Bound Angle Pose - Yoga With Adriene

Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome to yoga with Adrien. I am Adrien and today we are going to learn batakanasan. It's a seated posture uh or the bound ankle pose as they call it. Uh seated posture that increases flexibility in the hips also in the groin. And then we're also going to take it down onto our backs and learn sabatakanas which is a reclined version uh which is super yummy. So, let's get started. [Music] Okay, so bakanosa. If you ever took ballet when you were little, then you're probably familiar with this pose. Okay. So, we're going to start by drawing the right heel in followed by the left heel in and just bring the soles of the feet together. And then same thing, if we want to lift the hips, we can on a blanket or a block or a bolster or a pillow or a book or a newspaper roll. Probably not. Very good. Bringing the soles of the feet together. I'm going to take my thumbs to the arches of my feet and just give myself a little massage. Why not? We don't touch ourselves enough in yoga. Okay. So, just giving myself a little bit of stimulation and the feet on the arches of the feet. Opening my feet maybe like a book here. Coming into the breath, of course. And then I'm going to take my fingertips behind me and just lift my tail or lift my sitbones and bring my pelvis as close to my heels as I can. And then just making sure that I feel comfortable here. If you feel any pain whatsoever, then maybe inching your toes forward and we'll get closer to the heels on another day. So, just checking in with that, softening the groin here. I'm going to interlace my fingertips, bring them around my toesies, and then same thing as we do in sucasan. Just coming into the pose by rounding chin to chest, breathing into the back, feeling the skin of the back stretch. Elbows go out left to right here. And then from here from my foundation that which is touching the earth or the floor I'll grow tall coming into this bound angle pose or the butterfly butterfly posture. Okay. But rather than thinking about pressing the knees down think about drawing the tops of the thighs out and down. So external rotation tops of the thighs instead of pressing the knees down. So there's this sweet waterfall from the quads melting down down. So opening up your little lamb chops here. Okay. If I want a deeper stretch in the groin and the so as I can take my middle finger, index finger and thumb and I can interlace them around my big toe. Okay. Then I'll bring my elbows left to right and find that nice long line from the crown of the head to the tip of the tailbone. I may even want to draw my navl in towards my spine. tops of the thighs actively drawing down. Opening my feet up like a book here. I'll take a nice sweet inhale in and then bend the elbows left to right coming forward. But rather than allowing the spine to round now I'm going to set my intentions to keep a nice flat back. Tops of the thighs actively drawing down. Inhale in. Exhale come forward. May only come a little bit. And we'll just breathe here again. Softening the groin. Keeping the sitbones rooted. Okay. We can begin to pulse maybe here and then in time we'll be able to bring belly closer to the heels. But I think it's important to stay connected to that dunder or that staff, this nice long line from the crown of the head to the tip of the tailbone rather than forcing oursel into the pose. In general, if we ever feel like we're compromising anything, the breath especially, it's always a good idea to ease ease up. Okay. So, here we are in butterfly posture or bound angle pose. Five to 10 breaths. Pulling the elbows left to right and coming forward if that feels yummy. We can keep the chin drawing into the chest. Keep this nice line between the crown of the head and the tip of the tailbone. Okay. After about five to 10 breaths here, then fly. You can release and go ahead and allow the spine to round. Tops of the thighs are still active as I draw my chin to my chest and my nose towards my toes. Breathing, drawing the navl in. Then when I feel satisfied here, I'll come back to that flat back position, extending through the crown of the head, drawing the shoulders away from the ears, and then tops of the thighs draw out and down as I come back up to seated. Okay, I want to do the same pose 6 months from now and see if my hips have opened up anymore because I'm going to be practicing more regularly. So, you should do it, too. Okay. Uh now I want to take it to the back. Okay, same pose bakanasan but we're going to recline it. Sta batakanasan. So we'll grab two blocks and come to lie flat on our back or if you don't have blocks just come to lie flat on your back. Okay. Okie do. So sabatakanasan, we're going to take it to a nice yummy uh variation or modification by coming flat onto our backs. And why don't we go ahead and hug the knees into the chest just for a second here. Wrapping the arms around the shins, around the legs, crawling the shoulders down. Just rug a little side to side. Give yourself a little massage in the lower back and the kidneys. You can even take the knees in a circle if that feels good. Okay. Then we'll relax the shoulders and the elbows down. And then I'll bring the soles of my feet to the earth. Then I'll take my palms to the tops of the thighs and open the book. Drawing the soles of the feet together. Okay. So same thing opening by little butterfly wings bringing the soles of the feet together. Take a deep breath in as you exhale release the weight of the body completely and fully into the mat. So sa batakanasan reclined bakanasan is a restorative posture. So we definitely want to take the time to exhale. I just thought of waiting to exhale. I have never made that joke in yoga before. I will but not today. So, I'm going to relax with the exhale. Then see if I can maybe crawl my heels up towards my root maybe just a little bit more. Outer edges of the feet connected to the earth. Same thing. Tops of the thighs are rotating out and melting down towards the mat. But this time I have gravity to help me do the work. So I can even take my palms, bring them to the inner thighs and just rotating them out a little bit. Okay. Now we can interlace the fingertips, bring them to rest on the belly, which is great because then we can breathe into our hands here, letting the belly rise on the inhale. Look at that. And then exhale, fall. I love bringing my palms to my belly sometimes when I want to tap into my breath because I can actually use it as a guideline or a visual image of inhaling allowing my belly to let my hands rise and then on the exhale allowing my belly to let the hands fall. Okay, couple other yummy variations here. I can interlace the fingertips, bring them behind the head, extending the thumbs here to massage the neck. I like to call this Barton Springs posture here, letting the arms and the legs mirror each other, and really getting a nice little sweet back bend here. So, there's space between my lower back and the mat, opening the chest, opening the hips, opening the groin. Another variation is cactus arms or football goalpost arms. I'm in Austin, Texas. So, anything anytime I can bring football into anything, people dig. Okay, this isn't burnt orange, but it's close enough. So, football goalpost arms here. So, bending the elbows at kind of a right angle. And this is also great if you spend a lot of time at the computer. uh opening the shoulders, opening the chest, and then again letting that exhale really take all the tension away, filling the belly with air on the inhale, and then on the exhale, releasing the weight of the body completely and fully into the mat. Feels super yummy. If if by chance you happen to have two of these little blockies, there are a million variations for for all of these asas. and especially for this one. But here's just one little suggestion is to take the one block lengthwise to the spine and put it underneath the shoulder blades here. And then this one, the second block we can bring as a pillow for the head, just supporting the weight of the head. And then same thing you guys, drawing the soles of the feet together, opening the arches of the feet, tops of the thighs, rotating out. So rather than thinking about pressing the knees down, I'm just letting my thighs open up. And then ah opening up the shoulders, you can go cactus arms. Hallelujah. You can just go open palms, interlacing the fingertips, whatever feels good for you. Then close the eyes and relax here. Supaanasana. Super yummy. Okay. So that was another basic posture. botakanasan or bound angle pose. And then we also took it on our backs, sa batakanasan or reclined bound angle pose. And you can enjoy that while you watch TV. Get off the sofa, improve that posture. Open your hips, your groin, and do some butterfly while you watch television. I'm not judging you for watching television. I'm just saying you could do this pose while you watch it if you wanted to. Um, okay. Thanks, guys. If you have any questions or comments or you want to talk about how judgmental I am for people who watch TV, I watch TV too. Um, then please leave it in the comment box. And if you haven't already subscribed to the channel, please do. And visit Yoga withAdrien for a lot more. Thanks you guys. Namaste. [Music]