Module 3 • Cultivating Internal Strength: A Holistic Approach to Hips, Core, and Deep Front Line Awareness
Module 3 • Lesson 1
Textbook Title: BECOMING A ROOTED WARRIOR: MINDFULNESS, HIP HEALTH, AND THE RISKS OF OVERSTRETCHING IN YOGA
Overview: In this lesson, we take a deeper look at the risks of overstretching in yoga—especially in the hips—and how chasing flexibility without stability can lead to long-term issues. Through anatomy, real-life examples, and yogic philosophy, we’ll explore a more sustainable approach that prioritizes strength, awareness, and support over just going deeper into a stretch.
Exercises Covered: Buoyant Parighasana and Buoyant Goddess
Length of Video: 42 min.
Module 3 • Lesson 2
Textbook Title: ANATOMY OF THE DEEP FRONT LINE: A BUOY OF CORE SUPPORT
Overview: In this lesson, we explore the power of the buoyant core—not just as muscular strength, but as an effortless, integrated support system that fuels movement with ease and stability. Using the deep front line as our foundation, we’ll shift from isolated core work to a more holistic approach, awakening the hidden network of muscles that connect our feet, hips, diaphragm, and even the tongue. Through mindful activation and movement, we cultivate a sense of lightness and fluidity, allowing our practice to be both grounded and expansive.
Exercises Covered: Atlas Twist, Skandasana, Malasana & Supported Supta Badha Konasana
Length of Video: 43 min.
Exercises Covered in Class & Homework Assignment:
Exercise • Buoyant Parighasana: Cultivate balanced thigh support, enliven the hip socket, and extend your lunge's range of motion, all while fostering buoyancy and integrated body awareness.
Asana • Floating Goddess: Refine your squat depth and quality in Goddess pose, enhance bodily integration, and nurture a sense of buoyancy and support, focusing especially on deep front line sensations.
Asana • Skandasana: Enhance core stability and introduce lateral and asymmetric movements to your practice, all while maintaining core integrity to improve flexibility and strength in your hips, knees, and ankles.
Asana • Atlas Twist: Activate your body's entire spiral line, gain insights into dynamic stability, and improve balance and joint comfort in high lunge twists through the principles of buoyant hips.
Asana • Malasana: Alleviate knee strain by awakening robust glute and hip support, enabling practitioners to deepen their pose experience without knee discomfort.
Asana • Supported Supta Baddhakonasana: Instill deep relaxation and internal stability by aligning the femurs mindfully into the hip sockets with thigh and hip support.
Homework:
For your homework assignment, start weaving the exercises and postures you've learned in class into your daily personal yoga routine. When relevant, extend your practice beyond the confines of the mat into everyday life. Pay attention to what is motivating your practice, what is speaking to you, and channel that inspiratoin into developing a yoga sequence aimed at the students you regularly teach, rather than just the attendees of this training. From this personalized sequence, choose an 8-minute segment to present to our training class for valuable feedback. Additionally, prepare a concise 1-2 minute introduction that summarizes what has inspired you this week, which you can share as a preamble to your sequence. While it's an added bonus, not a requirement, consider infusing that underlying theme into your teaching cues to enrich the overall class experience.
Buoyant Parighasana
Cultivate balanced thigh support, enliven the hip socket, and extend your lunge's range of motion, all while fostering buoyancy and integrated body awareness.
Floating Goddess
Refine your squat depth and quality in Goddess pose, enhance bodily integration, and nurture a sense of buoyancy and support, focusing especially on deep front line sensations.
Enhance bodily integration and awareness, specifically focusing on the sensation in the deep front line, while also improving the depth and quality of your squat in the Goddess pose. The exercise aims to instill a sense of buoyancy and weightlessness, encouraging shifts in your movement quality and a greater sense of support.
Set-Up:
Start in the Goddess pose.
Bend the knees as you usually do an notice the depth of your squat and the specific areas where you feel work and sensation.
Exploration of Buoyancy:
Extend your arms out to a T position.
Exhale gently as you lower your arms by an inch, simultaneously lifting yourself out of the knee bend. Experience your body becoming weightless and expansive, bring your awareness to the sensation in the deep front line.
Inhale Maintaining this sense of integration, allow your arms to rise back up while squatting.
Observe any changes in the depth of your knee bend and any shifts in your quality of movement.
Ideally, you will notice an enhanced sense of support and integration during this phase.
For an enriched practice, repeat this sequence several times. Once you’ve got the hang of it, this is the perfect pose in which to focus on the big toe to glute spiral as well as the spacious tracking of your knees.
Asana: Skandasana
Skandasana
Enhance core stability and introduce lateral and asymmetric movements to your practice, all while maintaining core integrity to improve flexibility and strength in your hips, knees, and ankles.
The purpose of the Skandasana exercise is to foster core engagement and awareness while introducing lateral movement and asymmetry into your practice. The exercise emphasizes maintaining core integration to safely explore depth, leg angles, and transitions, thereby improving flexibility and strength in the hips, knees, and ankles without causing strain. It serves as a comprehensive practice for enhancing balance, core stability, and muscle engagement, especially in asymmetric postures.
