Back Bending Warrior Poses

Hello, everyone. Welcome. So for today's session, I have something a little bit special. We are gonna do a practice that is an exploration. We are going to look at one pose from a variety of different perspectives and maybe repeat that for a second pose as well. This is something very integral to the Ayengar yoga method. Bika Syngar has said, the mat is our laboratory. So with that, let us begin.

We'll start first just to kind of get going in a supine pose. It's a combo pose, supta baddha Khanasna with a little bit of supta Padangustas not factored in. Okay? So lay yourself down on your back and close to the wall. I've got 2 bricks here off to the side. They will come in handy later, but other than that, I don't think there are any other props that you'll need. K. So lay down on your back, and then you can position yourself more or less a shin distance away from the wall like this.

Okay. And then once you've sort of worked that out, you can place your feet back on the ground. And then match the soles of your feet into badakanasna, supta badakanasna. And what I hope you can see here is that I've got my toes flexed at the wall. So use this as an opportune upper opportunity to get into those toe joints. So really work them in and flex the toe joints.

Okay. X ternally rotate your thighs and then just let your knees, your thighs descend. K? If you have an issue, If this is really not feeling right for you, not feeling well, there are a couple options that you can explore as alternatives. K? One thing would be to put a little bit of support at your outer hips, maybe a rolled blanket and just just kinda lift this up a little bit, so it's not quite so intense. We are going to be in this position for a little bit of time for some duration. So you can also always shift from baddha Khanasna into a Maricchiasna position, and that will give your hips, your groins, a little bit of a break. Okay? So please feel free to do that as needed.

Alright. Settle in again. Abdomen soft. Find this with this opening, just let the legs, the knees drop down. Feel here how your buttocks is touching the floor. Right side and left. Take notice of that.

And then keeping your left side exactly as it is, Now fold your right leg, fold your knee up to the ceiling, the Maritjiasna position, and then place your leg, your foot on the wall here like this. K. Now spread and open the underside of your right foot. Find those three points of the foot. The big toe mound in her heel and then that very center point on the outside edge of your foot. And as you press those three points of your foot into the wall, now try without actually moving your foot, work to lift the wall up off the floor.

Okay? Push the three points of your foot into the wall. And then as if you could literally lift the wall up off the floor, find that that action. Then take your right hand. And as you're engaging in that way, just feel your thigh. Right? Feel the response, the level of engagement here.

In your right thigh. Hold it for a moment and then release. Let it go. K. Let's repeat that a couple times. Pressurize your right foot into the wall and then push the three points try to lift the wall up off the floor and find that engagement.

Yeah. You can prove to yourself that it's happening by feeling it with your hands. Maintain it, hold it, and then release. Let it go. Okay. Now last round here, push the three points of your foot into the wall, lift the wall up, off the floor.

Be really strong. Engage the thigh. And then just while you're holding it for this last round here, feel how your buttocks is touching the floor. Again, and just notice if you're sinking into one side, if you can still maintain a certain degree of levelness here. Okay. And then release, pause here. A reminder, friendly reminder.

If you need a little bit of a break on the external rotation. Don't hesitate to take this leg back up. Okay. We're gonna go next for the sideways variation, parsva. So take this right leg, externally rotate it, turn it out, and place it on the wall here like this. The idea is for the big toe side of your right foot, to be parallel to the floor or to the ceiling above you there. Okay? And then again, pressurize your three points of your right foot into the wall.

And then this time, see, can you slide the wall further to the right. So we're really trying to get some openness here across the front pelvis. Deep in your right hip socket externally rotate and your left as well, externally rotate, and now push the wall with your right foot and slide the wall away from the midline. Again, you can feel with your hand, the level of engagement, hold it, and then release. Pause for a moment.

Okay. Now here you can experiment a little bit and see If maybe after being here a bit, you can take the foot a little lower, but be reasonable about it. It can be intense. So, you know, go go slow and just test the waters a little bit. And then, again, push the three points of your foot into the wall. Slide the wall away. Hold it. Hold it.

And then release, pause, and one last time. Pressurize your foot into the wall. And then as if you could slide the wall further to the right side, So inner line of the leg extends away. Good. And then release. Now very carefully, you can use your right hand to help that leg back up.

Just heel toe yourself back to the starting position with your left hand, bring your left leg back up, and then pause with both legs in a Mariciasna position. Okay. Abdomin soft. Pause here. Okay. And then let's go for the second second side here. So, again, bada canasana flex at the toes.

