How to do Dancers Pose - Tutorial, Modifications and Exploring Standing Bow Pose

Transcript

hello my loves welcome back today we're going to discuss dancers pose we'll be discussing how to do the pose modifying the pose and tips and tricks okay so if you're doing this with me you might need a strap and either a wall or a chair for support so let's come to the middle of your mat let's take up a little bit of space today if you already know that your balance is a little bit suspect then perhaps you're using a chair or a wall for support already and i want you to think about your legs you may already know that you favor one leg perhaps one leg is a little bit stronger than the other and from here i want you to send the left leg behind you now as you send the left leg behind you i want the knee to be behind you so we're in a little bit of hip extension here that left knee behind your right knee and as you do that send the weight forward so that you can lift that left foot away from the floor how's your balance already here if you're feeling that there's some balance challenge again maybe you're using a wall for support can you bend the left knee and bring the foot towards the bum and to see if that left hand can reach around and grab a hold of your left foot it could be the foot it could be the ankle anything nearby now as you're doing this i want you to think about the knees here it's quite tempting here to have this left knee forward just to get the foot towards the bump so notice is your left knee still behind slightly behind that right knee are you still in a little bit of hip extension it won't be a great deal now as you do this can you flip the grip that you have on your foot so that you're holding perhaps the inside edge it's not a huge deal if you have to hold the outside edge doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things and as you find that can you push the foot into the hand as you push the foot into the hand you'll feel the belly perhaps in the chest move forward and from here can you tip at that right hip the chest forward the crown of the head rising up to the crack of the wall and the ceiling here and the foot reaching up and back it's not about yanking the foot up it's about pushing the foot into the hand to rise away from the bum the right arm can be at the hip maybe the right arm reaches forward whatever feels right for you release back up bring the foot back to the bum and then bring the foot to the floor all right let's try the other side so again set it up just as you did on the previous side send the right leg back behind you transfer some of the weight forward so that you can lift that right foot away from the floor the right hip in extension here already and then can you bend the right knee grab a hold of the foot the ankle maybe you've got socks maybe it's your pant leg keeping that right knee back can you flip the grip so that you're holding the inside edge again not super important don't get hung up on the details can you push the foot into the hand can you create a little bit of an arch through the back body and then any amount hinge at the hip let the torso come forward let the foot come back and again if you need to hold on to a wall or a chair for support release back up bring the foot to the bum bring the foot to the floor and relax okay so how was that right to left did you have more extension on one leg coming back was your balance different right to left notice these things okay so let's look at some modifications of our dancers pose and the first one is going to be it's a challenging balance pose you're holding on to something you're tipping forward and you're having to stand on one leg so if you need to use a wall foot to the bum reach back if you don't have a wall use a chair if you find that you're already using a wall or something and you're struggling to reach around and grab a hold of the foot then use a strap so this is the way that i like to use a strap for a basic dancer's pose and that is to take your strap take one leg forward wrap around at the back and then pull the leg up again notice that i'm still in hip extension here the left knee is behind my right knee and you want the strap kind of around your ankle here and then you can push the leg away hinge forward and come into dancer now the strap also has another benefit and i'm sure we've all seen these beautiful poses of women reaching back and grabbing a hold of their foot you're not going to see that from me i can't do that so what you can do to work on that is use your strap again here you take your strap step forward loop through the ankle here rise up lift the elbows up again keeping that knee behind the standing leg and then walk the hands down the strap keep the elbows lifted push the foot into the strap and then see if you can tip forward using the strap great way to modify yoga poses don't be afraid of using the straps okay so that's modifications wall props the major things that i see go wrong in dancer's pose is that people are not coming into hip extension first when they come to bring the foot to the bum this happens and then they pull back can you instead reach back and bring the foot to the bone so that you're already lengthening through the hip flexor and if you need to stretch your hip flexors there's a video on that here so there's a lot of ways here that we can work on our dancers pose you can work on just balance standing in a quad stretch if you find that you need wall for support in the quad stretch you're going to need a wall for support in dance's pose can you come into hip extension in your quad stretch and get a little movement into the hip maybe a little bit of extension through the spine and then can you push the foot into the hands and tip forward if you think about your gaze rather than gazing down at the floor gaze forward if you gaze down at the floor that's where you're gonna go all right my loves i hope that helped give you some insights tips and tricks into dancers pose if you're struggling with any aspects of the pose you want me to deep dive into then leave me a comment down below if you enjoyed the video then give me a thumbs up and and remember my loves karma is only a if you are so be nice be kind and be the change that you want to see in the world