Forward bend, handstand, backbend

Here I show the transition between forward bend, handstand prep, and backbend that we are practicing in our current sequence.  

Watch the video first then I highlight some key points.  In the video I do a lot of wriggling around.  It took me several takes to complete this video.  I have several rotated vertebrae along my spine which makes arm balances difficult as I tend to lean into one shoulder and it is not comfortable.  A part of my wriggling is me squirming around trying to get length wherever I sense a sense of 'dis-ease'. 

 

Key points

Bend knees and push them forward.  Push hips down and forward.  Push shoulder blades forward and up.  

Continue to come down by bending knees and pressing hips down and forward.  Who cares about straight legs?  It is not important here. 

Hands to the ground, knees can be bent.  

If possible and comfortable then...

..straighten the legs. 

One hand forward, other hand pressing into back of calf.  Toe tip back (same side as the hand that is forward).  Press the armpits in the direction they are facing (firm them).  Lean forward so the forward leg toes start to grip.  Press the sitting bone of the forward leg down and forward towards the front toes. Knee can stay bent.  

Keeping previous actions, bring knee to chest.  

Keeping previous actions, take knee towards the sky.  Be mindful not to let the sitting bones go up.  I keep an effort in pressing them down and forward.  Even though my knee is going up to the sky I still feel as though I am making an effort to bring it towards my chest. 

Straighten the raised leg.  The raised leg thigh turns in.  The grounded leg thigh is rolling out. 

Bring both hands to ground in front.  Firm the armpits. Keep lower ribs lifted into middle back.

Lean forward so hands come flat on the ground.  Bring knee towards chest.  You can keep more weight on grounded foot if needed and stay here. 

Or, keep leaning forward so more weight comes to the finger tips and the back heel raises.  Keep drawing knee to chest.  Look forward.  Try to bring the grounded leg knee towards your chest.  It probably won't go anywhere but get the feeling.  Stay here.  It is pretty intense.  Or...

Maybe there is a handstand.  Maybe not.  It is all good. 

Back down.  Knees bent.  

Press hips forward to stand.  Armpits forward. 

Keep pressing knees and hips forward.  Armpits forward and up as you raise the body. 

Arms straighten as you continue to press armpits forward and up. 

Begin to lengthen the front of the body without squashing the back. 

Keep lifting and lengthening the spine, hips moving forward.  Find your position.  It may not be the same as mine.  

This is pretty intense.  Happy and safe practicing.  Do not do anything that hurts.  Ask questions as needed!

Much metta,

Samantha

www.yogacafecanberra.blogspot.com

www.yogacafelk.blogspot.com

Preparation For Arm Balances Including Handstand

Away on retreat last week in Sri Lanka we took use of the furniture to learn a bit more about positioning for handstands.

Normally I do not use a wall for teaching.

The main reason is that I saw too many people using the wall as a support to lean on, collapsing in the spine, and not seeming to have the foundations in core and shoulder stability.  I speak from experience here, as an ex-wall user.

Doing a handstand is not important (don't be attached to an outcome).  And while the tips in this video will help you to a handstand if that is what interests you, there are more important lessons about core stability, shoulder stability, spinal freedom, and being calm in a challenging situation that can be learned.

Despite the wall space available in the room we practiced in, I chose not to use it.  I wanted to find something lower, around knee height, that we would use to put a foot on.  This was so we would not be tempted to go into the ever popular 'l' shape commonly taken at the wall which can tend to encourage shortening of the lower back in particular.

A few important ideas from the video.

Lengthen spine

 I lengthen the spine from the inside.  From the organ side of my spine.  It feels non-muscluar.  You can see I am not dipping in my lower back.

I am breathing naturally.  I am not sucking my tummy in or trying to tense it.

Shoulder joint complex

 I bend my elbows slightly so they point back to my knees.  Then I press my elbows in lightly together.  I feel firm around the armpits and side of my chest.

Then I straighten my arms again by pushing my hands down and forward while trying to maintain the previous actions.

I did a slight micro movement from the inside, which was to lengthen the front of my chest forward a little.

