Week 19 : Year 2 : TriYogaSchool
This week we are working with Salabhasana or Locust Pose.
🔻 Locust Pose is considered a fundamental backbend. It teaches the techniques of backbending (posterior pelvic tilt, equivalent curve) as well as building strength for deeper bends. It should be a staple pose in a well-rounded practice.
🔻 While a full body warmup should precede Locust, it can be used as a prep for more challenging backbends, such as Wheel, Bow, and Pigeon.
🔻 Lie belly-down on your mat. Reach long through your legs - all the way to your toes. Spin your inner thighs up toward the ceiling. Extend your arms next to your body, palms down.
🔻 Lift your head, shoulders, & arms off the mat. Reach your arms parallel to the mat, turn the palms toward each other. Broaden your collarbones, lift your head so the neck spine continues the arch of the rest of the back.
🔻 Lift your legs off the mat by flexing your hamstrings, glutes, & low back. Keep rolling the inner thighs up!
🔻 Engage your low belly as if you could lift it off the mat; press down through your pubic bone. Take a few breaths & release to the mat. Repeat 3 times.
✔️ PROPS for better access :
1/ To find more space through the chest & shoulders (calling my fellow members of the Tight Shoulder Club ) use a STRAP on your wrists & take the pose standing. After experiencing this - use the same prop on the mat.
2/ As you work to find the strength in your upper back, use your HANDS as a prop. Place them down on the mat near your ribcage. Gently press into the mat to help lift your upper body.
3/ Place a rolled BLANKET under your thighs to lift the legs, while you isolate the lift in the upper body.
4/ Switch that up & place the BLANKET roll between your lower ribs & your pelvis. Keep your pubic bone down on the mat.
✔️ VARIANTS :
I offer a variety of options for playing with this shape, including : legs down, crocodile, legs bent, & hands interlaced. Show me what you come up with!
Let me know how it goes! 🔸Be creative, be agile, have fun!