Revolved Half Moon | Yoga Tutorial Tuesday | Tate Englund Yoga

Transcript

hey everyone welcome tutorial tuesday another tutorial for you so for today's tutorial it's going to be revolved half moon or part of rita arda chandrasada right for me this is one of my all-time favorite postures if i could do this in every single practice boom i'd be one happy customer um but it didn't start off that way it's it started off as i didn't really enjoy the pose i didn't really understand what i was supposed to be feeling what i was supposed to be doing and it just wasn't the easiest thing for me because it's not it's not it's not a very easy posture to do it looks a little it looks a lot simpler than it actually is um so it'll be helpful to have one block we'll i'll show you how to set up the way i kind of i'm teaching this to a beginner how i would teach this i use two blocks to start so have a block or two i always recommend our revolved half moon with a block i think that it allows for you to find just a little bit of balance right it's not a heavy load on the block a little bit of balance to find the full depth pull it find your full depth of the posture so the way i teach this to get set up right is i have you grab two blocks i'm going to have my right leg down for this right and i just kind of come into like a supported warrior three right and i'm chest forward left legs lifting now to start this is like any one-legged standing balancing posture with the leg extended behind you is this left hip right tends to roll up this hip's rolling up and what in a revolved half moon just like airplane just like warrior three what you're looking for is level hips on top so i'm going to spin my left outer hip down and my inner left leg up so i'm rotating the inner left leg up toward the ceiling as i drop my outer left hip right and then the tendency is because we kind of collapse forward is this standing leg so on mine it's going to be my right leg tends to kind of just collapse forward so i want to actually pull my right outer hip back and as you do so right you're going to feel this left hip is going to drop even more by pulling that hip back right and then i what i see a lot too is people tend to lean too far forward or they tend to kind of hyper extend back right or they go too far back what you're going to do is as you as i set up right you're going to come on to your blocks with your fingertips not your hands if you come down on your hands too much weight just be up on your fingertips it's more of like i'm just balancing here i'm not weight loading my my hands right and i'm just going to shift weight into the heel shift weight into the ball of the foot shift weight into the heel shift weight into the ball of foot we'll do that one more time weight into the heel weight into the ball of the foot and then i find a happy medium in between where i feel equal weight into the ball of my foot and the heel if you're not sure what the ball your foot is it's right your toe mounds right across here just below your toes on the foot right and then again this left hip wants to lift the front of the hip wants to get involved and we don't want the front of the hip to be involved in this posture right to start because if we lift from the front of the hip it tends to roll open so roll that hip back down right i might have you take your hand to your sacrum to your hips and just make sure are they level you can kind of feel is one hip higher than the other make any adjustments you need to get that left hip the key to being able to twist a little bit deeper is getting the hips level with each other right and then what i see a lot of times is people are down here reach that chest forward this way all the muscles along the spine are working right i like to point my foot and spread my toes it just kind of carries my left leg a little bit further and then from here right i'm going to engage my quad so my leg straightens and then my left hamstring is going to lift up toward the ceiling but i'm not rolling the hip open i'm having it come from the back of the leg lift the leg up right i want to keep the pelvis neutral and then from here i'm going to take my right hand to my right hip and then i'm just going to roll my rib cage up toward the ceiling once i can't rotate the rib cage up toward the ceiling i'm going to extend my right arm up toward the ceiling right i'm going to try to keep my hips square and then to go a little bit deeper right this is the key is squeeze your inner thighs as tight as you can using that to solidify the bass maybe you're able to twist a little bit deeper and then slowly come back out right what happens a lot of times is people just use the shoulder to twist and what i mean by that is they kind of keep the chest parallel and then they just take the arm and just kind of lift the arm up and they're trying to twist from the shoulder what we actually want to twist is imagine you're in crescent right and you're going to stay upright and you're just going to twist your torso to the right you're not going to use your arms right you're just twisting your torso to the right same action in revolve tough movement it's not the arm we're not twisting with our shoulder right we're going to be here right rib cage twists and then the star the the arm extends same thing here right so as i come into it i got both hands on my blocks i shift my weight back and forth between ball of the foot and the heel chest forward right if my spine is long when my spine is rounded i'm not strengthening every muscle in my back right along the spine i want to reach my chest forward in a little bit slight of a back bend my left quad engages i lift from the back of the leg the hamstring up right if my hip is rolling open i'm now fighting against that as i twist right i have this side trying to roll up and then this side trying to go here right by keeping the hips level we allow just the movement to come from the torso right we're not fighting against ourselves right this hip lifts i'm fighting against myself to roll open this hip stays down now it's just the torso right so i want to level my hips off engage my quad as much as i can spread my toes and then from the back of the leg lift the hamstring right chest forward chest up right hand to my right hip roll the hip the ribs open until they stop then once they stop right arm can then go up toward the ceiling but i'm not trying to twist myself with my arm the twist comes from the ribs right it comes from the thoracic spine and then i'm going to squeeze my inner thighs as tight together as i can and then i'm just going to twist maybe a little bit deeper but only from the rib cage and then come all the way back out of it right reasons why i love this pose so much right on this standing leg right on the standing leg we're getting a nice outer hip stretch we're also getting an outer