The Ashtanga Practice Artwork
Season 5 - Episode 13

Led Intermediate, Act 2

35 min - Practice
5 likes

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Dylan, with the help of Citrine, guides the continuation of Intermediate series. Dylan breaks down some of the deeper postures and backbends, offering techniques and modifications to help us experience expansive ease within effort.
What You'll Need: Mat, Wall

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All right, welcome. It seems that you have worked your way through the primary series and you have felt the green light to continue on to intermediate. Hopefully you've been coached by a good, qualified teacher. Now we're going to detail some of the postures that come from the second series in Ashtanga. So, Citrine is with us. Thank you very much for joining us. We'll all come together in Samastitihi. You've done your sun salutations and your standing postures and we'll do the first six postures of intermediate counted on the exact vinyasa through to standing so that you can see exactly how those vinyasas differ from the rhythmic pattern of the primary sequence. So, first pose, pashasana, ekaminhale, arms up, see your thumbs, dway exhale, fold forward, drop the head, see your nose, trini inhale, head up, look forward, chatwari, exhale, jump back, chaturanga dandasana, pancha inhale, upward facing dog, shot exhale, downward facing dog, sapta inhale, jump into a squatting position halfway or two thirds of the way forward on your mat and drop your hips down towards your heels. If you have a bunch of flexibility through the Achilles tendon, you'll feel your heels grounding on the mat like Citrine's. That's great. For many of us, certainly for myself, it took years before that was available to me and I felt my heels floating. In which case to find stability in grounding, you may want to put a block if your heels are really far away or a towel or rolled up mat as well so that you've got that stability. Some people will simply balance with their heels off the mat and that works as well. If you can get your heels all the way down on the mat, go ahead and do so. Citrine has got that available to her today. If you are working to lengthen your Achilles tendon to try to get your heels towards the mat later on, then you can take a step or even a block. You put one foot with the toes down on it, the big toe mound grounding, and then drop the heel down low, stretching the back of the calf and stretching the Achilles tendon as well. Of course, you do both sides, sometime outside of your normal vinyasa, counted ashtanga practice, but Citrine has both down. From there, either on the towel or on a block or with your heels on the mat or floating, at any rate, the twist begins. You exhale and place your right shoulder over your left knee, twisting to the left side first, internally wrapping the arm down the leg. Don't go all the way to binding. If you can bind at home, go for it, but for many of us, it took a while before we could bind. Go ahead and wrap your right hand up onto your left thigh or nearby, and I'll feed a strap in here. You may use a strap or a towel or anything that works. If you aren't binding yet, then you take your hands onto the strap and you can walk your hands towards one another. As you bring the hands closer to the full bind, you'll feel the chest open to the side. One, the shoulders and the collarbones broadening. Two, still feeling that you're able to maintain that balance. Three, with the eyes on one, soft Trishti. Four, hearing the sound of breath, keeping it calm. Five, inhale, look forward, now exhale, let it go and bind your left shoulder over right knee. And you can twist, deeply opening the upper back. And perhaps here you bind. Now, if you're going for a full bind, think about drawing your right shoulder back, then your right elbow back, and then your right hand comes in last. And with that, you'll be able to bind more deeply. One, the Trishti soft behind you. Two, three, a little smile on the lips, always measuring the breath. Four, the back of the throat. Five, inhale, look forward, exhale, plant the hands down and Nava, inhale, lean forward, push into your arms and lift your hips up. And Dasha, exhale, jump back, Chaturanga. Ekarsha, inhale, upward facing dog. Dwarsha, exhale, downward facing dog. Trayobdasha, inhale, jump your feet forward with the head up. So we're going through the full vinyasa here. And Chaturanga, exhale, fold forward, drop the head. Inhale, head up only. Exhale, stand up tall to samasthiti. The next pose begins, Karunjasana. Ekam inhale, arms up, sea thumbs. Dway, exhale, fold forward, drop the head. Trini, inhale, head up only. Chaturari, exhale, ride that exhale down to Chaturanga. Pancha, inhale, shoulders back.

