Key actions for a great plank to down dog

This shape of spine is key throughout the sequence

Here I give you some key instructions that can support a beautiful transition from kneeling plank to down dog to bakasana.

Watch the video first.  You can see the a side view and the front view in the same video.  I have sped this video up so this whole sequence actually took 2 minutes in real life.  I am really trying to emphasis some good slow mindful movement. 

The instructions below should help firm the tummy and armpits while giving a sense of length in the spine (neither stretching nor tightening).  

The key instructions here are to push front of groins to armpits and armpits to front of groins.  Then, if you can add something else, press your hands forward and your knees back.  You should start with feeling relaxed in your tummy.  You should be able to breathe naturally into your belly throughout although it will become firm through the instructions (but not by sucking it in). 

Kneeling plank

 In this kneeling plank make sure knees are behind hips, shoulders over wrists.

Sitting bones move down towards backs of knees, front of pelvis lifts to the lower back to lengthen the lower back.

Lift lower ribs towards the back of chest to lengthen around the middle and upper back.

Press front of groins towards the armpits and armpits towards the front of groins without moving the body forward.  This should bring a postural firmness to your tummy.

If you can manage, press hands forward and knees back while you maintain groins and armpits moving towards one another.

Half child pose
Quite honestly I did not know what to call this position.  It is halfway between kneeling plank and balasna (child's pose).

I move very slowly back into this position.  I am not trying to get my bottom onto my heels.  I am thinking about maintaining the key actions I established in the previous position.  As I move back my challenge is to keep feeling as though I am moving my groins forwards.

See the spine stays the same shape.




Partial lift
Here I focus on keeping the groin-armpit connection then go back again to pressing hands forward but toes and heels backwards.  This combined effort causes my knees to become light.  They start to lift of their own accord.

Downward dog

I keep with those four actions:

• armpits to groins
• groins to armpits
• hands pressing forward
• feet pressing backward

Walk forward

Maintaining those actions (you might need to let up on pushing feet back because they start to be less on the ground), bend your knees and walk your feet forward.  I tip-toe forwards trying to stay as light on my feet as possible. 

Bakasana

If I keep pressing armpits to groins and vice versa, press hands forwards, lift knees up to chest, rest them lightly on the back of my arms, press elbows back and towards one another and just keep breathing and leaning forward then you might find yourself floating.  Maybe you stay on tip toes.  Wherever you are be happy wherever that is.  Keep working on being where you are and staying for a little bit longer until you feel comfortable moving to the next stage.  

Remember, nothing should hurt.  If you have not developed the correct strength and actions around the wrists then you need to work on clawing with your fingertips and pressing the wrists into one another and just have less weight on the wrists until you are ready to shift more weight there.

Have fun.

Remember, these videos are primarily intended for my own students so I can give adjustments and comments and personal feedback.  It is always best to go to an actual teacher rather than learn off the internet.


Oh, and don't forget about my retreat in Sri Lanka this April 2016.  Come along if you can!

Much metta,
Samantha

www.yogacafecanberra.blogspot.com
www.yogacafelk.blogspot.com

Cues to Firm Your Tummy And Stabilise Shoulders in Suriya Namaskar

Tiny things can make an enormous difference to your practice.

In this post I share some small tips to help you in suriya namaskar.  They will help create postural firmness in your tummy and around your shoulders.

When you use these tips you should feel from but calm.  If you were beside someone you should be able to be in the posture and talk to them normally, without feeling breathless.  Otherwise you are too deep in the posture and you need to back off.

When applied mindfully these little tips will help you practice less with more benefit.  Then you can spend more of your time living your practice and being happy and helpful to other people and less time in the practice arena.

Watch the video then read the written and visual instructions.

In your own practice you should maintain the free feeling in your spine.  It is easy to hang in your shoulders and your lower back and the cues I give here should help you avoid this and thus avoid strain.

Four cues

1. I have put circles around the lower back area to show you that it is always in a lengthened position.  I would not call this neutral or tucked under pelvis.  I imagine I am lengthening my sitting bones towards my heels and my top of pelvis back.  This lengthens my lower back and lengthens the front of groin area.  I am looking for this feeling of lengthening and freedom throughout the cycle.  CUE: Sitting bones down, top of pelvis back to lengthen lower back.
2. I have put circles around the shoulder joint area to show that I am focussing on not dropping or sining into the shoulders.  Instead I feel that I am lifting out of them.  Pressing my hands down and forward helps with this lifting feeling.  CUE: press hands down and forward.
3. I have also put circles in some positions around the elbows.  The cue here is that I am bending the elbows so they point back towards the knees/hips/toes and squeezing them together as though they are trying to touch.  Even when my elbows are straight, as in the plank or down dog, I feel as though I am making those actions but with straight arms.  This gives me a feeling of broadening across upper back and neck.  CUE: elbows bend towards hips, squeeze in.
4. I have put circles and arrows around feet and knees.  I try to keep as little weight as possible on knees and toes as possible.  I make an effort to drag the toes or knees (whatever is on the ground) towards the hands.  This creates more tummy activation.  CUE: feel as though you are pulling toes/knees towards your hands. 

