Learn To Headstand & Elbow Stand Easily | Beginner Level To Impressive Yoga Variations

Transcript

[Music] hello from beautiful nicaragua we are here today at morgan's rock eco lodge and we just finished completing our boho beautiful retreat a new program that is coming up and we are just so excited to bring this program to life because we've been able to create something that will give people the opportunity to experience a yoga retreat out of the comforts of their own home so it's a lot of exploration through yoga mindfulness and a deeper discovery of your inner self so if you'd like to learn more about this program check out boho beautiful.life and you'll see all the information there now i wanted to just take a moment today and focus a little lesson on inversions now inversions can be a very fun experience but quite intimidating for a lot of people especially when they're just stepping into yoga so i wanted to take the time today to first give you a breakdown step by step how to achieve a couple of inversions and secondly give those experienced yogis an opportunity to start to progress their practice and see what other variations they can do once they master that inversion [Music] all right so now before we get into practicing our headstand i want to teach you one exercise which is called your dolphin planks which will help you get that strength and stability in your shoulders and your core and if you're only starting with exploring headstands perhaps this is something you just want to stick to for now and then once you get a little bit more comfort and confidence and even just holding your weight on your forearms then you can start to progress and get to the next level okay so let's just do a quick set of eight dolphin planks and over time i want you to go up to 10 15 and then 20. so to do a dolphin plank you're going to come onto your elbows and you can either keep your hands open like this or interlace your fingers like you're about to start doing the headstand then come into plank from your plank position you're going to lift your hips up like a downward facing dog but on your elbows on your exhalation you come back into plank and come on up so inhale lift into dolphin and then exhale plank for two lift and three lift exhale four lift exhale five now try this little trick and bring your chest even lower down six so you're really pushing off the forearms lift and seven almost like a very low plank eight come on up great job now let's come down to the knees let's start to work on our headstand i will walk you through different stages depending on the level that you're at so first we're going to introduce the fingers elbows are grounded forearms are grounded into the floor then you're going to go ahead and tuck the chin to the chest and then place the top of your head on the mat now i'm going to stress this again your weight is not going to come on top of your head most of your weight is actually in your forearm so to a point where you could lift your head off the floor not that you're gonna have to do that but just for you to keep in mind now let's tuck your toes and lift your hips into that dolphin before we begin now start to walk your feet as close as you can until you start to feel your weight on your forms maybe just stay with your feet together and just start to play with that weight transfer coming up and then down lifting the heels up as high as you can and then pressing into your elbows one more then from here next step is to try and lift one foot off the ground or bend the knee and then release same thing to the other side bend the knee and see if you can lift up to the tippy toes and then release and again you guys maybe this is where you're going to stop today and you're going to only practice the weight transfer if you're ready for the next step then we're going to start one leg at a time bend the knee and then see if you can bring the other foot and just balance here your knees are bent most of your weight is in your elbows in your forearms you're cradling your head between your hands and that's where you're gonna stay version three more extended is to actually start to extend your legs and come into that full headstand all right and just finding your breath so feel free to come out of this posture and practice a few times or if you're with me and you're more advanced i'm going to take you to a couple more stages here next stage is to try and come into a v where you bring your legs halfway and just engage through the core it's actually in a stronger yoga position so you're just holding here it's quite difficult and then once you gain the core strength you can lower your feet and then lift both legs back up together good let's come on out and i'll show you a different variation a little bit more challenging to come up now when you come out of your headstand i'd like you to first just take a child's pose for maybe about five seconds rest your forehead on the mat and again just allowing your body your spine to settle so you don't feel this head rush happening if you come up too fast and then once you feel okay then you can slowly come up there's no rushing in headstands you really want to take your time let's do this again i'll show you a more difficult variation to bring your legs up and then what you can do with your legs in the air if you're more beginner just practice with me again just getting both knees off the ground so let's do this again interlace the fingers forearms down bring your head lift your hips walk over so my advanced yogis let's stay with me now lift your heels point your toes press into the elbows and start to just lift up hold it here full headstand next variation is to do eagle legs you're just going to cross one leg over the other bend your knees and see if you can interlace your ankles holding eagle and another variation is just to create a diamond with your legs bending your knees and just bringing the toes together like so and then one more variation again like we did in our shoulder stand you are going to do a full lotus bend your right knee place your foot to your thigh open the knee bend your other knee and then start to do little walks with the foot until you come into full lotus and you're holding the slowest pose three two one extend lift your legs up with control take it down plant your feet then your knees release your hands release your forehead to the floor child's pose just take a second let your body settle if you need a little bit more time to settle down with your head feel free to pause the video and then come back all right one more posture i'm gonna teach you guys today and that is your elbow stand now elbow stand is quite similar like a shoulder stand i highly recommend you guys do the dolphins first to get that strength core stability in your body then you are ready to progress to your elbow stance so to do the elbow stand we're going to keep your elbows about shoulder width apart try to keep the palms of your hands grounded on the floor same thing you're lifting like in headstand hips up dolphin and then start to walk your feet a little closer this is where it's gonna get a little bit fun you're just gonna kick your one leg up and just practice with that weight transfer so you're just kicking and down kicking and down do this as many times as you like over time then you're going to try and meet your legs together so you're going to kick and then bring the other leg and then hold and maybe you'll fall out and then slowly you're gonna work on finding that balance and holding your shoulder and holding your elbow stand kick it up and hold pressing your elbows to the ground palms down and a variation you can do is bend both knees and do like a half scorpion i call this where you just allow yourself to open arch the back a little bit or bring it back up and then release sometimes when you come out especially with variations the weight kind of swings a little bit so you come out a little faster but again just play with it and then come on to your quick child's pose just to relax the body and then come on up all right so these are just a couple of variations for you to practice with to have fun with with your inversions again remember to be patient and have fun with it this should be play time for you and exploration of your body and as time goes on you will get more strength and you will be able to do a little bit more advanced postures alright thank you so much for joining me here in nicaragua and i hope you enjoy our new program boho beautiful retreat and i look forward to seeing you again namaste when the madness is gone [Music] and the earthquakes when the breakfast [Music] is burned [Music] when the magic is lost in passion in promises [Music]