Gate Pose (Parighasana) - Foundations of Yoga

Transcript

What's up, everyone? Welcome to Yoga with Adriene. I almost had an accent
there. Yoga with Adriene. I'm Adriene and today on The Foundations of
Yoga we are learning Parighasana or Gate Pose. Actually, we're going to do a little two for
one. We're going to learn Gate
Pose and we're also going to learn a counter pose or a variation of Gate
Pose which we do a lot in Reboot, the 29 Day Yoga Experience. If you're in the Reboot family then this will
be a great foundation for you. If you're curious about Reboot, click something
somewhere and join us. It's a wonderful experience. Gate Pose is great for stretching the side
body. It's great after travel. It's wonderful for stimulating the abdominal
organs. Really great for the
feet, the legs, and the hammies. Just overall yummy spine health. So let's check it out shall we? Hop on the mat and let's learn Parighasana. [music] All righty, so today we're going to start
on all fours. Just take a second
to check in with your center. So we press away from the earth. Wrists are
underneath the shoulders. Knees directly underneath the hips. Then I'm just going to send a little friendly
challenge out to you for you to press on the tops of your feet. Again, press into all ten knuckles and
let the knees hover for five seconds here. You might be like, "What?" We're just checking in with the core here. The center and integrating the
muscles of the abdominal wall and also remembering that the neck is an
extension of the spine here. One more second. One. Then we release. Cool. So remember that sensation and remember again,
that we're going to integrate the neck, extend through the crown
of the head here as we build gate pose. So, I'm going to swing my left toes towards
the left side of the mat here. Right toes can follow naturally as I extend
out. I'm going to come out on
to the outer edge of that foot here, so I'm really finding an energetic
connect here of the right foot. I'm going to scoot up a little bit because
I'm against the wall. Then
pressing through the outer edge of that back leg. Come onto the left
fingertips if you need. If you need more room here, you can come up
onto a block or a book here. Come up onto the fingertips and then we're
going to take our right palm and we're going to give
our right inner thigh a little slap. We do this to wake up this area of the body
to engage this muscle. You can
see here that I have nice, bright energy in the foot. My whole leg is alive
as I draw energy up and release the toes back down. Then I'm going to take this right hand. I'm going to go from slapping my
inner thigh... Foundations of Yoga... to smearing my ribcage. It's quite
the descriptive video already. Slap. Smear. Okay. Take a deep breath in as
you bring the right palm to the left ribcage and I'm going to slowly just
open up here, like I'm smearing. Well you decide. What are you going to
smear on your ribcage today? Notice again here, this mindfulness through
the crown of the head. We're
extending through the crown. I can release the palm down here releasing
the shoulder over the wrist or I can stay up on
my block or fingertips. Great. Now I'm going to trace a line, the side body
here, behind the ears as I take a deep breath in and find that nice,
long stretch. I'm really reaching
from the right fingertips all the way up out through the outer edge of that
foot. The pelvis is going to want to come out here
and that's all right. We're going to breathe and lengthen the tailbone
down, tucking the pelvis gently. Again, remembering the openness of the ribcage
in the chest. Take a
couple of nice, long, smooth deep breaths here. If you're feeling too much
tension in the neck here... If you're rather new to the practice, you
can experiment with letting it go and then coming back to a mindfulness. You can also keep the gaze down for
now. Nice, strong focus on the thumbnail and anywhere
in between. If you're rocking your gate pose already and
you're here to just deepen the practice, open your heart. Draw the shoulder blades in and together and
send your gaze up towards the right fingertips. Feel that stretch in the
sides again, pressing into the outer edge. Tucking the pelvis. One more
breath here. Then exhale. We'll reach the right fingertips towards the
back edge of your mat. Come
back up onto the fingertips here or your block and we're going to use... Remember that hovering cat, here. We're going to use our center here. Press
into the top of that left foot and slowly rise up. We kind of have warrior
arms here as we pull the pinkies back. Take a deep breath in and a long
exhale out. Awesome. Parighasana. We're going to rotate the right toes up towards
the sky and really dig into that right heel. Again, I'm not just lukey-flukey in this right
leg, but I'm finding a full body experience. Kind of toning the quad here. Great. Take a deep breath in, extension through the
crown and on an exhale, we're going to slowly tip our teapots over and draw
a line with the left fingertips up and over. We're not collapsing here on the right side
body here, but keeping that length. Whoops. Touched my mic, faux pas. Keeping
that length. Careful not to, mindfulness, right? Careful not to use the right palm to press
down on that right knee. That's
just silly. Again, notice here I'm not going for the perfect
shape. I'm
really letting my body, kind of talk, talk to me. Talk to me... like lovers
do. Breathe. I'm letting it unfold. I'm pressing through that right heel. The same smearing quality we had here. In fact, you can repeat this on the other
side. We now open up and join
that right ribcage under as we open up through the left. And we breathe. Join the shoulder blades down the back. Let's take two more breaths here my
friends. Breathing into the side body. Lengthening through the back of the
neck. Awesome. Then we connect navel to spine. Sweep the left fingertips up and over. Come
back to your warrior two arms. Take a deep breath in and exhale palms to
the heart. Awesome. We're going to turn the right toes in. Use a nice connection to your center
as you slowly come back to all fours. Yeah. That's what's up. Then you can