Keep the right leg where it is, and left leg comes up. Big broad foot there. Press the three points of the foot strongly and now try to lift the wall up off the floor. K? Feel that level of engagement. Hold it, and then let it go.

Hey. Touch in with the foundation, with the base of your pose, how you're touching the floor, notice right side and left, and then work to maintain some levelness. Okay. Round 2. Again, push the wall and lift the wall up off the floor. Hold it, and then release. And then last time, pressurize the three points of your foot, big toe mound, inner heel, And then that middle point on the outer edge of each foot, press there and lift upward.

I feel the level of engagement. Maintain it, hold it, and then release. We'll let it go. K. From here, parsva, sideways variation, externally rotate. And align your foot.

You're you're seeing here that your ankle and knee are in one line, almost like of your bed rest in a two position. And then see that the big toe side of your foot is parallel towards the floor. K. Pressurize the three points of that foot into the wall and now try to slide the wall further to the left. Broaden yourself across your front pelvis. Hold it.

And then let go and 2 more times. Okay. Press into the wall. Slide the wall away. K. Turn the thighs out. Both sides.

Externally rotate. Feel what's happening at the outer hips. And from the inner line of your leg, extend away. Maintain this. And then release.

And last time, push the wall, slide the wall away. Good. Okay. And then release. Now, again, carefully, he'll tow your left leg back up to the midline. And then right leg, just give it a hand and lower both feet. Pause here for a moment. Breathe.

And then you can roll yourself over to your right side. And push yourself upright. Okay. So now we're ready, and we're gonna explore Veera Majasna. 1. Okay. So you can bring yourself up to standing, and let speak in here at the front edge of the mat. You'll stand with your feet together, and let's just start with the hands on the hips here like this. Keep your eyes at eye level, maybe a little bit higher just to keep the chest lifted.

And from here, take a nice big step back with your left leg. Big step back. Okay. Now in verbirostma 1, Sometimes it can be challenging to continue to face this small edge of the mat, and it may just be you may end up looking a little more like this as opposed to like this. It may also be sometimes uncomfortable. Okay? If you find yourself in that position, take your front leg.

So in this case, your right leg and shifted a whole bunch over to the right. So right leg is to the right of the mat. Left leg is to the left, and then it can it can really help things out. Okay? With both legs straight here, move the mid buttock into the body, lift up through the front body, and now Bend your knee. Okay? Just like we did in the last pose, press the three points of your right foot down.

And try to slide the floor away from you. Slide the floor away from you. Press your left thigh up and back Push into your right foot, slide the floor forward, and turn the abdomen a little bit more to the right. And then come back up. Now take a nice big step forward and join your legs in Tadas now.

Okay. Second side, steady your gaze, and nice big step back with your right leg. Okay. Now, again, if you have lower back issues, if you have any discomfort here, feel free to move that front foot a little bit further over to the left. Make it spacious. Make it spacious. K. Now roll the outside edge of your right foot down.

Press that right thigh up and back and mid buttock into the body. Pubic bone lifted up. Now bend your leg. As you bend your left leg, slide the floor forward underneath that front foot. Translate the lesson here from the last Asana, from that last sequence that we've just done.

And these are big an exploration, slightly modified verbi dress, no one. Dip down. Right thigh up and back, slide the floor away, feel what's happening in the inner thigh, inner groin, outer groins, outer hips, and turn the abdomen towards the left. Okay. Come back up. Nice big step forward with your right leg.

Join your legs. Tadasna. Okay. Let's go to second variation. So for comparison, sakes, sake.

We are now going to face the wall continue with our rear bed rest now one. And for this variation, have a brick at the wall, and then have your second brick. Okay? Now, again, props come one size. We are one size. There may be some need to mod I slightly, depending here.

So I'm gonna place my foot on the brick, and my whole foot fits. Fine. But if your foot is longer, then you may find you have the opportunity to take your toes up the wall and flex at the toe mounds like we did in the previous Asana. See what happens for me when I do that? Cause the second brick is gonna be here. I just don't have enough space.