Shat, exhale, downward facing dog. Sapta, inhale, jump through with your right leg back. Like Trini and Mukha Ekapara, Paschimattanastha. Notice she was able to keep her left foot straight and up off the ground. And then exhaling, bind the foot. Take an inhale here, lengthen the spine, and let your head rock back and look straight up above the ceiling. And then from there, Ashtav, exhale, and bring the leg towards the body. Try not, one, to let the body move towards the leg. Two, so you are able to maintain the length in the spine. Three. And your drishti goes on the toe eventually, maybe four. You touch the chin to the shin or you maintain that great integrity. Wonderful. Five, dasya, inhale, head up only, long spine. Look forward, exhale, place the hands down. That was nava. And then dasya, inhale, lift up off the mat. And akarsha, exhale, jump back, Chaturanga. Some of you may lift up with the leg not touching. Dvarsha, inhale, upward facing dog. Trayugdasha, exhale, downward facing dog. And Chaturgdasha, inhale, second side, jump through with the left leg back and right leg lifted. Exhale, bind, inhale, straight arm, straight spine, look straight up. And punch out Asha, exhale, and bring the leg towards the body. One, here the toe is pointed, drishti on the toe. Two, still the breath, long. Three, keeping grounded through sitting bones. Four. Five, shoulders shine, inhale, straight arm, straight spine, look straight up. And exhale, let go, plant the hands. Saptarsha, inhale, lift up. Ashtarsha, jump back, Chaturanga. Ekuna, vimshatahi, inhale, upward facing dog. Vimshatahi, exhale, downward facing dog. Ekavimshatahi, inhale, jump forward, feet together, head up. Dvavimshatahi, exhale, to the forward fold. Inhale, head up only. And exhale, samasthiti. Shalabhasana, Ekam, inhale, arms up, see your thumbs. Dway, exhale, fold forward, drop the head. Trini, inhale, head up only. And Chaturari, exhale, jump back to Chaturanga. And here we'll see why we're doing full vinyasa. From your Chaturanga, inhale, put your pelvis down upon the mat. And then exhale, let your whole body come down on the mat. So for these next four postures, the actual state of asana occurs after the Chaturanga and before the upward facing dog.

So feet for shalabhasana, feet together, bring your hands back behind you, all ten of your fingernails on the mat, hands are spread. And then pancha, inhale, lift your heels up off the mat first with straight legs. Then lift your chest, roll your shoulders back, lift your chin. And drishti is on the tip of the nose, one. So here as well, make sure to, for those of you practicing at home, that your back of the kneecap, three, is lifted just the same as the trains here. So your legs are absolutely straight for not fooling yourself by bending the knees to get the heels higher. Still with the chin lifted and feet up, five, B, simply move your hands to a Chaturanga like position, one. And you can see Satrine's elbows are 90 degrees, just like in a good solid Chaturanga, two, three, E. Working actively through the muscles, four of the spine so that everything's lifted, keeping the chin up and shoulders up, five, exhale, put your feet down upon the mat. And then shot, inhale, lift from there into upward facing dog. Sapta, exhale, downward facing dog. Ashta, inhale, jump the feet forward, head up. Navva, exhale, fold forward, drop the head. Inhale, head up only. And exhale, samasthiti. Bhakasana, Ekam, inhale, arms up, see your thumbs. Dwe exhale, fold forward, drop the head. Three, inhale, head up only. And Chaturari, exhale, jump back to Chaturanga, suspended there. Inhale, come down, put your hips upon the mat. And then often we'll do both feet same time. So if you know that full posture, you can go for it. To learn it though, it's probably going to be very useful for us to do one at a time. So put your left hand in front of your torso and then bend your right knee. And hand position will be really important here. Reach your right hand back to take the right foot. And if you can, try to insert your right index finger on the inside of your right big toe so that the root knuckle of your index mound is pushing down on the top of the root knuckle of your big toe. And then from that position, if you can spin the fingers forward to face the front, and bringing the elbow out to the side, then you're in a place where you can bring the heel just outside the hip. Taking a few breaths here and what we could call Ardha Bhagasana, half frog position. And then inhaling, releasing, exhaling letting the foot come down to the mat and changing the side, the right arm in front. And exhale, bending the left knee. Again, the index finger just inside the left big toe so that you can spin the fingers to face forward the same direction as the toes. And gently bringing the elbow, left elbow out to the side as you push the left heel down just outside the left hip. A few breaths here and then inhale and let go. Exhale, let the foot go. So that might be enough Bhagasana for you or if you're ready, you can do both at the same time. Exhaling to bend the knees, reaching back and punch it. Inhaling, spinning both fingers, both hands towards the front and letting both elbows come out to the side. Make sure that you still feel the rising of the chest too as you keep breathing and as well letting the elbows move the feet down three. Still the Drishti towards the nose, four, five. Inhale, release. Let your feet come flat upon the floor, hands like a Chaturanga. And then from there, shot, inhale, upward facing dog. Sapta, exhale, downward facing dog. Ashta, inhale, jump forward, feet together and head up. Nava, exhale, fold forward. Inhale, head up only. And exhale, samasthiti. Dhanurasana, Ekam, inhale, draw the hands together. Dway, exhale, fold forward. Trini, inhale. Chaturari, exhale. From Chaturari, inhale, hips down on the mat. Good. Exhale, bend both knees, take your ankles. Make sure that their feet stay together, that they're touching and the knees stay close. And then punch it. Inhale, kick your feet away from your hips. So start with the feet moving back and that will rise the shoulders, lifting the collarbones and finding that great spread. And then from there, if that's comfortable too, you could point your toes and lift your knees up off the mat a little bit more through here so that you find yourself there in a deep full back bend. Four, still with the feet touching and knees close. Five, exhale, let go. Feet come down into the mat. Hands are in a chaturanga-like position. Shot, inhale, upward facing dog. Sapta, exhale, downward facing dog.

