Stepping into Side Crow

Hi, everyone. Welcome to today's practice. We'll be stepping into side crow. So you'll need two blocks and a blanket for this practice. And we'll be exploring all the different ways that we can prepare to go into side crow. And one of the things that I think is really important is this idea of parjva, of side. So when we're moving today, think about how much length that you can find between your shoulders and your hips before twisting. Okay? And I'll guide you through. So come on down onto your back. Have your knees bent and bring them out to the sides of the mat. Take your arms into cactus arms and slowly start to sway the knees from side to side. And as your knees move down to one side, feel the rotation that occurs at the hips and all the way up through your spine. So it doesn't have to be very intense. And then if you walk your feet out just a little bit more, notice if you feel more length from your shoulders to your hips as you twist. So although the arm balance is quite compact, we can still play with this idea of elongation before moving into these more confined poses. And then there's always alternatives around the compactness. So we'll see that later on. Good. And then from there, walk your feet back up underneath your knees, cross your right ankle past the top of your left thigh. You can stay here or draw your legs in towards your chest, holding onto either the outsides of the legs or you can take your right hand through the triangle of your legs and hold onto underneath your thigh for flipped pigeon. And notice the sensation in the outer right hip. And does that sensation change as you lean a little bit over to the left? So the hips play a fundamental role in arm balancing and also in twisting. So we'll dress the hips in order to facilitate the side opening and the twisting. Okay, and then come on back through center, release the left foot down followed by the right. Cross your left ankle past the top of your right thigh when you're welcome to stay here or draw the legs in and hold onto the legs as you choose. And become aware of the sensation of that outer left hip and not fighting against it but easing into it, understanding it. Dare I say becoming friends with it. And then lean to the right. Notice that there's a change there. And make your way back through center and release your feet down. Roll to one side. Make your way up onto all fours for your tabletop. Have your hands about shoulder width apart and then draw the hips back a little bit to get a little length along the front aspect of the rest. And then come forward coming into a little more wrist extension. And shift forward and back. As you're shifting, almost imagine as though someone were pulling your shoulders and your head forward as your hips are moving back. So there's a sense of length along the sides of your body. And keep the head and the buttocks moving away from each other as you shift yourself side to side with the shoulders relatively over the wrists. Might be a little bit further forward, a little further back. You can even do like zig zag, zig zag to the front, zig zag to the back. Circle and circle on the opposite direction. Okay, and then find yourself in center. Lift the heels of your hands up and away from the mat. So your thumbs are still touching along with your other fingers. And slowly release the heels of the hands back down to the ground.

Press up and slowly down. If you're finding that to be challenging, back off. Move the hips back as you lift and lower. If you want a little more challenge, lean further forward as you lower the heels of the hands down. Good. And then from there, pause. Again, elongate the spine. Take your left arm, reach it out to the side overhead. Notice your degree of twist without shifting your hips from one side to the other. Then from there, this will be an active threading of the needle. So take the left arm underneath your right arm, you can bend the right elbow and reach to the right without the hand or the shoulder coming down to the floor. So it's much more active than when we lean on the shoulder. Okay, and inhale, turn to the left, rotate to the right, bend the right elbow, reach through the left hand. Again, straighten the right elbow as you turn to the left, bend the right elbow as you turn to the right. Straighten your left elbow as much as possible. So it might not come straight through the shoulder, you might actually be at an angle. That's quite alright. One more. Good. And then place your left palm back onto the mat, switch sides, elongate first, then inhale, lift your right arm up and overhead. Rotate to the left as you bend your left elbow and inhale back up. Exhale, revolve, straighten the right elbow as much as you can. Then straighten your left elbow as you reach your right hand towards the sky and rotate. Good. Take your right palm back to the mat. This time you'll add a little bit of a restraint for the hip. So if you found a lot of hip movement, take your right leg, bring it out to the side with your right heel in line with your left knee. Then take your left arm up and overhead. Turn to the right, reach actively for the right toes. So the left fingertips reach for your right toes and then back up. So even if you can reach your toes, imagine reaching beyond your toes. So you're still not closing that chain between the hand and the foot. And one more. Good. Widen the upper back as you bend your right elbow and reach to the right with your left hand. Good. And then take the left hand back to the mat, right knee back to the mat. You'll do the other side. Take your left leg out to the side, right arm up and overhead. Thread the needle as you bend your left elbow. Reach your right hand actively towards your left toes. Turn to the side. As you're evolving the spine, can you feel that it's much different from maybe the first tabletop that you did? Okay. And then right hand comes back to the mat followed by the left knee. Shift back, grab your blocks and bring them to the top of your mat. Step your left foot forward. Drag your right toes under and lift your right knee away from the floor. Elongate through the spine. And then make sure your left palm feels very sturdy on whatever it's supported by. So whether it's the block or the floor, if you're on the taller height, but it feels like the block is wobbly, right? Stack both of your blocks, one on top of the other. With your right arm, reach the right arm up and overhead without the right hip turning or kind of coming on to the big toe side of the foot even more. Then from there, take the right arm, reach it underneath the left leg to broaden across the upper back as you turn.

