I have been practicing yoga for nearly twenty years and believed myself to have a fairly good understanding of my body and how it works. Having said that, it was not really until I started practicing Asthanga Vinyasa Yoga that I had any idea what a bandha was or how that related to my core body, and the consequent implications of that awareness.
Augmenting that revelation, I had the opportunity to work with Ana Forrest a couple of years ago and had a huge awakening as to what core strength really could be, and what it wasn’t, in my body, at that time even though I had a dedicated asana practice. Whew, did she ever wake me up!! Needless to say, it was an amazing wake up call because, up to that time I had really only been skirting around deep core awareness with my understanding of bandhas - as limited as it was.
Now, a few years later, I have been practicing with my newfound awareness and developing some techniques of my own and I can honestly say this is some of the most important and profound work you will do, within the context of developing personal strength, core stability, and balanced asanas.