A Big Little Hip Sequence To Challenge You

Wow, what a title.  I must try and make it live up to its name.

Here I share with you a short sequence we are practicing at the moment in class.  It involves two basic postures although you transition through other positions to get there.

Most people will experience some sensation around their outer hip (outer or side butt area), which will be working and lengthening at the same time.  That can help you get stronger and more agile.

The standing leg is working strongly very deeply on the inside and outside of the thigh to help keep the pelvis stable as well.  This type of stability is essential for standing postures and especially one legged standing postures.

Remember, there is lots of goodness to be had here.  Just don't overdo it.

I will sequence the postures, layering additional movements.  Try not to 'lose' what you cultivated in a previous action by striving too hard to get to the next.  Do not be attached to a particular outcome. Be content wherever you happen to be.  Enjoy, sense, and experience.

Video
I have sped up the video below but you can play it at half speed to get the sense of the very slow movement I am doing.  It took 2 minutes for me to cycle through these two postures in real time while this video takes about 54 seconds.

Instructions
Below are step by step instructions.  Two key things I am focusing on throughout (they are not the only things you could focus on) are: 1) rolling front thigh out and back thigh in; 2) lengthening the back of the spine (doing a little back bend in my middle upper back) while keeping lower ribs hugged in.  This is not about a straight front leg.  If that straightens then so be it.  It is not about getting the back leg raised as high as you can either.  If it comes up then so be it.  Pay more attention to the two key things I just listed.


Standing to folding forward
Basics throughout include trying to unsquash front of groin and lengthen lower back.  Also, to roll the front thigh out (back thigh in).  To support these two ideas start in standing.  Sitting bones to heels, top of pelvis back (opens groins and lengthens lower back).  Roll both thighs out (you can start with big toes touching, heels apart and try to squash heels together if you like).

As you fold forward try to keep those actions.  It is not important that the legs straighten.  Push your front of groins forward as you lower.

 Stepping back, lengthening, rotating
Step a foot back.  As you step back be sure you do not drop or sink into the standing leg.  Try to feel you are pressing your outer hips towards one another.  The standing leg tends to swing out to the side so try your best to avoid that. The standing leg also tends to roll in.  That means your knee tends to drop towards the big toe side of your foot.  Roll the thigh out so it is pointing more to the baby toe side of your foot.  Firm your inner thigh.









 Straighten the back leg and roll the thigh in.  Lengthen in the middle back (try to do a backbend there) while keeping the lower ribs in.

Press your front of groins forward and lean forward.










If your back foot is feeling light, if your front hip feels strong and stable, then perhaps raise the straight back leg.  It is not important how high it comes.  It is not even important that it comes off the ground.  Just keep it straight and rolled in wherever it is.










From there, maybe you turn your navel, ribs, and chest.  Possibly take the arm up.  You could put that top arm on your hip.  The top arm is in a flat plane level with your upper back.








Two feet on the ground, lengthen, rotate
You basically repeat those same steps but this time with both legs on the ground, back heel grounded.  Some people will be able to reach the ground with their hands and front leg straight.  However, in this variation the front leg does not need to straighten, nor do you need to touch the ground.  For many people this will not be possible unless they compromise some other part of the posture.

Here I step back, raising my body and bringing hands to thighs.  You might raise higher.  See my front knee is bent.  I have my back leg a little bent here too until I sort my hips out.

Front thigh is rolling out, back thigh is rolling in.

 I keep my ribs into my spine but try a little back arch in my middle back to lengthen the spine.  It is not an arched spine but a lengthened one.  In fact, I am sort of doing a forward bending manoeuvre in my lower torso (a sit up in my tummy) while I try to do a little lengthening in the middle part. The net effect is a softening lengthened feeling of the back body.  I stretch the mat with my feet and straighten the back leg (I have somehow kept my own a little bent here).

I stay or turn.  In the video you see I turn first and then put the arms in place.  That is important.  I turn with my spine NOT by yanking myself into position with my hands.
















I possibly take my hands lower, without losing any preceding actions.

From there I maybe straighten the leg.  

And finally, I possibly take that hand over to the inside of my foot.  

I am calm and happy.  My neck is in a comfortable position throughout.

The end
This is not the only way to come into these postures.  It is one way.  You should feel challenged while doing this without strain.  If there is strain then do something else.  Remember, it is best to work with an experienced teacher rather than learn from the internet.  We all have out little niggles and differences.  Also, learning about movement is something best done with a living person in front of you.

