All right, hello everyone it's me Ethan and in this video we are
going to look at how to drop back and stand up from Urdhva Dhanurasana.
This is the first of a two-part video series and right here we will explore
the sequencing and the fundamental movement patterns that come together to
create stability and ease in this section of your practice.
In Ashtanga yoga when the student has grown to a certain level of physical and
energetic proficiency, their teacher will eventually add this really dynamic and
initially really really challenging sequence of drop backs
to the back bending section of their practice. Adapting to this usually
requires a period where physical adjustments make this movement possible
and whether you are working in that stage now or you're kind of okay to do
it on your own your understanding and integration of
the movement patterns involved will only serve to make this movement
much safer more comfortable and more fluid.
My intention in part one of this video series is to show you
exactly that and in part two we'll look at how you can work on it even when
you're practicing on your own and might feel still a bit reliant on
your teacher's assistance. To begin practicing this a student
should be well established in their practice of the Primary Series, having
adequately released any tension in their posterior chain the back of the
body and built a good base of physical strength and developed a nervous system
that is capable of handling these more complex backbends.
A strong Urdhva Dhanurasana is definitely necessary before working on this and
I'll post a link to my video on how to safely get deeper into Urdhva Dhanurasana
below this video so that you can check that out when you have the chance.
First we will look at how this section falls in the Ashtanga back bending sequence.
After your final Urdhva Dhanurasana which
is traditionally the third one you'll need to come to standing by
moving all your weight forward into the feet.
A deeper backbend will generally be easier to stand up from and your ideal
alignment for that will have the chest aligned above the wrists, with the arms
perfectly straight, hips high and the knees tracking forward over the toes
Standing up from here can actually be
the most challenging one as you're starting from a dead stop, so it might be
useful to get in a solid and intentional rock by
straightening the legs to push back then strong legs squeeze together come
all the way forward and let the hands peel away from the floor as you come up.
From here we drop back and stand up three times. Stay solid in the legs
as you initiate the drop back the knees should not bend
until you're ready to commit your weight all the way back
for now initiate by feeling tall in the spine and moving your pelvis forward.
Keep the hands in front of you and don't take the head back just yet
proud chest shining up towards the ceiling, relax your back and control this
movement by firming the lower abdominals. When you
reach the point of resistance lift the chin to take your head all the
way back then reach the arms. These actions will take more weight
overhead so resist the urge to bend your knees and drop down too early
but press the hips forward to counterbalance
with the arms straight control the drop by moving your knees forward as you bend
them slowly to land softly on the hands.
If you land too far away from the feet you might need to walk your hands in closer
before attempting to come up. A common mistake that new students
make is seeing the drop back as separate to coming up and returning to a dead
stop when you have the opportunity to use that momentum to get back up to
standing. If you have the flexibility to land in a
position that you can come up from use the strength of your legs to push
back from the moment your hands land. The tension that you press into will
then help you come all the way forward. If you bend your elbows here you'll leak
power to come away from the ground so straight arms
keep the head relaxed back as you move your weight forward into the feet and
inhale up to standing. Any sense of rocking back and forth will
naturally get more subtle as you develop more proficiency in this movement.
lifting the head early can be instinctual as the student tries to kind of
see where they're going but it will add
an extra five kilos or so that will hold you down
and that can make all the difference. You've probably noticed as well that I
tend to initiate the drop back with this forward head position
and along with the hands being in front of the body
that helps to keep weight forward so that when you lean back
the most flexible and the most sensitive areas of your pelvis and lower back can
move into their strongest alignment before adding the weight of the head and arms.
If you tend to turn the feet out when
you come up that could be an indication of tightness
in the ankles or in the hip flexors but there's also a good chance that this
flawed movement pattern is just something that's been integrating
since you started working on the drop backs so take the time
to learn to keep the feet parallel or just very very slightly
turned out that creates more freedom in the sacrum and lower back and will also
give you a more stable connection with the ground
one of a few different ways that my students have found success in changing
this would be by locking the feet in the flexed position
as you push back letting the balls of the feet lift off
the ground if needed and then grounding the whole foot as you come forward to
stand up drop back and stand up a total of three
times with the exhale down inhale up breathing pattern
if that's the last part of your back bending sequence sit directly on the
floor and go to Paschimattanasana, forward bending, for ten full breaths
okay yogis give these tips a go i hope that you find them very very helpful
In the second video we will go into how you can integrate these fundamentals
into your practice even if you're working on your own at home
which many practitioners, kind of, are doing at the moment so don't forget to
subscribe to this channel if you want to see that
and also there's this little bell that you can click on if you want it to
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you're gonna learn today
I will see you in the next one!