And inhale up, go nice and slow. There are a lot of shifts that are happening right now. So not only are you twisting, but you're also challenging your balance. Okay. One more time. Reach up, reach back through your right heel, then reach underneath your left leg. Okay. Place your right hand back down onto the floor, onto your blocks. Step your right foot forward and your left foot steps back. We'll switch sides. Okay. So steady this right palm wherever it needs to be. Take the left arm up and overhead without turning everything to the left. So the twist is kind of remaining in the upper spine, in your thoracic spine. Then you reach under. Okay. And you may notice that that right elbow is doing the same work it was doing in tabletop. It bends a little bit as you reach. Okay. It straightens as you lift the left arm up. Good. Lift the left knee in case it's bent. Good. And then take your palm back down to the floor, steady yourself, step your left foot forward, flip your blocks up onto the tallest height, reach your head and your buttocks away from each other like a standing tabletop. Then from there, bend your knees a little bit, keep elongating the spine as you come all the way up to stand. Okay. From here, you'll grab your blocks and take your blocks, stack them one on top of the other on the lowest height and take the block to the inside of your left foot. Okay. Step your right foot back and come into Trikonosana Triangle Pose. Tilt your pelvis to the right as you bring your left hand down. Now my blocks are a little bit too far in front of me, so I'm going to scooch them back and instead of the fingertips pointing forward, I'm going to flip my grip. So I turn my upper arm externally or my fingertips move towards my lower leg and they can be at an angle or kind of flip all the way around. So this upper arm is as externally rotated as possible. And I reach the right arm up. Now you can use a higher surface underneath your left arm. You don't have to turn the arm all the way out. Okay. And then as you exhale, release your right hand to your hip, bend your left knee, rotate the hands with the fingertips point forward and come on up to stand. Switch to the other side. So you parallel that left foot, turn your right toes out, take the blocks to the inside. So I know I need to scooch my blocks probably a little bit further back so they're in between my knee and my ankle. Take your arms out to the sides, tip into Trikonosana Triangle, flip the grip, lift the left arm up towards the ceiling. And now notice if you can take your right side ribs and pull your right side ribs forward as if they were moving beyond your toes. Good. And then from there, bend your right knee a little bit, look down at the ground. If you were looking up, take the left hand to your hip, rotate the right fingertips to face forward and come all the way up. Parallel the right foot. Let's do that Trikonosana one more time. Turn the left toes out, right toes slightly in, place your blocks. So now you can choose if you want to have the palm of the hand on the blocks with the fingertips facing forward or behind. I'm going to come back to this grip just because it's a little bit different. Take your right arm up towards the ceiling and now elongate your side, your Parjva. Okay. Reach the arm up and overhead. So pull the left side ribs forward as you elongate through the right.

