How to do Figure Four Stretch | Asana Video Library for Yoga Teachers & At-Home Yoga Students

Transcript

hi welcome back to the map we're working with figure four figure four is a great warm-up posture it's a great cool down posture it's an I'm on the floor and I want to just do a posture uh focusing a lot on the glutes but also a stretch for the groin and a lengthening for the lower back so it's kind of threefold in my eyes but when done correctly it's an absolutely powerful posture that can alleviate a lot of the strain that we feel during the day and alleviate a lot of the tension that we may be feeling in the lower back which is linked to that tightness in the hips so Kathy's on the floor and when Kathy's ready she's going to extend the right leg straight up to the sky and just give the ankle a nice roll kind of snap crackle pop pop on the ankle and then as she exhales crossing the ankle over the knee so Ground Zero very basic just simply crossing the ankle over the knee trying to keep neutral pelvis and keep the hips steady she's going to use the connection of her ankle to her knee and use her own strength just to gently press the thigh away awesome just creating what I call like a low grade stretch so if you're working with a population or you yourself are just really restricted and kind of new to space in the hips do not underestimate just this simple variation of laying on your back keeping your pelvis neutral and gently pressing the thigh away okay now from this place let's say that you or your students are a little bit restricted in the hips or a lot of it restricted in the hips and the idea of bringing the legs all the way into the chest is just not even an option you're going to take a block I would say lower or mid-level or maybe double stacked and you're simply going to place the block underneath the bottom foot so that they can press their bottom foot into the block and now they kind of have this gathered in feel where it's the legs are starting to come closer which is beginning to change the dynamic of the hip stretch this is a great variation to work with if you are a little bit Fuller in the middle if your hips are a little bit more restricted and again you just can't quite bring the legs in or is this is kind of like a beginning Ground Zero we're starting from scratch figure four okay but let's say that your students can grab pull to the legs so on the exhalation bring the knees into the chest and now lacing your right arm through the triangle that you've made with your legs grab hold of the underside of that bottom thigh or the hamstring giving a little Flex to both feet you can relax that top leg this or bottom like sorry but keeping the foot flexed as you exhale and draw the legs in towards you you're simultaneously pressing your pants down onto the floor again or uncurling your hips back onto the floor again it's a two for one what happens is you're creating this great internal space deep in the hip socket an active stretch for the Deep hip rotators as you draw in and simultaneously push down and Away now you can take this stretch a little further by using your right elbow or the elbow for the top leg and press the thigh away as you simultaneously draw the legs in and press the hips down onto the floor okay so we're here we're feeling good the shoulders are trying to relax down towards the floor but maybe again the hips are tight which is making you foreign Look Backwards behind you and your shoulders curl up off the floor a simple solution like a block underneath the head or a cushion can offer that person that's a little bit tighter in the hips that relaxation that they need in the upper body to not bring more tension in when you're trying to release tension and so I'll remove that black for Kathy and one other variation that you want to think about is if you do have a student that either maybe has short arms or a little bit Fuller in the middle or hips are a little bit more restrictive and they can't quite grab hold of that bottom leg but they don't really need the block or you're going to use what I call the go go gadget arm which is a strap and you're going to Simply bring the strap underneath the hamstring of the bottom leg and hold the hands as close as you can on the strap to where they're almost touching and then that will allow you to bring the legs in and be able to go where your hips will allow you to but you just can't grab hold so again using that strap clasping underneath the bottom hamstring as you draw in is a great solution and variation as well in order to get to that space that you know your body can go I would encourage you to hold this posture anywhere again from 30 seconds to maybe even a minute plus depending on what your feeling is and how comfortable you can hold this pose without causing tension all right so maybe you want to make this posture a little bit more passive and so this posture is a great variation two pigeon or an alternative to Pigeon but if you want that passive feel but maybe aren't really interested in coming into resting pigeon A variation is you can actually release the strap and use a wall so we're conveniently here by the wall and so Kathy is going to take both feet up on the wall so they feel like a tabletop basically shins are parallel with the ceiling and now she's going to extend let's do the opposite leg so left leg comes up snap crackle pop and cross the left ankle over the right knee so now she's in that figure four and she has the resistance and the security of the wall to use her left hand she can actually grab that thigh and externally rotate it as she presses the leg away now she's gonna have to use some strength in her hips in order to stay square and think about that neutral pelvis which is going to dig a little bit deeper into the hip socket in itself as she works against the wall now a pose like this you can easily stay here for a minute even two minutes as you get a little bit more of a passive feel but still a very powerful stretch great job