Prep for Shoulderstand - Bharadvajasana I (Sage's Twist). Iyengar Yoga for Beginners

Transcript

hi I'm Lyn and I'm Leo welcome back to our Channel yoga with Lyn and Leo yes and today we're going to be practicing baras very interesting twisting action so I'm going to give you a quick demo of this you're starting danda lifting up chest up this area becomes very very important in your barasa pose you bend the legs you take the legs to the side taking the top foot over the bottom instead level the hips so we will show you different ways of being able to use support in this pose um it's really quite a challenging action to sit on the floor and to keep both buttocks down so when you come into the twisting action and remember keep the broadness and the height I'm going to extend the arm up just give a little bit more extension reach it so get that reaching action you're going to turn and then take the hand down so what becomes very interesting in this pose is that the upper body becomes more connected when the arm goes around so you to see that the arm comes around and catch so the catch in action is quite challenging for a lot of people particularly if the shoulders are stiff so we can show you different ways of being a to manage that liting up chest up and so see that you don't start moving the head all over the place keep the chin in line with the chest and reach up as you reach the foot side buttock down and then get that turning action okay so I'm going to show you a quick demo on the other side we come back to dandas and then we come with the leg position and again leveling the hips sitting up nicely reaching up extending rotating taking the arm over keeping the balance down with that foot side bck and then reach it and to bring the arm on this one to reach it a little bit um more and then extending up and you can see here that Lyn is keeping this side of the groins down for many of our students when they start turn that whole leg and growing will lift to enable them to to get the turn which is an incorrect action so you can see here that Linds kick from that down and if that's a difficult action for you on the floor which it is very tough then stay with us and we'll show you how to work yes and then extending the legs so it's quite challenging particularly for the Western hips isn't it you know when the hips are really stiff and you're perhaps to um far into your yoga Journey then it it's quite challenging so I'm going to show you now how to use your props so the props that we've got are a Pham pad a blanket and a belt so if you don't have any yoga equipment another folded blanket or a towel would be fine and um a rope or a tie would be okay so I'll start out sitting to the front mhm yes so we want to just go over this um really important stage of down and grounding the legs so before you bend the legs it's so important to get those muscle fibers really nice and long and connected with the floor before you start bending the leg into um the baras action and keeping that broadness across the chest if you've been watching our Channel and you practice the action that will hold you in good for this pose nice so we swing the legs to the right and you saw with Lynn that she got both sides down but you can see here this is my trickier side I'm definitely lifting on this side so if I were to go into the pose it would be with the pelvis at an angle which we don't want okay so I'm just going to show from the back as well because the feet the Foot Action that would be good that yeah and also when you are coming into the um preparations of the pose then to be sure that the knees are facing forward and the legs are facing forward directly so you can see Leo showing you the foot position so those of you who are not familiar with this pose then this is really a good thing to start understanding a lot of people we find who have come to our basic classes they have really tight feet so that can be quite a challenge if they kind of spread a little bit at first but don't give up keep practicing it um so with the level of the it helps to use the left yeah absolutely so we can use to start with corner of a blanket and that might be enough to give you the levelness but it might not so that's a lot better because I'm now getting the pelvis level yes and what's really nice is that it acts like it scales you can you can weight down on that foot side which really does give you that tremendous stability so do be patient with this pose um you know don't try and pce yourself into it because of the knees you have to make sure that you protect the knees and that you just gradually gradually it's action so I'm going to take the arm up and turn for many people catching that arm is difficult which is where your belt comes in and this is really wonderful because it just gives you that connection makes a big doesn't it it does it does you need to have that connection to the arm so that you can get the rotation and as Lynn said previously don't swivel the head around keep the chin in line with the breast bone yes absolutely keep that lift um we we're pulling out a few of these um videos at the moment in preparation for inversions and this could be to include in your practice but also so good for so many other things you know to to get the agility and the openness in the chest and the spine for your back bends enormously um helpful so I'm just showing from the front because it helps to see from all angles yes and you can see that um Bell action and also the back shoulder um you know just trying to weight down that back shoulder so that you start to lift the chest even more as we were saying that chest needs to lift and broaden and the chin in line so you go up through the spine and you rotate don't think because you're turning your head actually you're going a lot further that's not quite right and what we were saying about ly keeping her pelvis level what tends to happen with a lot of our beginner students I'm sure you notice this as well is that can you see yeah that lift and that's you know it fools you into thinking that you're turning yes people think they're going a lot further than they are so just remember this keep grounded so I'll just show on the other side because we want to be even so now you swing your legs to the right because you're turning to the left and that support is so key to get the lifting the spine and holding on to the bows if you need to you can walk along that belt you may be able to hold on to that upper arm you can does this nicely and then from there this is really once you make this shape you get that connection whether it's with the belt with the hand to the upper arm you can start working and opening that upper chest region and it's a really beautiful pose to the breathe broaden the up upper chest region and become so much more in your chest and so thank you for joining us today I think we've done about about equal time on each side yeah when we're teaching you know sometimes the um the sides aren't as even as they should be but um you know you you want to try and get an equality and a balance on each side of the body in every pose that you do yes definitely so thank you for joining us today and we'll see you again with our next video Namaste namaste