And then from here, take the right hand back down to your hip, bend your left knee, left fingertips facing forward. Okay. Grab your blocks. Come on up to stand. Other side. Take your arms out to a T. Okay. Tip into Trikonosana. Adjust your hand, fingertips pointing forward or back. Now take your top arm, reach the top arm overhead. So you create space along the rib cage. Good. And then from there, take the left hand back to your hip, bend the right knee, fingertips facing forward. Come on up to stand. Okay. Parallel the right foot and then bring your feet together. You can step or hop your feet together. Okay. Place your blocks aside and take your hands to your hips. So a little bit different, but I find in arm balancing, we really can get inside of our head. So swinging motions help to kind of alleviate some of those thoughts. So you're going to stand on your left foot. You can have a chair or a wall for balance. Take your right leg, pick it up and you'll cross your right leg in front of your left leg and you'll swing like a pendulum. So the right leg goes out and crosses over, out and over, out and over. So again, working the outer hip muscles. So not only are you strengthening them, but you're also actively elongating them as the legs cross into adduction. And then you fall and you tip. Good. And then release your right leg down, switch over to the other side. So steady yourself on your right leg. The knee can be bent. Okay. Hand can be supported because this is more about the hip. So if you're finding that balance is kind of interfering with what you're sensing, what you're feeling and your hip and it kind of defeats what we're trying to do. So have your hands, right? And my hand on the wall. And that allows me to now dive into this experience of what's happening in my hip. Okay. Okay. That's over. Take your left foot, place your left foot down. Come to stand in the middle-ish of your mat. Open up your feet about hip bone distance apart. Take your hands to your hips, then bend your hips so that the hips are moving back. Bend your knees, bend your ankles, and push up to stand to dasana. Sit back into utkatasana, stand into dasana. Repeat that a few times so that every time that you're bending, you're moving just a little bit closer to the ground and you can think of it as your approach, right? So when we're approaching side crow, we are in this deep squat. Okay. Maybe you add lifting onto the balls of the feet and then back down. Raise your heels. And with control, heels come down and you move into your utkatasana. Back to tadasana. Okay. So now keep going with that. Or again, another little shift in play with balance. So as I squat down, I'm going to shift my weight over into my left side. Okay. I pick my right foot up. I'm going to turn a little bit. Okay. So I'm turning as I'm elongating my ribs towards the front of my mat. And then I come back down, press into the balls of the feet, tadasana.

Feet come down. Sit back, utkatasana. Shift to the right. Turn the torso to the left as you pick your left leg up. Okay. The left leg is externally rotated. Back down to utkatasana. Rise up. Lower the heels. Sit back. So now you can take that another step. So you shift over onto the left leg. Lift the right leg up. Maybe stay here or drop the left hand down. Pull the fingertips back towards your shoulders. Maybe straighten that right leg like artichandrasana. They keep your right hand alongside your hip for right now or your leg. Okay. And then slowly bend the right knee. Bend your left leg as you come back into your utkatasana. Rise up onto the balls of your feet. Slowly lower back down. Shift to the right. Start to turn. Okay. Don't straighten the leg just yet. Find your artichandrasana balance. Take the right palm down. Pull the fingertips towards the shoulder. Then reach out through that left leg. Good. And bend your left knee. Bend your right knee as you come back into utkatasana. I know it's challenging. Okay. Rise up onto the balls of your feet. And then lower your heels back down to the floor. Really nice. Really nice. Okay. So grab your blocks again. Bring them back to the front of the mat. And so we'll come into a twist. And one of the things that kind of can prevent us from coming into side curl is this connection between the upper body and the lower body. So when I'm twisting, my elbow can't come to the outside of my thigh. Then it might be a moot point to try to keep going with this arm balance. So there's a bridge. There's a connector that can be really helpful in getting the sense of where the body is going and what it's doing. Okay. So come to stand a little bit behind your blocks. Take your hands to your hips. As you inhale, feel your hips pressing down towards your heels and your side ribs lift up. As you exhale, hinge forward at your hips for utkatasana forward bend. Place your hands on your blocks. Bring your knees like your utkatasana. Slide my blocks back a little bit more to support me as I step my left foot back. Okay. So your lunge is kind of like all the utkatasanas that we were just doing. So as you come up, right, you can take the left elbow to the outside of the right thigh, right? You can draw it in, right? And that might help to further solidify that connection between the elbow and the upper arm. Hands come into prayer. Okay. But if that's not available to you, then you might take the block, right? And you can take it on any height that you need. Okay. I'm going to do the medium height. And as I turn, I bring my elbow to the block. I'm going to hold onto it just to secure it a little bit more. But if you feel steady, you could secure it alone with the left elbow and the right hand on top. And this way, you have a continuous link between your lower body and your upper body as you turn in the upper back. Pretty cool. Yeah. Okay. Then slowly you're going to unwind and come through to the other side. Step your left leg forward.