immediately go onto the other side here, but I'm going to turn because
we're shooting this. I should mention... If you're like, "What, girlfriend?" You could pad the
knee. You can use a blanket or a towel or you could
double up on the mat. Take care of that knee. Okay. Here we go. Parighasana variation and Parighasana on the
other side. Coming into a
table top position. Let's just do the hovering cat again. Just in case we
didn't quite get it the first time or just to connect and build strength in
the abdominal wall. We press into the tops of the feet and we
hover. This isn't a big lift you
guys. We keep the gaze straight down. So you can look at the video here and
then when you feel like you have it, take your gaze straight down between
your index fingers. The shoulders, again, away from the ears. Shoulder blades down towards the
tail. We draw the navel up to towards the spine
and take one more deep breath in. And exhale. That is enough of that. Awesome. Curl the left toes under. Oh wait... We have to do this first. Sorry. We're
going to take right toes to the right side of the mat. Then we'll curl the
left toes under and slide. Coming onto the outer edge of that foot. Again,
drawing energy up through the arches. Finding that back leg here. Take your
left palm and give that left inner thigh a slap. Come up onto the
fingertips if you need to. For me, foundations of yoga is about finding
that method to the madness, especially if you're brand new to yoga. Here we get to take our time. If you feel like you're doing this, wonderful. You're in the right place. This is why we have this playlist. Because often in public classes, we just
don't have the time to do this, which is interesting. We're slapping that inner thigh. We're smearing our honey, our jelly, this
time taking the right rib cage up. Opening up through the heart. Remembering the neck here. Drawing the shoulders down and away from the
earlobes. Then if we're ready, we'll slowly trace a
line with the left fingertips behind the ear and maybe release that right
palm down as I find my stretch. Again, the pelvis may have a tendency to tuck
out here. Tuck your tail in
and down. Press into your foundation. That which is touching the earth. We're not just collapsing into our bones here,
but we're pressing out of the top of that back foot and pressing into
all of the knuckles of the right hand. Keeping that inner thigh charged as we breathe
here. Nice, long, beautiful line from the outer
edge of that left foot, all the way up through the right finger tips. You can give them a little wiggle. Take care of your experience here. If you feel like you're holding or
waiting, what do you have to do to cancel that sensation? Listen to your
body. Great. Take one more breath in wherever you are. Long exhale out. Then
slowly, we'll bring our awareness to the space between the navel and the
spine as we trace our left fingertips up. Press in your foundation. Nice
and slow. Connect to your center and we'll rise up like
a phoenix. Great. Warrior two arms here. Pull the pinkies back. Loop the shoulders. Open
heart. Strong. So if you're feeling a little like, la-ta-da-da,
again press into the top of that back foot. Right foot. Then we'll slowly turn our left
toes up towards the sky. Left heel now pressing into the earth. I'll reach it forward on an inhale. On the exhale keep that extension
through the left side body as you slide the left palm down and trace a nice
beautiful rainbow with your right fingertips up and over. Gate pose. So a couple of tendencies again are that the
booty is going to want to come out. So we're going to draw it in. The lower belly is going to be kind of
loose here. We want to stay connected to our center by
drawing our navel in. It is kind of stimulating the abdominal organs
here too. Lots of length
in the side body. The heart might collapse here. If we're trying to tuck the pelvis and the
heart is collapsed, we might have a couple of pinches going on in that
lower back. So again, smear your
butter all over your ribcage here and find your gate pose. Don't take it
too seriously anyway. Smile. Breathe nice, long, smooth, deep breaths. If you have practiced this posture before
and you're just here to deepen your practice, again you can play with your
gaze taking your [inaudible 11:42] up or you might play with your balance
and stability by softening the eyelids and closing the eyes. Let's take one more deep breath in and a
long exhale out. Great. Drawing your navel to your spine. Nice and slow, we press into our
foundation as we reach the right fingertips all the way back and come to
warrior two arms again. Take a deep breath in. Open your chest and your
heart. Exhale, palms together at the heart. Namaste. Great. Same thing. Connecting to the center. You can never be too mindful in these
transitions. It's just like any great piece of writing. The transitions are
everything. I come from theater background, right. Transitions are
everything. So just don't call a black out here. Draw the navel towards the spine. Enjoy the move all the way back to all fours. Where we shall open the knees
as wide as the mat and bring the two big toes together. Take a big, deep
breath in as you rock the tailbone up towards the sky. Look forward. Purrrrr. That was a failed purr. Let me try again. Purrrrrrrrrrrr. There we go. Then send it back to
extended child's pose. Take a rest here and breathe. Melt your heart to the
earth. Nice work my friends. Okie-doke. So that was Parighasana or Gate Pose. If you're new to the
practice this is a wonderful posture to return to in order to build
strength in the core, to increase stability, balance. This could be your
gateway pose to a more prominent yoga practice. Let us know how it goes. After this video is over you might walk around
and just notice how your body feels. Come back and comment below. if you
haven't already. Join the Yoga with Adriene family. We'd love to have you
and head on over to YogaWithAdriene.com now, you hear and check out or blog
and other goodies, like Reboot. Just fun challenges and community-based
stuff. Love you guys. Have a wonderful rest of your day. Namaste.