Sebastian Brosche · 5 min · 758 words
Previously titled: Section 11 - Backbend
So moving into the last active pose of the class, the backbend. So you're in down dog. Instead of jumping through laying down on your back, you can do that. A variation to come into the backbend is to roll forward, come down on your belly.
And from your belly make your way over to your back. So usually it's smoother on jihji-tsu mat so you can scoot your own your way onto the mat. And then make sure the feet are close to your hips, hip width apart, knees above the ankles. First round we do the half bridge or the low bridge.
So those are the same, just two different names. So you push into the legs, roll the hips up. A lot of people forget to lift the chest. So a lot of people just lift the hips, the chest is collapsed, so the chest also pushes up towards your own face.
Then option is to have the hands underneath the hips. So hands underneath the hips. So have the hands underneath the hips. So sometimes you have an idiot like Sebastian in class and you have to be really really clear.
Maybe you have to even push, put their arms on their hips. So this is just nice for someone who has tight shoulders and the other suggestion is not possible. So this is the easy option. Just have your hands underneath your hips as support.
If you want to go further you can start to walk your shoulders underneath your back and clasp your hands together. But what is important here is that people actually walk their shoulders underneath the back. If the shoulders stay here, the chest is flat and they just try to find their fingers. You don't get the stretch.
So first wiggle or walk the shoulders underneath the body and from here see if you can reach your own hands. Push the hands away from you and down to the ground. Lift the chest. Active inner thighs.
What tends to happen is the knees fall and when the knees fall out the hips drop. So to keep their legs active, the hip high, active legs, active inner thighs. And then they breathe here. About five deep breaths and then release the hands.
Start to roll down vertebra by vertebra all the way down. Let them have a moment, take a breath and then when they take that break you say, okay, we'll do one more round. You can do exactly what you just did or go a little bit further if your shoulders and wrists are healthy. So for this option put your hands behind your shoulders in line with your ears, about in line with your ears.
So this really depends on people's flexibility in the shoulders and the wrists. So some people might have their hands a little wider than the shoulders. Some people can have them shoulder-width. So just have them to...
I usually you place your hands where you comfortably can push into your hands. And from here push down into the legs to lift the hips and then you push into the hands to lift the top of the head so you can put the top of the head into the floor. From here see if you can just bring the elbows a little bit closer together and if this feels okay, you maybe want to try to push into the arms to see if you can lift your own head off the floor. Maybe for a breath and then you put it back down.
This is just an option. So you make it really clear that this is just an option. And then after about five breaths you slowly have them lift their head up and in and roll all the way down. Take some nice deep belly breaths after this one.
So that's our back bends. Just a quick recap. The first round you just do the the the half bridge, the low bridge. Option to have the hands on the hips.
Option to clasp your hands behind your back. Make sure that the shoulders move underneath the body. Second round have the option to do exactly what they just did or hands in line with the ears just where they are comfortable and can push down to lift their head and move on to the top of their head. An option also to lift the head off the floor for a breath or two.
Okay, anything you want to add? Okay.
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