Ten Things Tuesday

Ten of my favorite yoga poses!

Warrior 3. This is a standing balance pose. To get my class into it, I ask them to put their feet about two fists’ distance apart and exhale as they bend at the hip, keeping their backs flat, until their chests are parallel to the floor. Then, one leg comes out to shoot as straight out from the hip as possible. It’s FAR more important, I tell them, to have a straight line from head to heel than it is to get one’s face close to the floor, so if they can’t get their heels up to meet their heads, they should angle up at the hip to bring their heads in line with their heels. Reaching from the crown of the head and the tips of the toes helps with extension.

Extended Triangle. This stretch starts in the “wingspan” position, which means that one’s ankles are under one’s wrists when one’s arms are extended from the shoulders. One set of toes points outward, the other heel angles back slightly, and the feet are positioned as if on a railroad track. Imagining a mirror over the pointed toes, participants in my class are asked to try to poke themselves in the ear. They then exhale and angle downward, stopping wherever they have to. The forehead comes over the front knee, the bottom hip and shoulder tuck under, and the gaze is allowed to rest wherever it’s comfortable. This stretch is usually felt most intensely up the inside of the front leg and up along the top of the rib cage.

Side Angle pose. This pose comes right after triangle in my class. Without turning our hips, we lunge into the pointed-toes leg, making sure that the knee is at a 90 degree angle. The bottom elbow rests on the knee, the bottom shoulder stays away from the bottom ear, and the free arm reaches all the way over the top ear. I then ask the class to angle the top shoulder back, just a little, so that they’re not folded over themselves, and then to reach a quarter inch higher than they think they can. I sometimes ask them to imagine what would happen if I were to drop a marble on the backs of their fingers: would it roll to the floor in a straight line, or would it ricochet off their hip? That often helps them to flatten out the line they’re making at the top of their bodies.

Tree pose. The one seems to be the pose that everyone expects to see in a yoga class, and some are disappointed if I skip it. It’s a balancing pose, and one that is actually a lot more challenging than it looks. I begin by explaining that there are two rules to tree: we must not stand in that lovely little hollow in the knee that just seems custom-made to fit our heel, and the knee that’s out must be east-west. Beyond that, I tell them, anything goes: we may stand with toes on the floor, or we can pull our foot up to put it in our hip pocket. We may hold ourselves up on the wall, or on a buddy, or we may have our hands in prayer pose, on our hips, out to the side, or over our head. The big things to remember are to breathe fully and slowly and to extend the spine as long as possible.

Garland pose. This one is one of my most favorite poses, and the one that surprises the most people because it looks a whole hell of a lot easier than it really is. We start by exhaling into a forward fold and, at the bottom, I tell folks to put their hands on the floor in front of their feet - don’t worry about having to bend the knees, I say, because we’re going to bend them anyway. We then exhale as we lower our bottoms toward the floor, being mindful to keep our heels down. Once we get to as far down as we can go, I ask the class to focus on straightening the back - imagine strapping a board to forehead and hips. It’s right about then that I hear noises of surprise and effort: most of our butts act as counter-weights, and it takes a fair bit of shin and hip flexor work to keep ourselves from toppling over, Weeble-style - backwards. I usually mention the National Geographic programs, where we see Indian women sitting like that over their cooking fires, or Vietnamese men of ancient age squatting at the ends of their boats, fishing, and everyone groans to think of having to hold the pose for two more breaths.

Downward Dog pose. I mostly use this pose as a transition into other poses, but it’s a good one all on its own. Most people don’t realize that it’s a combination pressing-and-relaxing pose, and being able to do it well requires a fair bit of kinesthetic awareness. We begin by putting the hands on the floor in front of our forward bend, then bringing the legs behind us. The fingers are spread wide, starfish-style, and are brought together so that there are only about three or four inches between the outstretched thumbs (the idea is to get the hands in line with the shoulders). We then use the palms to push our foreheads as far away from our fingertips as we can. Then, we exhale and relax through the shoulder blades - we don’t push down; we allow ourselves to melt toward the floor. Then, the hips get tipped up, aiming the tail bone at the sky. Finally, we sink through the heels. It’s not important for the heels to touch the floor; we just want to not be pushing through our toes. Every time I do this pose, I seem to feel it somewhere different - sometimes it challenges my shoulders, sometimes my calves, sometimes my abs - and that’s one of the things I love about it.

Upward Dog pose. I love this pose because I feel strong and pretty when I do it. The wrists are directly under the shoulders and the low back is protected by strong bottom and belly muscles. I reach with my chin and the crown of my head, pushing the ground away with my arms and keeping my shoulders away from my ears. If I do it right, I can feel a stretch along the front of my neck and belly.

Dancer pose. This pose is used in the balancing portion of my classes, and I can’t do it quite like the photograph over there illustrates, but that’s what I’m aiming for. To get into the pose, I tell my class to hold on to the top of a foot with the same-side arm (don’t cross the body). Line up the bent knee with the straight one, and push the bent kneecap toward the floor, keeping the points of the hip bones level. Reach up with the crown of the head - the free hand can be wherever it wants to be. For most people, this is a sufficient balance challenge; if we want a little more, though, I tell my class they can modify this pose by using the bent leg to push the heel as far away from the bottom as possible, all the while keeping the chin and chest lifted - don’t pivot at the hip and bring the face toward the floor.

Bridge pose. I like this one because, again, I feel strong when I’m doing it. We start with the feet on the floor and arms out at shoulder hight. I ask the class to walk their shoulder blades in toward each other, just to keep pressure off the neck and head, then tell them to inhale while lifting their bottoms off the floor, keeping the knees pointed straight ahead and aiming for a long, straight line from the tops of the knees to the tops of the shoulders. If they want to modify the pose, participants can shoot one leg straight out from the hip, while keeping the hip bones level and the bottom up, or they can walk their hands in together under their bottoms and stretch out the shoulders. We counter the pose with knees-to-chest.

Final relaxation (also called corpse pose). I tend to sit up as I lead my class through the final relaxation, but that’s only because I have managed to figure out how to actually relax and, well, I lose track of time if I’m lying down. I ask the class to imagine a little marble of light under their breastbones, which floats out of them and up to their foreheads, where it sinks back into their bodies and expands (kind of like the Pepto-Bismol “coating action” ad) all through their physical selves, relaxing their minds and chasing tension from their muscles as it goes. When they’re filled with light from head to toe, I ask them to relax in whatever way suits them - they can expand and radiate outward or they can contract and become microscopic; they can float above the floor or sink into it - and I try to give them a good, solid three to five minutes to really disconnect from themselves. One of my favorite things to hear is that someone really and truly relaxed in my class, and that they leave feeling like they’ve been recharged and reset.

**This was a hard post to write: it turns out I have a lot more than ten favorite poses. Maybe I’ll continue with another edition sometime in the coming months. Until then, may the light of the Universe that lives in you continue to burn, bright and hot, and may you be given all you need. Namaste.

Credit for all the photos goes to yogajournal.com.