Sphinx & Seal Explained

Transcript

this video will explain the in yoga version of the sinks in the seal poses which are the in yoga versions of the Cobra you'll learn all about why you'd want to do the Sphinx or the seal there are physiological and energetic benefits and how to do the poses you'll be shown alternatives and options and we'll learn about the contraindications for the poses these are warnings for people who may have difficulty with certain aspects of the sink so the seal you'll also be shown how to get into and out of the pose and what to do after you finish the posture once you know how and why you want to do the Sphinx or the seal visit the States perform to be guided through the easier of these two opposing you can find links to this video into the seal performed at Ian's Yoga calm the Sphinx and the seal pose are very similar they're both extensions of the spine and these can be very deep compressions in the stimulations of the sacral lumbar arch through these poses the spine is toned and many people who have bulging or herniated discs find this supposed to be very therapeutic in the physiotherapy world this is known as McKenzie therapy for people with flexion caused problems in the lower back such as slit discs back bends can ease and nucleus pulposus back into the middle of the if the neck is dropped forward the thyroid is stupid if the neck is dropped back we're also stimulating the thyroid through stretching the front of the neck and then the full seal posts the stomach may receive a lovely stretch as well as always no pose is right for everybody for something the Saints in the seal pose is not a very good choice if you have a really bad back tight sacrum if you suffer from lower back disorders where your doctor has told you not to do extension of the spine you may want to strip these poses or did a very gentles version a very gentle version of the Sphinx pose is simply lying your stomach with your arms over your head for some students who have stomach issues it's not a good idea to trust the belly into the floor you want to make sure you use the options where you're resting your hips onto a bolster the bolsters can become quite useful in spose simply place the bolster towards the middle of your mat and perhaps bring another cushion up towards the front of your mat and allow your tips to be on the bolster while you rest your arms long to get a bolster in this way the belly can hang down to the floor without any compression and this is lovely pregnant women or for people as I mentioned who have stomach disorders finally if you have a headache you may want to avoid this coat for many people lifting the head up can actually make the headache worse you may also start to compress the vertebral artery that runs along the spinous processes through the neck that feed the brain so in these cases you want to not lift the head up maybe just keep the head forward or skip this pose altogether and whether you're doing this things pose with the seal pose it's a good idea to start with the easiest version first so to come into this pose simply line your stomach bring any sitting cushion you have out to the top of the mat with you simply come on to your stomach and bring your elbows out in front of you clasp each elbow in the opposite hand and have the elbows a little bit out in front of your shoulders and then notice how this heals for lower back if this is too much you can reduce the stress and lower back by moving the elbows a little bit further away now as mentioned even just lying on your stomach may be enough of a compression for you for today if this feels like there's no compression at all you can bring the elbows right out in front of you and from here maybe just have your hands flat on the floor so you look like Spinks or continue to clasp the elbows or if you're not King anything rest your elbows on to a bolster so again whether you're beginning the steel pose or just doing the Sphinx pose start here and then from here we can go deeper later now there are several options to make this thing so the seal po is more accessible more enjoyable but remember the point isn't to enjoy this the point is to be challenged in a case we want to find your edges for some people doing weight and really hang out here and get the benefit of a long hold is to use the bolster underneath the armpit this allows you to feel supported so that you can hang out here for a long period of time if you'd like to work the neck of it you can allow the head to just hang down so you get that lovely stress along the backside of the neck or you can support your head into your hands keeping it in a neutral position some people prefer to rest their head onto a block since the target area is really the spine it's okay if you just allow your head to be in neutral for life but one of the nice things about lining the hip hang down is you get to release all the tension that builds up in the back of the neck from just daily living most people in the West our posture has the head quite far forward when you're driving ahead us forward when you're playing on your computer it was for it when you're reading the head is forward when you're slouching in your couch watching TV or the remote your head is forward so all day long the neck muscles and the back of the neck are contracted to hold the whole weight of the head up and that causes them to become short and tight so by allowing the head hang down and being passive the neck you get to stretch out the fascial bags and release some of the tension in the back of the neck and as you hold the pose and the body opens up and you can tolerate more and more compression you can slowly work yourself higher and higher up so as I mentioned you may begin with the elbows on the floor starting here at a pretty edge when the body opens up you can start to add support underneath the elbows it's eventually lifting the chest higher and higher up creating more compression the lower back you can continue to add bolsters when you come higher and higher but at one point you can be high enough that you may wish to transition to the CEO comes the first stage of the seal pose is to simply let the hands go to the outside of it and then push the arms straight how'd you do this you'll notice a few things there's more compression in the back but also there's some stress