So I'm gonna move my foot back back like this and keep it flat. But I will say my preference would be to take the toes up the wall. So if you can do that, I encourage you to do that. Okay. And then step that left leg nice and far back and just put the second break in here for the shin bone as a as a break as a break. Okay. So now it's standing all the way up. Again, if you're unable to turn to face the wall here. This time, you probably don't wanna move the front foot, but you can stabilize everything and just shift your back leg a little further to the left and then have that space to face forward forward this way. Okay.

Press your left thigh up and back Stay low in the right buttock. Turn your abdomen to the right. Okay. Now from here, let's take the arms up to the ceiling. Reach up, lift yourself. Okay. Now why are we using these bricks?

Press your right foot into the brick here. And now try to climb your right shin bone up the brick. Up the brick. Hey. Shift the weight from front to back. Descend into that heel and climb your right shin bone higher and higher up.

Okay. Lower your arms down. Take hold of the brick here. Don't let it fall on your foot. And then slowly come back out. Hey. Take a second in Tadasna.

And change sides. Okay. I'm gonna shift my brick a little bit over to the side here. And this time left foot comes up on the brick. Place my second brick. And step the right leg back.

I'm gonna shift mine over to the side because I do enjoy having that space for my pelvis. Okay. Like so. Alright. Now roll the outside edge of your right foot down press your right thigh up and back. Turn yourself to the left a little bit. And now take advantage of these bricks.

Press your foot down. Into the brick here and climb the shin bone up. Climb it up. Hey. Reach your arms up to the ceiling. Lift, lengthen, turn yourself to the left a little more.

Notice what's happening in your back leg. With this extra height underneath your left foot, are you able to have a little bit more purchase in that back heel? And then release. Take hold and slowly make your way out. K? Once again, stand in Tadasna.

Stabilized, steady yourself. Okay. You're a redress. No one. How many how many have we done? A couple. 2, 3 already. I've got another presentation to show you. In this one, we'll we'll focus a little bit more on the upper body, on the arms. Right? So the limbs are absolutely the gateway to the spine.

We can work on positioning the legs to access the lower spine, and then we can work on the arms as a gateway to the upper spine. K. So we're gonna focus a little more on the arms in this next presentation. Okay. So let's do facing the wall again, and you'll start with your right toes just a little bit up the wall here. So flexing at the toe mounts, take a nice big step back with your left leg. And, again, if you need that space that width in your pose, please feel free to take it.

Just shift the front foot a little bit over to the right, left foot a little bit over to the left. And here, what you're gonna do is you're gonna use bricks for your hands, but they're gonna be at different heights. So the brick that's in your right hand should be longer, longer as far as coming out from the wall. And then the one that's in front of your back leg can be shorter. Okay. And then from here, cut the mid buttock into the body and bend your knee. Okay? You can remember what it was like to have that resistance at your shin.

Maintain that so the knee doesn't come protruding over the ankle. But now just with your hands at about shoulder height, use these bricks to help facilitate a twist. Right? Press your right hand into this brick and turn yourself to the right. And the the thickness of the bricks is really for you to experiment and explore. You may find depending on your proportions, the length of your arm, the size of your bricks that this works better for you, right, or maybe you like this one at this thickness and then the other one at the big thickness. The idea is that the torso is upright, right, not leaning towards the wall.

And then with your right hand push off the brick and get that. Well, it feels to me like a spinal massage. Right? Turn yourself. From left to right, verbatrasna 1. Okay. Slowly release.

Carefully come out of your pose. Join your legs for a moment and stand in. Okay. 2nd side, same idea this time. Left toes. Flex them up the wall.

Nice big step back with your right leg and take the width that you need. And then mid buttock into the body and bend your knee. Okay? On the wall, the hand that's in front of your bent leg, this one is gonna be the thicker block. The hand that's in front of your back leg is the flatter block. And then push into the brick and turn yourself towards your bent knee towards your bent knee. Sit down into that left buttock, Press your right side up and back so you still have weight in that back leg. Stay low in the left buttock, and then again, use your arm.

Left hand, push the brick, find that spinal massage, turn from right to left. And then release carefully come up. Take hold of your bricks. Place them in a safe place and then Tadasna. Okay.

Few different variations there of your bidras. No one. One more. Okay? This one, we will use the wall here going this way. So you'll start again, let's start with the left leg back, right leg forward, and you wanna be about this distance out from the wall.

K? So step that left leg way back and then bend your front knee, come into position. And with your outer knee, Push the brick. So now you have that resistance at the outer leg, outer knee. K? And there's just slightly different response here in the groin. K? You can reach the arms up. You can even start to turn turn yourself a little bit towards the wall.

