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Birds of a Feather · Divas That Care Network

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's Divas the Care Radio.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Stories, strategies, and ideas to inspire positive change.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Divas that Care, a network of women committed to making our world a better place for everyone.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is a global movement for women, by women, engaged in a collaborative effort to create a better world for future generations.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: To find out more about the movement, visit divas that care.com after the show.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, though, stay tuned for another jolt of inspiration.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, Amaste, and welcome to the Divas That Care Network.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Giabraquel Rose, owner of Airs Above Yoga, and you're listening to Above the Ground podcast.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: If this is your first time tuning in, our network is going into its 15th year and is listened to in over 30 countries.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: I would like to personally thank you for giving me the gift of your time.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: As always, it is my honor to hold space with you.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: And we've been focusing a lot on inwards, right?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: Turning in words, redirecting energy inwards, kind of that that last stretch of winter mentality when you're just trying to get through.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: And the day that I'm recording this is actually daylight savings time.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I feel like that little that little bright shining light is popping through the clouds.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'd like to take the next sequence to add a little more whimsy, add a little more fun, um, and just kind of have a little more play when we talk about our yoga and our wellness practices and our self-care practices.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so to that end, what I thought might be fun is to talk about yoga as, and I will be one of the first instructors to ever say that it shouldn't be a goal-oriented practice, right?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: It should be a practice-oriented practice.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: But also, you know, as a kind of a recovering type A, I'll call myself, but as someone who is, you know, relatively goal-focused.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with being that, but yoga as as inherent as a practice in and of itself is just that, like that at that aspect of turning in words that we've been focusing on, um, and that connecting union with yourself and your higher power and your higher self, and you know, turning in words to still the mind and create, you know, a state of peace that's always accessible.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like that's more in alignment with the true traditional mentality behind what people associate yoga with.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: But also there's an element of, you know, working with your body and working towards something.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, for me, when I first started, it was getting my heels down a downward-facing dog.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, as you go through your practice and you ebb and flow through the way that your body changes over time and injury and you know, lack of exercise or or coming back from an injury or you know, over-exercising, you know, there are there our lives are always in flux, and there's the only constant is change, as I know I've said before, and certainly did not coin the phrase.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: So, with that in mind, having this idea of, and I used to I used to teach classes like this where we would have kind of a goal pose for the month, right?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: So all of the asana that we would kind of focus on would be prep work for these kind of big ticket goal postures, um, which are usually kind of like the pretty Instagram ones, right?
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: That that you see people going into that you're like, wow, like I could never do that.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: And and you can, more often than not, with a lot of practice and you know, proper guidance and dedication.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I believe that bodies can work into most of the yoga asanas, although I will say that there will always be those body types that can't based on the actual buildup of the body, right?
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: There are certain um there are certain restrictions that bodies have, and they are neither good, bad, nor indifferent.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: You just have to work with them, work around them, and and play to your strengths and also make sure that you're protecting your weaknesses, right?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: They always say the yoga pose that you avoid the most is the one that you need the most.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: So with that aspect and that thought process in mind, what I thought would be really fun would be to talk about the bird poses.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: The and the reason is this is gonna be these poses are nine times out of ten, more of the ridiculous Instagram gorgeous asanades that that look beautiful, that are that can be a little bit tough to navigate, that require a little bit of an extra layer of flexibility and or balance and or both.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I will say with with love and kindness that the two postures that I'm not going to touch on today are eagle, because we just talked about that.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I encourage you to go back and practice when we were talking about turning inwards.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we talked about eagle as a way to kind of wrap yourself in a big hug and redirect your energy inwards towards yourself.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I still think that eagle is one of my favorite poses, and by all means, garudasana is the proper, prop, probably not the proper pronunciation.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: I do my best, um, but it is the the proper terminology for the yoga asana um that we commonly refer to as eagle.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: The other one that I'm not going to because I have said it, I've talked about it ad nauseum, and I always will, because it's everyone's favorite.