There are more things you can do in these postures but these cues will help create postural firmness in the tummy and around the shoulder joint so that you feel like you are doing something but can breathe naturally and without feeling stress or strain in your spine or shoulders.

From Plank

Be on the very tip toes in your plank.  Not on the ball of the feet.  Right up there on the toe nail area.  Over the tops of your toes if possible.  With the shoulders over the wrists this should automatically create firmness in the tummy in a way you can still breathe. 

The feet feel like they are pulling forward towards the hands. This should create more postural firmness.

It is important that you start from a position of the lower back lengthened.

The lower ribs are lifting.  If you look at my spine it is more in a straight line than with any dips.  No valleys between my shoulder blades.  

Kneeling Plank

I lower my knees softly here.  In the video I show how I raise and lower the knees and the knees feel light on the ground.  I feel as though I am pulling my knees towards my chest.  Shape of spine did not change. 

Bend and squeeze elbows

From kneeling plank I bend elbows back towards hips. It does not change the height of the posture.  I do not dip into my shoulders or create valleys in my shoulder blades. 

I also squeeze my elbows towards one another.

Your elbows might not bend very far.  It is not important.  You should feel the work around the under arm and side chest area and that your neck has become more free. 

Lean forward

Lean the whole structure forward.  You are not trying to lower.  Try to stay up.  You will lower somewhat but that is not what I am thinking about at all.  I am trying to maintain the integrity of the structure I have created and just lean the whole thing forward.  

Most people will find they cannot go very far.  That is not important.  Maintaining integrity is important.  Don't let your ego write cheques your body can't cash (do I need to put the reference in there?  It's from Top Gun of course!).  

Knees up

If all is good maybe, just maybe, you might feel you can press your heels back to lift the knees while maintaining your integrity.  There should be no change in the structure aside from a secret knee lift.  If you cannot make that secret knee lift then you are not ready for this version of the posture and go back.

Knees down

Pop knees back down if you took them up.

Chest forward and up

This sequence of postures has me maintaining, in particular, integrity of my lower back.  Feeling as though I am drawing my knees forward helps tremendously.

I do not dip into the shoulders.  I simply (well, if you try you will maybe find it is not that simple after all) try and wriggle my spine forward and up through my arms.

Take your pelvis away from the floor if you feel any strain in your lower back.  This should not feel like a back tensing posture.  It should feel like a spine lengthening posture.

Down dog

Ease your way back to a buoyant child's posture and to down dog.

In Sum
A feeling of ease and length in your spine is glorious.  You will feel less like you are stretching and more like you are just having a bit of a jet spa inside your body, loosening and relaxing your muscles.  You will definitely still feel like you are doing something.  But practice to a level where you can still breathe easily

This is the way I like to practice.  It is better than any massage I have ever received and, when done well, you feel like you are floating buoyantly.

I hope to impart this type of knowledge and practice to you in my Canberra outdoor classes and in my upcoming retreat in Sri Lanka.

Practice mindfully.

Much metta,
Samantha
www.yogacafecanberra.blogspot.com
www.yogacafelk.blogspot.com

Best Ever Shoulder Stabilising and Positioning

Well, that is a pretty bold claim I know.  If it is not the best ever it is certainly one of the best I have found that you can practice within a yoga sequence.

This is a little sequence we are practicing in my Canberra outdoor yoga classes.  

It is something new that I inserted in the past few weeks and it has certainly vamped up some people's practice.  

The final pose is not new itself--we have always been practicing some version of pincha mayurasana or horn stand. 

What is new is the way we come into it. 

I am mindful of not always coming into postures the same way.  

This helps me feel things differently and also to keep me learning.  I like to think it helps prevent bad habits from keeping into my practice as well.

Inserting this into my classes has helped to shake up the practice of a lot of students, in a good way!  

It helps you understand a little bit more about the strength, mobility, and stability around the shoulder joint complex.

