Shoulderstand — Day 28 — Ashtanga Yoga Challenge

Hi everyone, it's Kina here. Welcome to day 28 of the Ashtanga Yoga Challenge. We are winding down to the last few days and today is the day that we begin the closing poses. And the posture of the day is shoulder stamp, which is translated into English as Sarvangasana. So this is all limbs pose. So when we take a look at all limbs pose, we have our first long hold inversion. And this is one of the asanas many people find a little bit challenging, a little bit confusing. So I want to make sure that you have enough alternatives to really work on and enough good technique so that you can safely enter a shoulder stand. Now in the Ashtanga Method, the shoulder stand posture is actually a shoulder stand sequence. We're not going to go over that full sequence. If you do want to learn more about the Ashtanga Yoga Method, I really encourage you to join me in class or join one of the long in-depth courses that I have on OMSTARS, which is my online channel, which I'd love for you to be a member of. So when we're taking a look at the experience of shoulder stand, when we move into the transition to the closing poses, there are some deep benefits that come from shoulder stand. We're integrating all of the spiritual energy that we've worked in the practice. We're simulating the pineal gland and helping establish a very sort of calm, quiet, inner atmosphere. So when you think about shoulder stands, don't think about just heaving your body up, but try to understand the dynamics of what's happening. As in any inversion, you're drawing inwards along the central axis of the body and then lifting upwards. So in shoulder stand, try to create as much of a vertical line as possible. You'll need to have relatively open shoulders, relatively flexible hamstrings, and a relatively flexible neck to enter shoulder stand safely. But if you've been following the Ashtanga Yoga Challenge up until this point, then you've been working on all of the flexibility and all of the strength that you need to get a good, deep shoulder stand. Now, this is important. Anybody with cervical spine issues, if you have a herniated disc in your cervical spine, or if you just have suffered a lot of neck injuries like whiplash in the past, or just have a very sensitive neck, perhaps the full Sarang Asana posture is not recommended for you until you get your absolute permission from your doctor or your physical therapist to make sure that it is safe for your body. Again, we will be going over some alternatives to the Asana to make sure that you can get the benefits of shoulder stand, even if you can't bear any weight on your neck. Okay, so let's get started with a very light little warm-up. I want to go through just maybe three postures that will help make sure that everything's established for the shoulder stand experience today. Oh, I just pulled the microphone off. Sorry about that. Let me put it back on. So, one sec. All right, there we go. So, now I'm going to not pull my microphone off, and now we're going to come up to the hanging forward fold. So, I want you to bend your knees, move your chest on your thighs, and give me five breaths in your forward fold. One. Just dangle the head down. Two. So, like I said, we need a good forward bend to get into a good shoulder stand. So, just let this kind of warm up your hamstrings a little bit. Three. Four. Almost there. Five. Good. Let's bend the knees. Then again, inhale. Straighten the legs. We're going to add in the shoulders. If you want to widen your legs a little bit, you can, but I'm going to do this in the relatively parallel position. Interlock the fingers like prasarita C, and then roll the shoulders away from the spine. Okay, we'll stay for five. One. Two. So, we're getting that flexibility through the shoulders. Four. And five. Now, bend the knees. Walk your hands forward. Let's go for downward dog. So, inhale up to downward facing dog. Five more breaths. One. Two. Three. Four. And five. Now, sink the knees down across your feet. Stretch out your legs. Dandasana position. And here's where you're going to practice movement. So, lift the center of the chest and now drop the chin down towards the chest. So, roll the spine around. And we'll stay five breaths. One. Two. If you really make the chin contact, it's very difficult to speak. So, if I sound weird. Okay. Four. And five. Good. Relax. Now, we're ready for the first version of shoulder stand, which is viparita karani, which is legs up the wall. Now, you can scoot your hips over to the wall. And then, easy, fold your legs on up to the wall. And you can rest your head on a blanket, if you like, or you can move that over to the side. Then, again, forward is nice and easy. And then, we can stay for about five breaths. One. Two. Three. Four. And five. That's good. Let's cross the feet. Then, I want you to spin away