Static Standup Yoga: 10-Min Standing Sequence for Grapplers

That would be the way I would cue that flow. Stretching both legs straight, paralleling the feet, inhale arms up, exhale clasp your hands behind your back. We talked about this several times before. Inhale lift your chest, exhale slowly folding keeping your core engaged, dropping your head down and there is always the alternative to bend the knees when you're in a deep straddle like this.

If the back of the knees are really hurting or something else is really hurting, bending knees often helps, but we're looking for the, you need a strong foundation in the legs. You're looking for a deep stretch in the shoulders, but releasing the back. So the legs are working, the shoulders are stretching and the back is releasing. Usually if I see I have a lot of people with tight shoulders in my class, I use the inhale and exhale.

You can stay here if this is plenty or you hold. Because if you switch around 90 degrees facing me, round your spine and come halfway down. This is very common and this does not feel good. Your job is to help people avoid standing in a position like that because it's horrible.

It's better to do the completely standing or fold all the way down much rather than being halfway in between those poses. All right from there release the hands to the lower back, lower the hands down, inhale halfway up, bend the left knee and squat deeply. I call it kung fu stretches, but you can call it a one-legged squat. Switching back to center, inhale, exhale, go deep.

Working, I like to restate what we are doing. We are working the mobility of the legs and hips, working from side to side in your own pace. Remember to breathe, all the standard things. One variation here is to now I lifted the toes, but one variation is to keep the foot.

People's ankles can be very differently designed. So some people will have a really good benefit of having the foot flat, while other people will want the complete flex of the foot. More hamstring, more inner thighs depending on which one you do. So you can if you have feel like you want to teach something or give that option more details and more nuance you would mention that.

One thing is that you can do flat feet on the first round and then lift the toes and come down. Exactly instead of giving two options in one round you give one option the first and one option the second. It's a very good method. Stopping in the center, walking your hands forward to your front foot.

Placing the same hand as the foot that is forward, place it two o'clock if it's two o'clock or ten o'clock if it's ten o'clock. Lifting the back leg, lifting the top arm, balancing pose with open hips. Talking about the details that we talked about before. The variation is to let go one finger until they're only balancing on the foot, trying to get the weight into the big toe because when the big toe is lifting people start wobbling and they don't find the balance.

We have many many more variations from this pose but this is more than enough. Hand down or hand off is good for now. Hands down, stepping back, optional vignasa. If people did many vignasas they're tired of that.

They don't want to do more of those then they don't have to. Just say vignasa as an option. Same sequence, second side, left knee forward, coming up into warrior two. Take a moment in warrior two, finding a good, to summarize everything we talked about in the warrior two, find a good sound proper placement of the feet so that your hips feel stable.

Sometimes that can be, most of the times that's enough cueing of warrior two. Reversing the warrior, a big side stretch on the inhale, exhale elbow to knee, arm up or overhead. Stay here or if you want to teach a flow, you teach the flow, inhale reverse, exhale elbow to knee and then meet in warrior two. When you're done straighten the legs, turn the feet the same way, inhale arms up, exhale interlacing clasping the hands the other way behind your back.

On your next exhale fold forward or stay up there, don't stay halfway in between. Stay here one two three four five, hands to lower back, slide the hands down, half lift, inhale on your fingertips, exhale bend one knee. This round maybe flex the foot or even come down to your butt and come up again. This is something you want to be able to do when you're 95 years old and the best time to start is yesterday, the second best time to start is today.

So work your mobility of your ankle, knees and hips and sometimes your bad technique is stopping you from doing what you actually can do. So try to explore and figure out using some momentum, some rocking, some swinging of the arms, some pushing in the floor to come up and down. It's much easier than you think when you do it right and it's much harder than it should when you do it wrong. Meet in center, walk in your hands and so this is one of the reasons we say meet in center is because people might be all over the place and if you just say hands in front of the left foot there is confusion.

So it's much better to just add that let's meet in center because people understand automatically that the movement is over. Walk your hands towards your left foot, yes half lift and then walk your hands forward to your left foot, left hand 10 o'clock, right leg up, open the hips, make sure that your back leg is active, stacking your shoulders like in side plank, lengthening both sides, finding balance and breath. Option to lift one and one finger each finger off the floor until you're balancing on the foot and when I give an option that I know people will fail or struggle with I say no shame in going back to the first option we all live and learn. Hands down, stepping back, optional vinyasa, let's meet in dog.

That simple, that simple. So verbal recap, dog right foot forward, warrior two, take a breath, maybe reverse the warrior, elbow to knee, left arm up or overhead, maybe flow between those. Warrior two, stretch the legs, parallel feet, arms up, inhale, exhale, clasp the hands behind your back, inhale, stay here or hinge from the hips, fold all the way down, maybe bend your knees, breathe one two three, hands to lower back, hands down, half lift, inhale, exhale, bend the right knee, moving into a one legged squat, come through stretches from side to side, let's meet back in center, inhale halfway up, exhale, walk towards the right foot, left arm up, right hand two o'clock, lift the back leg, stretch, open, stretch, open, balance and breathe. Vinyasa, same thing on the second side.