Okay. Inhale, come into our utkatasana. Lift the ribs, side ribs forward, back ribs forward, back of the head forward. Find that length. Then as you exhale, bend your knees, step your right leg back into a low lunge. Okay. And steady yourself as you come up. Okay. You don't have to come all the way up. Then take your right elbow either to the outside of the leg or find your connector. Okay. Reach the right elbow over and across. Secure the block either by holding it with your left hand or just from the press of the right elbow down into the block. And if you want to come into prayer hands, that's another option. Good. And then from there, very slowly unwind from your twist. Place the blocks down, support your hands and step your right foot forward. Okay. Keep your blocks where they are. Bend your knees, launch your chest forward and inhale, come up to stand. Okay. Now you step your right foot back. Left foot is still facing forward and your stance can be a little shorter than it was for Trikonosana. It doesn't have to be as long. Take your left hand to the top of your left thigh to encourage your left thigh to move back. Okay. Right arm comes up into overhead. And now with my right arm, I'm going to reach my right arm back. So like a huge arm circle. And as my arm comes behind me, the tendency might be for my spine to rotate to the right. I'm going to try and rotate my spine to the left as that arm comes down. And when the arm comes down, it's a little more natural for the spine to be neutral on the torso to face forward. Right palm faces forward, reach up, reach back. Okay. And then the arm comes down. Do that one more time. And this time when the arm comes in front, we're going to add a forward bend. So the arm comes down, start to fold forward. Left hand is pressing the left thigh back. Reach forward. Find as much length as you can across the right side of your body from your hip to your shoulder. And then it's your choice to bring the right hand down to the block that's to the inside of the foot or take the hand to the outside block. Okay. And then turn the upper back. You may notice that there is some movement here at the hips, but probably not a lot. Turn the shoulders, turn the upper back to the left. And then maybe the left arm comes on up. As you exhale, look down at your right hand, take the left hand down. See if you can reach over towards that left block. So almost like Garudasana arms. Okay. Widen the upper back without the shoulders lifting up. Good. Uncross the arms. Bend your left knee. Come onto the ball of the right foot and step your right foot forward. Other side. Step your left foot back. Angle the toes out a little bit. Okay. Bend your right knee. Take your hands to your hips and come on up. So now this right hand comes to the top of your thigh. Left arm reaches up. Turn the palm to face away from you. Reach the left arm back. Turn your spine to the right as the arm moves behind your body. Left palm faces forward. Reach forward. Lift up. Reach back. Turn the torso to the right as the arm moves behind you. And this time once the arm starts to come in front of you, you'll add this fold. Hinge at the hip. Reach forward through the left arm. Ground your left heel into the floor as you reach through the left. Then from there, left hand comes to the inside or the outside block. Press the hand down so you have that firm, steady support underneath you. Like your left hand now becomes a leg. Take the torso to the right. Reach your right arm up. Good. Can you steady your breath?

If it's not easeful, okay, it doesn't mean that's going to be easy. Then maybe turn a little less. Maybe take the hand to the inside. Okay. And then as you exhale, take the right hand down so you can cross the right hand to the block. It can be in the air as well. Can take the block up a height. Shoulders move away from the ears in this instance. Good. Then from there, bend your right knee a little bit. Unwind the arms. Take your right knee, bend it a little bit as you come onto the ball of your left foot. And then lower your left knee down. Bring your right knee back. Reach your arms forward as your hips move back and take your head between your arms. We'll extend the child's pose. So the head isn't necessarily coming down to the floor. You can prop it. Good. Walk your hands and your blocks back. Okay. So Parjvabhakasana. So you'll take two blocks, stack one on top of the other. Okay. And then you'll take your blanket and place your blanket right over your blocks. Now for some you might need a third block so you have more height. You could use a chair instead. And this way we're able to find those same actions of turning the upper back in your in your arm balance rather than kind of finagling or feeling this need for the feet to lift away from the floor or how to support the rest of the body when the twist may still feel unfamiliar. So this kind of this variation takes all of that out of the equation so that you can really focus on the turn of side curl, which really makes it kind of really special. Okay. So take your blanket, place that on top of your blocks. I'll also provide you with some extra padding for your hips. So now I'm going to start with my right outer hip on the block and the blanket and my feet lateral to the blanket. So they're right to the side and you'll step right stepping into side curl. You'll step your feet around the block. So it'll come to the front as you start to come more deeply into the arm balance. Okay. So for right now, okay, I want to think of that elongated side by so as you inhale, lift through the side ribs as you begin to turn. Okay. Now my left hand is going to come down to the block for support as I place my right hand down towards the long edge of my mat. Okay. On the right side, then from there, right. If I try to put my left hand down, I might give up right there because I'm like, nope, that left hand isn't going to come down.

