Day 2 — Ashtanga Yoga Challenge — 30 Day Journey

Okay. Hi everyone, it's Kino here. Thanks so much for tuning in to day two of this Ashtanga Yoga Challenge. I am so grateful to everyone who's joined the challenge and I just am super excited to share this practice that I've been doing for over the last 20 years. So, as you continue your journey in the Ashtanga Yoga Method over this 30-day challenge, some days we'll be focused on practice and some days we'll be focused on tutorials. And today, we're gonna be focusing on the technique of forward bending. The first of the traditional, what's called standing poses in the Ashtanga Yoga Sequence is called Padangusthasana and then the next pose is Padahastasana. These are two standing forward folds. And this marks the beginning of the standing sequence. In the Ashtanga Yoga Method, every practice begins with the sun salutations. And we went over sun salutation A yesterday. If you're just tuning in to the challenge, be sure to check out the previous video for day one to check out the sun salutations. Now, the standing poses begin with a forward bend and forward bending is probably the most foundational flexibility that exists in the whole yoga practice. So, understanding how to work your forward bends and how to access Padangusthasana will really set you up for success, not only in this yoga challenge and in your Ashtanga journey, but really no matter what discipline of yoga you practice, to really get this basic technique of forward bending down is really, really crucial. Now, I was not naturally flexible. People assume that I was naturally flexible and that I just immediately folded forward. But on my very first yoga class, I could not touch my toes from a standing position. I was 19 years old and I was already that stiff. So, I can tell you that if you practice the techniques and you just stick with it over a long period of time, you too will become more flexible. Flexible forward bends have so many health benefits. They're good for improving your digestion. They're good for increasing your energy flow and improving your posture and relieving back pain. All right? So, now let's go ahead and look at the technique. First, I'm gonna show you the posture that we're working on and then I'm gonna break down the technique for you a little bit so that you can really understand what it means to do in the practice. So, the forward bend that we're working on is called Padangusthasana. Your feet are hips width apart and you hold onto your big toes. Inhale, straighten the arms, prepare to draw the navel in. And then exhale, relax your back muscles, pivot at the hip joints and fold forward. Then lift the kneecaps and slowly lean forward to really engage your leg muscles and move deeply into your forward fold. After five breaths, inhale, straighten the arms and then I'll also show you Padahastasana which is the next standing posture. So, Padangusthasana means the hand to hold the big toe posture. Padahastasana means to place your hands underneath your feet. So, you can lift up your foot and reach your hand all the way under so that the base of your big toe presses on the mound of the thumb and then go ahead and do it on the other side. And this really functions as also like a little wrist stretch as well. And then again, you inhale, prepare and lift the ribs away from the hips drawing the navel in and then exhale, fold, relax the shoulders, lift the kneecaps and then relax your back muscles. From here, you can think about folding a little bit more in by shifting your body weight forward and then to come out, inhale, prepare, back to your prepare position, exhale there, remove your hands and then find your way all the way up to standing or Samasthiti, feet together. So, you would traditionally enter the posture by moving your feet hips width apart, drawing the navel in, folding forward and then beginning. So, if you have a hard time in your forward bends, if your forward bend is very challenged, you reach down. Probably the biggest mistake that you can make is trying to round your back to reach your forward bend. So, the idea is that you're going to draw your navel in and engage what's called the Bandhas. So, this is this strong activation of the pelvic floor, make space around your hip joints, then send the pelvis back and this will make space for you to bend forward, keeping the spine relatively straight. Reach your 90 degree angle at a minimum and this is kind of, you can hang from here. Then, of course, if you can continue to pivot at your hip joints to fold forward, great, but if you reach your 90 degree angle and that's all you have, you kind of have two options. If you can hold onto your toes, you can relax your back muscles from here. If you cannot hold onto your toes and you're at your 90 degree angle, then bend your knees, hold onto your toes and keep your chest on your thighs, lift your head a little bit away from the spine, draw the navel in and then exhale, fold. You're not done once you've folded forward from here. After you fold forward and your chest is on your thighs, then try to push your pelvis back and up. So, then you can use a little active resistance to stretch your hamstring muscles and stretch the back of the leg muscles. So, again, if you find yourself more comfortable entering the posture with the bent knees, you can hold onto your toes. Then once you're down, drop the head down and then slowly send the hips back and up. Of course, that little movement to straighten the legs could take somewhere between five or 10 years depending on the level of tightness that's in your body. Then when you transition, so if you are bending the knees and folding forward and doing a little straighten, then you can inhale, prepare. And then as you transition to Parahastasana, you might