Short dog

Keeping the shape of the spine, actions around the armpits, move bottom back towards the feet, lift knees to chest, and start to come into a short down dog.

 One toe tip to the edge of the chair.

Lean forward

Take a slow lean forward.  Your shoulders will come over and then in front of your wrists.  If you have not developed strength and stability around the wrists you need to go back to that type of work.  Make sure you are using your hands well (as though you are making a fist with your hands, press inner wrists towards one another, press through finger tips).

This leaning forward is a slow lean.  As you do so you should feel the tummy naturally activating.  Your grounded foot should start to just slide forward along the floor.

Knee to chest, to sky, then straighten

 Keeping all preceding actions, on the condition you feel comfortable and can breathe naturally, bring the ground knee towards your chest.  Try to be light on the foot on the furniture.  It is only lightly touching.

 You could then take that knee up. It is still bent as though trying to bring heel to bottom.

And then, if you still feel comfortable, can breathe easily without tension, then you could straighten out that leg.

Make sure you reset the spine (lengthen it from the internal organ side).  Make sure you are not dropping into your shoulders (try and reach your shoulders to your ears).  Make sure your foot is not heavy on the furniture (this lightness will come when you maintain the abdominal activation you established naturally earlier).

Be comfortable in this challenging position.

You can step on your wrists afterwards as shown in the video if needed.  Then repeat on second side.

Have fun.  Don't hurt yourself.  Don't do anything that hurts.  Be able to smile and talk as you practice.  This is intended for my students.  Learning from a physical teacher is best.

Happy and safe practicing!

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

Some key actions of handstand without putting weight on your hands

Even though handstands and arm balances feature in most of my sequences, not all of us can do a handstand.  Sometimes, for whatever reason, we might not be able to put our hands on the ground either.

But all of us can learn some of the key actions of a handstand without putting our hands on the ground.  

In this post I share a video and some instructions about some of the key actions that you can cultivate so you are still working towards similar 'anatomic' actions.  

You could take this option when it gets to an arm balance section of the class and still be doing amazing energy moving work.  

Have a look at the video to see the movement in action, then take a look at how I have tried to deconstruct the steps. 

Soft Tummy

One of the keys here is to be able to have a soft tummy.  If you cannot relax your tummy then you very likely may not create the correct firmness in the tummy when the time comes to do so.

Digging fingers into soft tummy to show it is soft

This is trickier than you might think.  Most people find it really difficult to relax tummy muscles.  It can be for many reasons.  One of the key ones I have come across is the perception that we should be sucking our tummy in and walking around with sucked in tummies as much as we can.  

Be aware that if you cannot relax your tummy muscles, you are putting fairly constant pressure on the contents of your abdomen, including your bowels and reproductive organs.  This can impact on the functioning of the digestive and reproductive systems.  

Anyway, just a thought.  

So, step one is to relax your tummy completely.  In the photo and video I try to show this by digging my fingers deep into my tummy so you can see it is not hard. 

Lengthen lower back

In general I start many postures by moving my sitting bones down, top of pelvis back in order to lengthen my lower back.  

I took my arms overhead in the photo/video so you could see what I am doing.  It is also a nice thing to do to enhance the length of the back of spine.  

I am not doing this action by tensing my tummy.  There is a little lower abdominal internal activation but generally the tummy is very soft still.  In the video I dig my fingers back in my tummy to show this.  

Push hips/sitting bones forward without moving legs forward

This is tricky.  You try to push your hips/sitting bones forward without moving the legs forward. 

If the legs go forward you don't get the firmness in your tummy.

If the legs remain as much as possible where they are then the tummy goes firm.  

In the video you can see that I push my fingers into my tummy after this and they cannot go in.  It is firm.  I try to show this below as well.  

My tummy is firm in a way that I can still breathe freely and feel as though the movement of the breath could go there.  

If you watch my arm balance videos where my abdomen is exposed you can sort of see that my breath is still going into my abdomen area (looks like I have gills!).

This is not sucking in tummy.  If you slow the video down where I push hips forward you can see that  I am not sucking up.  

