WHY THIS YOGA HEADSTAND SEQUENCE WORKS
Let me begin with an enormous caveat about this follow: This yoga headstand follow is NOT designed to show you Headstand.
Quite, it’s designed that can assist you refine your Headstand by breaking down the weather that comprise good, skillful sequencing for the pose. It’s solely meant for college students and lecturers who’re already proficient on this posture. For those who’re not usually working towards yoga Headstand, please study the pose within the presence of a professional teacher. In case you have by no means carried out Headstand, please don’t try it alone at house. As an alternative, you possibly can select to exchange Headstand with Dolphin Pose on this sequence.
From a purely mechanical perspective, Headstand is a straightforward posture. Like all postures, Headstand accommodates loads of nuances, particularly with reference to the motion of the shoulders and placement of the top. Nonetheless in my expertise, essentially the most difficult facet of the posture is turning into oriented the wrong way up. Not like deep backbends or ahead bends, you don’t must deal with a ton of strengthening or stretching to organize for Headstand. Quite, you must put together your physique, thoughts, and nervous system for the finer factors of being aligned whilst you’re the wrong way up.
Let’s break it down slightly additional:
POSES 1-3
The sequence begins with Cat Pose so as to convey your consciousness to your shoulders and higher again. It’s good to launch rigidity on this area and produce your focus to your shoulder blades while you’re making ready for Headstand. The sequence continues with Plank and Forearm Plank so as to interact your core. Core energy just isn’t as necessary in Headstand as it’s in Handstand and Forearm Stability (Pincha Mayurasana) because the posture is much less mechanically anxious in your midsection. On the similar time, it’s necessary to be conscious of the position that your core performs in holding your pelvis, backbone, and ribs vertically aligned in Headstand.
POSES 4 – 7
Poses 4 – 7 put together you for Headstand by turning you the wrong way up. Since Down Canine and the ahead bends are barely inverted postures, they might help you regulate to being the wrong way up previous to Headstand. These 4 postures can also promote the main target and a spotlight wanted to tune into the finer factors of Headstand.
POSES 8 – 11
You don’t want exceptionally versatile shoulders to do Headstand, however you do have to have a transparent consciousness of what your shoulders are doing within the posture. Postures 8 -11 are a development of shoulder-opening postures that can mobilize your shoulder joints and assist you to focus your consideration in your higher physique. Baddha Hastasana, Gomukhasana, and Down Canine together with your fingers on the wall prepares your shoulders for the flexion that’s required in Headstand. Garudasana enhances these postures by making ready your shoulder blades for the protraction that’s required in Headstand.
POSES 12 – 13
Many of the sequences I present right here conclude with the height, or featured posture. I wish to assist college students and lecturers perceive find out how to make difficult postures extra accessible with good, efficient, and protected sequencing. Headstand isn’t any exception, however the ultimate posture on this sequence is Youngster’s Pose, not Headstand. It’s necessary to comply with Headstand with Youngster’s Pose so as to assist decompress the neck, relieve muscular rigidity there, and offer you just a few moments of stillness to savor the results of the inversion.
{illustration by MCKIBILLO}