wanna keep the knees bent as well. Inhale, straighten as much as possible, rolling the shoulder blades away from the spine and exhale, fold. And then again, try to push the legs to straight. Then it's time to come back up, inhale, prepare. Come back to your prepare position. And if you need to bend the knees, take the hands out, return to your 90 degree angle and then float the spine all the way up, all right? So, here's something to really, really watch out for in Padangusthasana and Parahastasana. So, let me show you the shoulder position. The ideal shoulder position gives a lot of free space to the neck. So, when you fold forward, all right? When you fold forward, if you're squeezing your shoulders together like this, it's gonna create a lot of neck tension. So, draw the shoulder blades away from each other and let your neck be very, very free. And this is something that you wanna do regardless of which leg position is better for you. Remember that your forward bend is a flexibility posture. So, you wanna think about relaxing the neck muscles, relaxing the body to enter your forward bend. So, this is the technique to really work on your Padangusthasana and Parahastasana. When you think about your forward bend technique, I really want you to think about accessing flexibility. And that flexibility is something that happens as an experience of balance between body and mind. And when you're working your flexibility, if you start to fight or push really hard in the body, then unfortunately the body can kinda shut down and you might end up actually doing damage when you are trying to stretch and relax. So, you wanna use the opportunity to practice as time spent making peace between body and mind. So, it really doesn't matter what depth you reach when you're practicing Padangusthasana and you're standing forward bend. If you need to bend the knees, it's wonderful. If you can hold onto your toes, wonderful. It's no competition in the yoga practice. You wanna find the appropriate level to work at your unique level of the practice. And then slowly, slowly, just make peace with where you are, use your breath, use the inner focus of the practice to really calm the mind. Now, last technique I wanna share with you in regards to forward bending, and we'll review this as well as we continue because there's a lot of forward bends in the practice, is that when you're forward bending, as much as possible, you're layering the muscles, particularly of the low belly from the navel and down in towards the spine. And this has nothing to do with the size of the belly. It has nothing to do with the shape or some aesthetic goal. The idea is that when you're forward bending, you're trying to support the spine and the back muscles by drawing the muscles of the navel in. And this gives the message to the back and especially the back muscles that they're supported, that they're safe, and that they can relax. If in your forward bends, you feel that your back is over activated, then that's probably an indication that the forward bend technique is slightly lacking. Well, the only thing missing, as I mentioned before, is something like five or 10 years of practice. So please don't be disappointed if you didn't snap your fingers and fold over like a pancake. There's no reason that we need to hold ourselves up to a really, really high standard and need to attain the results in the fast fail swoop. Instead, commit yourself to a lifelong practice and use these 30 days to start yourself off well on the journey. So as you're practicing Padangasthasana and Padahasthasana today for day two of the Ashtanga Yoga Challenge, again, you might wanna do the sun salutations to warm up and then apply the technique. We'll continue the next few days moving through the tutorials about the practice. And then after we accumulate about a few more standing poses, then I'm gonna guide you through an accessible version of the Ashtanga practice that will incorporate all the poses up until a certain time. So stay tuned for that. In the meanwhile, work on the tutorials, share your journey. Definitely leave me a comment and let me know that you are enjoying the challenge. It is so easy to just get lost out there in the world online. So I love to hear from you. I really, really like to know that you're enjoying the challenge. And if you like this video and you like my teaching, definitely leave me a comment because it really does help me stay motivated. It's sometimes astounding to me and sometimes I get a little down when I read the comments of people that say that they don't like this about me or they don't like that about me. Some people write some things that kind of make me feel down sometimes. The whole group of people sometimes write me messages. They hate my voice. I talk too much. And some people say I'm ugly. So, you know, I try to have a tough skin. And one of the things that helps me is if you let me know that you're enjoying and benefiting from what I'm sharing because that just keeps me motivated. And I really love to hear that. It really does make a difference to me. So practice your Prana Goshasana, stay on the Ashtanga path, spread a little peace and spread a little happiness as you begin to feel better as a human being. Remember, that's what yoga is about, to make you as a human being feel a little bit happier, a little bit more joyful, a little bit more filled with love so you can be kind to yourself and kind with others. And if you're doing that well, my friends, then yoga is succeeding. I'm happier now than I was 20 years ago. So I guess it's kind of working for me. Well, that's all everyone for today. Keep practicing, keep practicing, keep practicing, and be sure to tune in tomorrow so we can continue this journey of Ashtanga yoga. Bye, everyone. Lots of love. Bye.