Transitions: malasana (garland pose/ squat) to bakasana (crow/ crane pose)

The transitions we’ve looked in this series so far have been moving from standing on two feet to standing on one foot. In this way, we’ve been moving from a more to a less balanced pose. The transition this blog post is about takes you from being on your feet to your hands but in a way it’s still the same: moving from a more to a less stable posture. For each of the previous two transitions (if you missed them see my posts here and here) I cued my students to move slowly and minimise using momentum. We also made as much of the shape of the less stable pose as we could with both feet on the floor and made the transition simply about shifting your weight (ie not about launching yourself forwards or up). In that way, students (hopefully!) were able to tune in more closely to what was working to hold them steady, what was working to move them slowly, and maintain slow steady breathing. All that same work applied this week to shifting from a squatting position (malasana) to crow/ crane pose (bakasana). 

We’d looked at trying to get into crow pose and hold it a few weeks before in class so I knew my students were familiar with this posture (see that week’s blog here). So this week, since we were approaching the same pose but as part of a transition, instead of holding it we were moving in and out of the pose in time with our breathing.

Start in malasana, or a relaxed squat. I’ve got my big toes together here and my knees apart, and I’m dropping my chest as low down between my legs as it’ll go. This means my knees are as high up towards my armpits as they can go (which will be useful as we progress towards the next pose).

Before you move on from here, squeeze your legs in against your upper arms. Keep squeezing them through all the steps that follow!

To get to this shape I’ve changed 3 main things from the picture above:

• I’ve planted my palms on the floor in front of my feet and slid my hands back so my arms are pressing on my shins

• Lifted my heels

• Lifted my bum

In the introduction to this blog I talked about making as much of the unstable pose as you can with both feet on the floor. This shape looks like bakasana but we’re not quite there yet!

This is as much of bakasana as I can make with my feet on the floor. I’ve kept everything the same from the last picture (legs squeezing in, hips lifting high, fingertips gripping the floor) and now I’ve also shifted my weight forwards so it’s more over my hands. Arm balances aren’t about lifting up - they’re about getting in position and then shifting your weight forwards so that your feet can lift up.

You can see that everything in this photo is exactly the same as the last picture, except that I’ve bent my knees, pointed my toes and brought my feet to my bum.

Since we’re looking more at the transition rather than simply trying to hold this pose, this is how I was cueing my students:

‘Inhale come up on to your tiptoes (ie photo 3); exhale shift your weight forwards and lift your feet (ie photo 4); inhale hold there; exhale bring your toes back down again’. We went through that transition (photo 3-4) and back again three times. Please ask if anything is unclear!

Options for arm position in revolved triangle

As part of our focus on the warrior one family of postures we’ve been spending a bit of time in this pose, revolved triangle. For most bodies it’s a tough shape to make: it asks for a lot of mobility along the back and outside of your legs and hips; it can be pretty wobbly so hard to maintain your balance; plus it’s a deep twist so it can be hard to breathe in! We already looked at the position of your feet in this family of postures in my last blog post (having feet hip width apart rather than one behind each other is likely to make twisting into revolved triangle more accessible). In addition, to help students find more ease while holding this shape, we’ve been playing around a bit with the position of their arms.

PLACEMENT OF BOTTOM HAND

In the first picture here I have my fingertips on the floor on the outside of my front foot, which is the classical set up for revolved triangle. Even though LOTS of other postures don’t, twists naturally come fairly easily for my body and my torso turns enough that I can place my hand on the outside of my leg without having to reach for it too much. But for plenty of other people putting their hand on the outside of their front leg is a real stretch (no pun intended!). Their torso stops turning when their chest is still facing a little to the floor, so instead of just dropping their hand to the floor they have to reach past their leg to get their hand outside their foot - as seen in the second image here. That alignment made my chest feel kind of squashed and it was more difficult to breathe (as if it’s not hard enough to breathe deeply in a twist like this!).

So in class at the moment I’m bringing people into this pose with their bottom hand on the inside of their foot (as in the third image here), and then once everyone’s in the pose offering the option to put their hand on the outside of their foot. And I’d estimate that only about 10-20% of people are taking that option, so presumably the rest prefer having their hand on the inside!

HEIGHT OF BOTTOM HAND

I can get my hand on the floor in this pose, but for me using a block on its lowest height feels ideal. For lots of students trying to place their hand on the floor can be a real struggle. Trying to force your hand to the floor can meaning having to round (or in anatomical terms: flex) your spine a lot, which doesn’t set you up for a comfortable or easeful twist that you’re able to breathe in (see photo 2). In the third photo here I’ve placed my bottom hand on a brick, and you can perhaps see how that may enable students to keep their spines straighter and stay a bit broader across their chest as they turn.

TOP ARM

It’s really tempting in revolved triangle to throw your top hand back behind you as far as it will go, because it can feel like you’re twisting more. In fact what I often see happening when students do that it is their top shoulder shifts forward and their chest hasn’t actually turned any further (photo 2). So I’ve been cueing students to bring their top hand either directly over their top shoulder or a little forwards (where forwards in these images means towards the camera), and to imagine they’re pressing that palm into something solid like a wall. Then plenty of them have been able to shift their top shoulder a little further back (compare my top shoulder in image 2 to to it in image 3).

This approach is part of one of my wider aims for my students in 2020:

• Encouraging students to test out slightly different positions within the poses, and to find what works for them

• Letting go of the need to try and force themselves into a posture that looks a certain way, or of thinking that there’s only one way to do each yoga pose. Different bodies will look different doing the same postures!

Comment below with any questions, thoughts, or with your experience of revolved triangle or warrior 1 🙂