Push armpits down and forward

Push the armpits down and forward.  

In the video I show how this firms the front and back of the armpits.  

My tummy is still firm.  

The movements I do in the video are really exaggerated and jerky.  I was trying to emphasise what I was doing.  If I did my own practice these actions would be much more subtle.

Alternate firming of armpits and tummy

Because I have been practicing these activations for a while, I can do them as shown.  I showed this way more for the video so you could see what I am doing.  

If you are learning this, most people will find getting armpits and tummy firm easier if they try putting the arms on the thighs as shown in the picture below.

If I was in a class, I would be encouraging people to use this method as pushing the hands against the thighs helps prevent them from coming forward when you push the hips forward.  Also, it is easier to get some armpit activation for many people if the hands have something to press down against.  

In class I usually do the demonstration as shown in this photo and get people to feel what is going on.  

Stay or take these activations to the ground

These two activations are key components (but not the only ones) of many postures (?most) where you are weight bearing through the arms.  

If you don't want to or cannot put weight through your arms for some reason then you could be doing this and really feel like you are doing something.  You could do it from kneeling if you want as well.

If you can, you could try to take these activations to the ground for plank, kneeling plank, bakasana, or even a handstand.  

But remember, your life will not be any better just because you can do a handstand!

It will probably be better if you can learn to relax your tummy completely then learn to activate it when you need however!

Don't do anything that hurts.  Be alert to over practicing and how you feel the next few days whenever you introduce new practices.  Have fun.  Laugh.  Smile.

Happy and safe practicing.

Foundations For Handstand: High Plank

A handstand is an arm balance.  The foundation of the arm balances I do is the high plank.

If I was super strong I could transition from my high plank to bakasana then to a handstand.  But I am a bit weak.

Not all high planks are equal.  Some will not teach you the requisite postural firmness you need for better arm balances.

In this post I show a video where I give some of the fundamentals of the high plank that I do that changed my practice phenomenally and helped me to develop into this handstand.

Watch the video first to see the movement in action.  Then follow the step by step instructions.  I have written about bakasana before so you can also refer to that post (bakasana on a block).

Do not do anything that hurts.  It is better to practice with a teacher.

Get Set
Come onto your hands and knees.  You need to make sure you are using your hands properly so you don't feel sinking into your wrists.  This means pressing with your fingertips, feeling as though you are trying to grip at the floor or make fists.  Imagine there are little holes in the ground like a tenpin bowling ball that you are trying to press your fingertips into to lift up the ground.

Knees are behind hips.  Shoulders are over wrists.

Lift ribs into upper back. Can you see how rounded and lifted my upper back is?  This feeling of being broad across the upper back is important.  I feel as though I am pushing the arms downwards into the floor.  My shoulder blades come right around the sides of my chest.

My sitting bones go down towards the back of my knees and top of pelvis moves towards the sky to lengthen my lower back.  My lower back is not arched.

The sense is the entire back of my body is lengthened.  This shape is important.  You will need to maintain it.

The actions in my arms are important and maintained.

I push my armpits in the direction they are facing.  Here that sort of means down and back.

I push my hands down and forward--away from my knees.

I feel as though I am pulling my knees towards my hands.

I feel as though I am pushing my hips forwards towards my hands but they do not go anywhere.

You cannot really see these actions.  That is what makes the practice of this posture difficult.  My kneeling plank is already cultivating a postural firmness for me so that my tummy is getting firm through the posture but in a way where I can still feel that when I breathe the tummy can move.

In fact, if you look at my waist area you can see it is like I have little gills there--you can see movement when I am breathing.  I am breathing a lot here! It is hard.  If I could I might try to breathe less.

Lift Up
Maintaining all previous actions, I put the tips of my toes on the ground and lift my knees.

I am careful not to sag my chest or lower back.

Performed well, you should feel very firm in the tummy area without needing to actually try to firm it.  It should come naturally because of the posture.

See how I am trying to be right on the tops of my toes.  Not the balls of the feet.  That is important.