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's probably probably the most accessible bird pose, if you will.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: Quotes, air quotes for those of you who are listening and not watching, um, is pigeon.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody loves pigeon unless you have very tight hips, in which, let me rephrase.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone has a love-hate relationship with pigeon.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, a lot of women really, really love it.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm one of those women.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it can be, it kind of has a tendency or predisposition towards those with uh more open or wider placed hips, which is why it's it's the biomechanics of the pose are more predisposed towards the woman's body type.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: No gender, I'm not getting into that conversation.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: This is a matter of physiological adaptation of women's bodies to deliver children, have a tendency to have hip placements which are set a little bit on closer, potentially to a 45-degree angle or you know, at a wider angle than men's hips, where we're talking about the femur head of the of the leg itself into the hip socket, whereas men's, because they don't need to rotate open to birth a child, have more of a straight forward hip joint that precludes them.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: Literally, this is what we're talking about when we're talking about body types and body mechanics and and certain postures not being as accessible.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: For me as a female, leg straight lifting is much more, and my body type, let me rephrase.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: So there, these are again not blanket statements, but I have wider set hips, my hips rotate outwards.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: Externally rotated postures are very easy for me because I have wider hips, and because of that, poses like pigeon, warrior two, um, wide legs seated forward fold, right?
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: All of these externally rotated postures, very natural for my body.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: What is not are leg forward and straight.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: I get compression, and compression is where your body literally just won't go that way due to bone on bone.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not about the ligaments, it's not about the muscles, it's about that the bone structure in the body is just not, it's just that's physics.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: It goes, it goes, it's out of the physical and into the literal physics of the body, it's just not gonna happen.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you have to be okay with that.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: There was like I think I've mentioned this in the past, but there was um another instructor in my teacher training, and she had the opposite where her hip bones, when she would come into like a seated a seated position or try to get into bound angle, her knees were never gonna hit the floor.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: They were just never gonna open up, and that's because of the structure of her hip.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: So unless you have an x-ray to refer to, you'll know this by compression is a feeling of a pinch, let's say, um, where it's just like it's not gonna go.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: It might have a cramping sensation where your body's just it's a big signal that says, like, we don't move this way.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: And that's okay.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's different than let's say that burning pull of like a deep stretch and a hamstring, like a forward fold, that kind of a sensation.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: So that's one very, very basic and and un not nuanced, unnuanced way, whichever the proper English word is, um, to to kind of have a feeling for that in the body.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: So those are the two pigeon for those that love or hate, and eagle, we've already discussed at length in other episodes.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I please do encourage you to go back and check those out because they are some of my favorite and very easily accessible poses.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: We are gonna talk about some posers, some postures today that are not super accessible, not super easy, look beautiful, and are great to work towards.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: And the the first that I'm gonna talk about, um, kind of one of my one of my spirit animals, as I'll say, since when I was a little kid, is crow pose or bakasana.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: And that is uh the starter arm balance.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and actually a couple of the postures we're gonna speak who are are arm balance postures.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: So crow and also, depending on your school of thought, crane are both, for whatever reason, titled bacassana with a K.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and they are arm balances, and you'll know them because essentially you will have your knees on the you will be.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: I like to use a block and stand on the block on your tippy tippy toes and put your hands down.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: And you have to have the flexibility to get your knees as close to your armpits on your triceps as possible.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then it becomes a kind of that playful, you know, enjoyable try not to fall on your face kind of experimentation of finding your balance and your core strength and bringing your knees into your chest and kind of locking in like a little ball is so important to this aspect of balance.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: So it really does take that idea of coming inwards into the art of balance.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so arm balance postures.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: We talked about inversions and there are a lot of similarities.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: However, when we talked about inversions, we were really talking about kind of like headstand, handstand, um, full upright.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: These are less about that, and these are more about creating the awareness of the core, the deep core muscles and mechanisms within the I'll say lower chakra system, right?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: Although it obviously incorporates all of your chakras, right?