Ashta, inhale, jump forward, feet together. Nava, exhale and fold. Inhale, head up. Exhale, samastitihi. Paashvara, dhanurasana, akum, inhale. Dway, exhale. Trini, inhale. Chaturari, exhale. From chaturari, inhale, hips down into the mat. And just as you did previously, exhale, bend the knees, takes the ankles. Feet together, knees close. Pancha, inhale, kick the heels away and come up. And shot, exhale, roll over onto your right side, keeping the feet together as you roll. One, and letting the feet extend away from the hips as you deepen that back bend. Two, still keeping udiyana bandha, mula bandha. Three, feet together, knees close. Four, and with the feet together, try to let the right foot be the active foot. Five, so that sapta, inhale, you draw the right foot into the left foot, come back to the middle. Still with the right foot actively, ashta, exhale, bringing the right foot into the left foot as you move over onto the left shoulder. And five breaths here, and parsvad on your asana. One, two, good, nice, smooth control of breath. Three, keeping bandhas with you through back bends to support. And four, keep the back nice and safe.

And then five, inhale, come up to the center. And five breaths here. One, just stay still down the tip of the nose. Two, three, four, five, exhale, let it go. The feet come flat into the mat, the hands into the chaturanga-like position. Dasha, inhale, upward-facing dog. Nakaarsha, exhale, downward-facing dog. Duarsha, inhale, jump forward, head up. And tryogdasha, exhale, fold into the forward fold. Inhale, head up only. Exhale, samasthiti. Now the rest of the postures will occur after downward dog as you've become accustomed to, so we'll switch to half vinyasa from here.

Ustrasana, ekam, inhale, arms up, sea thumbs. Dway, exhale, fold forward, drop the head. Trini, inhale. Chaturari, exhale. Pancha, inhale, upward-facing dog. Sat, exhale, downward-facing dog. Sapta, inhale, step or jump your knees up off the mat and then let your knees come behind your arms and wind up in a kneeling position, raising your hips away from your heels. And then as you're ready, pushing through the tops of the feet, trying to ground through all 10 toenails, with the hips coming forward and tailbone slightly tucked. Inhale to lift the chest up and ashta. Exhale, start to reach the hands back, taking the heels. If that's too far for you to go, then you'd be one up on your toes so that your heels are further away from the mat, to who? Making sure that udiyana bandha is still nice and strong, three. You might feel like your hips are pushing forward, four, and always finding that wonderful length and opening through the chest. Exhale completely, five, nava, inhale, come up and place your hands to your hips. And then exhale, put the hands down in front of you. And dasha, inhale, lift up off the mat, ekarsha, jump back, chaturanga, dvarsha, inhale, upward-facing dog, triyodhasha, exhale, downward-facing dog. Going right into lagavadrasana, sapta, inhale, jump your knees about halfway or two-thirds of the way on the mat. And then from here, we'll take a little explanation break. Now, in the old times, maybe 20 years ago or so, we used to do lagavadrasana with the fingers clasping the fronts of the knees, which made it a much deeper backbend, and in some ways prepared you for the deep backbend yet to come. But lately, the modern style is to take lagavadrasana, the little thunderbolt poles, to take it with your hands onto your ankles.

