Building strength to maintain poses

Hi Akshaya, thanks for your question. To help you best, perhaps you could tell us a bit about your current yoga practice. Are you currently practicing 26&2?

Yes. I practice 26&2 and also ashtanga primary series. 

Akshaya has taken my class, and what I observed is that "I lack strength to maintain a pose" is not an accurate way to describe what is going on. 

Akshaya has strength, she just has a lot of flexibility. It is evident immediately in half moon- she enters the posture very deeply, but it is noticeable that she is not using strength to be in the posture at that depth. She could benefit from going "less deep" into the sidebend, and instead contracting the muscles of her abdomen, thighs, glutes, etc. 

A similar thing happens in the backbend. Akshaya will stay nearly straight, and then when she hears that the posture is basically ending, she will drop into a very, very deep backward bend. It is another example of avoiding using the muscles. 

What I told her during class (I think it was in bow) was that she could benefit from doing less (much less). In Bow, it was manifesting as her kicking once very quickly to "go deep" and then immediately come out of the posture. Instead, the suggestion is to kick a lot less intensely, but consistently (!) That is really the key: stop avoiding using muscles. USE THE MUSCLES 🙂

And so somewhat jokingly, but also somewhat seriously: the answer to the question is that you don't need "new exercises", per se. Instead, if you practice the 26&2 and the Ashtanga primary series, then you could identify the areas which require strength, and focus on doing those. 

Ah I see. Would it help if I slowly transition into the pose instead of making sudden movements ? I think that would help engage my muscles more and i can consciously make an effort to not go too deep

100%- yes, go more slowly. It is more beneficial to hold the posture in a steady way, even if it is less depth than you might be capable of until "change" VERSUS going very deep but only staying for a quick moment. 

See if you can identify in any given posture which muscles need to be contracted and put more effort than usual on maintaining the contractions. If you aren't sure what should be contracted, ask your teacher (Oleg is a great resource before he leaves Germany!)
Practicing in this way may initially feel like much more work, but based on your question, you seem like the type of practitioner who is interested in doing the work!

...the cool thing about this approach is that if you practice this way for awhile, you will get access to skills, postures, and a feeling of power you haven't yet experienced. Yay 😉 

Great question!