So from here, I'm going to turn my chest. So it starts to face that shorter edge of my mat as I tiptoe and walk my feet over. You may feel that your hips are also changing a little bit as you do this. Okay. And now my left hand is significantly closer to the ground. Now I have the option to link my lower body and my upper body or not. Okay. But to show the link, they're just like the revolved lunge that you did. So my upper body and lower body are making connection. I'm going to fold down towards the ground. My hip gets just a little lighter. Okay. So now I'm more on the side and then maybe I step my left foot up. Maybe my right foot comes up. Then can you turn from behind your heart? Take your right shoulder, lift it up and lower your left shoulder just a little bit more down towards the floor. Squeeze your inner legs in together as you flex your feet. You could point them too, but I like to flex. Okay. And then step one foot down, step the other foot down, press yourself away. Now as I crawl, how'd you do? Okay. Let's do the other side. So I'm going to make my way over to the other side. In that transition, you just want to make sure that your blocks are still right on top of each other and that the blanket is well placed. Okay. Sit to the side. Okay. Now elongate up through the side ribs, turn towards the left. Okay. Start to take the left hand down, but those left side ribs are still reaching forward. Okay. They're not coming down to get into the compact shape. Not yet. Okay. So pull the left side ribs forward and then start to reach the right hand and you'll feel that broadening action across the shoulder blades. Okay. So then you can relax your radar and tip toe the feet. So they come toward the front or more towards the long edge of your back. Okay. Now there's a little more turn happening for me. Okay. Take the right hand down. So I showed you with the link. I'll show you without the link. So I'm going to walk my hands just a little bit further forward and that's going to help to leverage me a little bit more to bring weight into my hands and less on my feet.

So as I bend my elbows and I come forward, I lift one foot up, lift the other foot up. You're still working a lot. Okay. Take the right shoulder down, the left shoulder up and then step one foot down, step the other foot down, walk your way back. Okay. So that's a supported side curl. Okay. I'm going to move back and come into a Virasana. So I'm on my shins. You can sit any way that's comfortable for you. Okay. Interlace your fingers, press your palms forward and then reach your arms up overhead. Find a little more leg, lift the right shoulder up and away from the right hip, but also try to keep your left shoulder lifting up and away from your left hip rather than coming down and arching over, arch up and over. Okay. I'm going to come back through center, readjust your clasp. Okay. Press the palms up, hug your inner upper arms in towards each other, side bend over to the right. Okay. Maybe feel the buttocks dropping even deeper into the blocks as you lean. Okay. And then as you inhale, come on up, press up. Then as you exhale, release your arms. Okay. So you can play with your variation on the blocks. If you want to see what it would be like to move into the process of Parsha Vakasana without props, you'll move them to the side. So self direct yourself or rewind if you're using the blocks. Let me show you the same thing, but using without using the blocks. Okay. So I'm going to start in that same squat, but now I'm supporting myself. So all that Utkatasana work that we did, okay. Lift the side ribs up, turn towards the right. Okay. My right hand comes down. My left elbow is going to hook. This time I really do need that hook. Okay. Rather than without the hook. Then from there, okay, I fold into my hands. So I come closer. So notice this, this action as I bring my hand to the floor, my hips actually lift away from the mat. Okay. My hips lift and you're going to keep moving into that rocking sensation as you lean your chest forward, lean the chest forward. And then maybe you step one foot forward. Maybe you step the other foot forward and you keep walking. And then there's going to be a point where maybe the toes feel light and the feet come up. And then you rotate your chest towards the floor without your shoulders coming towards the floor. And then bring your feet down. And then you try the other side. Okay. So with that, that idea of turning and lifting, it's not just turn, but turn and lift, right? Find length, turn and lift. Okay. Come into your squatting position. Take your left hand towards the floor. You can elongate. Left hand comes down, right arm reaches up and over like all those side bends that we've done and then hook. Okay. Twist. And now as I twist, the hand comes down and the hips lift a little bit. Okay. Hand comes down, hips lift a little bit. And then maybe you can secure that class between the upper and lower body. And then my hands come down and then I take a little walk. So I walk towards the long edge of the mat. My feet come out to the side. One foot comes up. Maybe that other foot comes up. Turn your torso towards the mat. And then when you're ready, bring your feet down. Okay. Parjupakasana, side curl. So I hope that that illuminated some key elements to your side curl practice. Okay.

