March 2026 Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami–Spine Vinyasas
Srivatsa Ramaswami
March 2026 Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami–Spine Vinyasas
In February 2026, I went back to Loyola Marymount University after a gap of several years. It was a nice feeling to go to LMU and meet many old friends and teach. It was a 4 day 29 hour program The three hour morning sessions were for the breath oriented Vinyasakrama asana and the afternoon two hours each were for study of Ashtanga Yoga as enunciated by Patanjali and Yagnyavalkya. It was well attended both in person and inline.
I also taught a two day (4 hrs) online program on yoga as a sarvanga sadhans or a holistic practice system hosted by Tara Mitra Yoga.
A few months back I had expressed my desire to teach my 100 hour Vinyasakrama yoga program in America, Europe and India in 2026 before stopping teaching this rather strenuous (to Teach) and involved program. Three organizations have kindly agreed to host this program. Miami Yoga Center and Omstar Yoga in Miami Florida in USA will host the 100 hr program for 20 days from May 11th to the month end, Omyogacenter will handle the online part and they plan to make the complete program available for individual possession as well. The morning sessions will be for breath oriented ten major sequences and the afternoon sessions will be for two texts Krishnamacharya taught thoroughly. viz., Samkhya karika and Yogasutras. Here are the links
https://omstars.com/covinyasa-krama
The 100 hour program in Europe will be hosted by Anantayoga and Ayurveda in Wicklow, Ireland Here is the link I will describe the program in greater detail later.
And then in October/November the 100 hour program will be hosted by Atmayogashala, Chennai. I will get back to it later. Here is the link
https://atmayogashala.practicenow.us/students/subscriptions?service=workshop&plan_id=7474
The spinal yogic exercises
This post appeared in my Facebook Instagram posts earlier. Thought could share with more friends
The spine has four major movements, bending to the sides, turning or twisting, bending backwards and “rounding” the back. Many yogabhyasis do these movements in different asana subroutines. All these movements are done best with exhalation except the backbend which is performed while inhaling alongside the movement. Another procedure for the spine is to stretch it. There are two parts of the spine that require to be stretched or elongated. One is the lumbar spine. In a comfortable seated posture when one raises the arms during slow ujjayi like inhalation, the waist/pelvis is slightly moved up from the hip joint allowing the lumbar spine to stretch a bit. Again while staying in the head stand for a sufficiently long period, the lumbar spine stretches a bit due to gravity, creating a little more intra vertebral space. And this may help the abhyasi to avoid low back pain or perhaps even prolapse of the disc later in life . Then what about the thoracic spine? It moves up and down with the chest. So we have to get into the chest to elongate this part of the spine. It is done in pranayama. Sitting in a yogic posture one would do good slow puraka or inhalation and hold the breath. In this process the chest expands laterally, front and back so also longitudinally. This way the yogi can access the thoracic spine.The head is kept down to enable the spine to stretch fully without the head coming in the way. Stretching of this will help avoid to some extent cyphosis as one ages, also giving sufficient thoracic space for the two vital organs, the heart and the lungs to function more freely. Look at the back of my Guru even in his advanced age.
