Yoga Class by Katy Wright – Part 10

Standing – wide leg mountain arms raised – squat hand in prayer x 3

Starting in a standing position, with your feet as wide as the mat, toes pointing outwards…lift your arms over head on an inhale.

As you exhale, bring your hands into prayer position in front of your chest and continue to move down into a squat.

Let’s just open the hips a little more – because we’re going to be working on a posture that requires quite a lot of flexibility in this area. So as you inhale, stand up and shoot your fingers tips up to the sky… and exhale to a squat, hands in front of your chest. One more time… Inhale up… And exhale down.

Frog pose – crow prep – crow one foot up – crow both feet up – DEMO

If you feel okay in frog pose, I want you to stay there while I show you crow pose, which you’re going to be doing next.

This can be a really fun posture – not least because you’re likely to wobble and fall over a few times before you get it! The important thing is not to get angry and frustrated – just maintain a light and playful attitude and you’ll get there eventually.

So we start crouching down, but we have the feet together. The knees are separated and you’ve got your hands resting in front of you, between your knees, shoulder-width apart.

Now, because this is an arm balance posture, you need to set up your foundations in your hands and arms. So before we do anything else, we spread the fingers – middle finger pointing straight ahead.

The arms are straight and, just like in downward dog, the upper arms are rotating outward, which stabilises the shoulder joint. The lower arms are rotating inward, with your thumb and forefinger pressing into the mat.

Next, we lift the hips as high as possible, without taking the hands off the mat. Your knees will end up around the same height as your armpits, or a little bit lower. Now we need to bring the knees in toward the armpits, so you’ll need to bend your elbows a bit here – a bit like you do in chaturanga, but not quite so much.

Then you can begin to ‘hug’ the upper arms with the knees, aiming to nestle the knees in the armpits themselves.

Where I am now is a good place to prepare for the full posture. You can simply come up, hold, and release. Come up, hold and release.

If that’s going okay, it’s time to take the next step – which is, literally, a step! You’re lifting your hips, drawing your knees into your armpits, and shifting your weight forward slightly….and then lifting one foot off the mat at a time. This builds the strength in your arms, your core, your hip flexors… But it also prepares your mind for the idea of lifting off the mat completely.

So when you’re ready to try that (and bear in mind that it could still be a while before your body is ready to let you into this posture), take your weight forward a little as you bring one foot away from the mat, and then the other…

Have a go!

So, time for you to have a go! I’ll talk you through it…

Feet together, knees open. Hands in front of you, shoulder-width apart. Lift your hips high and bring your knees towards your armpits, so you’re somewhere between squeezing and resting on your upper arms. Shift your weight forward slightly and either stay here, working on your strength, or begin to lift one foot and then the other away from the mat.

Now, obviously, balance is an issue in the posture, and you’ll no doubt feel like you’re going to launch yourself onto the floor in front – face down! If this happens and you think you really are about to fall out, just drop back into frog pose.

Another way to get over a ‘fear of falling’ and give yourself chance to become familiar with the feeling of the posture, is to put a block under your forehead before you begin lifting your feet off the mat.

If getting up there in the first place is an issue, there’s a good chance you simply need to lift your hips higher – if they’re low, then the weight of your hips will pull you back in the posture, making take-off difficult.

Finally, remember to breathe! When we feel tense, we often forget to breathe, but the steadier your breath is, the steadier you will be too.

Okay, come down and take a break for a moment…

Sitting, resting, shaking out wrists

Come into a kneeling or cross-legged position – whatever makes it easiest for you to sit up straight. And then shake out your wrists – or, if it feels good, turn your hands in circles – both directions.

Firelog pose (square pose) – RIGHT

For our next posture, we’re going to stay sitting on our mats and you’re going to fold your left leg as though you were going into a cross-legged position – except you want your shin parallel with the short end of your mat. The foot is flexed to help protect the knee joint.

The right ankle rests on top of your left knee, so that when you look down, your lower legs and inner thighs make a triangle shape. Don’t worry about how high your right knee might be – this is quite an intense posture and requires a lot of hip flexibility, which can take a while to develop.

Just resist the temptation to push your knee down as this can cause the joint to twist, giving you an injury you might find it hard to recover from.

Before we go further, put your hands either side of you and lift yourself up slightly, so you can take your sit-bones back and lengthen through the spine.