into the arm bones and this will be quite healthy for the arms we need to stress bones to keep them healthy so you just hang out here locking elbows resting into the wrists when the body opens up you can bring the hands over the closer in the closer in the handsome more deep the curve will be in your lower back and eventually you'll have the hands right underneath the shoulders and you just slide down and this is the deepest curve but this may not be the most compression in the lower back you may find if you have the hand just a little bit forward there's a vector of force pushing the shoulders backward so you actually feel more compression in the lower back here than when you're just hanging up there's also the sense of more stress into the elbows and into the wrists here but again if you just want to relax into this perhaps having it hands right underneath the shoulders will be a bit juicier now at any of these stages once you reach an edge you don't want to go further by lifting the chest up you can add a little bit more stimulation by bringing the feet in towards you how do you do that and notice how it changes the compression of the lower back no need to worry about how close the knee should be or how far apart people will tend to go to the place that feels right for them also some people love to tighten the buttocks that may make it feel a little bit more accessible or you can state your longer others prefer to relax the back when you engage the better turnout it's not going to affect the shape of the lower curve so you can extreme whatever version feels appropriate via the version of the Sphinx top by poly zinc is a little bit different you like to begin with your arms straight out to the side and then slowly over time start to bring the hands closer and closer in until eventually you get to that same position with the hands already Neath the shoulders it's just a different way to get to the same position but you're going to experiment from one to a while whew look that version of the seals like you're still going to work lower back predominantly but you'll get a different sort of stress through the chest and the arms another more advanced position you can try it for very flexible and hips is to do this thanks to the seal pose while your legs are in Lotus again we'll just change the amount of compression through the lumbar and the sacral area when it's time to come out we always want to move slowly so you can simply lower yourself down moving any cushions away turn your head to a side you can rest your cheek on your palms if you prefer and which other way you turned your head slide that knee up beside you on the floor now we asked a lot of the lower back so give it some time here to adjust there's no need to move quickly into any other poses and after a few breaths if you still create a bit more release you can make your way to Child's Pose to get there you'll have to command your hand the knees so while you're on your hands and knees if you prefer you can do a few cat breaths just to release the spine just gentle undulations of the spine up and down emphasizing the downward facing cat rounding the back up and after two or three cat for us you can sit back on your heels and Child's Pose which is a gentle flexion of the spine which is a nice counter pose for the deep extension that we just did this thing's in the seal is a deep extension of the spine so we're working all the joints to the sacroiliac joint in the lumbar spine we're stimulating the meridian lines of the backbone the urinary bladder and the kidney breathe especially as they go through a lumbar spine area in the deeper poses you may feel a nice stretch from the front side of the body through the stomach which starts to work the stomach in the spleen reads some teachers have noted that these back bends also physically stimulate the kidneys and the adrenal glands now this can be a very therapeutic colors but it may not be accessible to stay for five minutes all once so beginners may find it useful to just hold the pose for maybe a minute then come down for 30 seconds or so and go back up and do the pose two or three times just holding for one minute each time this thing is a pretty gentle pose most Buchan stay there for three four or five minutes at a time The Seagull gets a bit more challenging but for those that have very bendy backs for some people the seal is not a problem you can stay the seal for five or ten minutes in fact it could become your favorite way to watch television I lying on the floor look from your chest up you watch the TV even that ads come on lower down because you don't know what's the identity so take a break also you can read on the floor living on the floor is a very healthy thing to do for your body so just put your books out on the floor just come on to your arms and stay there for five ten fifteen minutes again you listen to your body you can always do too much and sometimes you don't feel it right away maybe the next day you start to feel some the teamlink or some twinges in the lower back you have to remember what was in doing the day before so work towards openness over time yawn roll this pose is known as the Cobra however there's a difference here in the in one which is why we call the Sphinx pose or the seal folks in the Cobra we're really using our upper back muscles to hold us up in the sinks of the seal we'd like the back pulses be more or less relaxed so that we can hang out here it's one of the few times where it doesn't matter if you engage your muscles because engaging the back muscles is actually going to increase the amount of compression lower back but you don't want to engage the muscles for five minutes or ten minutes so to make this more accessible just allow your back to relax you so it's not a contracted hard muscular pose as we find in the onload in terms of sequencing sakes is probably the gentlest of the back bends Co is the deepest in between there's a pose notice Saturday which for some people can be quite used but for others the subtle pose is not the deepest pose so I mean when I work out towards see you pose by starting in space and try saddle and then do the sit bones for people who do not have the range of motion in their lower back the steel post may not be one that they want to do so if you just do the space in the settlement you