We're going to come into pigeon just to unwind a little bit of the twisting and the active hip work that we've done. So take your blanket and place it along the mat. Grab your blocks, have them towards the front of your mat. And I'm going to take my hips over the blanket. So both hips are supported, but you can always support as you like or as you see fit. You take your left knee, bring it forward, back my hands forward. And as I guide my right leg back, then I can kind of estimate where I'm going to have the most support for the blanket underneath my hips. Okay. And then the blocks are there for you to rest your forehead. Okay. And bring yourself down and take a few breaths into the back body, into the sides, into your hips. And then as you inhale, lift your hand, take your hands underneath your shoulders, walk yourself up. Now lean onto your left hip, pull your right knee forward. Keep bringing the right knee forward until you come into John, use your shots and also the left leg is still very pigeon like. Okay, you can move your blocks aside. Inhale, lift your arms up as you exhale, turn towards the right leg. Inhale, elongate, exhale, hinge forward and release forward. Okay, you can take your hands, your arms, rest them on your blocks. Okay. You can take a block, rest it between your shin and your forehead. So you've got options. And take your hands by the sides of your leg. Inhale, come on up. Okay, if you had your head on the block, support it as you rise. Cross your right leg in front of your left leg, move your blocks back towards the front, and then make your way onto the other side. So you can come through a down dog or a tabletop. Okay. You'll take your right leg this time, bring it over the blanket, slide yourself back, feel as though the blanket is supporting both sides of your hip. Okay, so both the right and left hips are receiving the support of the blanket. Then from there, you're going to come on forward. So you could rest your forearms on the blocks. Come on down. Rest your forehead on the blocks and so forth. So let yourself be creative with your support. Now crawl your fingertips back to the mat, press down, rise up, lean over onto your right hip. Okay, pull your left knee towards the blanket. And then take your left leg in front of you. Shift the right leg out to the right so the right foot comes to the inner left leg. Then from there, inhale, lift your arms up, turn towards your left leg. Again, inhale, reach to rise as you exhale, hinge forward. Okay, and then support. Another one that I often do in my particular practice is I take a block in front of my foot, so that I have something to hold on to while allowing my arms to elongate. And then the forehead prof. So find something that works in your body. Find an option that allows you to breathe with ease. And arm balancing is strenuous. It's challenging not only for your body, but also for the mind, even emotionally. And so these extra few minutes where we have time to reflect, time to be with ourselves without the activity and the action of arm balancing, that these can be spent with ease, with comfort, with support. And as you're ready, ease up on the support. Inhale, come on up. You can place your blocks aside, cross your left ankle in front of the ration, just take a moment and sukhasana. And we'll prepare for shavasana.

So grab your blanket or anything that you would like to help you prepare for your shavasana. And take my blanket and support underneath my knees today. Okay, shift the tailbone forward, take your way down, extend the arms and let your body sink into the support shavasana. Turn the shavasana into your channels. That makes a lot of sense. Thank you.

Thank you. Feel free to rest here for a few more minutes, otherwise deepen your breathing. Wiggle your fingertips and your toes. On an inhalation, lift your arms overhead, reach forward through your heels, get along the body. As you exhale, release your arms and soften your legs.

Bend your knees, place your feet on the mat, roll to one side. And then using your hands, very gently press yourself up to any comfortable seated position. You can again support as you'd like as you come up to sit, taking your time for that. And take a moment to check in. Feeling your shoulders, your spine, the actions of elongating the spaces between your ribs and your hips.

What it feels like to twist so deeply and release easily so that we can spend time in this restful place. Join your hands together in front of your heart, touch your thumbs to your heart to uplift it. Thank you for joining me.