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: Whenever you practice, uh do an asana practice.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: But really with these core strength or core balancing asanas, balance poses are all about your core strength.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: And there's this idea of um obviously drawing upward and inward, but this idea of kind of being of kind of bringing in all of the energy, all of your muscular contractions into the part of the body that you are balancing.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so what's nice about both crow and crane, and crane essentially is just um a deeper variation of crow.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: When you've practiced crow long enough, you can get your knees actually into your armpits as opposed to the back of the tricep, and then you can straighten the arms, and then your knees are in your armpits and you're just balancing on your hands.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's just a more advanced position of crow in theory.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: And many, maybe other yoga instructors will take take issue with that, but I think that that's a safe description for people that are just opening up to this idea in their practices.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: So, one thing to note about any arm balance is if you have like wrist injuries, carpal tunnel surgery, like we talk about compression, there's gonna be a lot of pressure if you're playing with these, and let's say that you want to try to do an arm balance.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: Crow is probably the first introductory arm balance.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: People always also use, not always, forgive me, also use crow as a position to train into hit uh hand headstand, forgive me, not handstand, headstand.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because as you the similarity, if you've ever been, and I let me just put a big asterisk on this.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: I as a yoga instructor personally do not love a tripod headstand for multiple reasons, one of which being my neck injury and the fact that a lot of people will practice this and without the muscle mechanics, the body awareness, and the wiggling around of the weight of the body on the crown of the head at the floor with nothing but your hands as the support and your kind of knees on your elbows.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's that no, I don't love that.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: Now, people do it all the time.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's a very, very acceptable practice.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying this yoga instructor with the neck injury says the only handstands that I prefer to practice are interlaced elbows, because the elbow and the forearm are the are the strongest parts of the body, right?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: And gripping the head so that you have you're actually almost doing more of an arm balance, an inversion, right, with your elbows, and you can kind of create the pressure on the head.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I digress from the bird poses, but just as a little aside into the correlation between crow and headstand.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: I don't love that entrance, but for crow itself, the hope is that you don't fall on your face because that too will injure your neck.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I always say use a block and play with keeping one toe, work with shifting the weight and always keeping that little, those training wheels of a block.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um and the block just helps to elevate the hips, elevate the the in essence, you're bringing the lower part of the trunk in line with or above the upper part of the trunk.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: So gazing points, drishes are very, very important for balance postures, um, especially arm balance postures.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason for that is because they provide that focus.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: If you ever notice when you try to do a balance pose, even without, even with both feet on the floor, um, triangle is one for me, where if you if you look, triangle standing leg splitter too, if you look, or half moon is another great one.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: If you turn and you move your head, you'll notice that the vision, the movement of the head very much affects the balance.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: If you look at an ice skater or a ballet, a ballerina, and you see that they have a spot, right?
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: That is in theory the same thing.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: Even if they're spitting on a beautiful toe, they are looking at one spot so they don't get super dizzy and fall over.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: So, same kind of principle there.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, so crow is a great way to start to practice with um this kind of idea of getting your core strength locked in, getting your, you know, starting to play with postures that push the envelope just a little bit.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm gonna talk about two others that are what we'll call advanced.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: They are gonna be your advanced asanas.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: One of them I used to be able to do, I could probably get there again, and I may try, but I've I've checked my ego at the door uh unceremoniously, just like I said, due to injuries, um, life.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't, my neck injury specifically, I don't push myself the way that I used to when I was younger.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I I I hope that that experience shines some light on anyone who's saying, I can do it, and just wraps their arm around their leg and forces themselves into it.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I don't obviously I can't, I don't recommend.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: Don't recommend at all.