Hey!  If you are free in April 2016 and able to join me then come to my Sri Lanka yoga retreat!  I would love to see you there.

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

Groins Away: A Way To Firm The Tummy, Lengthen Spine, and Try Bakasana

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

Find Your Hips To Enhance Your Practice

Just to clarify any ambiguity this photo might provoke, this is a post about hips and not my butt!

In this post I show you how to find your hips and give some tips on how to 'level' your hips in postures like parsvottanasana and parivrtta trikonasana.  I stress the importance of creating an internal body map.  There is a quiz, a video, and some instructions to help!

Figuring out your own internal body map is one of the benefits of yoga (or any mindful practice).

By that I mean understanding where a part of your body is in space without needing to look at it.  You 'feel' it from the inside.

Feeling where your hips are in space is a tricky one, but being able to do so can really enhance your practice.

One of the reasons it is tricky, as I discovered this week, is because some of us have come this far in life mislabelling where their hips are on their own body.

This week I asked all of my classes to put their fingers on their hips and most people put their hands somewhere else.

That was a great realisation for me because I have been cueing hips for a while and if your own internal body map of where your hips are is different from where your actual hips are then you will not be thinking about the body part I want you to.

For fun, let's start with a little guessing game.

Have a look at the photos below and see if you can tell me which photo has me with my fingers on my hips.

A: Are these my hips?

B: Are these my hips?

C:Are these my hips?

 The answer is C.

From my informal class survey it seemed the most common responses were to put the hands in position B, somewhere at the top of the pelvis, or A at the waist.

That likely means if I give an instruction about moving the hips your brain will think about the waist or top of pelvis and you will be moving from a different place.

Asking the question in the first place was inspired by a question from one of my students who was having a trouble knowing whether her hip position was correct in parsvottanasana and parivrtta trikonasana.

These two postures are ones where having a good internal body map of where your hips are is important.

A lot of people try to 'feel' a level pelvis in those postures by putting their hands on the back of their pelvis.

But that relies more on interpreting the position sense of your arms as they touch the pelvis when you might be better off trying to interpret the position sense of the actual hips and direct your awareness there.

How to find your hips
The first important step is to be able to locate your own hips.  Take a look at this video for some thoughts.  Turn up your volume as I speak on this video (a little like a robot it seems!).

In the video I show how if you find the front crease of your thigh and draw an imaginary line to the outer side of the thigh, and/or find the crease under your bottom and draw an imaginary line to the outer side of your thigh then you will be around the hip joint.

Level on a front back plane
Below I show how the hips are not level on a front/back plane.  The forward leg hip has come in front of the back leg hip.  This commonly happens if you are not mindful.  It is less likely for the back hip to come forward of the front hip in these postures.

One of the reasons the front hip creeps forward in this type of posture is because the front thigh starts to roll in, which reduces the lengthening around the outer hip and hamstring.

Allowing this to happen therefore reduces the efficacy of the posture in lengthening the outer hip and hamstring of the front leg.

It tends to happen if you try to come down with your spine more than your body is ready for.

Perhaps consider not coming down so far so you can maintain the hips level on the front back plane.

Another 'feeling' that the front hip has crept forward is that the side waist on that side starts to feel shorter relative to the side waist on the back leg side.

If you feel this is happening you can try to roll the front thigh out or think about moving the front hip backwards.

Level on an up/down plane
The other thing that can commonly happen is that one hip is higher than the other, as shown below.

One hip up and one hip down

One hip up and one hip down

Level hips

In a pose like parivrtta trikonasana (reverse triangle), it is more common that the back hips tends to go down.  As far as I can tell this tends to be due to trying to take the arm across the front leg and get to the ground, which can cause you to turn drop the hip in an effort to get that arm across and down.

If you practice that way you will be turning the pelvis but not necessarily doing any active spinal movement.

It is not necessary to get the arm across the thigh or down to the ground.

The way I teach parivrtta trikonasana is to keep the hips level and to turn the spine.  You take the hand on the inner thigh and only go towards the ground to the extent that you can keep the hips level. Most people will not be able to come to the ground with level hips but you will feel the benefit of haven actively rotated the spine and also of lengthening around the front outer hip and hamstring.

Below is a video that shows the difference between turning spine not hips and turning hips not spine.

