Kalea's Learning Portfolio

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Some New Poses!

Photo by SAIRA on Unsplash

Poses of the Week

Garland Pose (Malasana)

1 minute

This pose provides a deep stretch to basically everything below the hips, but especially the ankles and the back of shins! If it’s uncomfortable to keep your heels on the ground, you can use a support (blanket, rolled up mat, etc) under you heels and bottom! This pose can also start to burn fast, so I recommend starting with a 30 second hold first to test your limits!

Steps:

  1. Start by standing with feet around a mat length apart (two feet), then squat down and open your hips by rotating your thighs outward.
  2. Inhale, then exhale before leaning your torso slightly forward over your thighs, press back of arms and elbows gently against your knees while pressing your hands together. Your spine should be straight at this point!
  3. (optional) Squeeze thighs against torso and reach arms out straight forward!
  4. Hold for up to 1 minute, then inhale before relaxing arms and straightening knees to stand up.

Detailed step-by-step guide found at Yoga Journal

Bound Angle Pose (Baddha Konasana)

3-5 minutes

Photo by Yoga Journal

This is a stretch that I used to do a lot in dance class, so it’s neat to practice it in a more casual, yoga-focused style! This pose provides a great stretch to the muscles in the inner thigh areas, and helps release tension that you might be holding in your hips! This pose can also be quite uncomfortable if you try to force your knees to the ground and you could even pull a muscle, so be cautious and aware of your level of flexibility!

Steps:

  1. Begin with legs in front of you, add a blanket under your pelvis for some cushion if you prefer. Inhale, then exhale before pulling you heels toward your chest and letting your knees drop towards the floor while pushing your feet together.
  2. Push heels toward pelvis, grasp your big toes or ankles with your thumbs and two adjacent fingers, all while keeping the outer edges of your feet pressed into the ground. Your spine should be nearly parallel with your tailbone and your shoulders should be relaxed!
  3. Release tension in your hipbones so your knees fall closer to the floor (do not force them down!)
  4. Stay in pose for up to 5 minutes. To release, inhale and lift knees off the ground, then extend legs outward before standing up!

Detailed step-by-step guide found at Yoga Journal

Chair Pose (Utkatasana)

1 minute

Photo by Yoga Journal

The chair pose is another one that stretches the ankles, legs and spine, but also benefits the shoulders and upper arms! I had never done nor really seen this pose before this past week, but it sure has been a great addition to my morning routines!

Steps:

  1. Stand up straight with feet side by side, Inhale while raising arms above head and slightly in front of your ears. You can keep your arms straight or join hands together!
  2. Exhale and bend down with thighs as parallel as possible to the floor, knees should be slightly ahead of feet and torso should be near a 90º angle with your thighs. Push the tops your thighs downward to feel a burn!
  3. Thighs should be parallel to each other, shoulders blades should be aligned with back and tailbone should rotated slightly in towards the pubic area.
  4. Hold for around one minute, to release, inhale while straightening the legs while “lifting” with your arms. the exhale when releasing your arms down to your sides.

Detailed step-by-step guide and animation at Yoga Journal

Summary

This week I focused more on poses that target the legs and hip areas, as I’ve been mostly seeking out poses that benefit the back and spine in my previous weeks. I also found two more standing poses, which was one of my goals on my last inquiry post! My feelings and progress are pretty much the same as my last post, everything is going really great! My list of poses is getting a lot longer I’m excited to continue to learn and add to it over time!

Goals for Next Week

Because I forgot to this week, I want to add a few more songs to my playlist because it’s starting to get slightly repetitive! I also want to do a little bit of research on the benefits of implementing yoga into elementary classrooms, so I’ll probably include that on my next inquiry post!

Sources

All poses and step summaries listed are from the “poses” section of Yoga Journal and do not have any authors or creators listed.

Photos from Unsplash and Yoga Journal

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