Dhanurasana 2

Hi, I'm here with my friends Ilana and Betsy and we're going to demonstrate the second Danyarastha, the second bow pose. The first one is a sitting pose that we we took from the Hatha Pertipika. This one is the pose as it was done about 300 years later, no 200 years later, sorry, in the Gharanda Samhita. And as always Ilana will represent the more the more inexperienced beginning student, stiffer student, and Betsy will represent the more flexible, more experienced student. So for Ilana we're going to use a couple of belts around her ankles to help her grab onto her feet. Typically the beginning students have a really difficult time getting to their feet. So what we've done in the name of ease, we've given her two belts, each one made into a small loop like this. And she's going to put these loops, if you would please, around her ankles. Now it's very important to have the loops around the ankles and not across the tops of the feet. And I will ask Betsy to lie down on her belly and she'll be able to grab directly onto her ankles without the use of the belts. Again it's very important to make sure that when you come into this pose that the knees don't move much wider than the hips. You want to keep the tailbone very long as you do this. So as as Ilana lies down, as you can see that she's bringing the straps alongside her torso. Now I'll ask them both to bend their knees with an exhalation and bring the heels up toward the buttocks. And Ilana will walk the hands back along the belt until she has a good firm grip on the belt with the arms fully extended. And I'll ask Betsy to exhale, reach the hands around behind and grab onto her ankles. And again it's important to get the ankles and not the feet. Now they're both going to turn their toes in a little bit, Ilana, a little bit more and make sure the knees don't move much wider than the hips. And for the first time through I'm going to ask them both to keep their thighs on the floor. So they'll take an inhalation and they'll pull the heels away from the buttocks and lift the upper torso and head away from the floor. Inhale, come up. Very nice and thighs stay down for the first time up. You can lift up a little bit more. There you go. Breathing, very nice. You can look forward. I think for a more beginning student it's probably best to look a little more down toward the floor but Betsy can look forward toward Ilana. Very nice and then inhale on the exhalation, release and come down. And you can continue to hold on to the angles if you like or if you need a little bit of break you let go and take a little rest. Now for the second time through let's take the thighs away from the floor and then we'll talk about where the bottom of the pose should be when you're when you're up in the pose and we'll see how that works out. So inhale when you're ready start lifting the torso up, the upper torso that is in the head. Then you can use the hands to start pulling up on the feet and lift the thighs up a little bit. Now the knees remember not wider than the hips. Very good. Now the bottom of the pose some people prefer to be on the belly button so maybe you could shift on to your belly button first to see what that's like. Other people prefer to be more toward the pubic bone so if you shift back a little bit more and see what that's like on the pubis. And of course you could be right in the middle between the two. Very nicely done. Remember that the the top of the sternum bone moves forward not the bottom, knees not wider than the hips, tailbone very long. Well done. Good and then inhale in the exhalation release and come down. And let's push back into child's pose as we did previously with an exhalation. Keeping the torso long as you do. Very good. Sit back on your heels, stretch your arms forward toward the front edge of your sticky mat. And now let's take the hands and walk them off to the left a little bit. Bring your torso up onto your right thigh. Good and keep the right sitting bone firmly down on the heel and reach out along the outside of the right arm through the pinky. Very good. Opening the right side of the torso you could pretend take a couple of inhalations into that side and then come back to center. Inhale and go off to the right. Again keep the left sitting bone down on the heel and reach. The outside of the arm slides away from the side of the torso through the pinky and the pinky lengthens out along the floor in opposition to the tailbone which is stretching back away from the torso toward the wall behind. Very good and then inhale come back to center. Keep the length as you do. Now slide your hands back along the floor in front of your knees, fingers pointing forward toward the front of the mat and with an inhalation roll up onto your crown bringing the buttocks away from the heels. Now make sure you use the hands to keep the weight off the neck and round the upper back. This is called shasasana. That's the hair pose. H-A-R-E hair. And then you can release and come down with an exhalation, buttocks on the heels once again. And then with a long front spine lift the top of the sternum bone and draw the tailbone down and into the torso and come up with an inhalation.

Into vajrasana. Very nicely done. And this is dhanurasana, the bow pose. Thank you.