Set-Up:
Begin from the Goddess pose with your feet pointed forward.
Anchor your big toes and shift your weight into the heels, appreciating the support in the backline.
Initiate the movement by bending one knee at a time, allowing the opposite leg to straighten. Throughout this process, maintain equal weight distribution in both feet, and pay attention to how the deep core engages and responds.
After you've established core integration, you can explore further, please note that the deep core integration must especially be maintained through the following actions, otherwise there is a high likely hood of irritating the knees and hips. When in doubt, less is more!
Lowering Exploration:
Play with the depth of your squat by leaning towards one side and bending the knee deeper while keeping the weight shifted towards the heels. This stimulates engagement in the glutes and the backline without exerting pressure on the knee.
Leg Angle Variation:
From your buoyant squat position, experiment with different angles for the outstretched leg. Toes forward targets the adductors (DFL), while toes up engages the hamstrings and backline. Ensure flexibility through the hips, knees, and ankles as you explore these variations.
Pulsing to Buoyant Vira 2:
Transition from the squat to a unique Virabhadrasana 2 experience. Extend the bent knee while turning your whole body away from that leg into heel to arch stance. Notice how this transition has prepared the back leg and hip to be extra supportive!
As you explore Skandasana, maintain mindfulness of your body's responses and sensations, emphasizing the engagement of your deep core and the smooth execution of movements.
Asana: Atlas Twist
Atlas Twist
Activate your body's entire spiral line, gain insights into dynamic stability, and improve balance and joint comfort in high lunge twists through the principles of buoyant hips.
The Atlas Twist challenges the entire spiral line of the body, offering unique insights. It can be a somewhat limited movement for those with strong body types and potentially unstable for flexible individuals, putting strain on the joints. Here, we apply the principles of buoyant hips to our high lunge, alleviating joint stress and enhancing dynamic stability.
Set-Up:
Start in a high lunge position.
Raise your arms into a spacious bowl shape.
“Before snapshot” Begin with a few twists towards the front leg. Pay attention to where the primary movement originates and how it feels in your body.
Enhancing the Twist:
To elevate the twist, engage the big toe to glute spiral in the front leg and maintain it as you twist.
Notice how this adjustment alters your twist and enhances your sense of stability.
Progressive Practice:
Repeat this sequence multiple times, gradually adding the big toe to glute spiral with the back leg.
As you become more comfortable, initiate the twist by lowering the back knee, further integrating the legs into the twisting motion.
Creating Flow:
Eventually, establish a fluid flow by untwisting to the center, raising your hands into a star pose, and then twisting all the way to the other side.
Asana: Malasana
Malasana
Alleviate knee strain by awakening robust glute and hip support, enabling practitioners to deepen their pose experience without knee discomfort.
The most frequent complaint we hear in malasana is that people’s knees feel strained. The purpose of this Malasana exploration is to mitigate knee strain by awakening stronger support in the glutes and hips, thus allowing practitioners to experience depth in the pose without discomfort or tension in the knees.
Set-up: step the feet slightly wider than the hips, allowing the toes to turn out minimally. activate big toe/ glute spiral. hands can be on the hips for proprioceptive feedback
Bend the knees and reach the hips back like a minimal chair pose. Imagine you have a big horse tail and start dragging it slowly across the floor just an inch or two from side to side Notice any sensations in the glutes and the backside of the body
Continue with the side to side movement, with the option to bend slightly deeper into the knees, Notice how the deeper bend in the knees demands more work in the glutes, if you are feeling this in the knees, come out and try to keep more weight in the heels as you refind your mini-chair. Don’t worry about how far you bend the knees, but rather how much support you can feel on the back of the hips
Option to deepen: If this is feeling good and supported you can gently allow the feet to widen as you sway, allowing for more sway in the hips as you continue to lower
Asana: Supported Supta baddhakonasana
Supported Supta Baddhakonasana
Instill deep relaxation and internal stability by aligning the femurs mindfully into the hip sockets with thigh and hip support.
The purpose of Supported Supta Baddhakonasana is to cultivate a sense of deep relaxation and inner stability by supporting the thighs and hips, which allows for a more mindful and restorative alignment of the femurs into the hip sockets.
Begin by lying down on your back in Savasana (corpse pose).
Place two yoga blocks beside your hips on either side. Ensure the blocks are stable and won't shift during the pose.
Bend your knees and bring the soles of your feet together, allowing your knees to drop out to the sides. Your legs should resemble a diamond shape, with the soles of your feet touching.
Gently tilt the blocks so that the flat side of each block supports your thigh bone close to the hip socket. Your thighs should rest comfortably against the blocks, providing support and allowing your thighs to relax.
Let your arms rest alongside your body with your palms facing up, in a relaxed and open position.
As you breathe, imagine the blocks guiding your femurs (thigh bones) gently into the hip sockets. This should create a feeling of support and stability in the hips.
To release the pose, gently remove the blocks, bring your knees together, and roll to one side before slowly coming up to a seated position.