Sebastian Brosche · 13 min · 1,976 words
Previously titled: Video 10 Static Standup
Okay so we're moving into our standing sequence. So from down dog we do the rolling knee so right leg out and back, open the hip heel to your butt, inhale lift the knee, exhale draw the knee forward, step the right foot between your hands, this time back heel down. So we can talk a much, we can talk for hours probably about alignment but just say back heel down and you can ask them to look at their right heel, try to make a line back to the mid of the back foot. It's about that, it doesn't kill them if they're a little bit off with their back leg but just if you see someone standing with the front foot in a cross in front of the back foot you want to make it really clear where to place their feet.
If everybody looks okay it's probably okay also. So after you place the back heel down you circle your arms up into what we call the warrior two. Not so much that can happen here, what tends to happen if you turn and yes what tends to happen is that the front leg, the knee falls in so you want to have them draw the knee above their ankle so an easy cue for that is just look down at your knee make sure knee is over your ankle or pointing the same direction as your toes. If their toes are pointing inwards that's not a good cue because then they look down and they're like oh yeah it looks pretty good.
My knee is pointing the same way as my toes so toes facing forward, knees following the direction of the toes. Back foot what tends to happen if you want to step here again so what can happen with the back leg is again the knee they're not engaged in their inner thigh, they're not engaged in their quad so if you just say activate your back quad that will usually help to tighten up the leg because what happens when we not engage our back leg is that we lean so relax your back, yes we collapse into the inner foot so we lift the outer edge of the back foot so one way you can fix it is to say push into the outer edge of the back foot, lift the what do you call this in English? The arch. Yes lift your arch on the back foot away from the floor engage your quad.
That's a lot of information but here you have a static pose you can give some information so again just if you come from rolling knee up to warrior two I will again just show so back heel down circle the arms up try to place your torso in balance with your hips so you will see if people lean straight over their front leg or if they lean back over their back leg just have them find some balance if they can't on their own you can be more specific. Push into the outer edge of your back foot make sure your front knee is facing the same way as your toes or right knee right above the right ankle so we do it again from dog I just want to make it more this is now it's getting complicated with so much information so rolling now the left knee forward stepping the left foot between the hands back heel down circle your arms up warrior two so now they know they're in warrior two if I see something going on like the knee or the back foot maybe it's not both at the same time then I can just choose one like if I see his back leg is engaged I don't have to point out the back leg if everybody looks okay I can just maybe point out the knee if I see something like that the arms are just straight out what can happen is swaying the back the classic swaying the back so tailbone down is a nice cue when the tailbone moves down we make it hard to sway the low back so just an easy cue you also have the ribs in the navel in all of that just make sure if you do cue the ribs in that the chest doesn't collapse people some people when they you say draw the ribs in they close their chest we're not looking for that we look looking for an open chest space to breathe so that's our warrior to the easy recap is knee over ankle engaged back leg torso right above the hips arms straight and also neck long so push the top of the head towards the ceiling that's our warrior to from warrior to we move into what we call the straddle forward fold so you first straighten the front leg turn all the toes to the side you're turning so now we're turning to the right so when all the toes are facing to the right we can also add actually toes facing slightly inwards heels out this will just help to open up the backside of the body so from here engage the legs inhale arms up and exhale we fold looks pretty simple easy and nice but for some people the rounding of the back happens again so what we can do to make this pose a little bit more accessible to people is if you turn the other way it's easier to yes is to keep the hips where they are but walk the hands forward so you walk the hands forward you can also take the feet further apart for some people that will help to lengthen the back so it's a slightly different pose than for the people who can easily put their hands to the floor but my guess is that a lot of people will have trouble putting their hands to the floor with a long straight spine so this is a nice way to do the straddle forward fold still gets a nice stretch in the back of the body and if you are more flexible we'll show it from the other side again you have the toes slightly for slightly inward heel slightly out inhale up exhale you fold put your hands to the floor okay can you easily put your hands to the floor then you inhale lengthen your back and you exhale you start to walk your hands through your legs and drop your head towards the floor so it's a much deeper stretch but for those who can do it already this is not something you start with if a forward fall is really intense for those who are super flexible their head are easily on the floor you can walk the feet closer so the head lifts that's just a couple of options here in the straddle fold okay so I'll just recap the straddle fold you're standing up or you're straightening the front leg you're turning the toes this in this case to the right since the right to the it's the left leg in front so you're turning to the right so you inhale arms up and you exhale you fold what I will say here is if the floor is far away and you're rounding your spine try to keep your hips where they are just walk the hands forward you can also walk the feet further apart now drop your head relax your neck you can be on your fingertips you can be on flat palms just breathe if they are flexible so we're up standing exhale hands to the floor if you easily touch the floor you can inhale lengthen your spine and you can exhale keep that length as you walk your hands back underneath your own body and you can also walk the feet closer to lift the head more away from the floor if you're really flexible so that's our straddle for this class and from straddle you inhale so you can find the length in the back and you turn that front foot forward so the toe toes facing forward you walk the hands to the front and you want to place when you have the left foot in front you want to place the left hand slightly out to the left in front of the foot so not right in front of the foot but out to the left so now you want to start to lean into your left hand lift your right arm to the ceiling lift the right leg open up the right hip it's what we call the half moon pose what tends to happen here is closing the top leg so the hip is not open so you really want to have them roll the hip open so you can place the right hip over the left hip it's a nice cue also engage the back leg so flex the back foot engage the quad push like you're trying to push something away with your back leg and reach like you're trying to really grab something with your right arm what also tends to happen is that that in this case the right side is a rolled in so you really want to roll the chest open and you also want to have the left side of the body long that's why you don't want to have the left hand too close to your foot because then you're collapsing into your side so long side body active back leg active top arm and of course reminder to breathe it's easier to gaze down when you're balancing so if you want to give an option to make it harder you gaze up towards your top hand okay that's our half moon from here we just step back both hands down step back through a vinyasa into down dog so from down dog we inhale the right leg up and back open the hip lift the knee and exhale draw the knee forward step the right foot between your hands left heel down circle the arms up warrior two so from here active arms the torso is in balance right over your hips and both legs engaged look down at your right knee make sure it's pointing the same way as your right toes breathe and after a few breaths here we straighten the front leg here it's nice since it's been a lot of go go go in the sensual rotation rounds it's nice to give the cues and then let them have three breaths just you shut up and just have them listen to their breath in the pose from here turn your toes so all ten toes if you're lucky to have ten toes are facing the same direction inhale arms up exhale fold down if the floor is far away keep your hips where they are walk your hands forward drop your head if you're if you have access to the floor easily start to walk your hands underneath your body drop your head towards the floor breathe from here you inhale do the half lift and then exhale walk to the front of the mat turn your toes forward this case the right foot is in front so I'll say right foot to the right in front of the right foot start to lift your left arm and left leg half moon open up the hips so you roll your left hip over your right hip try to keep your left shoulder right above your right shoulder reach in all directions breathe and from here both hands down step through your vinyasa we meet in down dog so that's our standing sequence
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