Sebastian Brosche · 7 min · 1,000 words
Previously titled: Video 2 Turtle
Okay, let's look at some variations from section one. So from turtle, we have the regular turtle, which is usually knees apart, chest between the thighs and arms in front. So one variation we have is knees together and the chest or the belly just resting on top of the thighs and taking your arms back. So the top of the hand to the floor inside of the palm towards the ceiling and just resting your forehead down.
This is a nice variation to get a deep stretch on the whole back and you also get to rest your shoulders. Another variation is again, you can have your knees slightly wider, arms in front, but also you take the elbows to the floor, hands or palms together and place the palms on the back of your head. This is a deeper stretch for the shoulders and also you get a nice release around the armpits. So this is variations from the turtle.
So you have knees together, arms back, you have knees apart, elbows to the floor, hands overhead. Then we have variations from the side turtle. So one way you can do the side turtle, if you think the legs to the side is kind of hard to cue in the beginning, you can keep the legs where they are and then just walk the arms. So keep keeping the hips on the heels and walking the arms to one side so you get the banana shape in the turtle.
So you get the same kind of side stretch. So instead of having the arms in front, you just walk the arms to the side. So of course remembering to do both sides. A nice cue here is to keep the hips heavy so the hips don't follow the arms when the arms walk forward.
So keep the hips down and walk the arms to the right or to the left creating the banana shape and the nice side stretch. So another variation, if you want to spice up the side turtle a little bit, add some movement to the side turtle if you want a dynamic movement warm up. Windchill wipers the feet over to one side. You keep the hips to the heels and then you bring the hips forward.
At the same time you release one arm and circle the arm as you come into kind of a modified side plank. And then you move back into the side turtle hips back to the heels. And you keep moving with the breath, circling the arm, lifting the hips up and releasing the hips down. So this is a nice way to add some more movement into the warm up.
Get to move the shoulder and also use some strength in the bottom arm. So the way I would cue it is when you're in the side turtle, you take a breath and then you shift forward and start to circle your right arm. Push into your left arm and drop the hips back to the heels. Again, shift forward, circle the right arm and bring the hips back towards the heels.
So you would do maybe three to five times on one side and then change to the other side. So that's the two variations in side turtle is the first one just staying with your hips where they are and walking the arms to one side. And number two is moving the feet into side turtle and then circling the arm, lifting the hips. Then we have variations from the tabletop or all fours, what we also do where we do the cat cows.
One way to do the spinal rolls and the same movement is to start in turtle and then you roll forward. So you move through the cat shape where you push the floor away and then you do this way, the cow position. And you push back into turtle and you just move through these two. So you push the floor away, roll into the cat pose.
When shoulders are above the wrist, you release that and move back towards turtle. So this is nice also to add some more movement and also move with the breath. It's a good way to connect also through the hands. You can talk about the alignment in the hands that we've been through when people are moving and not just standing and waiting for you.
So this is a good exercise to get in some cues that you want to have before you start moving into the class. So that's one way of variation. Another one is moving more sideways. It's really good if you're tight between the ribs and especially if you want to focus on breath.
It's a nice way to create space. So you do the same. You push the floor away. You move into the cat position.
You keep the cat position and then you start to push your ribs to the right. And then you release down through the cow position and then you push your ribs to the left. And then move through the cat position. Push the ribs to the right.
Move through cow. Push the ribs to the left. You do that a couple of rounds and then you just reverse. Push to the right.
Release through the cow. Push to the left. Up into cat and around and around. And it's also nice to just have people...
I use the word you can just freestyle because people tend to move into the right places after they've been cued for a couple of positions. So freestyling or moving in this circle. So our variations from all fours or tabletop. We have turtle and rolling forward, rolling back.
And we have staying and just moving sideways. Okay. You want to add something? We call it the tumble dryer to remember it.
Yeah, we call this the sideways one. This one we call it the tumble dryer. Okay.
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