Tip toe forward
From there I try and maintain the same actions but I just tip toe forward--on the very tops of my toes.

A common challenge as you tip toe forward is to keep the tummy firm.  It helps if you keep your knees bent and stay on the tops of your toes.  

I keep all the same actions from before, lifting chest up into upper back, sitting bones down and top of pelvis back to lengthen lower back, feeling as though I am moving my hips forward.

Stay or bakasana

You can just try and stay there, on the very tops of your toes, lifting your chest, firming your tummy.  It is really hard!!

Or you can initiate bakasana by dropping your butt a little, lifting your knees up higher as though into your chest, lightly resting them on our upper arms.

You can stay there or, if you feel light, you can lean forward until the toes feel light and then you can pull the heels into the bottom.

You can still see my little gills breathing.  That is important.  I am firm but calm.

Optional extras!
I am too chicken to do handstand on a bench like that.  I have not yet got the strength.

But if you have built these foundations then a handstand should get easier.

I do the same thing but get onto my tip toes and start to take one leg up.

I give a little tap...

...and up I come...

Sthira sukham asanam.  Firm but calm.

Summary
I have written a few posts about bakasana and even kneeling plank and plank before.

That is because they are really important!

Get a good high plank.  Then keep the actions and get a good bakasana.

These will help build the foundations.

There are other poses that you can do from bakasana so that you do not need to kick up into handstand but instead float from bakasana straight up.  I am still working on that one!  In the meantime, I enjoy the inversion with free spine.

This is the type of step by step approach to movement and posture I use in classes, workshops, and retreats.  You are welcome to join me any time!

Happy and safe practicing.

Much metta,
Samantha

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

Handstand At Ease

Here I wanted to share a way of coming into handstand and being in a handstand where I feel at ease in my spine especially.

My teachers always taught that the spine should feel long and free.

What I do in this handstand is try to capture a feeling in my spine that is like I am standing with my arms reaching overhead.  Only instead of the weight being on my feet I put the weight on my hands.

To do this handstand I do a few key things.

First, I lengthen the lower back by moving sitting bones down towards my heels and gently moving top of pelvis back.

Then I do a sit up in my tummy.  This is the type of sit up you do where you get firm in the middle and soft in the sides and where you feel as though you can still breathe in a way that the tummy will move.  I recommend that you read Simon Borg Olivier's blogpost on is it correct to pull navel to spine to understand what I am doing here (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMe1lRpNYi8).

Third, I keep that sit up in my tummy and reach my arms out as far as possible.  If I were in standing it would be like I was reaching for something off a really high shelf.  The arms move forward and upward.

On the ground I really push my hands downwards into the floor.  I feel for my shoulder blades wrapping around the spine.  I try to roll my outer armpits to my face.  I grip with my fingertips as though I am trying to make a fist with my hands.

I try and keep my neck free.

I breathe.  I check that I feel firm but calm.

I lean more into my hands but it does not feel like I am sinking as I keep pushing downwards which makes me feel like I am lifting upwards.

I walk my feet in if I need to see if I can get more of my hips over my shoulders.

I don't sink into my shoulders.  I keep pushing the floor away.

I keep the sit up in my tummy but I can still breathe there.

I bring more weight over my hands and keep my tummy firm and my feet naturally come onto the tip toes.  They are light on the ground.

I take a leg up and do a little tap with the grounded foot.  If I don't come up I try again.

My legs might come up.  Maybe they don't.  If they do and I am up there I keep the fingertips pressing, keep breathing, relax my face, and try to feel for the lightness in the spine.

This is a spinal releasing posture for me.  It feels lovely and free on my back.

This post is intended for my students who are working on this pose.  It is best not to work on more advanced postures like this without the guidance of a teacher.  You need to make sure your shoulders and wrists and tummy are mobile and strong enough so you do not strain or injure.

We will work on this type of posture in upcoming retreats, classes, and workshops in Canberra, Colombo, and Bali. Looking forward to sharing with you in person.

Happy and safe practicing.

www.yogacafecanberra.blogspot.com
www.artofliferetreats.com