Parivrtta trikonasana is actaully a very difficult posture, especially when you maintain level pelvis.

Overall
It was tricky to film this on my own and I hope I have at least been able to show you where your hips are.  In class I can help you to find them and feel level hips in your postures.  Learning from the internet is always tough for a practice like yoga.

The postures I demonstrated in this post are complex and there are many more instructions I could have given but my main intent was to get you to think about hip position rather than overwhelm you with all of the other stuff going on

Hope you are happy and healthy.

Much metta,

Samantha

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

Sculpture Balance

Yikes this one is tricky but fun.  

I have a vision of a group of us learning this posture and standing in a garden somewhere as human sculptures.

Not sure how long we could remain standing as it is one of our most challenging static balances.

I chose to stand on this podium to take these photos.  Which was both a good idea and a not so good one.

I wanted to get up there because I knew it would be challenging.  I can do this fairly easily on solid ground where there is not a lake to fall into.  

So I thought I'd step it up a little. Goodness fear makes it hard to do anything!

My balance was fairly disturbed up there on the podium and there was no way I could hold this for very long.  Fear can really take so much away from us, mentally and physically.  

There are a few basics to coming into this posture.  

Remember:

• when two body parts come into contact try to press them into one another.  That means pressing thigh into foot and foot into thigh, then thigh into elbow and elbow into thigh, then hand into elbow and elbow into hand, and, if you get to the top, pressing hand into chin and chin into hand.  
• try to get a feeling that you are drawing your hips towards one another.
• activate inner thighs.
• find a point to focus on, grip with the toes, and relax your face and breath--these things help with the balance.
• I create firmness in my tummy by lengthening my lower back and pressing my hips forward (though they may not go anywhere).
• have fun.
• don't hurt yourself.
• try not to fall off anything.
• it is best to learn from a physical teacher rather than the internet.
• if it feels bad it is bad so stop.
• natural breathing.

Toe forward, hips forward, hips together, inner thighs together

Lengthen lower back and move hips forward, toe forward.  Be on toe tip if you can.  If that is too difficult be on the ball of your foot.

To help with your balance throughout, try to press your outer hips towards one another.  Then, try to press your inner thighs towards one another.  You should feel that this creates some firmness on the inner and outer hips and helps to stabilise the balance.

My toes of standing foot are gripping.  For the first part I am looking with a soft gaze to the ground.  These also help with the balance.

Relaxing your face and breathing naturally will also help your balance.

Knee move forward, heel to thigh

 Move the standing knee forward so it bends.

If comfortable raise front foot and place heel above knee, on the top surface of thigh.  Press those body parts into one another.

Opposite elbow to top of thigh

 If comfortable take opposite elbow onto thigh.  It is hard to tell that I am doing that in this photo.

Press the elbow and thigh into one another.  Keep pressing hips forward and together.

Other elbow to hand

 If you have made it this far, congratulations.  It is much trickier than it looks!

Opposite elbow can come to palm.  Press them into one another.

Take the hand towards the forehead between the eyebrows and lightly press the skin up.

Head up

This is really challenging for your balance.

One of the things that helps with balance is to pick a point on the floor or somewhere in front of you and gaze softly at it.

Here we challenge that by trying to move the head up!

If you can, slowly move the head up so the chin comes onto the palm of other hand.  Press them into one another.

Enjoy!

Now, who wants to get together with me and be part of a human sculpture garden?!

Happy and safe practicing.  We will be doing this posture for the next 9 weeks in our sequence.  Lots of fun.

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

Splits for spinal and hip health

Standing variation of splits

Before you attempt any of these variations you should first review my blogpost about active movement and in particular about the tummy activation (http://yogacafelk.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/better-hamstrings-hips-and-spine-with.html).

In particular review the first video on supine activation (shown again below) that gives you an idea about what your tummy is doing in these postures.

Ok, so now you have reviewed (and practiced and understood) the importance of tummy activation we can have a think about some other thoughts on helping hamstrings, hips, and spine.

In these sequences I highlight the idea of bringing chest to knees.  This is an active movement that we do by initially using tummy activation first and then using hip flexion.

With these postures I am using an active tummy movement then trying to lengthen my spine along the front of the thigh.  A more apt description would be that I am not so much trying to bring chest to thigh but trying to bring belly button to thigh and then take my belly button to the knee along the front of the thigh.

