24 Jun Tuesdays Yoga on the Green – Bonus Home Practice Recording
We enjoyed a great yoga practice Tuesday morning on the 10th tee box- integrating some Chi Gung energy movement and peaking with arm balances Bakasana and Eka Pada Koundinyasa II. You’ll find a link at the end of this post to a practice you can do from home. While arm balances can be intimidating to a new yoga practitioner, these advanced poses are accessible to even the newbie yogi if you prime the body with the right sequences of poses and open all of the right areas along the way. Going into Eka Pada Koundinyasa II (also known as hurdler pose), we build upon the balance basics of Bakasana (crow pose). Throughout this practice, we are opening the hips in Malasana (yoga squat) and opening the hamstrings in generous forward folds and Ardha Hanumanasana (half split) to go into Eka Pada Koudinyasa II.
Barbara Farrell in Bakasana (crow pose) on the 10th Tee Box at Frost Creek.
The key components of Bakasana, or crow, involve opening the hips, keeping the forearms drawn parallel and in-line with the shoulders (rather than allowing the elbows to bow out wide), squeezing the legs into the back of the arms and keeping your gaze in front of your hands. Shift your weight forward and try lifting one foot off the ground and then both feet. If/when you get both feet off of the ground, draw the inner edges of the feet together- lifting your hips with your core strength. Trace the basics of Bakasana to move into hurdlers pose from runner’s lunge. The stability of this pose comes from getting the elbow into the hip for support. Then, shift your weight forward, lift the back leg like there is a string pulling up from the inner thigh and extend the forward leg as your hamstrings allow.
Carrie in arm balance Eka Pada Koundinyasa II, hurdlers pose.
Carrie has the recorded sequence if you’d like to try this hour-long yoga practice at home: click here. The password is “FrostCreek!2020” to access the Zoom recording. We will continue with Yoga on the Green Tuesday mornings, in-person, from 9am to 10am. Please bring your own yoga mat, water and sunglasses. As you can see, the tee box affords us plenty of space for 6′ social connecting. It really felt good to connect with everyone again!