Bikram Yoga Demonstration - Brandy Lyn Winfield on YouTube

Bikram Yoga Demonstration - Brandy Lyn Winfield 

This is an under-ten-minute video with just a few highlights, more because they made me smile than because I wanted to do these poses or transitions myself, with one notable exception.

The first smile moment was a cute contortionist-like backbend she performs at 2:44 - essentially, it's an on-the-floor scorpion with her feet thrown over her shoulders instead of the more-typical toes touching the crown of the head.

My next smile moment was one of those open-mouthed "amazing!" smiles, when she does a very compressed wheel, at 3:59. Her feet are on the floor like wheel, but her chest and arms are also on the floor, with her chin resting on the floor and her face between her feet. This was quickly followed by a similar emotion at 4:12, where she does another typical backbend in a very atypical fashion.

She has a very smooth transition into king pigeon pose at 6:19, which I'd like to emulate someday.

The music is also smile-worthy: peppy and unique, something like a rumba crossed with top-40 vocals. The main negative point? The generally good videography sometimes loses focus, and the performer is not always centered, or even entirely in the frame.

Camatkarasana, Wild Thing or Fallen Triangle

1930s dancer in a camatkarasana pose. Just a neat, vintage photograph. Also, I found that the Sanskrit translation of this pose is "the ecstatic unfolding of the enraptured heart", which is pretty dramatic and neat.

Headstand to arm balance transition

Love the transition from eka pada bakasana to tripod headstand here.

Alyona Tikhonova

This video is full of great transitions, in general. There are many advanced poses, but some of the highlights include crow to headstand to low pushup, side plank splits to split-leg arm balance, and splits variation with the back leg foot bound into the ribs. 

Overview and tips for supreme arms headstand

http://kineticvigilantesyoga.tumblr.com/post/14609006424/supreme-arms-headstand-video

This nifty short video defines a supreme arms headstand if you weren't sure what it is, and demos a very smooth press up into the headstand on the part of the instructor. My favorite part, though,w as when he showed an easier way to get up that doesn't require you to jump or hop up explosively. Pressing up means you build strength and always have control, even if you press up from higher up than the floor (in this case, pushing off of your bent arm instead). Consistent control helps prevent injury - always good!

Three quick videos with notes

I like the shoulder/hip stretch at about 20 minutes in to this video.

And I also like the weird pigeon at 10:45 here.

And the "prana pump" about 4 minutes here is neat, and feels great.

Grasshopper with supreme arms - now that's an arm balance!

http://yogi-moni.tumblr.com/post/68254294684

Grasshopper is already a pretty crazy pose - so much going on, what with one leg pointing out, one leg pointing up, one foot on the back of the opposite arm, and all of it balanced on the palms of the hands...well, it turns out you can turn the crazy up just a little bit more by moving the arms into supreme arms.

If you're not familiar with supreme arms, it's when one forearm is on the ground, like in forearm headstand or forearm balance, and the other arm is bent like in headstand or crow. You can do either arm up or down, and it can be fun to experiment with which one works for you in each pose or transition. For me, supreme arms are pretty wobbly, so even if I try to enter it with "the wrong leg," *I* honestly won't notice!

Supreme arms are a lot of fun, though, because not only is it challenging, but it's neat to see how asymmetrical you are. Because, in symmetrical poses, your good side is taking up any slack from your bad side, it can be hard to build strength on the weaker side - or even to notice that you have a weaker side!

Well, let me tell you, I am 100% sure that I have a weak side (the left) and an inflexible side (the right) and getting those all arranged in some semblance of order with legs flopping around too! It's a challenge :)

After all that about supreme arms, I have to admit, I can't quite get into grasshopper yet. I feel the stretch centered below my glute/hip on the side where the foot is up, and it's just not a comfortable place for me to be yet - so uncomfortable that I don't want to push myself for fear of injury.