Hands free lotus / padmasana, "...ideally it should be like folding the arms" Simon Borg Olivier

Krishnamacharya

"Similarly, the natural activity of ‘crossing your arms’ allows us to appreciate the difference between ‘tensing’ muscles as opposed to simply ‘activating’ muscles by ‘doing an action’. When you bend your elbow to ‘cross your arms’ it doesn’t feel like your are ‘tensing’ muscles’, but if you touch your biceps brachialis (the muscle on the front of the upper arm) when the elbow bends to cross your arms you can easily feel the biceps muscle working as you make the action of moving the arm into this position. This shows that the muscles of the elbow were ‘activated’ when you when you did this natural activity of bending the elbow but it didn’t feel like you were ‘tensing’ the biceps or any other elbow muscles.

So, a physical yoga practice in a flexible and natural body could be as effortless as ‘crossing your arms’. In fact, for a natural bodied person, for example someone who always squatted and sat cross-legged on the floor, ‘Lotus posture’ (Padmasana) is as ‘effortless as crossing your arms’. Your legs in the ‘Lotus posture’ (Padmasana) should be able to be like your hands – one coming on top of the other. It should not be something where you force or pull the legs into position as many people do in modern yoga, which tends to cause sensations of ‘stretch’ and reflex ‘tension’ (see Figure 1.1).

This principle is reflected morally in the first limb (yama) of astânga (eight-limbed) yoga. It is the very act of moving naturally into a position by ‘activating’ muscles rather than ‘tensing’ muscles that encourages the movement of energy and information through the body. This principle is reflected physiologically in the hatha yoga vidya (the science of physical yoga) and is further explained in Chapter 2 of this book". Simon Borg-Olivier Why After Ten Years of Teaching Yoga We Became Physiotherapists

Below Krishnamacharya hands free padmasana

So Simon talks of moving into padmasana hands free but he also mentions without momentum or gravity, Krishnamacharya above is using momentum

"The video below is part of one of our more advanced Yoga Synergy Sequences. Notice the use of controlled active movements that are a key feature of even the most simple Yoga Synergy sequences. I am getting into postures without using external forces such as gravity, momentum or one limb pulling another in the same way that traditional yoga has always mostly been practiced in India. Active movements activate the shortened muscles, which causes the lengthened muscles to become reciprocally relaxed. This gives flexibility without feeling strong stretching, builds strength without stress,  increases blood flow without the rate racing; and allows you to do complex postures without having to over think. Active movements are a key feature of the Yoga Synergy System that Bianca Machliss and I developed as traditional yoga for the modern body". Simon Borg-Olivier Moving Actively into Postures Can give Strength and Flexibility Without Tension or Stretching

Below I have some videos of moving into lotus from shoulderstand, headstand, handstand and also jumping through and back into lotus into kukkutasana and a hands free padmasana of my own, the last three though use momentum. 

Below I'm exploring the idea of folding into lotus, as if folding your arms. Still very much work in progress, the use of the mat especially with the second leg feels like cheating but it's an interesting experiment and it will be interesting to see if it improves any over the next couple of months. Is it indeed possible to move into lotus while seated, as if folding your arms.

Some early videos

Jumping into lotus and jumping back from lotus

Hands free lotus but relying on momentum

Not hands free but I7m interested in the idea of folding into lotus in headstand (hands free) lowering to the mat but then lifting back up again to unbind. Lowering is trickier than going up.

Amused by this early video of trying to jump into kukkutasana, get there in the end.

Working towards Karandavasana, the 14 day challenge, it took another week before I was able to go back up.
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2009/04/richard-freemans-14-day-day.html

Vinyasa Krama padmasana sequences

Note: the sequences in Vinyasa krama tend to be educational, showing the relation between different variations as preparation and extension.  Generally, within a sequence there tends to be several key asana, preceeded by preparation and followed by my challenging variations. If the preparations for the asana are all that are possible in one group then you could then move on to the next...family within the sequence and so on. Once a certain degree of familiarity is attained one then the idea is to take a number of asana and variations from different sequences to construct your daily practice, perhaps different variations on different days so as to access all areas of the body over a week or so.


Lotus preparation

If you're struggling with your lotus and installing an old fashioned squat toilet is impractical, slipping malasana somewhere into your practice might be an option and may help.

CAUTION.

The most important thing to remember about lotus is to have your knee bent before trying to take it onto the thigh, bending the knee fully, locks and protects the knee, try and crank an unbent knee into lotus, or even trow it in under momentum can cause serious damage.