greeks, and is as prevalent today as low back pain.

11:45 — 1:15 Applications in Asana Practice

$100 early bird / $140 day of