Sebastian Brosche · 7 min · 1,120 words
Previously titled: Section 2 - Seated
It's time for variations of the seated sequence and remember that there is always an option to do this whole sequence from your knees if sitting on your butt is too hard for someone in class. Always give that as an option. The main point we wanna reiterate and restate that it's very, very common that people are rounded and seated on the back of their hips and that way they have to work too much with their lower back so roll forward on your hips so that you're trying to lift your chest and leaning forward from your hips. You're not leaning forward with the head but you're lifting your chest and rolling forward on your hips.
Side stretches, cued like this. Stretch your arms out on the inhale, go to the right on the exhale and place the hand down. Stay on this side and make big shoulder circles. Slow circles with the shoulder, inhale as you go up and exhale as you go down, finding your personal pace.
Remember to not lift the opposite hips. This is very common and then you lose the side stretch. So push both hips down and try to open and stretch your side body. I usually say spread the ribs.
Some people might not like to say that but fanning out your ribs, getting a deep side stretch through your waist and lat and armpit would be a nice cue here. After five breaths, come back to center, inhale, exhale same sequence, second side, big circles. Three options you can give here is to either be on the fingertips, on the palm or on the elbow. Get there as deep as you can without creating tension.
This is just a warmup. You try to stretch but don't press, don't go over the edge. One on each side is enough so it's five circles and then we come back to center. Anything you wanna add to that one?
Yes, as soon as you come back to center, you say inhale, arms up, exhale, hands forward and I always show that I'm on my fingertips and say fingertips stay here or walk forward as far as you can without excessive rounding. So you don't want people to be hunchbacks here. You want people to find the length. Later in class when you're warm, hunching can be okay in some situations but now it's the warmup, now we want the posture.
Now you want people to walk forward with good posture and then not go for 100% but just find a nice forward fold. You ask them to come up back to reset position and then you, it's windshield wipers now, yes. So hands behind you, fingers pointing forward, wide feet, knees from side to side, windshield wipers. Stop on one side and do three little knee taps onto your foot so that the right knee is touching the left foot and then switching sides, tapping three times with the knee on your foot or on the ground, wherever you can tap but just go from side to side.
It's important to flex the, both flex the feet and also push them forward. Yes, two small details that makes this much more intense but not too intense is flexing the feet so you keep the ankles and feet engaged and you also squeeze the butt a little bit so that you're pushing your hips sideways when you're tapping your knee. For me that adds like 20% extra stretch and you don't need as many repetitions. If we were doing this for five minutes, everybody would be soft and flexible after that but we don't have that time so we need to be efficient and one way to be efficient is to give cues like this where you say tap the knee and flex the feet, tap the knee and engage your butt and push your hips sideways.
That makes it much more efficient. After this we change the crossing of our legs so other shin in front and then palms, fingers up, bend your elbows so you have cactus arms. Everybody's in a cactus so a word like that can like instantly help. Elbows behind you, spread your fingers and try to pull your hips, pull your chin back and lift your chest so that you're in a really stiff position from the solar plexus and up.
Everything should be locked. Your arms, your shoulders, your head, everything should be locked and then move only from your lower back, twisting from the lower back and up, going from side to side in a moderate pace. So right, left, right, left. It's tempting to start twisting the neck here but then you lose control of the spine so it's better to just stay locked in place, going from side to side and don't tell people how to breathe here because it's very personal when you want to breathe in a quick movement like this one.
Help people to remind them to roll forward on their hips because usually they tend to sag when they do something like this. So good posture and going from side to side, finding your own pace. Again, some people will want to go slow because they just had a herniated disc operation. Some people might want to go very fast because it feels better that way so don't tell them exactly how to do it.
When they're done, after 10, 15 seconds, inhale, arms up, exhale, let's fold again. Same thing as before, take a few breaths. A simple position like this, you should not have to babble constantly. You say everything you have to say on the first round and just say, remind people that we said same thing goes here, just do the same pose again and take a couple of breaths and then you shut up.
Coming back to center and that's enough for this sequence. Quick recap, starting on your butt, cross your ankles and shins, roll forward on your hips, arms out, inhale, exhale, side stretch, stay on one side and roll the shoulder five times. Options to go as deep as you want, back to center, inhale, exhale, same thing, second side and then forward fold, talk about the fold not going too deep, good posture. Windshield wipers, hands behind you, lift your chest, push your hips forward, flex your feet and tap the knee three times on each side.
Switch the crossing of your legs, cactus arms, twisting from side to side, good posture, good posture. Breathe, find your breath and find your pace, inhale, arms up, exhale, fold again, take a moment and then we move on. Anything you wanna add? Nope.
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