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but bird of paradise is one of these asanas that used to be one that I could get into, and you'll see on Instagram, it's absolutely beautiful.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: It is a single-leg arm, well, it's not an arm balance pose.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna circle back to that with the last pose.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: But bird of paradise is a deep hip and hamstring opener.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: So as we talked about our hip sockets and the formation and the uh kind of idea for people or for females who have bodies built to give birth, in theory, right?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: In theory, um this is a is a is a hip opener, is the hip opener.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: It puts pigeon to shame in the level of hip opening.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: So essentially, bird of paradise be is an arm bind.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: So as opposed, so it will it will take balance because you're on one leg.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: It will take deep, deep, deep hamstring and inner thigh muscle release.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: It will be strengthening for your glute um and very it really takes a lot of deep shoulder opening.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: So if you have a neck or shoulder injury, this might not be for you.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I would say that at this point in my practice, I'd probably only be able to really successfully work with my right shoulder because my left shoulder, due to the neck injury, is is is compromised.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I won't don't wanna that.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, I would maybe say that this pose had a little bit of uh a part to play in in the level of overly loose that my left shoulder is in for me trying to force myself into this posture in my 20s.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um so take it from me, not not worth it, not worth it.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but essentially the prep pose for Bird of Paradise is a bound extended angle pose.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: So what you're doing is you're your so extended angle, think warrior two as your base, you hinge a hip crease, you laterally lay your body in theory, onto the thigh, which is externally rotated with a 90-degree bent knee.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: And then you get the arm to the inside of the thigh, palm on the ground, and with the mobility in the shoulder, you then wrap your arm underneath your leg, take the other arm behind, and now we're at a bit of a yoga pretzel.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then from there you you shift, you get you, this is what opens, this is how you get to that open state of accessibility, and you work into the shoulder and you work.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: This is how you start to build towards a bird of paradise, and that arm bind is really most accessible in an extended angle.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's the safest prep pose for a bird of paradise.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: Another prep pose for bird of paradise, which happens to also be another bird pose, is a very deep hamstring stretch called heron pose.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and heron is generally practiced similarly to hero.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: And here's what I what I will say with a big, big asterisk for heron pose.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and essentially, heron pose, you're you're seated, but if you don't know what hero pose is, you are seated on your fully compressed knees.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: Your knees are slightly in, and your feet are slightly wider than your hips.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: So you're sitting back.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of times people will have to sit on a block if they have any knee injury.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: So this is not a knee injury person pose necessarily because it really does kind of compress those kneecaps.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: It in this asana, I always recommend a block, and and it's a great quad stretch.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's actually great for the knees, it's great for the tops of the feet, it's actually a very highly beneficial pose, Hero.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: But if you're gonna come into heron, you really have to have a very deep practice in hero and be able to comfortably hang out there for a decent amount of time because as you from that position take one leg, you're sitting so deeply internally rotated with one leg bent under, the other leg comes straight up and you and you hold on to the foot.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I like to suggest to people who maybe don't have a strong hero practice or have a knee injury, that you can still get the benefit of the hamstring stretch of heron by coming into a cross-legged seat or a or a half-bound angle, um, and then bringing that leg straight up in the air from a seated position uh so that you're not putting all of that compression on your knees.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's another way to deepen.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: And again, heron pose in and of itself is an actual an absolutely beautiful asana.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there is nothing easy about it, but it will also help as a prep pose for Bird of Paradise because again, you're deepening that that hamstring.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: And you can you can kind of work with the armbind there as well.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um Lizard's another great one to deepen into the hip and start to work with that armbind.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: So, again, as we talk about our goal poses in Yoga Asana, these are this is how we break it down.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yoga instructor secret.