How to do Hero Pose | Options For A Safe Yoga Pose | Asana Video Library

Transcript

hi welcome back I'm here with Lainey again and we're going to be working with seated hero and for many people Hiro is a love hate pose for some they sit in it for meditation for others they try to do anything possible to not get into it and so I'm going to hopefully debunk some of the concerns with Heroes pose today with Laney to help you feel more confident as a student and as a teacher to tackle such a pose okay so right now Laney's going to be turning sideways here and just getting people into this posture and having them simply sit down onto their heels Laney obviously has quite a bit of comfort in this posture but let's say that someone that is a little bit maybe bulkier in the thighs a little bit tighter through the quads knees are hip flexors and tries to sit into a posture like this they oftentimes end up a little bit like this where they're hovering and I always like to tell my students you need to have a secure point to sit on in a pose like Hero's pose and if you're not sitting on something all the connective tissue all the tissues around the knee joints are basically trying to hold your body up in suspension and in midair and that's not the point of the posture and so we want to be able to establish a clear point of connection for your backside to sit onto so Lane right now is in what I like to call Simple Heroes pose see down the heels but again this might not be for everyone so your options Artisan on a black you could tuck a cushion between the heels or you can also use a blanket so I'm going to have Laney face the back here and so when using the black pretty easy Lane is going to place the black right between her heels and you'll notice that the black probably the lower or the mid level are the two most appropriate levels now don't be surprised too if you're someone that's more restrictive or your student you may need a block and then maybe in addition to that setting a blanket on top of that so I like to never underestimate what somebody's body is capable of because she wants to be able to sit upright and still be comfortable on her knees and still be comfortable in her hips so this is often a variation I see a lot of my students needing and it's quite comfortable then but let's say that maybe Lainey doesn't need that much height and stay looking for me and rather just maybe a little bit of a lift so a bean cushion or a sandbag can be a great option to kind of wedge right between your heels as well and that gives her the comfort that she needs and she can kind of adjust herself so maybe she needs to sit level with her heels and not above her heels and that cushion allows her the ability to do that if I have plenty come up for a second and let's say she stays in this position but comes down and when she sits she doesn't quite get to the floor so this is that cover I was talking about she's not really connected to anything but she's just trying to plant herself into the space between the heels I want you to try to avoid this if at all possible even if that just means again maybe a small touch towel or some sort of a head cushion underneath the bum to be able to sit I want you to be able to get into that space so I'm going to have when you turn sideways again one of the other concerns with a pose like Heroes pose is what do I do about pinching in the knee or behind the knee and this is when a strap works really great or even a folded hand towel you can fold it a couple of times and you might eat two if it's both needs and then you're going to take this Lenny's going to take that and tuck it up nice and tight right up to the back of her knee and then when she sits back it creates a nice little space for her knee to have the space that it needs to be able to sit back in this folded position an easy fix that really helps with a lot of discomfort that may just kind of make people stray away from such a posture the next thing that strap four or again a rolled up towel is when the ankles go wonky it's a very scientific term wonky and the feet either want to turn in or someone's trying to turn the foot out because the ankle is hurting them or even just having the ankle and extension like this causes a lot of pain on the front of the joint Laney can take that folded strap at any degree in either one place it over the top of her or under the top of her foot or two actually place it at the ankle joint and so it's kind of giving that curve back to the ankle again and for me I often need to do that on my left ankle I had sprained it multiple times in high school and growing up and it just sometimes doesn't sit quite right and so I just need that little space to help the foot Point straight back rather than turn in where I'm on the outside of the ankle joint so play with that and play with towels or straps or your sock maybe even just folding up the edge of the mat if necessary and you can use that to kind of prop up the ankles as well a lot of times as teachers we just need to use what we have available so try not to overthink that process okay so once you've chose whatever it is you need to in order to sit in Heroes pose let's say you don't need any props at all and you're able to get to the floor one of the adjustments I like to do before we sit is actually roll out the thigh or sorry the calf muscles so that when you sit back the knees can point straight forward and you've essentially made space now for your hamstring to connect to your calf and then as you sit remember we want to make a Clear Connection as you can see with Laney we want to make a clear connection to the floor how do I know if the floor is not an option for me when you sit your body is topped so your tailbone is tucked you've got to end up shrinking in your spine this is a sheer sign that yeah definitely you need to get someone up on something to essentially untuck their pelvis so your pelvis is in neutral like ladies is right now the rib cage is able to relax down and we can be quite tall up through the crown of the head now in a pose like Hero's pose you could use this for meditation you could do from some fun stuff with the black then you could place her Palms to the edges of the black and then extend her arms up over her head and really focus on rooting her shoulder blades and rooting her rib cage to kind of create this nice extension she could turn this into a Twist she could turn this into supine hero which we're going to do in the next video so there's a lot of options that you can do in playing with this posture one of the biggest things though I want you to understand walking away from this pose today is please use the variations please use your props oftentimes the quads are so restricted and tight that you're trying to force your bodies into something it's just not ready for so some great warm-up postures would be things like deep lunge or high lunge functional calf release half camel up the wall would be great options to just kind of be able to open up and release the front body functional extension would be another great one just to ensure the safety and success of this posture and again as always take it slow great job