Vajrasana (Thunderbolt Pose) - Kneeling Forward Fold

Transcript

Righty. Hi everyone. Thank you for being here. This brief video on var. It's a pose I teach often. Many variations. And I'll start with the basic ones. It's essentially a forward fold uh with neck release and nice upper back neck and shoulder work. And so we're going to start with the legs more or less parallel. Sometimes the toes will uh turn in and largely from the knee to the toes straight back without being um overly particular right and then the distance between the knees you know it's usually I suggest start about six inches um and adjust from there a little bit in a little bit out so you find something that feels comfortable and then just going to take a moment and find our breath so wherever you are in your breath cycle let's take an inhale and feel for your ribs expanding Invite the belly to relax a bit and then you can exhale and contract the low belly. So low belly we think pubic bone to navl as the region over time you'll be able to find the pubic bone a little bit more easily. And so we're going to inhale ribs expand front and back of the heart expand. Belly relaxes. On your exhale the belly is contracting. Then we'll breathe in. ribs expand and belly releases. And so we'll actually do this a couple of ways with the neck and then I'll add on some other variations down the line. Okay. So hands are coming to the low back. I just gently stack them at the sort of sacrum area, top of the seat. And then when you're ready, let's go ahead inhale. Sweep both arms widen up. Chin might lift just a hair. And then we're going to exhale. Contract your low belly. Seat moves back. Arms sweep wide. And as the chin comes down, we're drawing the forehead towards the floor. And then to come up, we're going to inhale, lift the chest, and take the arms wide and up. And then for our purposes today, let's just go ahead exhale and lower the hands. And so once again, the inhale, the arms come up, chin can lift a little bit, and then when you exhale, the chin comes down. We're engaging the low belly. Seat moves back a little bit. That's important so that the core is engaged and the back of the body can really stretch. And then when you inhale, the heart lifts, arms sweep widen up. And by heart, right, go ahead, exhale and lower the arms. And I'll explain this. I like to use this area as the reference. It's sort of zyoid process where the heart and the belly um merge with one another, right? And so you can feel for that. It helps with extending the spine so we don't have our lower back or upper back and neck compress. So we exhale, chin comes down, hands are sweeping wide, right? Those upper armbbones do a lot of internal and external rotation. Inhale, chest lifts, arms come wide and up. And that is our shoulder joint, right? And then we'll exhale and lower the arms again. So that's a lot of work with the neck going sort of in a linear linear way extension and flexion. Here we're going to add on a little rotation. So let's do that again. We're inhaling both arms come wide and up. And when you exhale we're going to sweep the arms wide and turn your head to one side. Doesn't really matter. Hands are going to the back. It's like the side of the head or the ear coming to the floor. And then on your inhale the chest will lift and arms come up again. And when you exhale, once again, we're going to engage the belly. Arms sweep wide, folding on inhale, lift the chest, take the arms wider up. And you can feel for the difference in the work right in your body. When we exhale and rotate the neck, let's say turning chin to the right, feel that left half of your upper back and neck. Inhale and rise. And with that action of moving the seat back, you might notice there is a bit of sort of sneaky core work in with us. Inhale. Chest lifts. Arms come all the way up again. And finally exhale and release the arm. Take a moment. Notice your upper back and neck, your hips, your core. And so core you can think as many things that's for another day but today I mean lower belly lower back. Great. And so that can be inserted into a lot of different places in a practice but really nice upper back neck shoulder work. A nice stable forward fold. Like I said I'll be introducing some other variations down the line. Thank you for joining today. If there's ever a pose you want me to explore here just send me a quick emailgmail.com. Thank you all so much.