Okay? Stay low in the right buttock. Press the left thigh back and vigorously hit your outer right knee into this brick. Turn. And verbatrasna 1. How does this what's the difference here? How are these different presentations landing for you in your body? Okay. Release.

Slowly. Join your legs. Take a moment, consolidate, and then let's go for the second side. Okay. From here, this time, you'll have your left foot forward and your right leg back. Find your distance away from the wall and then bend your front leg.

Okay. Hit your left knee up against the brick, verbiagerost now 1. Okay. Press the right thigh back, hit your left knee into the brick, turn your abdomen to the left. Reach the arms up, see how that is, and then also experiment with turning yourself towards the wall. And then release. Hey. Carefully undo. And, again, join your legs.

Stand in. Okay. Let's shift gears slightly. Okay? Next where I wanna go is into Padangustasna.

And just look a little bit more at the action of concaving the back. Okay. So for this Padangustasna, Start with your legs about hip distance apart. Bend your knees any amount. However, much you need to so that you can take hold of your big toes. And then middle finger and index finger go under the big toes. Yeah. Like this.

Keep your knees bent, but then straighten your arms. Rotate those upper arms out and now slide your shoulder blades away from your neck and reach your breastbone forward. Hey, this action of penetrating the back body into the front body, this is the concave back. Okay. Now pound into your heels.

And from the back of your legs, as if you wanted, it's almost like you wanna lift the back of your thighs to bump up against the buttocks. K? Lift the back thighs up towards the buttocks. Now pull yourself forward more. Roll the buttocks up. Slide your abdomen along your thighs more.

And the idea is to keep the abdomen and thighs connected for as long as you can. Okay. So when you're going for straight, you're not just straightening the legs like this because now my back is convex, not concave. But can you maintain the relationship as you start to straighten your legs? K. Find that point at which you start to lose it, right, where the back is no longer concave. See if you can recognize that spot.

Slide the shoulder blades away from the neck and reach your breastbone forward. Press strongly down through your heels, but then lift the back of your legs up to the buttocks, chin and chest forward more. Good. And then release and slowly come back up. Take a moment here.

Find your breath. Okay. Let's take that concave back of Penangustasna and take it into Arda, and then into another little exploration of Virdrasna. 3. Okay. So for your, you can, let's bend the knees again just to come into position here.

And you can place your hands on the on the floor, okay, provided that when you work to straighten the legs, you can still maintain concavity in the back. K? If that's just not available, when you straighten the legs, you go round. Then take some extra height for your hands. Right? Takes take some bricks, and you may be surprised at what a difference that can make. Okay? So work out for yourself what you need so that in order. Congave back. Okay. I, for myself, I do enjoy having cupped fingers on the ground. So that's what that's what I'll stick with. Okay.

Be in your art of otanasana. Rotate your upper arms out. Slide your shoulder blades down your back. Reach your chin and chest forward. Arda.

Now here, I can only bring your legs as close together as you can manage. Lift your kneecaps up, lift your thighs up, and sharpen the corners of your hips. Lift up there. K? Transfer the weight onto your right leg. And now from your left leg, from the inner left leg, Raze your leg up, verbatrasna 3 action, k, broaden the back of your thigh.

And roll the heel from inside out chin and chest forward. So chest up leg up. And then lower the leg down. Concave your back. Transfer the weight now onto your left leg.

And from the inner right leg, raise the leg up, broaden the buttock, broaden the back of the thigh, chin and chest forward and up and leg up. And then lower the leg down. Concave your back. Okay. Take one hand to your hip. Other hand to your hip.

Wrap your elbows back and with a lifted chest, stand yourself back up. And this is beginning stages of verbatrasna 3. Just that leg action. K. Another way that we can start to work on verbatrossnet 3, which is quite effective. Is taking your art at the wall. Okay? So here, you'll place your hands about the height of your hip, and I'd recommend doing cupped fingers as opposed to wrists cupped fingers here. And then come into this this half position here.

Hey, Arta. Align your hips over your ankles, feet together, and then kneecaps up, thighs up, move your thighs back. Rotate those upper arms out and just ever so slightly eyes a little forward, a little forward. K. Now stand on your right leg. And from the inner left leg, raise the leg up, broaden the back of the thigh.