It is also another nice way to come into downward facing dog (adho mukha svanasana) that keeps your spine light and free and I feel it is worth practicing just the transition from balasana to down dog just for that spinal freedom. 

As always, this post is intended for my students.  I believe it is best to learn from a physical teacher not a virtual one through the internet.   I will be teaching these little spinal freeing techniques and some foundational shoulder mobilising and stabilising techniques in my upcoming yoga retreat in Sri Lanka as well.  

Watch the video then check out the step by step sequencing.  Do not do anything that hurts.  Move slowly.  Stretch less, tense less, and see if you can breathe and think less as well.  Be comfortable and feel like you are doing something but without strain. 

Video sequence

The video shows the transition from balasana, then to downward dog. From there I bend my elbows simultaneously to come down onto my forearms.  Then I straighten them simultaneously to come back to downward dog, pull my knees into my chest, and lower my butt back to my heels.

That is a nice little sequence itself and we do it naturally in our practice at a few points and you could try it, for example, within a suriya namaskar if you want to insert it into your own home practice. 

If you are up to that level, you can see I start again but get to my forearms and come into the forearm balance, pincha mayurasana.  That is pretty tough and I do not practice with a wall.  

Below I deconstruct the sequence.

Balasana

I start in balasana on the balls of my feet.  

I reach my arms as far forward as they will go.  I creep my fingers forward on finger tips first like a spider scurrying away.  Then I put my hands down flat. 

I do not try to get my chest on my thighs.  

In fact, you can see I have a little space between my chest and thighs.  My whole spine feels like it is lengthening.  I am not trying to arch it or straighten it.  Just to reach my arms away and lengthen it as much as possible. 

Knees to chest

I push my hands down and forwards and then lift my knees into my chest as much as I can.

Your tummy will work.  I try not to have forward movement around the shoulder joint complex.

Down dog

I continue my journey to down dog by trying to push my heels down from the previous position.  If you watch the video you can see it is more like my legs unravel beneath my hips.

There is no levering around the shoulders or pressing of the spine at all.  It is what I call a 'secret movement'.  The legs do the moving without disturbing the spine or shoulders.

Lower to forearms

This is much harder than it looks!  Try to lower the elbows at the same time.

Perhaps try to bend the elbows slightly first.  Then try to hug the elbows together as you lower.  Allow your knees to bend if needed and the heels to lift if they lift.

Again, this is trying to be a secret movement so the spine is not disturbed.

Back up again

Aiyo! as my friends in Sri Lanka might say.  This is really tricky again.

Try to get back up to down dog by pushing down and forward through the hands.  Try to get the elbows up at the same time (not one at at time).

If it is too much then bring your knees down and come back up through balasana.

Back down for a rest

You can pull your knees back into your chest on your way back down to balasana. 

Back up if you want!
Head back up to down dog and then back onto forearms if you want.

From there you can walk the feet in a little.  Again, a secret movement so the spine and shoulders are not disturbed. I am looking towards my navel.  This helps keep tummy engaged.

Working your way up

Make sure you build your stability in the preceding poses before trying this next one.  The most common mistake I see in class is people trying to bring their knee to chest while collapsing into one of their shoulders.  

Move slowly if you are going to try this and sense that you are not twisting your spine or dropping into one shoulder more than the other.  If you are doing this then you are not ready to bring knee to chest and you need to keep practicing the preceding poses.

Again, bringing knee to chest is a secret movement that does not disturb your spine or shoulders.  Remember also that this pose, the way I practice, should be spine releasing and neck releasing.  

If your neck and top of shoulders are feeling tense then you are in some other pose and I recommend you get out and go back to basics!

Pincha

If all is going well you might try to tap or kick up into pincha mayurasana.  It is pretty tricky.  I keep saying that don't I? 

I am trying to practice pincha in a true neck releasing style by looking more towards my navel when I am up rather than looking forward.  I press strongly down and forwards through elbows and wrists to help generate lift.  I push up through the balls of my feet.  I feel light and my spine is lengthening not squashing.  I sort of feel a bit like when I was a kid and my uncles used to pick my up by my feet and hang me upside down (playfully as a game!).  

As always, happy and safe practicing.  There should not be strain or tension.  The shoulders and neck should feel great.  If they don't you are in some other pose and make sure you seek advice from your teacher.

We will take a look at these movements in more detail in my classes in Canberra and Sri Lanka and workshop them at the retreat in Sri Lanka in October.

Much metta,
Samantha

www.yogacafecanberra.blogspot.com
www.yogacafelk.blogspot.com