upper hamstring stretch right we might even get into the belly of the hamstring a little bit on the lifted leg we're strengthening our glute and our hamstring by lifting from the glute from the hamstring right our entire muscles along the spine right that posterior chain along the spine chest forward is is engaging as we lifts right so the back is strengthened and then from here if we twist from the ribcage right we're getting into that rotational component the rotational component to the core is becoming more mobile more flexible and stronger right so we're here and then he gets a nice opening through the shoulder right so that's why i love this pose right challenges the balance right it it strengthens the balancing muscles it lengthens the outer hip outer hamstring upper hamstring a little bit some of us may feel it down here on the lifted leg right we're getting into the glute we're getting into the hamstring we're lifting up and then from the ribs we rotate so the rotational component to our core right our obliques our lats our multifide all those things that you don't need to know the names of right are working to twist us and then we're getting a nice opening through the chest and we're even getting some adduction we're even getting inner thigh strength by if we squeeze inner thighs in towards each other to maybe twist a little bit deeper alright so there's so many things that go into that pose that's why it's so hard right we're balancing on one leg we're trying to lift the top leg even higher we're trying to strengthen the back and then on top of that we're trying to twist our body right in a direction to strengthen and mobilize the core right that's why i love this post reason i like a block right what i see a lot of times is people will take it with their hand on the floor left arm up is this worst case scenario it's it's not a bad it's not a bad thing the problem is it's just like a halfway lift if i just come into a halfway lift with my fingertips on the floor the only thing working is my upper back along the spine so it's like why not be more efficient why not strengthen the entire chain so in a halfway lift what would i do i'm going to come up higher so my low back is working in simultaneously with my upper back same thing in half moon right or revolved half moon if i'm here my upper back is working and it's building nice strength right but if i come up on a block right just like i would in my halfway lift or bring my hands to my shins i'm getting my upper back mid back low back all working and i'm actually able to twist a little bit deeper but another thing reason for it with the hand on the floor there's a little bit of flattening to the low back or there for a lot of people there can be also a rounding of the low back and one of the more vulnerable positions for the spine in a twist is when it is forward folding so it's rounding and there's some twists to it right so we want to make sure that the spine is long and that we are twisting with long extended spine right if if you can do all of this without a block right so if you can maintain if you're unsupported and you can maintain level hips long leg lifted up left hand down right arm up right and roll the ribcage open this is a perfectly fine spot to do it but what i find is i can't twist quite as deep as when i have my hand on the block so it's just kind of what works for you try it out right i always recommend right a lot of people think blocks hinder your yoga practice that is one of the most false statements or ideologies that you can even have in a yoga practice or in a yoga room because all they do is they bring the floor to where you need it right i need the floor to be here so my shoulders can be in line with my hips while needing some support right i need this here to be supported if i'm down here i'm not getting the full benefit of the pose right my low back is not activated i'm not able to find the length of my spine and i can't quit twist quite as deep so the block brings the floor to where you need it and allows you to take your practice further and find your full expression of the pose right there's never a full expression of the pose it's your full expression right because everybody's has different bodies they have different abilities they go to different depths right but it's your full expression so try those out right but the key the key to it all right don't be afraid use a block right but the the key that's gonna just do everything for you is get that left hip or that lifted hip down in line with the right pull your right outer hip back right because right we tend to collapse here as we drop so then it's pulling this right outer hip back left right arm up toward the soon and then lift from your hamstring so you lift the leg up to build the strength without rolling that hip back open if you lift from the back the leg goes up straight if you start to incorporate other muscles the hip rolls open right if you're like i can't i just for whatever reason i don't have control of my hamstrings right i just don't get a feel for that come into sphynx pose bring your awareness to the front of your hip points and then from here without changing the weight in your hip points from the back of your right leg right hamstring lift your leg off the floor keep the leg straight and just work this right right leg down left leg up i'm trying not to increase the pressure in my hip points the more you can practice this right of lifting from the back of your leg the more revolved half moon the hips are going to stay level the more decasana airplane hips are going to stay level warrior 3 verbatross in the 3 the more the hips are going to stay level any time that hip rolls off weight shifts out we want to make sure that that weight stays over the inside part of your of your leg so try these out right use a block level your hips right level your hips on top first adjust maybe start with a bent knee to give you more access to the hips and then straighten out the leg lift from the back leg feel your hamstring and glute working reach your chest forward feel all the muscles along the spine working together ribs roll open first then the right arm right a lot of times when people just take the right arm it's the shoulder driving the the car and we want the rib cage to do all the driving right try it out let me know what you think hopefully you found this useful hopefully one day you'll enjoy this pose as much as i do because if it's if it's thrown in the class right huge benefits to it we already found it outer hip outer hamstring upper hamstring strength and length we got lifted leg hamstring and glute we got rotational components to the core we got back strengthening right it's just a beautiful wonderful pose that i hope everybody has the same love of it down the road have a good day try it out let me know what you think