all right hello everyone it's me Ethan and in this video I'm going to show you
how to jump into bakasana so that you can move freely without the fear of
falling forward bakasana, the crane posture is one of the key strength
asanas in the Ashtanga Yoga intermediate series. Right here we are gonna look at
bakasana B which requires a powerful but well controlled leap from downward
facing dog into the state of the asana. This dynamic
movement is one that many students do find really challenging to integrate but
the posture is really incredible for stabilizing the spine after a series of
deep back bends. With strong engagement in the core of the body this posture
creates a sense of grounding but also lightness as we float forward and find
the balance point over the hands. Before attempting to land the jump into this
pose let's make sure that the asana is well understood.Iin bakasana the arms are
your foundation and the straighter they are the stronger your foundation will be
wrap the shoulder blades around the body to stabilize the shoulder girdle the
index fingers should be parallel to one another rather than pointing inwards
towards each other in ashtanga yoga bakasana is taken with a round spine which
comes from lifting and engaging through the lower abdomen - lift the knees high
and squeeze them inwards against the shoulders - take the heels together as you
lift the feet and lean forward into the hands. Slightly bending the elbows in
this asana would be okay but you should be aware that the straighter your spine
is and the more bent your elbows are, that kind of creates a weaker bakasana
position and that will be more difficult to land in consistently. Once you're
comfortable with bakasana position you're ready to start to jump. Now the
reason that students experience challenge in the jump is unlikely to be
a lack of power in the legs but rather resistance to committing to the jump and
fear of falling forward. Just a couple of the bigger tips on that for now are, first
keep the hips low when you jump - at downward dog pull the knees up into your
chest, exhale deeply and round the back - before you jump lift the head and lock
your eyes on a point on the floor ahead of the hands jump the hips forward not
up and inhale into the back of your body as you land lightly this gives you more
engagement and more control as it holds the spine in the correct position when
you jump. Another big one is to press your fingertips into the floor - this will
put the brakes on so you can jump with full power and still stop yourself from
falling forward you can even try this exercise outside the context of the
practice - take a few jumps to get a feel for this before attempting to land in
bakasana - jump press into the fingertips to stop again jump press control this
exercise will build a lot of self-confidence so you can feel free to
move breathe and more deeply experience this posture. Okay so just before I wrap
this one up a quick note on jumping the hips to high as I mentioned earlier
moving forward rather than up will take you directly into the position you might
have seen other yogis jumping into a half handstand and thought that looks
kind of cool and of course in that situation you would be wrong because
that's not correct [in the Ashtanga method] and although, yes it is technically possible to still catch
the landing that is definitely not what I would recommend if you do have fear of
falling forward as it takes the spine into a weaker position and of course you
would be much more likely to lose control in the jump
Yogis give this a go and let me know how you do - if you are a subscriber I
want to hear from you let me know what do you wanna learn next - I got time - I am
in lockdown. Thank you so much for watching the video and I will see in the
next one!