Now, you should be feeling this in your outer hips… But if you think you can take a stronger stretch, bring your hands in front of you and maybe even walk them a little bit forward.

Alternative to firelog – RIGHT

If the opposite is the case and this pose feels too much for you, then sit up with your legs straight out in front, bend your right knee and rest your foot just above your left knee.

With your hands just behind you, lean back a little and bring your left knee up, drawing your right leg towards you in the process. Your left heel can go as close to your sit bones as is comfortable for you.

Firelog pose (square pose) – LEFT

Of course, whatever we do on one side, we have to do on the other, so…

This time, for the full posture, bend your right knee and lay the shin down, parallel with the short edge of your mat. Remember to keep the foot flexed.

The left ankle rests on top of your right knee, to create a triangle shape between your thighs.

Before going any further, put your hands either side of you and lift yourself up slightly, so you can take your sit-bones back and lengthen through the spine.

If you’re feeling this in your outer hips (and you should be), use your exhales to help you relax that those areas of your body…

If you’re finding it easy… You can make it harder by bringing your hands in front of you and gradually easing forward over your legs.

Alternative to firelog – LEFT

Alternatively, if it’s too much, you can make it easier for yourself by stretching your legs out in front, placing your left foot just above your right knee, and then drawing your right knee towards you, to bring the left shin up.

Okay, slowly come out of the posture and, if you need to, straighten out your legs and roll them side to side to release any tension or unevenness in the hips. And then roll down onto your back, ready for a low bridge pose.

Low bridge 1 – windshield wipers

To set up, bring your feet towards your hips, toes pointing forward – not out to the sides. Your arms are by your sides with the palms turned up. And make sure you’re resting on the centre of the back of your head, so your neck feels long and free of tension.

Now lift your hips away from the mat. See if you can work a little harder in this posture by moving your knees forward, whilst bringing your chest towards your chin. But make sure you can still breathe – you throat shouldn’t feel closed!

Still feeling good? Then lift your hips higher still! You can change the position of your arms, too – just clasp your hands beneath your back and roll your shoulders under slightly, so your chest lifts a little bit higher.

Your knees might want to move out to the sides – but don’t let them! – keep your knees parallel.

Take another inhale here, and then with the exhale, release your hands if they were clasped and lower yourself back down to the mat, vertebrae by vertebrae.

Once you’re settle back on the mat, take your feet a little wider apart and do a ‘windshield wiper’ movement with your knees – so that as you move your knees to one side, one falls in and the other falls out, and vice versa. This is just to help release the lower back.

Wheel prep (for full wheel) – windshield wipers

Now you can either take that last move again – coming up into a low bridge pose. Or, you can start working towards full wheel. For this, we set up in the same way, pushing down through the feet and lifting the hips.

But instead of leaving your arms by your sides or beneath your body, you’re taking your arms over head and putting your hands beneath your shoulders, with your fingers pointing down towards your body.

Draw your elbows in and then push into your hands so you lift or roll on to the top of your head. As the backbend deepens, your knees will want to move out to the sides, but keep them drawn in so your thighs are parallel.

After a couple of breaths here, press into your hands a little more so you can lift your head slightly and bring your chin up to your chest, before lowering back down to the mat.

And once again, take your knees from side to side, like windshield wipers.

Full wheel

Now for the last, and hardest, option. Or, if you’ve gone far enough, repeat one of the previous two options or take a rest.

Otherwise, set up in the same way as before, rooting down through your feet as you lift your hips, and pressing into your hands (which should be beneath your shoulders), so you can come on to the top of your head again. Gather your energy and when you’re ready, press into your hands and try to straighten your arms, so you can push up into full wheel.

This is pretty intense and you might find that your breath is restricted, so try to find some ease in the pose, or come down for a breather and then lift up again when you’re ready.

One more breath in here… And then as you exhale, begin to lower yourself as you bring your chin up towards your chest, and release fully back onto the mat.

Supine butterfly

We can come into our next posture – a reclining butterfly pose -direct from here. Just bring your feet together and let your knees fall out to the sides. Put your arms wherever you want. And stay here long enough to let your heart rate and your breath settle.

Some people find this to be a really comfortable posture – it that’s the case, you can stay here instead of corpse pose.

Corpse pose

If you prefer to finish in corpse, bring your knees back up to centre, hug them into your chest, and then stretch your legs out along the mat – and relax, happy in the knowledge that you’ve just completed another yoga session.