How to do a Vinyasa (Flow)

Transcript

I'm Kathy Mado here at Honor Yoga Princeton. Today I'm going to break down a venyasa or a flow and I have Katie Fanning here, one of our teachers here to help uh demo. So, we'll start in downward-f facing dog. And the first thing we want to talk about is the hand placement. And this would be the same for every single pose that we're going to cover. So, you can tell it's really important. It's our foundation since we're on our hands here. So, wrist crease parallel to the front of the mat. All fingers spread. And for some the index finger will face the um front of the mat or for others the middle finger. That really depends on the anatomy of your own hand. But the most important thing you'll be able to figure it out from having your wrist crease parallel. The arms are straight and the shoulders wrap back and around. So that's like an external rotation of the shoulders. When that happens at the same time, you want to hug your outer tricep muscles in towards each other. I see a lot of people um dropping their head way down like that or even lifting their head a little bit too high kind of um overextending at the neck. So you want to think the ears line up with the biceps so that you have a nice uh long line here. So the shoulder blades come towards the spine at the tips and then the spine is nice and long. So the other thing uh we see a lot here is a rounding at the low spine. you know, look something like this. And that is uh either because of tight hips, uh tight liable back or tight hamstrings. And so what you can do is have the feet for sure hips distance apart and even take a bend in the knees. So watch once Katie bends her knees a little bit, her low spine draws in and up. So the long uh spine is more important at this stage than opening the backs of the legs because once all of this unlocks here uh the hips and the hamstrings will also start to release. So you can actually hold your down dog with bent knees for as long as you need to. Once you can maintain this then you start to work the legs straight. So she'll start to straighten her legs by pressing her thigh bone straight back. So feet hips distance apart and you can notice a Vshape in the body. So, she's got a nice line here. Sitbones lift up towards the ceiling and a line straight back towards her heels. Another common um tendency I see in downward- facing dog is a short stance in an effort to get the heels on the ground. It looks something like this, somewhere in between a forward fold and a downward- facing dog. Um, so again, that's not quite the posture. You want to lengthen the stance out a little bit. It's rare that I ever see anyone's heels down on the mat. I've been practicing over 20 years. my heels don't hit the mat. Um, so, you know, let go of this idea of getting the heels on the mat. Take the nice, um, proper shape of the pose, which is a more Vshape in the body. So, that's our downward-facing dog. Just take one more look. Long spine, sitbones lift up, and then the backs of the legs will start to release. From here, we'll talk about plank pose. So, um, we'll talk about transitioning afterwards. Right now, I'll just have Katie come into plank pose. So, your markers for plank pose is that the feet, they can be together, but um we're going to practice it hips distance apart to create a lot of strength in the body. So, feet hips distance apart and the heels stack right over the toe mounds. And it's okay to shift your feet around to get that alignment. The other marker we want to look at is that the shoulders stack right over the wrists. So, Katie can actually move her shoulders back just a little bit. And notice she's shifting her feet to accommodate that shift. Hands are still the same. triceps hugging in. Shoulders still wrap back and around, but there's this also this element of pushing the floor away and spreading a little bit the shoulder blades away. Core nice and engaged. So, this is a great pose to build core uh stability because all of the muscles have to work here to keep the spine long and the pelvis stable. You also can use your legs a lot. So, squeeze the quads. When the quads are engaged, it helps the legs straighten. So everything's nice and strong here for a plank pose. So next up, we have chaturunga. This is a hard pose to hold. So I'm going to ask Katie to come down to her knees for a second so we can talk about the alignment in the arms. So chaturunga, the most important thing is that the arms are at a 90deree angle. And many people cannot make that shape with their knees off of the ground. And that's why we often cue to bring the knees down. It has uh it's still going to work the right muscle group which is your pecs and your deltoids and your biceps. Um so don't worry about the knees being on the ground. So shoulders line up to elbows. Elbows elbows stack over wrists. Shoulder blades come towards the spine and you can go ahead and come on up or down. Good. So chaturunga is um another core strengthening exercise and also build strength in the arms. The legs are straight. I'll have her take the shape of the pose with the knees off the ground for a moment. Again, hands are the same. Good. So, nice 90 degree angle in the arms. Long spine, heels still stack over to mounds. Great. You can come on down. Good. So, next up, we have co. So, cobra pose and up dog. I want to take this moment to differentiate between the two. So, we'll start with cobra pose. Cobra pose is a little bit more gentle on the spine. So feet again hips distance apart, tops of the feet press into the mat and the thighs, you'll notice for cobra pose are on the mat and that means the elbows are bent and the elbows are pointing towards the back of the mat rather than out to the side. If you can show out to the side, Katie, I see a lot of that. That internally rotates the shoulders, which is the opposite of what we want to do. So draw those elbows to point back. That'll automatically roll the shoulders forward and back. Sternum shoots forward and then the base of the skull presses straight back rather than Can you look up like that's just uh overextending the spine. That's not very good for your cervical spine. So the gaze is more forward. Press the soft pallet straight back. Good. So that's your cobra pose. Shoulder blades come towards the spine. For up dog, this requires a little bit more back flexibility and strength in the arms. All everything's off the mat except the tops of the feet and the the hands and the arms straight and the shoulder blades come towards each other. You can see it's a pretty deep back bend. So you want to be nice and open for your up dog. Good. and then come on down, Katie. That's a lot of information. We're going to talk about linking all of those together so you can think of your flow as one continuous nice movement in this beautiful sequence that creates strength and flexibility. So, starting in downward-f facing dog. Good. Nice Vshape in the body, feet hips distance apart, she'll inhale and wave forward from the very base of her belly. Good. And notice she's shifting her feet and finding that alignment in her body. Now, super important. You have to shift way forward in order to get that 90 degree angle of the arms when you bend. Good. Now, notice the shoulders never dip down as she transitions to up dog. And then curl the toes. You can go one or two at a time. We'll downward-f facing dog. Good. We're going to do it. Look at it again. So, inhale forward. Exhale down. Inhale. Sweep it up. Good. She's showing cobra. Exhale. Downward-facing dog. Beautiful. So, let's talk about the the feet here because we also get a lot of questions about how to flip the feet. So, it requires a certain amount of strength and flexibility to press those tops of the feet. And an exercise you can do to help build strength is to be in your down dog and um hold onto the tops of the feet. You can do one at a time or both at a time. And then you would work towards straight legs because that's the kind of strength you need to be able to do that. Good. And then come on down. So that's a nice little exercise. The last and final thing I want to talk about is the transition again into your chaturunga. It's kind of like everything sinking. Um and so that's that's a good indication that it would be useful for you to drop your knees down. Um and we'll just show that one more time. Good. Beautiful. So you can maintain the whole shape in the body and start to work the strength. Awesome job. Thank you so much, Katie. I hope that you picked up some useful tips for your flow and I hope you'll come join us here at Honor Yoga Princeton.