Anusara Yoga

I have to admit that I approached Anusara yoga with skepticism. Yoga is big business these days and several schools have marketed themselves successfully as trend-setters.

While Anusara yoga has gained popularity and attention (see, for example, the recent summer edition of Vanity Fair), there’s substance to back the hype. After listening to the opinions of some experienced yogi VFers, I bought my first Anusara DVD (Lauren Mone’s Aligning the Upper Body) and took my first classes this summer. I’ve come to like the style very much.

For those who want a balance between the vinyaasa-flow styles of most classes nowadays and the iyengar styles"attention to form, safety, and anatomy of movement, Anusara yoga seems like a good fit. It’s big on form and lighter on sun salutations than many styles. And it does seem to be grounded in sound kinetic principles. I’ve never hurt myself doing Anusara yoga. The tips on the placement of the lower back, shoulders, and pelvis during asanas seems helpful.

And now finally to the review.

“Anusara Essentials” by John Friend is a useful addition to most libraries. Those who dislike esoteric metaphors, beware. There’s a fair amount jargon about finding your inner essence, letting your body become “sparkly” and open, and so on. This fuzzy language is balanced, however, by precise instructions on form. The accompanying music is relaxing and at no point does the rhetoric spin too far from the pose at hand. I get Friend’s point. He’s trying to bring practitioners through the alignment of the pose into a kind of larger spiritual alignment. A bookish, sporadic yoga student, I tend to have less patience for awkward metaphors. The instructions on form were so intelligent and articulate that I wasn’t distracted as much by his flowery digressions. I found the practice relaxing but also insightful. I took away several tips on form that I can apply to my own practices.

“Anusara Essentials” is a 66 minute compilation of poses featured on “Anusara 101,” which is 2 hours long. I have both and recommend the Essentials version to those who want an audio introduction to Anusara. I recommend Mone’s DVD to those who are absolutely new to Anusara and don’t have access to a local class.

The poses included on the Essentials CD include:

Centering

Child’s pose

Downward facing Dog

Forward Bend

Shoulder Openers

Sun Salutations

Side Angle Standing Pose

Triangle Pose

Half Moon Pose

Intense Standing Hamstring Stretch

Pigeon Pose

East Side Stretch

Bridge Pose

Supine leg stretch

Sitting forward bend

Sitting wide angle pose

Sitting twist

Half spinal twist

Supine spinal twist

Savasana.

The savasana (final relaxation pose) is nine moments of divine relaxation. I enjoyed this practice and find it a handy addition to my instructional media. Recommended.

Anusara Yoga with John Friend (4 DVD set)

Although his patter continually gets more keyword oriented these sessions are pretty close to the mixed level workshops Friend tours with, except there aren't musicians playing live during practice. They were done as webcasts for Omega. No flow yoga year, no dancing poetry -- not by a long shot. Key poses are reached gradually, with lots of prep in a structure that is pretty typical of all-level JF instruction (I'd like to see some advanced stuff with the fancy inversions in another series) and his original group of certified anusarians.

I skimmed through all the DVDs and they follow a similar pattern. I started with The Dance of Yes and No. This one is all about arm balances. The lead-ins are thorough and even if you can't achieve the actual balances there's plenty of room in which to work. Friend and his assistants are very encouraging.

Next look-see in the series: Growing a Lotus. This production is a great counterweight to Erich Schiffmann's Lotus. Where Erich is all methody (as in acting): be in the pose, do it so it feels right; Friend is methodical/analytical: this leads to this, leads to that and here's why...

And, just as in Schiffmann's lotus practice, you don't have to do a full lotus, or even a half one. I have a knee injury and avoided the title pose with no problem. What both DVDs are really about is hip openers. I enjoyed working with this sequence this morning.

I think the chitchat is about 10-15 min. -- the practices run about 90 min.

And then: Lakshmi Rocks Me this morning. Its focus is backbends -- there's some great urdvha danurasana (wheel) instruction with clear demos of assists and working with a spotter.

I looked at Riding the Waves of Grace -- just a glance, no attempt to work with it. It's focus is hip openers, seated twists and forward bends, with some bits of pranayama included.

Over-all: No music during the practice itself (but it’s so easy to add your own if you want it), good chapter points, clear photography. I did these in no particular order. They seemed to work just fine that way. The series is very instructional, but works and is intended as a follow-along deal. After all, these are real yoga sessions -- they're just filmed. All 4 DVDs run about 90 min. If you're really curious about anusara, take a look. There's a lot of talk in the beginning of the DVDs -- you might want to skip those chapters after the first time through (you should listen to his rap at least once though).

I’ve had a few years of anusara classes and two days with the man himself during his 2004 tour, I don't buy Friend's schtick all the way. I find him a little over the top with his drive to simplify -- sometimes things are complex because they're, well, complicated. But he does have plenty to offer to a balanced practice and he offers it with good humor.

And he does a great job of introducing the intermediate (and experimental/experienced beginner) student to empowering stuff like arm balances, while explaining how you can make your energy work for you.

Besides, it’s fun to play with the dynamic between muscular and organic energy. (And you just might find yourself in astavakrasana:http://www.yogajournal.com/newsletter/myj_181.html )

If you're interested in anusara I think they're must-haves. If you want to just get a taste maybe you should just go for one and see how it goes. You can pick your focus: hip openers/lotus; arm balances; backbends; forward bends/seated twists/pranayama.

This review is clumsy and relatively unedited due to a wandering Internet connection in Argentine. But doesn’t the effort count?

My background: I don't believe in assigning levels: I can do many advanced poses but I like to think of my practice as rooted in a basic matrix. I've been doing some stuff with yoga for over 20 years. I've had a daily practice for over 10 years, have attended class for over 6 years. I've done teacher training and teach yoga now and then.

I've been a regular exerciser for over 25 years (I'm in my 60s).