If you are thinking of bringing chest to thigh this can create a tendency to droop or drop the chest when I actually want spinal length.  In this practice if your spine will not lengthen then you are too deep in the posture.

This might require a radical rethink of your postures and movement.

While it may not immediately seem apparent, these are all fairly intense forward bends.  There is a danger of over stretching.  Do not attempt intense forward bends without supervision or a good understanding of your own lower spine.  Best to practice with a teacher.  As with all postures, you must be careful and go slowly.

Video

The video shows how I have lengthened my spine along the front of my thigh in the various incarnations of this posture.  You should only straighten your leg if you can keep your spine long and do not feel strain. This will be beyond the capacity of most people.

STANDING UPRIGHT VARIATIONS
Step 1: Toe and hips forward

Lengthen lower back (sitting bones to heels, top of pelvis back.

Toe forward, hips forward.  This should help create postural firmness in your tummy.

Step 2: Knee raise

Lift knee forward and up.  Make sure you keep hips forward.

Step 3: Spinal forward flexion

I bend forward from my spine to activate tummy muscles more (like I am doing a sit up in my tummy).  I am trying to bring my chest towards the thigh without drooping the chest (keep it long).

Step 4: Push and press

Hold shin.  With bent elbows pull with your hands but press with your shin.

There will be a tendency for the tummy to switch off here as the arms take over.  But keep it on!

I try to wriggle my belly button up along the thigh.  This is lengthening the spine and you will see that my back body is long throughout.

Step 5: Lean back

I lean back to come towards an upright position.  Some people will not be able to keep their chest and thigh together and come fully upright.  So, stay forward and that is where you remain for the rest of the postures (do not go on).

Step 6: Open knee angle

 Keeping all previous activations, take an arm behind the thigh to keep chest and thigh connected.

Slowly start to open the knee angle.  Do this actively.  I am not pulling it open with my hands here.  I use my hand on my heel so I can push my heel into my hand and pull back with my hand.

You might not be able to open the knee angle and keep chest and thigh together so only open so far that they stay together.  This is where you stay.


Step 7: Open

 If the leg will continue to open comfortably then you can take both hands and continue to straighten the leg.

In this position my hand is helping to open my leg.  I am not strong enough to take my leg up this straight against gravity.

But I make active efforts to straighten the leg with my front thigh muscles, and also keep a pushing action of heel into hand and hand into heel.

Tummy stays firm.  Spine stays long.

LUNGING VARIATIONS
Step 1: Lunge

I transitioned to this from the previous posture, keeping chest to thighs and belly button working towards knee.  I kept an active tummy.  Most people will not keep active tummy as this is an easy posture to just collapse into.  This means collapsing tummy and collapsing into the hip joints.

It is important to remember how I came into this posture, which is first through active spinal flexion with tummy activation and then hip flexion keeping tummy firm. Finally, I do some spinal extension but trying to wriggle my belly button up towards my knee.  You can see tieback of my body is long. In fact, it is pretty straight.

In this position I keep my back leg active.

Step 2: Lengthen

I go to a split here.  It is a matter of slowly straightening my legs and keeping everything else the same.  that makes it sound easy.  But it is not!

UPSIDE DOWN SPLIT
Step 1: Short lunge

 Tummy firm, I come to a short lunge.  Keep standing leg active so I don't collapse into my hip.  I keep sitting bones down and top of pelvis back to lengthen lower back and keep front of groin unsquashed.

Step 2: Both knees to chest

 Bring the back knee to chest.  Both knees are working to chest.  Keep front of groins unsquashed.

Step 3: Straight standing leg

Take the raised leg out behind you.  I am rolling that thigh in.  Pelvis level.  Got to be mindful you do not sink into the standing hip and squash the front of groin.

Step 4: Take it up

The raised leg stays rolling in, straight, and I see if I can just take the leg up.  Watch that you are not rolling the pelvis out.

SUMMARY
There you go.  A few more variations

These are tricky ones because they are very easy to collapse into.  It is easy to sink and be passive if you are not mindful.

You might see if you can bring knee close to chest while you are lying on your back and without the hands.  That would be a good indicator of whether or not these variations are going to be possible for you.

 If the knee will not come to close to the chest while lying on your back you are going to find these postures impossible or difficult or else you will probably be doing the by compensating with some other movement.  It might be worth thinking about trying the supine variations for a while longer first.

have fun.  Happy and safe practicing!

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