Yin Yoga Pigeon Pose or Sleeping Swan with modifications

Transcript

welcome i'm jennifer ray and in today's video i'm going to discuss the yin yoga posture of sleeping Swan or what we sometimes call pigeon pose in the act of practice so this posture it really helps to create more external rotation in the hips it opens the hips the quads the hip flexors as well as compressing the lower back it's a little bit of a backbend so energetically it helps to open the inner line of the leg which is where the liver kidney spleen meridians lie the outer leg which is where the gallbladder channel runs as well as the front of the leg stomach channel and then the back of the body which is where the urinary bladder Meridian runs so watch the video to learn a little bit more for our union a posture of sleeping Swan will begin on all fours so you come down here to all fours and then from here draw one knee in front extending the opposite leg out behind now the first thing to mention here is that you may start with the front foot pretty close to the inner groin and that's totally fine for those of you that are more flexible or perhaps as the tissue opens over time you may start to bring the front foot further out towards the front of the mat eventually perhaps having the shin parallel with the front of the mat now if there's quite a bit of space underneath the hip you could use a folded blanket here placing the folded blanket underneath the space there and then eventually you start to come forward resting the head on the floor or on a prop now it's particularly important in this posture that we don't put any pressure on the front knee this is especially true if you have a history of knee injury so as you're approaching the posture it's helpful to press into the hands to draw the weight back into the hips and always be checking in with that front knee you can also flex the front foot and press that front ankle gently into the floor in or to take some pressure out of the front knee so if there is some pressure in the front knee or pain especially you may want to take a variation one of the variations that you could try is simply eye of the needle so coming to lie on your back and then crossing one ankle over the knee threading the arms through the legs this way you could use a strap here or you could place this foot on a wall like so so the posture of sleeping Swan helps to open the inner leg creating quite a bit of external rotation which you can see here in the front leg so this helps to open the liver kidney spleen line and then of course through the external rotation of the hip targeting outer hip is where the gallbladder channel runs and then that back leg we're opening the hip flexor the top of the thigh which is where the stomach channel runs up through the front of the torso sleeping Swan is a little bit of a backbend so we're also creating some compression in the lower spine which is where the urinary bladder channel runs up along either side of the spinal column in the yin yoga style we hold the pose for longer periods of time so you can stay in the posture anywhere between two to five minutes and then as you come out of the pose it's important to really engage the musculature and depending on your sequence you could come back into a child's pose or you could simply come up to all fours and extend the leg that was in front out behind you allowing some circulation through the tissues that way okay so I hope you've enjoyed our pose of sleeping Swan do leave any questions or comments below and make sure to get over to Jennifer Raycom where you can sign up for my mailing list and that way I can keep sending you yoga tips and practices for your journey thanks so much for watching namaste [Music]