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: We take the goal pose and we break it down into all of its different parts to prep and prime your body in a way to start to build towards the strength, flexibility, and kind of almost like a puzzle, piecing it all together in a way that the body is primed in different areas.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: You take the the most structurally significant parts of the body, and you work those in different pieces until the puzzle becomes the pose.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: And in this case, Bird of Paradise, where you're standing on one leg, you have the opposite leg behind the shoulder, the leg is straight up and out to the side, externally rotated, and then your arm is in front of it in a bind with the other arm behind you, like that.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: I know I'm doing a great job sitting on my yogall chair explaining that, but I encourage you to look it up.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, aside from doing a screen share and showing you, which you know, maybe maybe we'll do that another time.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: But I want you guys to to kind of take it and run with it.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to encourage you to look up Bird of Paradise.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: And like I said, I was able to get into it when I was younger, although it came at a cost of my left shoulder.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I do I do recommend working into it through these safe alternative poses, like heron, another bird pose, like lizard, which is another deep hip opener stretch, and like extended angle, which is another more gentle hip or hip opener stretch, but really allows you to start to play with that armbinds.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: And armbinds are great, but they can lead to shoulder injuries.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: So you really do have to be very, very careful.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: As we talk about injuries, we're gonna circle back to another kind of goal pose.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: And this is one that I was working towards.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think I would say I ever really nailed it because it just takes so much.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: It takes so much body balance.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so it the pose is peacock.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: So the pose is peacock pose.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: And a couple things to note.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, again, wrist injuries, we're going back, we're coming, bringing it full circle back around, coming back to the um the arm balance.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: So peacock is an arm balance, but you have to have your your hands spiraled 180 degrees pointed back to the body with your elbows, you're balancing on your elbows in your, you know, wherever they fall for you.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: I happen to have somewhat shorter arms.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um I have T-Rex arms, actually, which I found out in my yoga class when we were doing uh hip swings, and I needed blocks, and my students didn't, and I didn't realize till that point in time that I had a little bit, my arms are a little short for the rest of me.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe that comes into play as to why I wasn't able to ever really nail this pose.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: But essentially, you're taking your palms and you're balancing all of your weight on your hands with them close together, elbows into the body, and then you shift so that your legs are up in the air, you're balancing on your hands, and I'm doing the world's worst like sign language stick figure to kind of explain this pose.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so the reason that this can be a challenge is multiple fold.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, the the arm strength, secondly, the protection of the wrist.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: So if you again, carpal tunnel, wrist surgeries, wrist injuries, not the pose for you, and that's okay.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I encourage you to Google it, it is a beautiful pose.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: The core strength and the setup asanas for this are gonna be big on locust, huge on locust, and then a lot of stretching through the wrist, the elbow, right?
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, lots of planks.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: We need to support the the shoulders, we need to support the core strength.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: You're basically almost in a plank, but you're balancing on the hands in the middle of the body.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: So you're like a little, you're you're your own lever in a in a sense.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then again, if you're going to work towards this, I I encourage a block, but honestly, I just encourage trying it on your knees and forgetting about the balance and just starting to lock into the elbow into the belly with the balance on the hands because it really is an awkward position for the body to be it's it's a relatively unnatural position for the body to be in.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it is a beautiful, beautiful asana.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: And it's definitely one of the ones that people will look at and go, wow, how do they do that?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and and so I do think that it is very, very a worthy, a worthy posture.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it has a lot of benefits, right?
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: That that contact of the of the body and the stomach creates you know positivity for the digestion.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it does build strength, obviously, in the shoulders and the wrists.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's the one thing that I will note is that as you as you come into this asana, it literally starts to tilt your body forward, right?