And that will mean that your head is further back. It's less of a deep backbend, but it's much more a strengthening posture. So to be able to come down into a lagavadrasana and then come up means you've got to be able to use your thighs so strongly, you're going to be much more protected for capotasana and deeper backbends. So today we'll look at that. You can do either one, of course, but avoid taking the shortcut out by just putting the fingers onto the calves. Instead, try to go for your ankles and keep your hands as far back towards your feet as you can. Okay. So for many of us, it won't be available for us to come back right away and put our head down and then bring ourselves up. So at home or here, you may be using a prop. We'll put the block there so that your head has something to come down upon. And just like you've done in ustrasana before, inhale, rise your chest up, exhale at your hips, tilt forward, reach back, ashta and take the ankles, and then you'll put your head down onto the block. Good. Holding the ankles tightly, taking five breaths here. Good. Three, still trying to push through the feet, lifting the hips. Four, and one more full deep exhale. Five, nava, inhale, push on the feet and lift yourself up.

Good. And then from there, you put hands to the waist, exhale the hands down and vinyasa. But let me keep you here. So maybe some people are able to come all the way down in the mat already with your head down all the way. That's great. Or maybe you're looking for ways to come down and build that ability. If you can come down on the block, great. Use it for a little while. Don't be attached to it. Like all props, you'll let it go. Even the block might feel too far for some people, in which case we'd want to have you come up. And this time we won't even put the head down resting on anything. I just want to see you suspend it. And maybe you can't hold it five breaths because maybe when you hold it five breaths, your hips give in and then you can't come up. So in this case, we'll just have you reach back, take the ankles, and let yourself be suspended somewhere along the way. Hold it a few breaths. Maybe every day your head comes back another few centimeters, another few inches. And then from a place where you're comfortable, exhaling completely, push into the feet and inhale, rise up. And then hands to the waist. Exhale your hands down to the front of the mat. And dasha, inhale, lift up. And karasha, jump back, chaturanga. Drayogdasha, inhale, upward facing.

Drayogdasha, exhale, downward facing dog. And we'll go into kapotasana from here. So for now, why don't you get all your mat near a wall, or actually right on a wall. So if you step off there, we can bring this right to the wall. And you at home should definitely do this. We'll do some preparatory poses for kapotasana. One of the more intense, one of the deeper back bends that we will be asked to do in ashtanga. So go ahead now for the beginning, you will have you face the wall and bring your knees very close to the wall, maybe just a few inches away. And as you're at the wall here, your tailbone will be lengthening down. So your pubic bones will actually be resting on the wall the whole time. Keep your hips, the ASIS, the anterior superior iliac crest or spine on the wall. Keep your pubic bones on the wall. So your whole pelvis is grounding on the wall. With the inhale, lengthen the spine up the wall. Exhale there, still making sure to tuck under and ground. And inhale, start to bring the chest a little bit away from the wall as you create this lift to arch. Keep breathing every inhale opening, every exhale grounding. That might be enough for you. Inhale, push to the feet and come back up. If you need to take child's pose there, you can take child's pose. Take me a few breaths. That's great. All right. And understand that kapotasana will be a posture about flexibility and strength combined. So if in laghu vajrasana, the previous pose, you felt like, oh, I don't have enough momentum. I can't find enough strength to naturally bring myself up. Then going deep into kapotasana, probably just do this modification and that might be good. If you felt like you could come up, then you can do some deeper modifications, some preparatory research postures. Let's go back to the same pose where you're in. Knees almost up on the wall and the hips absolutely grounded onto the wall. Exhaling to tuck the tailbone under, keeping hips attached. Inhale, lengthen the spine up the course of the wall. Exhale, hips firm on the wall, push through your feet. Inhale, and you can bring your hands just together and you can look at the thumbs and breathe there. Take a few breaths. Don't go any further back than feels comfortable and lower back.

Stay calm and centered and push your feet into the mat, keeping hips attached to the wall. And when you're ready, inhale and come up and exhale into a child's pose here. Take a few breaths here. So as you take on more advancing and developing backbends, you want to make sure that Bandha is really strong. So if you're starting to get pain or creakiness and lower back, again, that's a great place to call it a day for the practice. Continue on the backbends and finishing. If you're feeling good with it, let's take a look at some more modifications to approach the full expression of Kapodasana. Inhale and come on up and you can face away from the wall here. Yeah, and your feet will be, yeah, they don't need to be touching just a little bit off. Yeah, same distance, a few inches, a few centimeters, fine. From here, what we'll do is have you, like we do when we're doing drop back preparation, we'll have you reach the arms up and have the hands reach back and take the wall. Once your hands are on the wall, then you can walk down a little bit here, gently lengthen the arms, not just straightening them blindly, but feeling that the lower back still feels good with a little micro bend or full bend in the elbows and take a few breaths. Inhale the chest up. Exhale, tuck the tailbone under. Inhale, reach the hands back and exhale, take the wall. Now you can gently lengthen your arms here and then walk your hands a little bit lower if it's comfortable. And if it's comfortable, gently lengthen the arms, moving the elbows towards straight as you gently straighten the arms.

