How to teach Yin Yoga - Sphinx and Seal

Transcript

so sphinx and seal pose a little bit of a backbend let's get started with starting a tabletop position work our way down onto the belly and the hips so i would like to add a little bit of cushion if you haven't noticed underneath my hips it's not necessary but why not okay so from top you can extend the legs back behind come up onto the forearms here so this is sphinx pose we'll start with just grabbing a hold of opposite elbow and you're more than welcome to instruct students to keep this bind of holding on to opposite elbow sometimes their tendency is the longer we're here the wider their arms slide out to the sides so as a gentle reminder they can keep a hold of the elbows otherwise the forearms can come like two train tracks just out in front there's two options for the neck here so you can keep the neck in a neutral position or you can let the weight of the head come forward be mindful not to sag too deeply into the chest and into the shoulders here so it may cause too much tension there's the option to support your head with the block underneath it if you do want to let the head fall forward so another option here with the legs is to bend into the knees we'll compress the low back a little bit more but it does provide a little bit more sensation if at some point the student is asking for a little bit more and you can either do this entirely separate at another time after you've warmed up through sphynx pose or you can do seal pose towards the end of the strings pose give the option to do it at least so seal balls is essentially the same as fixed only with the elbows extended the forearms are off the ground so if you instruct the student to extend the arms and it's just way too intensive backbend but they still want to can participate that has just a little further forward it is more active posture and there is a lot of support that's being done in order to help support the chest in an upright position so of course if it compresses the back too much or if it's too intense you can always instruct the student to return back to sphinx pose but conversely you can always instruct the student to even walk the hands closer in towards the body just like just holding this for too long so maybe a minute or two and same thing with the neck so it can keep the neck in a neutral position in this upright position and not so much an option to drop the head down you're giving a lot of support into the shoulders but if the student really wants to they can so while we're here we're just breathing into the belly whether you're in sphinx pose or seal pubs and just coming into the shape of the spine on the exhale so one way to come out of the pose or counter at the pose is to come all the way down onto the belly into the chest extend the legs back behind if there's a bend into the knees take a palm pillow rest the forehead on top of that you can simply bend to the knees windshield wiper the shins from side to side or you can take the hands underneath the shoulders and all the way back into child's pose so breathing is wide big toes to touch and counteracting the back then