from the wall. And now, we try it without the wall. Okay. So, without the wall, you might find that you have to use your hamstrings a little bit more and rely on that flexibility. So, you fold in, make sure the sacrum is nestled onto the ground. And then, inhale, lift the legs on up. Then, check to make sure you're not going too much into a forward fold and just keep the legs stacked, toes pointed, thigh bones settling into their sockets. And we'll stay for five breaths. So, this is the first shoulder stand. I'm pretty confident that everybody can do one of these two options. Either feet up the wall or legs straight up in the air. So, this is a wonderfully therapeutic posture. As you can see, there's really no pressure placed on the neck. We're getting that therapeutic benefit of elevating the feet. So, when we stand or sit all day, the blood and circulation gets pushed into the feet. But then, when you elevate the feet, then that gives the blood and circulation a chance to kind of return. So, the body is established, you know, Okay. So, let's cross the feet. Come on down. Then, come up onto your elbows. And now, you can see I have a little blanket here. So, I'm going to use the assistance of a blanket for the next version of the a little extra space for the neck. So, by placing the shoulders on the blanket, but letting the neck remain off, you can have this nice space so that the cervical spine is completely off the ground. And we don't want to ever be pressing the cervical spine into the ground and shoulder stand. Instead, you want the natural curvature of the cervical spine to be expressed. So, let's go ahead and delicately move our way into shoulder stand. We come back up to be Bhrida Karani. Then, fold your legs into your body. Onto the lower back. And you can make yourself into kind of a v-shape like this. And so, this is our first shoulder stand. Now, you can keep pushing, pushing, pushing delicately until your feet touch the ground. When the feet touch the ground, wiggle your shoulders underneath you. And then again, check to make sure that your cervical spine is safe. Then, again, hands on the back. You can lift one leg up and then inhale. Second leg up. And now, we've come all the way up into shoulder stand. Using a lot of space around the lower, around the neck region. Finding that vertical axis. So, don't do what I just did, which is look over at you. You want to keep your neck completely straight in shoulder stand. Now, to come out, you can fold your legs into your body. Down. Open the shoulders. And come on all the way down. All right. So, we're using the posture called halasana to enter shoulder stand. This is just kind of like a more gentle entry into the posture. If this was comfortable for you, then you might be able to move that blanket on over to the side. And then, so if you're comfortable with the blanket, you might be able to try without the blanket. But again, make sure that you have enough space between the shoulders and the ears to keep the cervical spine off the ground. If you cannot, from a resting position, reach your fingers under your neck, then the shoulder stand position is not going to be accessible for you. Not yet. Not maybe with one or two blankets. You can use two or three. Even three. You can even, I would say not more than three, depending on how thick the blankets are. Okay. So, let's go ahead and try. So now, again, you're going to fold your chest, sorry, fold your thighs into your chest, straighten the legs, lift the hips, reach over, then roll the shoulders underneath you for a good plow pose. Then, hands support the back, and you can lift one leg, find that vertical axis, and then lift the other leg to find that vertical axis. And shoulder stand is a shoulder stand, so you're pushing with your shoulders into the ground in that internal rotation position. Let's stay for five. One, two, three, four, and five. Now release, bringing your thighs into the body, opening the shoulders, and exhale, roll down. Let's talk about one more entry into shoulder stand. So, in the ashtanga method, once you can comfortably get into shoulder stand, and you don't need the assistance of a blanket, and you're not doing like a half shoulder stand, you're not, you know, in that v-shape where you're just sort of balancing a bit off center, and the posture is easy for you, then it's recommended to see if you can lift directly up into the posture without touching your feet down. It's a little more difficult, the entry, but let's give it a shot. You come into viparita karani first. Check in, make sure everything is good. Then, activate pelvic floor, and with the same little up, like you would do a pelvic thrust, except you continue that tucking of the tailbone on the pelvic thrust to let the thighs roll a little into the chest, and then you allow the pressure down with the shoulders to carry you