Not all the way straight, but feeling a little push forward, pushing to the feet and arms, exhale completely and inhale, come up. And then exhale, find yourself in a child's pose again, making sure everything feels good and groovy. Now we'll look at some full expressions of Kapotasana. Inhale, come on up. If you're able to reach back and take the feet from the air, we'll have you do that. Scoot away from the wall so you have some space to work. Good. Inhale, lengthen the chest and exhale, reach it back. Maybe you take your feet walking your hands up onto your heels from the wall, from the air, and then place your elbows down, place your head down. One, taking five breaths in Kapotasana. Two, technically this is Kapotasana A. Three, four, fishy on the nose. Five, Kapotasana B, plant your hands behind your feet, gently straighten the arms. One. Now if you're not able to take the feet at all, two, this might be a great position for you to take without taking the heels. Three, where you're gently lengthening the arms, four, so that you're getting more and more openness and more and more strength. Five, and then Nava. Inhale, come all the way up, hands to the waist. Then exhale, place the hands down. Okay, from here you normally would take a Vinyasa, but let's take a look at another technique for grabbing the heels. So perhaps you can get the hands back to the mat, but they're nowhere near the feet. That's okay, don't worry about that. You can walk the hands closer to the front of the mat, but wide enough that they won't be tempted to grab the big toes or the feet. And then you'll gently lengthen the arms, walk in a little bit more towards the front of the mat, outside the feet, gently lengthen, walk in, lengthen, and eventually once you've well past the feet, you can reach in, taking the heels or big toes or whatever is available. All right, let's try one more of those Sandrine. Last one, last one we promise. Okay, inhale, lengthen the spine, and Aashita, exhale, reach the hands back into the mat, keep them wider than the feet, gently lengthen the arms, and then walk the hands in, and gently lengthen the arms, walk the hands in, so that they're wider than the feet, gently lengthen, walk in a little more if it's comfortable, gently lengthen, and then reach in, takes a feet, and your elbows would come down, your head would come down, two, three, four, still trying to draw your knees close together, like in all backbends, and five, Kaputasana B, plant the hands, somewhere behind the feet, gently lengthening, one, two, Uryana Bandha, Mula Bandha, the Drishti, still on the tip of the nose, three, four, pushing deeply, grounding through the top of the feet, and five, Nava, inhale, come up, hands takes the waist, and exhale, hands down at the front of the mat, Dasha, inhale, lift up, Bhakarsha, jump back, Dwarsha, inhale, upward facing, Trayogdasha, exhale, downward facing dog, Supta Vajrasana, Sapta, inhale, jump through with straight legs, and sit down, good, and then Ashta, prepare, so you bring your feet towards lotus, or any comfortable variation, could be half lotus, or simple crossed legs if you're working with that. Here's an interesting posture in our Stanga where you'll do best to have a partner, a friend, someone near you, or a teacher ideally, helping you by putting some weight through the knees, especially through the left knee, if you're in lotus with the right foot first, as we always should be. If you don't have that available to you at home, then you can slide the knee under, maybe you have a bed, or a sofa, or something where the knee can be trapped, you can practice on your own. If that's not happening, just simply reach around and take the tops of the feet, or if the tops of the feet is not available to you today, what you could do, let's have you try this, is slide a strap under the tops of the feet so that you reach in, and as the hands walk closer to the feet, they also pull the feet closer to the hands, and again, if you have someone willing to help out, ideally a teacher, then you're in this pose, inhale, lengthen the spine, and now the exhale, you go back into the top of your head, and take five breaths here, one, two, and Drishti here is staying up towards the eyebrows center, three, four, five, another inhale come up, and then exhale again, go back, touch your head, another inhale up, exhale back, inhale up, exhale back, inhale up, and then exhale back, and hold five breaths, one, two, three, four, and exhale completely, five, nava, inhale, come all the way up, and exhale, let go, release, we'll take that from you, most of us will release our feet from lotus position here, and then from here, darsha, inhale, rise up, ekarsha, jump back, chaturanga, darsha, inhale, upward facing dog, triyugsha, exhale, downward facing dog, bhakasana, sapta, inhale, jump your feet like you did in pashasana with a squat, and then spreading the knees as wide as the shoulders, try to let the shoulders come just behind the knees there, leaning some weight forward, ideally with arms straight, so bending the elbows may help, and then from here, ashta, inhale, lift your feet up, feet