Riz the leg up higher. Now as soon as you take this leg up, what happened to the weight on your hands? Right? Are you sinking one side, other side? Observe that, raise the leg higher, chin forward, chest forward, concave the back. Lower the leg down. And, again, Arto. Okay. This may feel like a resting position all of a sudden.

It reach those hips back. Transfer the weight onto the left side, and Left hip here. Resist it in. Resist it in. And then raise the right leg up, up, up, up, Push the wall, even the touch, broaden the back of that lifted leg, and again, concave the back chin and chest slightly forward, verabradrasana 3. And then lower the leg down.

Reach your hips back, concave your back, and then slowly release. Bend your knees, walk forward and just facing the wall here, stand for a moment in taassen. Hey. Now each variation here of your the 3 with the hands down leg up or with the hands at the wall leg up is just giving you a slightly different experience of the pose. And it's not necessarily one is easier. 1 is harder. They're just different.

So it can be really instructive. I love practicing this way where you take one pose and explore it from different angles. And then what's nice to do is then sort of maybe go towards the classical presentation. And see how they compare. So let's do that now.

Let's do verbatrosna 1 into verbatrosna 3, which is the classical way that you would do that. But we'll still take a little support. Okay? So for this setup, you need to take a measurement. Okay. And this is the measurement here. Hands again, at both the height of the hips, definitely do cupped fingers because you need that extra length.

And come into your Arto Ottanasana position, okay, hips over the ankles. Now here, I don't want you to lose your footing, but I also want you to protect your back as you stand yourself up. So what I like to do, just bend the knees here, and push off the wall. Okay. You've got your footing. Everything is good.

And then from here, Raise your arms up, and nice big step back with your left leg. K? Take whatever space you need for your verbiageos. Now one, bend your knee. Now remember everything we've been doing Right? Slide the floor forward underneath that front leg. Mid buttock in. Remember the bricks.

Remember the weight. Weight goes into the back leg. Okay. Verbatross no one from here. Lay your abdomen on your thigh. Okay. Shift the weight forward.

Tip tip tip of the back toe. And from bent to straight, verbatrasna 3, and you've got the wall there as needed. Broad in the back of the lifted thigh, of the lifted leg there, chin and chest forward, and then release coming out the way you went in verabradrasna 1 and tadasna. Arms by your side, chest up. K. Second side, arms up, Urva.

And then nice big step back with your right leg. Open yourself up and verabradrostenow one. Bend your knee. Dip down. Slide the floor forward underneath your left foot.

Okay. Now hinge forward, connect the abdomen and thigh. Remember the padangustasana work, okay, from here, shift the weight, and then keeping the abdomen and thigh touching for as long as you can. Raise the back leg up, up, up, leg up, arms up, Vir Vedrasna 3. And then release, come back through Vir Vedrasna 1. And then.

Breathe for a moment, settle yourself. Okay. As your reward for this practice, for this exploration of verbatrasna 1 and verbatrasna 3. I hope you enjoy this this really, lovely twist. Okay. Jatahari Verjana, have a brick a bolster might also work.

I'll show you how it's gonna be used, and you can see which one sort of serves you best. But you'll come into a lying down position. Just see that you're straight, and then bring your knees to your chest and roll onto your right hip and see if you can lay your outer right shin on to support. So whether that's a brick or a bolster, then with your left leg, Take it all the way over and hook your knee. Okay? Hook your knee. Then open yourself up to the other side.

So the legs are moving in one direction, abdomen, and left shoulder rolling to the left. And just be here. Let's see if you can get a nice little tug, some length through the back of your left buttock. And waste area. Okay.

And then release carefully come back to the center. Switch your support over to your left side. And then roll on to the left side, support your outer left shin. And it's just the shin. Right? So the knee can kind of Be free. If you're using a brick, probably the foot is free, then take your right leg all the way over and hook the knee. So the idea is that it pulls the buttock with you with that right knee. K.

Then turn the abdomen back to the right and see if you can get that right shoulder to descend. From the right buttock to the right knee reach over you, and then turn the abdomen back to the right. Settle here. Breathe. Enjoy this release.

Okay. And then again, Come back to the center. Just straighten yourself out as needed. And then from here, you can extend your legs. Let go completely.

Release your arms. And be here in Shavas. K. I'll leave you to enjoy the Shavasna. Thank you so much for today.