up into shoulder stand. So, let's give it a shot. Stabilize the shoulders, pelvic thrust, inhale, pick it up, roll, and then we've come all the way up into shoulder stand. Now, if you need to be a little like in a v-shape to release pressure, that's totally fine. This is one way we can release pressure. You can hold on to your hips. However, if your hips can lift themselves, that takes a lot of pressure. Don't push your head down, but just let the head have its natural support. Then, let's roll out. Normally, in the ashtanga method, we do matsyasana as the counter pose, because after that chin making contact with the chest for so long, then we often need a little bit of a counter pose. So, I'm going to do that now since I've been up in shoulder stand for a little while. Come on to the elbows, and this is a very friendly variation of matsyasana. So, you're using the elbows to press down and the shoulders still roll forward, but now the neck is an extension, and I'm going to stay for five. One. Gaze at the nose tip. Two. Three. Four. And five. Exhale. Come on down. Just pause for a moment, and just feel the impact of the shoulder stands that we did. Notice the increased circulation. Notice if there's any more perhaps meditative feeling in the mind or the body. Rest here for one more moment. Feel your heartbeat, then open the eyes, and let's come on out. Good. So, now, working our shoulder stand today. There are a couple more things I want to talk to you about shoulder stand before we close up for the day. So, let's talk about the contraindications for shoulder stand. I already talked about if you have a cervical spine issue or if you have whiplash or herniated disc or just in general, you just have a very sensitive neck. I would probably recommend that you do not try the shoulder stand with the elbows or the hands pressing on the lower back, but you stick to the more accessible version, Viparita Karani. Then, it must be mentioned that during times of menstruation, it is not recommended to take long holds in the shoulder stand series because it's moving the circulation and the flow of energy in the opposite direction. However, the Viparita Karani with the feet up the wall, since it's only working with the feet and the legs, this is an acceptable variation during that time. The shoulder stand poses, when held for a long period of time, have a very calming, almost meditative impact on the body and the mind. So, I hope you felt a little bit of that glimmer of the meditative vine here and now with this short introduction to the shoulder stand series. What's most important is that you find a way to safely practice. So, if it looks too intimidating to lift on up to Sarvangasana and try to work your vertical axis, then I really recommend to stick to either using the blankets or legs up the wall. Legs up the wall is not such an easy posture when you put the legs up the wall. If you don't have the hamstring flexibility, it's going to require you to keep working and keep working and keep working. So, really take those lessons and integrate them into your practice. Understand when we do the flow of the practice, which I invite everyone to join me on and practice with me for a full primary series practice. Then, we'll be holding the shoulder stand postures for at least the 10 breaths in Sarvangasana and the other asanas between 5 and 8 breaths. So, this long series of asanas together helps you reap even more integrated benefits of the shoulder stand sequence. When we do shoulder stand, we also don't do vinyasas or jump back and jump through between the sequence of poses. And this helps everything accumulate, so that you can really do that deep integrated work of the practice. So, I just want to say thanks to everyone who's shown their support for this challenge. It really means a lot to me. And it really, really, really makes me happy to know that you see and appreciate what I'm doing here by sharing the Ashtanga yoga method with you, by coming back onto your mat and practicing every day. It makes me happy. So, I just want to say thank you. And I hope that this challenge plants the seed of a lifelong journey of practice. Not only one day here or there. And I hope that you continue to come back to your mat, continue to practice with me, or find a teacher that you really love and connect with and continue to practice with that teacher for, really, for every day of your whole life. So, thank you again. I send everyone a lot of love. And I'll see you tomorrow. Good. Well, again, thanks everyone. I see a few people have shown a little bit of support. Terry. Hi, Terry from YouTube. Send me some applause on YouTube. Ajay Huda is asking on YouTube when the next challenge will start. We are going to be doing a challenge, everyone, in April. So, please stay tuned for the challenge in April. I really look forward to it. And thanks, everyone.