Seated Asana

Pigeon Pose Flow

Pigeon and its endless variations are my favourite yoga asanas. The combination of backbend and almost any other aspect you want to add in – balance, leg stretching, shoulder stretch, arm balance, seated, supine, standing – means you can create over an hour’s worth of flow just from this one basic Pigeon Pose. This flow doesn’t include all variations but does show a good mix for thinking on the spot. In order of appearance:

Pigeon Pose
Shoulder Stretch Pigeon
Pigeon with Frog Leg
King Pigeon with Mermaid Bind
King Pigeon with Flipped Grip
King Pigeon with Eagle Arms Grip
King Pigeon with Knee Grab
Bound King Pigeon
Floating Pigeon
Sleeping Pigeon (sometimes called Sleeping Swan)
Cradled Sleeping Pigeon

…And then a switch to the opposite side where the flow goes…
Floating Pigeon
Sleeping Pigeon
Cradled Sleeping Pigeon
Pigeon with Extended Arms
Shoulder Stretch Pigeon
King Pigeon with Mermaid Bind
King Pigeon with Knee Grab
King Pigeon with Frog Leg
King Pigeon with Flipped Grip
King Pigeon with Eagle Arms Bind
Bound King Pigeon
Pigeon Pose
Seated Cradled Pigeon with Anjali Mudra (once each side)

Filmed at sunrise on 19th June 2017 in Norfolk, UK.


Leg Behind Head (LBH) Practice – Eka Pada Sirsasana

Hips were very flexible during last night’s training so decided to try out eka pada sirsasana (aka leg behind head pose / LBH) and found that the leg was extremely amenable to all manner of flexibility work, not least, LBH itself! Start with a traditional warmup pose to loosen the hip before bringing the leg behind the head, moving my hair out of the way (long hair in yoga problems are real!) and then letting go..where it happily stayed! Most secure and solid LBH to date.

Filmed 3rd July 2017 at Ape Index, Leicester.


Navasana (Boat Pose) Flow

I was tagged on Instagram to #StopDropandYoga and I went with boat pose…but it turned into a flow of different variations of boat, or navasana as it’s known in Sanskrit.

Filmed May 2017.


Butterfly Flow

Butterfly, or bound angle pose, means being seated, sit bones rooted to the ground, hips squared, knees bent and the soles of the feet touching from heel to toe. As hamstring and hip flexibility improves/the hips open, the knees will naturally lower to the floor, and you can increase the stretch by bringing your feet closer to you.

Increase the benefits of the pose by walking your hands from one side to the idea stretching out to each side, and fold forwards – pivoting from the hips to prevent a rounded spine. If you can, bring the shoulders up behind you, hands bound, and hold for 5 breaths (or as long as you wish).

 


 

Fully Seated Flow (10 minute flow – sped up 8x)

Poses in this sequence in order of appearance:

Forward fold (paschimottanasana)
Revolved head-to-knee (paivtta janu sirsasana)
Seated spinal twist (ardha matsyendrasana) / Half Lord of the Fishes
Cow face pose (gomukhasana)
Butterfly (badhakonasana)
Lotus (padmasana)
Bound lotus (baddha padmasana)