rydra_wong: Lee Miller photo showing two women wearing metal fire masks in England during WWII. (Default)
rydra_wong ([personal profile] rydra_wong) wrote in [community profile] lifting_heavy_things 2010-06-25 04:31 pm (UTC)

There's a fun little micro-sequence I'm doing quite a bit in my own practice that might be useful:

Start in Downwards Facing Dog (stretching out the hamstrings and opening the shoulders a bit).

Then swing one leg up into Three-Legged Dog (ignore the stuff about feet -- I couldn't find a better illustration). This opens the hips and gives you a bit of a twisting stretch through the whole torso.

Then you swing that leg down, bringing your knee to touch the wrist and laying the shin on the ground, and settle into Pigeon Pose (this is a more useful picture, as her shin is not so extremely far forwards). Pigeon is a fantastic stretch for the hip rotators in the thigh and bum, and it's easier to go deeper in it when you're already warmed up.

If you want to get even more stretch in it, you can bend forwards and lay yourself over your front knee.

Then back into Down Dog and repeat on the other side.

Once I've done both sides, I'll often go from Pigeon into Ardha Matsyendrasana if I want more twisting.

ETA: Let me know if this is the sort of thing you're looking for.

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