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: And the one thing that I want to note for those of us with shoulder injuries, or you know, and again, we're assuming that your wrists are safe, a lot of times you'll see people and their hips really come up really, really, very, very high.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: But the main important thing is if you if you do Google this pose, pay attention to where people's shoulders are because this this asana, much like chaturanga, which is you know, another.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: So when I talk about plank, or uh chaturanga dandasana is another prep pose, plank variation with bent elbows.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: This is how you build strength, strength for this posture.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: Locust starts to help you engage your legs to support this posture.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: Chaturanga starts to help you create the strength and the shoulders back and forth and the the lats and the pecks to be able to support the body weight.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, again, it's hard for me to give a lot of advice on the wrist strength for this.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, for yoga and specifically, you know, any any asana that's weight bearing on the hands is gonna help with your wrists, wrist strength.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: That being said, if you wrists can be so delicate, um, if you have an issue in downward dog with your wrist, I'm gonna suggest that you put a pin in this pose.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: And and if you have pain in your wrist, this is not not one to mess with.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, similarly to Bird Paradise, if you have pain in your shoulder, not one to mess with.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but notice when you Google, because I know you will when you go and Google Peacock pose, notice where people's shoulders lie.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because the most important thing for chaturanga and for a pose like peacock is you never want at life, at life in yoga, um, you never want your shoulders to dip below your elbows in a weight-bearing pose, whether that's chaturanga into an abinyasa practice, chaturanga into cobra, um, whether that is sorry, chaturanga, yeah, into upward-facing dog, not cobra, forgive me.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: So cobra is another way to start to build that strength in the shoulders.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: But that's a longer conversation to get into why it's okay in Cobra.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: But the bottom line is anytime that you have weight that you're weight-bearing and you dip your shoulders below your elbows, you are transferring the weight into the shoulder heads, and it can pose a problem unless this is, you know, this is a part of your practice that you are very, very adept at.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: Generally speaking, the rule of thumb is shoulders don't dip below the elbows, or you start to put undue pressure on the shoulders, and that's how you can really create an injury.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so again, these bird poses are whimsical, they are beautiful, they are challenging, they are quote unquote air quotes for those of you who are listening.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: They are they're goal poses, they are pretty Instagram, you know, social media, holy crap, cirque de soleil style yoga asanas.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: And they have a place.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: They have a place, they're inspirational, you know, they they are beautiful, they require the peak of pizza of physical performance.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know, they they're they're just visually stunning.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: And when you see them executed properly, what I love about them is they really do drive home how beneficial yoga can be for the for your body and for your dedication to yourself.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you if and when you decide to practice yoga asana and you decide you're physically able, right?
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that doesn't mean that, and when I say physically able, I mean specifically that you don't have injuries or body limitations that preclude you from getting into these postures, right?
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like I said, shoulder injuries, wrist injuries, knee injuries.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: If you have those, it's it's okay.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's not your fault.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: Don't press it, don't force it.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't have these things, or you have some but not the other, and some of these beautiful asanas are within your grasp because you're not going to harm yourself.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: Always, first rule, first rule of yoga, first rule of fight club, do no harm.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: Ahimsa, do no harm, especially to yourself.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: Then then pick a pose that you love and start to and start to work towards it with a qualified professional.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm always here to help you.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: Always you feel free to reach out to me.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I will drop my contact when we wrap this up in just a moment.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: But, you know, always do it, especially kind of these harder postures, under the guidance of a qualified professional who can help you know where your body is in space.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's one of the reasons that we are important because a lot of times we don't know where our own bodies are in space without a mirror or someone standing there going, hey, that's not even.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, your knees are not in alignment with your hips.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, your shoulders are dipping below your elbows.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, for all of the nagging that that comes with, I do think that these are highly highly worthy, completely beautiful, wonderful pinnacle postures that um I hope that, you know, even learning about them has just sparked a little bit of interest in uh what yoga can truly grow into and cultivate within you, maybe a spark, maybe a desire, maybe, maybe a little bit of excitement, right?
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's not it's not all about the quiet.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we can we can have that little spark of divinity that brings us out into these beautiful demonstrate demonstrative postures.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so I hope that this will bring you a little bit of inspiration.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: Have a Google, go on Instagram and do hashtag peacock pose or hashtag bird of paradise pro pose and check them out because I guarantee you there are some really, really gorgeous yogis and yoginis out there that are just nailing them, just nailing them.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: And power to them, always practice safely.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm always here to help in any way that I can.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I just want to share tell each and every one of you how completely grateful I am and how much I appreciate you for sharing your space with me and ask that you please feel free to share this same space with your loved ones.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: For more goodness, follow me on all the socials at Above the Ground Podcast and visit my website, airsaboveyoga.com.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_01: As always, don't forget to check out all of my other episodes, bird postures included, and all of my amazing sisters at the Divas That Care Network.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: You can find us on Apple, Odyssey, Amazon, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or anywhere else that you might feel guided.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: Again, my name is Gia Raquel Rose, owner of Airsabove Yoga, and you are listening to Above the Ground Podcast, where every day is a good one.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: This show was brought to you by Divas That Care.
• 32:18
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