touch, one, good, staying balanced, two, long smooth breathing, three, try to keep your feet lifted, four, your hips down, and from here, five, nava, exhale, shoot your legs back to chaturanga, darsha, inhale, upward facing dog, ekarsha, exhale, downward facing dog, bhakasana, b. Now this pose, it may be tricky for you to completely jump the knees behind the shoulders and stay balanced right away, if you can do so, go ahead, take your five breaths in a vinyasa, otherwise let's look at some techniques that can help us approach that posture, so what if you were to walk your feet in, so that the knees almost touch the shoulders, and just so you've got that moment of truth where you inhale, lean forward, the knees touch, and the feet come up, and balance, notice the balance, bending your elbows is great, bringing your face a little closer, great, okay, and exhale, you can jump back from there, good, take a vinyasa, inhale up, and exhale down, this time we'll use the same technique, except we'll keep the knees a little bit further from the shoulders before we hop up, and when we inhale and hop, the feet will leave the ground completely first, and then we'll hop the knees onto the shoulders, behind the shoulders, into the armpit area, so go ahead and walk your feet a little closer, but this time make sure as you bend the knees that they're not touching the shoulders yet, and then sup to inhale, hop forward, your feet leave the mat, and then the knees take, good, take your breaths, and then aashita, exhale, jump back, and you can vinyasa there, now there's another technique to learn how to bring that momentum forward, let's think about sliding the tops of the feet forward, as you bend the knees, inhale, take your right foot, slide on the front of the top of the foot, and then exhale, put it back, notice her feet are touching the mat here, so inhale, let your feet make contact with the mat as you slide the knee forward, and then what we'll do is have both feet, after you've practiced one side and the other a little bit, then have both feet at the same time slide forward, and you have that little hop where the knees then catch into the shoulders, and the feet have left the mat, so go ahead and sup to inhale, slide your feet forward, and then hop and lift, trying to stay balanced there, and aashita, exhale, jump it back, chaturanga, good, and nava, inhale, upward facing, dasa, exhale, downward facing dog, all right, and then moving into the last posture of our first act, bharadvajasana, twist, sup to inhale, jump through with your left leg back, as if it was in triyangmukha agapara pashimantanasana, and then from there, exhale and put your right foot into lotus with the knees spread apart from one another, reach your left palm under the right knee, and aashita, exhale, twisting, either the hand tenting behind you, or the right hand takes the right foot behind you, one, try to ground deeply through your left palm, letting the left palm really contact the mat, two, and at the same time, try to keep your left sitting bone on the mat as well, three, four, five, inhale, look forward, exhale, replant the hands, and you can vinyasa from here, nava, inhale to lift up, dasa, exhale, straightening the legs, chaturanga, ekarsha, inhale, upward facing, dvarsha, exhale, downward facing dog, second side, triyogdasa, inhale, jump through with the right leg back, exhaling to put the left foot into lotus, with the knees spreading, inhale here, and get your right hand under the left knee, and maybe the hand can either take, or you could have a hand tenting behind you, chaturgdasa as you exhale, look back behind you, twisting deeply in the posture, two, three, four, five, inhale, look forward, exhale, plant the hands, pancharsha, inhale, lift up, shorsha, jump back, chaturanga, saptarsha, inhale, upward facing, aashtarsha, exhale, downward facing dog, and for now, come to dandasana, sapta, inhale, jump through with straight legs, sit down, find yourself in a comfortable seated position. From here, you could choose to keep going through intermediate, or having completed the first act, you could move on to full finishing postures and finish your practice, close it down for the day. Again, thanks so much to Satrine for all the great effort and practice. Thank you for joining, and hopefully it's been useful for your daily home practice.

Comments

Kate M
1 person likes this.
Some helpful approaches to these intense backbending postures! In my class, I need to offer lots of adaptations. (One that I was just experimenting with for Supta Vajrasana places a bolster lengthwise behind the back and uses a belt to bind.) Thank you Citrine and Dylan!
Dylan Bernstein
Hey Kate ! I definitely think it's useful to be "strapped" with as many adaptations as you are able. I use them only when needed and I counsel people to use a modification only as long as they need to... eventually building towards a more full, independent expression of the posture. Supta Vajrasana is definitely a challenging asana, especially when practicing solo! Thanks for your interest and many blessings upon your path! D

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