How To Do Standing Head to Knee Pose Part 2 | Barkan Hot Yoga

Transcript

standing head to knee part two this video is geared more for the serious yoga student are you ready to take this posture to the next level [Music] hi everyone if this is the first time we're meeting my name is jimmy bark and been practicing hot yoga for over 40 years please consider subscribing hit the notification bell hit the like button it really boosts up our video in the algorithm and i appreciate that standing head to knee or in sanskrit we call it dandayamana janashashasana now in the bikram world they call it dandayamana janashirasana bikram and vishnugosh were notorious for mispronouncing the sanskrit this is the sh this is the head is the shirsha the knee is janu janu shisha jana shashasana fyi so why did i make this video a lot of people struggle when they're at the intermediate to advanced level they're trying to get to that next point where they're trying to touch their head to the knee and they make a couple big mistakes so we're going to go to the studio with new bark and teacher yulia and let's get started so here we are at the fort lauderdale studio with the wonderful assist of yuya a new barking graduate and if you're interested in the bark and trainings there are links in the description below so let's start with stan anthony intermediate and advanced now remember this is the intermediate advanced version of standing head to knee if you're a beginner and you want to see the detailed steps for the beginning process check out the video we did here on standing head to me a few months ago and that gets in more to the preliminary this is more advanced techniques so now the standing leg is straight that's a given our shoulders are down and her arms are extended so our leg is now completely straight and now what we have to do is relax the wrists elbows and shoulders so let's talk about the wrists as i talked about before in that other video that i did on stan ahead tony because this is part two this is more intermediate advanced we don't do the protruded wrist grip because as a beginner this is going to be great just going to give you a good vice grip and you're going to hold on to that foot like crazy but now as you start getting more to the intermediate advanced time it's time for you to start to drop your elbows and wrists how are you going to do that this has to be loose and relaxed also your wrists don't want to protrude you want to extend them out so look how i got another inch or a couple centimeters further without even getting more flexible just by changing my grip so now it's time for you to get the elbows shoulders and wrists to drop how are you going to do that it has to be relaxed so you're always going to do the pose she's going to face this direction she kicks her leg out and once the upper quad is engaged remember that's the prerequisite the upper leg has to be engaged to go to this next level she tightens the quad and now wrists elbows shoulders drop and relax look how far down her elbows go below the calf muscle that's the hard part and then she can press in her arms to the cap muscle now she has something else to hold on to and now her head can come down to her knee without her spine moving so now when the upper leg is straight your primary thought changes no longer is it shoulders down arms extended now it is keep the upper quad muscle engaged because what happens is you start dropping your elbows and your shoulders down your upper leg has a tendency to bend so if you keep the upper quad engaged you will not allow that to happen so now i'm going to have julia face this direction she kicks her leg out to a parallel position one of the biggest mistakes i see people having in this pose is they go too flat back so she's going to come down with a flat back and then when she tries to touch her head to her knee it touches her shin so her center of gravity is way too forward over toward her foot okay you'll relax for a second your upper body doesn't drop at all this stays concave you can even look down at the floor in front of you right down directly below you the whole time when you're kicking that leg out so watch you you do that she kicks her leg out she's going to look down here her elbows drop and look at her spine doesn't move and now her head touches her knee up you can see the center of gravity is over her knee not over her shin and now look how nice and rounded her spine is that's where we want to be now let's look at the standing foot this is where it needs to be i'm going to have her step her right leg out a little bit so you can see it should be parallel right here so what happens is the tendency is the foot wants to turn out to the left a little bit when that happens all the way is coming into the inside of the knee or the meniscus and that's where you can run into a lot of problems especially if you have a tendency to hyperextend your knee you don't want to turn that foot out and if you do hyperextend the knee make sure you watch this video on don't lock the knee but what she wants to do is turn the foot back into center so that foot is exactly parallel or perpendicular in this direction so you're not turning out to the side now all the strength comes into your quad above the knee and now you've got all the support that you need now in the barking method class this is the longest posture we hold we do 60 seconds i even do the second set 60 seconds too in the book rule to do 60 30 i believe but in the old days it was 60 60 and that's what i continue to that tradition i continue to uphold but in the advanced class we used to do two minutes each side so how are you going to hold this position for so long the key is once you're in the full position once you file you've mastered this as an advanced level then you must keep the quad engaged and relax the breath because if you hold your breath you're going to be able to hold the pose first because you can hold your breath so you've got to relax the breath keep the quad engaged and then you'll be able to maintain this position so much longer and finally you're going to have an internal clock you're going to know okay i can do this posture for 30 seconds tomorrow i'm going to go 32 seconds and do that for a week then the next week i'm going to go 34 seconds and then you build from what you have don't feel bad some days you you're going to be stronger than other days but here's another very important thing the days you're really strong those are the days you actually need to back off because the day those are the days i've actually hurt myself when i feel really super strong and i push push push the body is going to fight you and that's when you can pull something so when you're in the days when you're feeling a little bit on the tired fatigue side those are the days you can actually push it interestingly enough it's different psychology so let's look at a final checkpoint the standing leg is straight that's a beginning primary thought now she extends her leg out shoulders down arms extended that's the intermediate primary thought now it's time for her to drop her elbows down the upper quad is engaged that is your primary thought the wrist drop the shoulders drop the elbows come below the calf muscle the body curls in the weights to the front part of the big toe mound of that foot and the head touches the knee and now we're going to look at the ultra advanced so watch yulia now when you first start doing this you might find or you're definitely going to find that your your thigh muscle your top quad is going to cramp up so she's going to face me start out into your regular position so start out in your full position like how she's staying rounded right from the beginning she's not coming forward like we talked about before and then what she's going to do she's going to move her hands down to her heels she lets go of one hand as it continues to face forward and then the other while keeping the quadricep muscle engaged look ma no hands so that is our episode for today i thank you for joining me if you're new to the channel please consider subscribing