Alright! Hello everyone it's me Ethan and in this video we are gonna look at
the Ashtanga Yoga jump back. So as a teacher of traditional ashtanga yoga, one
of the questions that I get asked most frequently is why can't I jump back? What
am I missing here? what is it that I'm doing wrong? All of these questions are
then usually followed by you answering them for yourself, suggesting: is it
because my arms are too short? is it because I'm a woman and obviously women
will never be able to jump back? Oh damn well maybe it's not that one, but aha!
maybe it's because you're too weak or perhaps it's because you're an avocado
and you have no arms or legs. I would very strongly encourage you to let go of
any of these self-limiting beliefs and understand that clearing the floor in
the jump back is a complex and a wholistic movement. There are a variety of
forms anatomical functions and specific forces of energy that need to occur with
quite specific timing for this movement to happen fluidly - so the first thing
that you need to understand is that this movement is made up of two parts
lift up and rotate - so lift up high and lean forward on inhale, and this is the
part where it helps you get the most out of the length of your arms. You need to
understand that your arms only need to be long compared to your torso and that
can be achieved by pressing the shoulders down. A tense or shrugged shoulder
position would require exceptionally long arms to even reach the floor in the
seated position. Next you'll want to shorten the torso as much as you can
which will not happen if you're seated on the front of your sit bones with a
straight spine, so curl the tailbone underneath rounding your back before you
try to lift up. Pull the knees up into your chest, so that
your upper body forms a small ball which will be easy to rotate. With the hands
planted firmly in front of the hips lift up by straightening the arms bringing
them to their maximum length - if you stay tight in the core of your body you'll
lift right up off the ground. Inhale into the back of your body as you lean the
shoulders forward. It is at this point that most students will internally cue
themselves to jump back and they'll try to move backwards whereas a more useful
cue would be to focus on the rotation forwards stay conscious of the fact that
to land in chatvari (Chaturanga Dandasana position)
you need to move the shoulders forward ahead of your
wrists, bend the elbows to help your weight forward as you extend the legs
back to unravel into a strong chatvari position. Land in chatvari on the bottom
of your exhale and hold for a moment before moving on. So, a common mistake
which is difficult to iron out if it goes unnoticed is lifting either the
hips or the feet too high at the expense of the other. If either of these stay
grounded in the lift up there is not a great deal to gain by lifting the other
higher and higher focus on lifting both off the ground to clear the floor. A high
cross of the shins creates a better angle for the legs to fit through and
might make all the difference when you try to clear the floor. I've had students
who find it easier to fit through either with feet flexed or with toes pointed
A loose or neutral foot position is almost definitely going to make you drag
against the floor or bump the arms on the way through - so, both of those are
acceptable and you should see which one works best for you
okay Yogis thank you so much for watching the video I'm gonna make
another video soon and in that video we could perhaps cover some modifications
that you could use if you still find it difficult to clear the floor in the
jump back, of course we could really go down the rabbit hole with that but I
just wanted to make this as a quick video specifically about clearing the
floor in the jump back - another really good question that I've had repeatedly
over the last week or so is how to jump forward and land in bakasana position so
let me know what you want to see next and I will see you in the next one