The Abducotrs

This video is extracted from Anatomy in Motion

You may skip the first 2 minutes of introduction. 

The primary muscles focused on in this class are: 

1. Gluteus Medius
2. Gluteus Minimus
3. Gluteus Maximus
4. TFL

Neck Release Key Points

The neck is hardly addressed in yoga practices unless for extreme postures like Shoulder Stand and Headstand. Learning to properly activate your muscles when rotating your neck can be very healing. Most of us tend to have our neck set forward pulling on the upper back and causing tension at the base of the skull. To repattern our muscles we can practice pulling our head back over our spine. In this class we use our hand as a “kinnesthetic reference”. That a term I use in my 300 hour training meaning a tactile boundary to press into. Most of us tend to be better at activating muscles through sensation of action, for example push this into that. By pressing the head into hand we can learn how to activate the muscles of the neck improving our posture and over all well being. 

This class was taken from the Shoulder Revelation Immersion – you can get 25% off of the immersion below. 

? 12 CLASS IMMERSIONS ?

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Shoulder Awakening Key Points

There are 3 bones that make up “the shoulders” 

1. Collar Bone
2. Arm Bone
3. Shoulder Blade 

The way these three interact with each other depends on the health of the muscles that surround them, these muscles are referred to as the shoulder girdle. The shoulder blades move around the rib cage in a few primary ways:

1. Up (elevation)
2. Down (depression)
3. Toward each other (retraction)
4. Away from each other (protraction)

There are combinations of these actions that have other names we won’t get into here.

In this video we strengthen the muscles call serratus anterior in order to develop greater ability to protract the shoulder blades. Protraction is very helpful for postures like plank and crow pose. Strengthening the serratus anterior has other incredible benefits like helping the shoulder blades move porperly when we take our arms over head in postures like downward dog. A strong and reactive serratus anterior could actually help us avoid injuries like shoulder impingement. 

Equally important are the muslces called the Rhomboids which move the shoulder blades together, AKA retraction. These tend to be weak for most people and as a result could be the culprit in chronic Neck discomfort, upper back, and chest pain. Should you be interested in developing strength in these muscles in order to balance out the shoulder girdle I suggest the Shoulder Revelation immersion below. 

? 12 CLASS IMMERSIONS ? 

GET 25% OFF WHEN YOU USE THE CODE: YOGAESSENTIALS

Heart Opening Key Take-Away’s

The spine is capable of moving into extension (backbend) without compressing each vertebrae into each other. In order to reduce this collision course, we can use the technique that I call Bowing the Spine

WHAT IS BOWING THE SPINE?

• Bowing the Spine is the technique of pressing the middle of the back forward. This bends the spine in such a way that allows each one of your vertebrae the maximum ability to rotate into spinal extension. Typically most people push their upper back toward their pelvis causing discomfort of pain which would be called compression. With Bowing the Spine we are aiming NOT to compress, and to find the maximum spaciousness available.
• This requires that we develop flexibility of the Abdominals and Intercostals (muscles between the ribs)
• Strength of the Erector Spinae and Rhomboids (back muscles) is essential.
• Activation of TVA, Transverses Abdominis is also very helpful if not imperative.

? 12 CLASS IMMERSIONS ? 

GET 25% OFF WHEN YOU USE THE CODE: YOGAESSENTIALS

Hip Opening Key Take-Away’s

The hips are surrounded my muscles which makes them highly capable of both mobility and stability. Learning to access each muscle group through deliberate activation builds muscle integrity and functionality. This class is a great starting point to help you develop technique through select standing and seated hip opening postures.

4 QUADRANTS OF THE HIPS

1. Front: Quads & Hip Flexors (pulls thighs toward chest)
2. Inside: Adductors (pulls legs inward toward each other)
3. Outside: Abduction (pulls legs apart away from each other)
4. Back: Hip Extension (Buttock muscles – extends legs backward)

WHAT IS MUSCLE INTEGRITY?

Muscle integrity is the ability for a muscle to contract/engage at any length, AND the ability for the muscle to release contraction and engagement.

WHAT IS A FACILITATED STRETCH?

An engagement of a muscle when it is in a lengthened position – or isometric (no movement) engagement of a muscle while you are in a stretch. This creates a release of tension if sustained for approximately 10 seconds. This is technique of engaging muscles while lengthened provides incredible results for flexibility without losing functionality of the muscles.

BELLY AT THE WALL

This is THE MOST essential wall drill you will ever do when it comes to learning to balance with good alignment. That said, it is also more dangerous because you don’t have a wall behind you. PLEASE do this with a spotter for the first few times until you are comfortable getting into and out of the posture at the wall. Falling is not an option here, it will not only result in injury but you will also lose all the trust you just built in yourself. SO use a spotter to support you, and then this drill will be one of those magic, eye-opening, body-enlightening experiences when done routinely.

PELVIC TILT WITH A “LINE”

Handstanders are constantly assessing their “line” because it is a basis for discovering tendencies and patterns. If we are aware of our patterns, then we can make incremental changes. The line becomes a basis for self progress. This way, you will be able to notice some results along the way. This IS important in your handstand pursuit because unlike most other postures, handstand results happen VERY slowly. Most people think it’s a matter of just knowing what to do, and then doing it — handstand is not that way. It’s a complete change of neurological and muscular patterns that have been building up over the course of your lifetime. I personally spent 6 years on pelvic tilt… 6 years just trying to gain control over my pelvis when upside down. On the outside, someone else could hardly tell, but I definitely could see and, more importantly, feel the differences, and that helped me to stay focused on my practice.

ADVANCED KICK SWITCHES

The first time I ever felt a moment of “I’m doing it!” happened in this exercise. Try to slowly transition and create a bit of hang time. Now to be honest, this requires a lot of practice. You will need to build your wrist strength and body awareness to keep yourself leaning forward into your fingers. GET STUBBORN with the lean — don’t allow your body to shift back into the heel of the hands, a major pitfall you will want to avoid. Secondly, it may take time until your hamstrings have enough flexibility to gain hang time in the L shape — lack of flexibility will result in the bottom leg always pulling you back down to the ground. In the meantime, while you build flexibility, you could always go back to practicing “jump to stag.”

L-POSE BALANCE

As mentioned in Part 4, stag jumps are the preliminary practices to balancing L-Pose, which requires hamstring flexibility, wrist strength, and understanding your line. Your hips and top leg in this pose can indeed lean back toward the wall a little bit at first and not quite form a vertical line with your arms. This will help minimize the amount of lean that is required in the shoulders. In other words, if you counterbalance a little bit by allowing the top leg to go back slightly, it will help keep the bottom leg lifted, and it will minimize how much lean is required. ONE downfall of doing so is that it might throw off your awareness of your line. So be sure to continuously go back to practicing the “belly at the wall” and “pelvic tilt with a line” drills.

MORE DRILLS COMING SOON!

Thank you for your practice, and I look forward to sharing more drills soon. However, you now have the most essential drills that will lead you to balance. The rest will be slightly more advanced, so be sure to practice these routinely; 3-4 days a week is recommended if you want to achieve balance.