Handstands and Hugs

Welcome to Acroyoga family. I am Devin and I am here with two friends today, Lynn and Ashley. Thank you both so much for being here. So they often, we often say that three is the smallest community. And so some of the things that we'll be going into today have a base, a flyer and a spotter, which is one of the reasons that we'll be working in trios. We'll start with a centering breath. So breathing in together and breathing out together. And I'm going to take three om's. If you'd like to join me, please do. Here we go.

I invite you to set an intention for your practice today, something you'd like to cultivate in a single word or a short sentence. Okay, we're going to begin with an interesting little warm up. We're all going to reach our hands out in front and wiggle our fingers. And then you can squeeze your hands all the way in and flick them all the way out. Imagine that you have some honey or something sticky and you really got to flick it all the way off and then squeeze it all the way in.

So in Acroyoga and also in rock climbing, we call these flashlights and they help increase the strength in the forearm. So if we're thinking about going upside down, balancing on ourselves or on someone else, it's a really great practice to start getting into every single day. And you can do this for all the way up to eight minutes. We're just going to do 10 more right now. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

Shake it out. You have a little bit more in you. Sweep your hands to the sky and here we go. Look at your fingers, strong straight arms all the way out all the way in. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Bring it on in. Yeah, you feel it even after just a little minute like that. Okay, so Lynn and Ashley are going to come seated back to back.

They can start with their feet on the ground. They can start in a cross-legged pose or legs nice and wide. And they're going to begin to flow forward and back. So they can begin to link their movement with their breath. And if it feels relaxing, I encourage you to stay there.

It also can be really nice to find this sense of fluidity and a little relaxation. We'll come all the way back up to center. And once more, Lynn, you can come forward, reaching your fingers out in front. And if Ashley wants a little tiny bit more of a back bend, she can place the bottoms of her feet on the ground. And she might even scoot up a little tiny bit higher.

Yeah, and she could reach her hands all the way overhead. And then check in. Does that feel good? All right. She said yes, so she's going to stay there. Well, inhale coming all the way up and we'll change that in the opposite direction. And so now, Ashley, you can take the legs long.

And so the other thing, if it's too much of a back bend, you can interlace your hands behind the back of your head. That gives a little extra support or reaching your arms all the way up and overhead. And then we can check in with our partner to say, how does that feel? There we go. Well, inhale back up to seated.

And now Lynn is going to give Ashley a supported back bend ride. So she's going to come into a table position on her hands and knees. Ashley can come all the way up into standing. And then she'll place her hands on Lynn's hips as she lowers down. You notice how she uses her arms to help do that.

And then Lynn can begin to flow through a cow and cat. And we'll check in again. How does that feel? She said amazing. That's what I think about it, too. So the person giving the cat cow is building a lot of strength through their arms and their core. And they're getting a little bit deeper into the articulation of the spine.

Well, the person receiving the back bend just gets to go along for a ride. It's pretty good. We'll come back to table. And now because there are three of us, wait, wait, you stay down. You stay down for a moment. Reach a hand for me.

And I'm going to peel her up so she doesn't have to work so hard. In this moment, you can pause the video and switch roles if you'd like. We're going to keep going with a different move. Okay, so now, yeah, I think we're going to stay facing in that direction. Lynn is going to come into a downward facing dog.

And then you can walk to that back edge of the mat and walk your hands back, your feet back, too. A little bit hands here and then feet nice and wide. Perfect. That looks good from here. Ashley is going to come all the way around in front and place her hands in front of Lynn's hands. Turn around 180.

Yep, and then you're going to place your feet on her lower back. Mm-hmm. So strong palms all the way on the ground. Yeah, there you go. Lift your hips to the sky.

Look up at your own belly the other way. There you go. How does that feel, everybody? So we have a down dog assist and a little handstand. Do you feel good to lift this leg to the sky?

There we go. And I'm here spotting at the back body. Place this one down. Lift this one straight up to the sky. Look up your belly button.

Keep it so you can see your toe. Bring your toe a little tiny bit forward. Can you see it? Yeah, there you go. Lift that toe to the sky.

Keep breathing right here and then come down nice and slow with control. So in acro yoga, you can bring your feet all the way to the ground. Nice. We'll come all the way up to stand. And this is a great place to give your partner a high five.

Really good work. Awesome. We'll breathe in together and out together. We have one more partner stretch and downward facing dog. So Lynn is going to come back to downward facing dog.

Ashley will turn around and back up, placing her hands on Lynn's hips and then lower once more onto her back. And the apex of the downward facing dog is where the back bend is going to be deepest. I can take forearms here and then I'm going to lean back a little bit. How are you doing? And I might even find myself in a supported chair pose.

Is that okay? Yeah, breathing in together and out together. And then we'll slowly unwind. Again, I help my back bender up so that she doesn't have to work so hard. Thank you.

One more opportunity for you to pause the video and cycle through so that everyone can base and fly and spot just once. Now we're going to go into back flying. So Lynn will turn around and this is a great opportunity. Forearm to forearm grip. We both lean back in space.

She's going to bend her legs and come all the way down to the ground through a counterbalance. So it's really nice to help your base down to the ground. And then Ashley is going to walk around and we're going to go into back flying. So you can bring your feet up and you're going to turn around. There we go.

So from here, Lynn can actually take a little 45 degree angle. Her heels are in towards the middle of the bum and the toes are reaching out to the side. Ashley can hold on to ankles that aren't hers with her thumbs in. Oh, that was right. You had it.

Yep. And from here, she's first going to sit back just a little bit. So it's a less backbend and more sitting. And then Lynn can reach up for her elbows. And as soon as she connects to those elbows, you can bend your elbows a little bit.

Leaning back like a lazy boy recliner. And now Lynn will straighten her legs up and overhead. So as a spotter, I make sure that the flyer's head is safe by hot potato spotting around their hips. And then I can check that the alignment is heels over hips. This bone stacking position allows the base to use as little effort as possible and give the maximum stretch and support to the flyer.

And here, we'll check in to say, how are you doing? Good. Yeah. If it feels okay, she may release the ankles and reach them towards her toes. And notice how Ashley is doing a good job.

You can keep the legs bent and then relax the arms just a little tiny bit. Oh, yeah. There we go. Lynn keeps her hands on the shoulders at all times, so she's the primary spotter as well. We'll breathe here for another moment.

Lynn, will you take your legs off of 90 a little bit towards your nose? So it's really very common that the base may bring their legs too far this way, in which case I'd say, bring your legs back towards the studio door. Yeah, there you go. Perfect. That's your 90.

That's the plumb line that we're looking for. To come down, the flyer will take ankles again. The base will bend their legs and the spotter stays nice and close, helping lift the heart. And then we'll reach down to pull our base off the ground. And this is definitely a little space where we can go in for a hagasana if you want to say good thank you to your partner.

Really good work. We'll follow this up with a little self-massage to make sure our wrists feel strong and released for our next practice. So come down onto one knee, slide your other hand underneath the back of your knee, and then begin to pour a little bit of weight. Let me know if you don't feel it at all. It's kind of nice, right?

We'll switch to the other side. If you're feeling really spicy, you could do both legs at the same time. And then come back to seated, palms together at midline. We'll take one om to seal this practice today, breathing in. Om.

Om shanti. Peace. Namaste. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.