Standing Wide-Legged Forward Fold | Prasarita Padottanasana

Transcript

hey guys welcome to yoga with Adrien I am Adrien and today on the foundations of yoga series we're going to learn one of my favorite postures it's a wide legged forward fold standing wide-legged forward fold today or Pro procita poasa I'm human guys Sanskrit say that five times fast um it's one of my favorite poses it's great for the whole body it's great for the legs it's great for the back it's it's a really great pose I often recommend uh for students who have anxiety if you're anxious or if you're feeling particularly anxious about something this is a great pose to kind of tackle um and uh experience to Quil that so sounds pretty good to me I don't know what you think let's hop on the mat and learn standing wide-legged forward [Music] fold okay so from your Mountain pose we're going to step the feet nice and wide we're going to send the fingertips left to right brighten the fingertips spread your fingertips and just like we learned in Triangle POS foundations of yoga triangle pose this is kind of a good guide to just go ankle to wrist um rather than saying three to four feet it's everyone's different right you know um one of my best friends is 7 feet to it's like you have to take in your body to account okay and especially when we're we're focusing on foundations it's like it's a good it's a good time to slow down and be like Oh but for my body it's different for adrianne's body it's this but um as a general Mark we can go ankle to wrist connection for these kind of standing wide-legged things take a second to pull the pinkies back just to find that lift in the heart why not lengthen the tailbone down and then whatever this means to you close your eyes and think about the sit bone to heel connection Q Kermit the Frog go um what I mean is see a line from your sit bones to your heels so you might have noticed you were collapsing into the inner arches of the feet for this wide uh angle pose I really want to press into my heels and again whatever it means to you consider the sit bone to heel connection I think you'll notice that you kind of sit back into your heels a little bit when you when you think about that line maybe you actually feel the muscles the connection from the sitting bones all the way down towards the feet and maybe you notice how everyone go ahead and bring your hands to your waistline here while I talk about this Foundation cuz you're like my arms hands to the waistline here hands to the hips whatever feels good you notice that your weight goes from the inner arches perhaps to the outer arches and then see if you can keep a little Integrity in that big toe Mound so it might seem like I'm talking a lot about the feet here but this is foundations of yoga so really taking a second to build from the ground up this is going to help us once we go down into the forward fold and this is why we have this series is like when we're in fast-paced classes we we kind of don't have the time it's ironic but we're in yoga and we don't have the time to kind of build good foundation so taking the time now lift your toes to just kind of really marry that sole of the foot connection down to the Earth and then experiment with turning your two big toes in slightly so perhaps you've already done that but maybe maybe you haven't maybe they're maybe you're naturally turning out see if you can turn your toes in slightly to really feel that connection to the outer edges of the feet your feet might even start to like feel like they're doing a lot of work here and that's good that's okay press into the heels lengthen the tailbone down take a deep breath in I'm going to reach my fingertips behind my ears and reach up just once to kind of lengthen the side body in case this is the only thing you're doing today engage the tops of the thighs Engage The the knees here by lifting the kneecaps just slightly pull the thumbs back remember this space keep it lifted heart lifted as we bring the hands back down here fingertips left to right take a deep breath in keep the armpit chest lifted here so this part of the body lifting naturally we're here right so lift lift up in fact everyone open your palms this is that Titanic thing I keep referring to that hallo Kate Winslet moment the confidence and then keep this lift this confidence and bring your hands to your hips now notice I said hips this time rather than waist bring your hands to your hips baby and bring your fingertips to your hip creases inhale in lift your chin slightly press into your heels exhale draw your navl hug your navl in towards your spine just slightly so full body experience here my friends knit the the rib cage together so draw the rib cage in together so I'm engaging my Center basically is what's happening here and with my fingertips on my hip crease I'm going to keep Center engaged pressing into the heels got this beautiful poaba foot power we'll talk about that another day shoulders are drawing away from the ears shoulder blades are plugged in together as I send it Forward nice flat back so I might want to start collapsing here because I'm like uh but instead I'm going to hold on to this that we just built right everything is building on top of each other here in the foundations and I can take my gaze straight down maybe eyes are looking slightly ahead just to kind of give myself a little bit of length tops of the thighs are drawing up and I'm just going to go halfway here breathing into my back sit bones sitting bones are going to shine behind me I'm kind of using my fingertips here to feel this deep crease in the in the hip hips and tops of the thighs and then I'm going to use the power of my legs the outer edges of the feet to come all the way back up wo Shake It Out move your torso I'm embarrassing myself inhale lift your heart Loop the shoulders now we're going to go all the way down this time and I'm going to give you plenty of modifications so I know the legs are working hard here if