wide-legged forward bend – Move Well with Amy Rizzotto

July 14, 2013

MOAR’s Daily Dozen: The Full Sequence

Over the last 12 days, I’ve broken down my Daily Dozen Yoga Poses for Post-Athletic Recovery. If you’ve been following along with the daily poses, it’s now time to string them together. The whole sequence should take you between 20-25 minutes, holding each pose for 10 deep breaths. If you can work these stretches into your routine three to five days a week, you’ll be well on your way to a more flexible, strong and injury-free body.

To recap…

MOAR’s Daily Dozen:

SONY DSC — 1: Hero’s Pose (toes tucked + untucked)

Pair this preventative and repairing sequence with my tips for pre- and post-workout fueling to keep injuries and fatigue at bay. With proper post-athletic stretching and nutrition you’re bound to stay at the top of your game, ready to tackle the next test of your endurance and strength.

July 5, 2013

MOAR’s Daily Dozen: DAY 4 – Wide-Legged Forward Bend

Step-by-Step:

1. Come to standing, facing the long edge of your mat.

2. Separate the feet at least 3 ½ to 4 feet apart, feet parallel or slightly pigeon toed. Ground firmly into the outside edges of your feet and engage the quads.

3. Bring hands to waist, inhale deeply and puff up your chest. Exhale as you fold forward, hinging from the hips.

4. Keeping a flat back bring your hands to the mat (or a block), fingertips in line with toes. Make sure your weight is centered in the middle or your foot.

5. Hold for 10 deeps breaths (count to 4 on the inhale and 4 on the exhale), letting the hamstrings slowly release.

6. Bring your hands back to your waist and rise up, keeping a flat back. Return to standing.

Note: you can also do this posture with a shoulder rinse by interlacing the hands behind your back and bringing them up and overhead as you fold forward.

How it will heal you:

Hamstring Pulls – The vast majority of the time, hamstring pulls are a direct result of inflexible hamstrings. This big muscle group requires patience and daily attention to open up and can be really frustrating in their resistance to change. You are not going to go from barely touching your toes to Jordan Wieber overnight. Commit to working on this posture every day and slowly but surely you’ll get the results you want and your body needs.

Lower Back Pain – How many of you have experienced lower back pain? I’d venture to say that anyone who sits in a chair all day has suffered through their fair share. This is also a big one for athletes. Why is that? Most often, lower back pain in athletes stems from tight hamstrings. For my fellow anatomy nerds out there, the hamstrings originate on the sitz bone–aka those little nobs deep in the flesh of your booty that us yogis balance on when doing boat core work (my favorite!). , If your hamstrings are tight they will pull down on the pelvis from the insertion point (the sitz bone) tilting it out of proper alignment and forcing your body to compensate using your lower back to remain upright. Another common reason for low back pain is underdeveloped abdominal muscles. I’m not talking just the six-pack abs (rectus abdominis) but also the deeper corset abs (transverse abdominis) that are critical for balance and stability. The simply solution to preventing and treating lower back pain is to stretch out your hammies and workout your core every day.

April 25, 2013

MOARyoga Moves: Tripod Headstand

VIDEO HOW-TO: Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend (Prasarita Padottanasana) to Tripod Headstand (Sirsasana II)

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A note of caution: before attempting this, make sure you are practicing with an experienced teacher that you trust. This is an advanced move, involving lots of core strength and proper alignment to avoid injuring the neck. Don’t let the ego cloud your judgement here yogis.

HOW TO GET THERE:

Stand facing the long edge of your mat. Step or hop your feet 3 to 4 1/2 feet apart (play around to see what feels comfortable in your body). Look down and make sure your inner arches are parallel with feet ever-so-slightly pigeon-toed. Lift through the inner arches by drawing up from the inner ankles to the groin, and press the outer edges of your feet firmly into the mat. Engage your quads by lifting the knee caps. Place your hands on your hips, inhale deeply and lift your chest, spreading your collarbone wide.
Exhale and fold forward from the hip crease, keeping your back flat and spine long. With your chest about parallel to the floor, bring your hands to the mat, fingertips in line with your toes.
Breath deeply and with each exhalation, bend your elbows and lower your torso and head until you come into your full forward bend. Make sure don’t lose that flat back and long spine. If it’s in your practice, rest the crown of your head on the floor.
Press your palms firmly into the floor. If you have the flexibility to get your head to the mat, walk your hands back until your forearms are perpendicular to the floor and your upper arms parallel – creating a shelf with your arms. Make sure your arms are parallel to each other and widen the shoulder blades across the back.
Now for some levitation! Again, moving from Prasarita Padottanasana to Tripod Headstand is a very advanced move. Do not just flail and fly into this.
Draw in through your core, pulling belly button to spine and knitting your ribs together to engage the transverse abdominals. Shift your weight forward into the balls of your feet, until your hips come over and slightly past your ankles. You will begin to take some of your weight into the arms and crown of your head.
Engage your legs, pulling up through your groin and firing up the quads and inner and outer thighs. Using the power of your legs and strength of your core slowly pull legs up and over head, moving from an inverted wide-legged straddle to full tripod headstand. Spark your toes and keep your legs and abs engaged – this will help you find lightness and draw up and away from the neck and head. Hold for a few deeps breaths.
To come out, reverse your ascent and slowly lower legs into a wide-legged straddle then gently set them down on the mat (I like to focus on keeping my hips shifted forward on the descent because it keeps my core engaged and gives me the control I need to move slowly).
Now you’re back in prasarita padottanasana. Finish the move by lifting your head off the floor and coming into a flat-back position with your torso parallel to the mat – your arms will straighten but keep your palms and/or fingertips on the mat. With an inhalation, lift your hands to your hips, pull your tail bone down toward the floor, and raise the torso up.

You did it! That was some serious core work and involves a somewhat-scary weight shift. Playing around with the first five steps until you can comfortably get into a full forward fold. Once you’ve got that down, then go for it – but make sure that for your first few attempts you have an experienced yoga teacher or yogi friend nearby to make sure you got in and out of the asana properly.