How to do Standing Forehead to Knee - Tips n Tricks

Transcript

hello magnificent human beings my name is Landon slaughter and here we do yoga we talk about life we focus on personal growth yes that's exactly what we're doing today because we're gonna learn about standing forehead to knee this is a very difficult pose I have troubles with it myself and I love it all at the same time because it's one of those things where it incorporates so many aspects of other postures in to one and you know takes a lot of strength takes a lot of flexibility all these things so I'm excited to explore this posture with you today so if you would like to learn more about standing for head to knee some cool ways to modify then this is the short segment for you please roll out your mat and I will roll the intro screen [Music] looking at standing at forehead to knee there are a lot of ways to modify so I'm gonna go over a few ways to modify and then I'm going to come into more of the full expression down the road the first thing is do not try this pose if you are not fully warmed up I record lots of my stuff here all in one batch so I've done a couple of classes thus far and I feel I'm decently loose enough to try to get into this posture so do not come into this pose cold you definitely want to explore this maybe after a full yoga class or obviously in the middle during the standing series when you eventually get to standing a forehead to knee so let's find our balance on our left leg and then simply bring your right knee on up and interlace your fingers underneath your knee just hold them here so this is an excellent first way to modify in standing forehead to knee now we want to keep kind of some of the good principles of this pose right shoulders roll back and then really absorb the weight of this leg into your arms so that's the difficult part right is when you're standing and you're holding and absorbing the weight of your leg into your arms is that it changes the balance and this is kind of a good thing because you want to be versatile in your balance and holding this leg will do that it kind of tricks things because usually you had this leg nice and strong and engaged but instead we have it nice and loose shoulders roll back holding and why do we do this well we do it because having this leg nice and loose really allows us to have a better extension of our leg whenever we extend it on out so just if I hold my leg nice and strong and I try to extend it it can't come out naturally quite as far but if my leg is loose it's much easier to get that full extension out and that's something to keep in mind when you're in your full standing forehead to knee is that you're holding on to that standing leg but you don't want to engage it you want it to be relatively loose so you can get that full extension that full length so holding here extending it on out so this is a great practice right is absorbing the weight of that leg trying to keep this leg as loose as possible and naturally you'll have to engage it just a little bit as you extend it on out but you don't want to do it you know too much because if you really flex your leg it won't go very far so keeping a loose leg as you extend it on out perfect setting that down so same thing just exploring the other side holding this leg up and just relaxing here and a lot of folks will have issues just kind of balancing on that one leg to start so just staying here focus to breathe setting it on so that's kind of the first option in your standing for head to knee when the teacher gets to this pose that's definitely an option for you to be able to modify next would be bringing your knee on up and then grabbing here at the top of your shin kind of almost squeezing that knee and holding the top of your knee because this is step one this is step two this is step three right so just kind of exploring each one of these elements so in this next version holding your knee and then really holding strong strong arms and then just practice kind of coming over and just keeping as best of a flat back as you can and really hugging that knee in almost so it's not hugging in its I'm lowering your torso out to meet that leg right still trying to keep a flat back as best as you can then eventually some folks can hold here and if you have really long arms you can grab for this foot and then extend on out but for the majority of folks we will have to kind of come into that step one of leaning over just a little bit step two is grabbing for that foot now here is a sort of cardinal sin that people make in standing for head to knee is that they really taxed their low back a lot coming into this posture because they're doing everything they can to just hold on to that foot and then by proxy they're really putting strain in that low back so to prevent this there's a few things you can do to kind of help take off the load a little bit your standing leg you want to engage your standing leg you want to engage your core and you also want to just keep really thinking about keeping that low back your whole back as straight as you can make it so naturally it's gonna round a little bit but you don't want it to hunched over you know so you're holding here and then extending that leg on out and this is really important because putting strain in that low back is never a good idea but it kind of keeps you conscious of the whole process of not you know really getting too far ahead of yourself and trying to cheat yourself out of the pose you're holding here tilting over that leg just a little bit coming on out and then once you get - a decent like 90-degree angle here then that's when you very slowly start to explore bringing that forehead to your knee and this has a lot to do with your leg strength your core strength and then how loose also kind of your hamstrings are - right because if they're not that loose then you're gonna start to really put some tension on that low back so from here to there is a long journey so a full expression of the pose takes a lot of balance and strength so it's a you know gentle journey each step of the way holding here and then torso on that thigh gently extending things out keeping that straight back as best as you can it's gonna curve but don't let it curve too much right and then slowly breathe see you get ahead of yourself you start to fall out so it's a journey it's it's it's a challenge I know so just stay with it setting it on down so for some folks who are really flexible bringing your knee to your forehead is actually um probably too short you may be able to bring your forehead even farther down to the middle of your shin in some cases I'm not there but it is definitely something that happens as you become more flexible in your practice so thank you so much for joining me and looking at standing for head to knee many aspects to this pose right so don't beat yourself up just crack practice practice is I feel the best thing I go of you for being here and for my heart yours namaste [Music]