they don't feel like they're working hard then take a look take a gander down at your feet engage again sit bone to heel connection hip to heel connection and when you're ready find that lift send it forward now we're going to go through the stages that we just went through so I'm kind of using my fingertips here to remember just crease at the hip not at the the waist keep a nice long spine I'm going to go through that flatback position here lots of space between the ears and shoulders and then I'll continue down now maybe don't go this far maybe we're here and we're like oh need to put hands down so put hands down Palms are going to come to the Earth and I'm going to keep my Palms directly under my shoulders here for now softening the knees everyone here because we don't want the the legs to be locked per se so soften in the knees you can even sway a little side to side and we'll straighten the legs but still keep a little micro Bend now notice I'm not collapsing into my shoulders here either I'm full of Integrity as I press up and out of the Palms kind of you know keep an awareness on the back of the head and the neck here so not crunching not completely collapsing pass ing but the Gaze is straight down for now take a deep breath in press into the heels sit bone to heel connection whatever that means to you and then we might just stay here chilling breathing strong legs I love this posture there a beautiful dichotomy especially eventually once we get the hands walking back of of um kind of Yin and Yang if you will the masculine the feminine the Sun and the Moon whatever you know strength building in the lower body but as we slowly begin to soften in the upper body we find that balance those two opposing forces and we see how they kind of need each other to work together now again I said we can stay here no problemo but maybe I might start to soften in the elbows and walk my hands back maybe there maybe I walk them all the way in line with the arches of the feet which is eventually where I'm heading in the final posture now you might find here that you want to you know adjust your stance and you can always do that mindfully maybe I find that the crown of the head comes to the earth now the elbows and hands are going to want to come out my friends as I shine my sit bones behind me I'm going to keep my elbows at a nice right angle in line with my shoulders still so I I keep them on the same track as I pull them back in now the crown of the head eventually you're like yeah right but might come to the Earth in the mean meantime I'm going to work at any stage that feels appropriate for me I might even come here little Blue Block I might even have a a block or something here to rest the crown of my head on as I build towards the full posture but guys everyone keep those elbows hugging in in line nice beautiful alignment here nice right angle I've never lost connection with my feet my legs are strong and here I begin to soften in the upper body as I maintain Ain this strength this strong Foundation the lower body maybe you you mix and match your your variations maybe you've been straighten the arms out for a breath melt the heart you know me Break The Rules crown of the head if it is on the ground make sure that we're drawing the navl in towards the spine and really breathing into the neck nice long neck so we're not collapsing here but we're breathing into the back of the neck we're brightening there's a bug my hands are staying connected strong hastaba I'll talk about that another day too and then eventually guys we're going to get to where we lift the heels we lift the toes and come onto our heads crazy but now we breathe into our booties we breathe into our hips we breathe into the upper back I maintain this connection with my center and to come out of the pose I'm going to move just in the same steps opposite direction mindful mindful soft micro Bend in the knees here so I'm not locking out soft micro Bend I lift from my heart if I'm on the crown of the head or the block I walk the Palms back in line we pick up with our friends that are here hello we come to tent The Palms first kind of connecting to the center so I'm not hoisting my body around but I'm really connecting to my core here and then I lift my hands back to the hip creases back to the hips Loop the shoulders draw the shoulder blades in together and down as the heart Rises and with strong legs we lift back up inhale send the fingertips left to right exhale Palms together at the heart and then bend the knees and hop the feet together or step the feet together go ahead and hop the feet together let's be adventurous let's be wild crazy today ready and hop we have land in tadasana we take a deep breath and before you stop this video before we say namaste notice how you feel notice how your legs feel do you feel a little bit taller how do you feel OK do so that was our wide angle forward fold again this is a great posture if you're if you're feeling like that if you're feeling anxious this is a great posture for you talked about in the yoga world is a cure pose for that so you know take with what you will but it is really great um for the nervous system it's strengthening as well um as we talked about it's good for balancing those opposing energies um the foundations of yoga series continues on and on so make make sure you hop along um if you haven't already favorite the ones that you want to come back to to maybe continue to work on um whether you're beginner or you're just wanting to deepen your practice I feel like if you favored the video then you'll be able to return to it more easily uh with more ease and um grow your poses hopefully this is helping you uh out in public classes or if you haven't been to public class yet maybe this is slowly helping you gain the confidence to roll out the mat in front of a bunch of people and practice yoga I got your back leave comments questions below send in your requests and we'll see you next time namaste [Music] [Music]