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- Butterfly
Starting in the butterfly pose. Sit with the soles of the feet together
and lean forward. Hold for 3-5 minutes. When the feet are closer to
the groin it will give you a deeper inner thigh (groin muscle) stretch;
if further away, it will give you more of a back stretch.
You can see my very externally rotated hips, the heads of my
femur bones hit the hip socket and creates compression – my knees
cannot go down towards the floor; however, this is still a deep inner
thigh and back stretch for me.
3. Up-Swan
Slowly stack your spine and come up, swing the left leg back,
square your hips towards the floor or roll the left hip towards the
floor, come onto your fingertips (to stimulate the upper body
meridian chi – lungs, heart, small and large intestines) and stay
here for the up-swan. Hold it for 1-2 mins. You could also take hold
of the back foot. This is a back bend with a strong stretch into
the hip flexor of the back leg. When we stretch the front layer of
the body we stimulate the spleen and stomach, meridian chi and
fire-up the kidney and urinary bladder chi with compression in the
back. Back bends help us to regain our lumbar curve and can be
very helpful to relieve back issues.
5. Baby Swan
Lean towards your right-side, swing the left leg half way back (at a
90 degree angle) into the deer (I like to call it the baby swan) and
hold for 2-5 mins. The target areas of the back leg are the adductor
muscles of the groin which stimulates the liver meridian chi. This
posture is also a wonderful alternative for the swan if the student
has any knee issues as there is no weight on the front knee.
2. Half Butterfly
Slowly come up and extend your left leg out wide then go towards
the straight left leg into half butterfly. Soften the knee and relax into
the shape – hold for 2-5 mins. Half butterfly stretches the tendons
and ligaments of the hamstrings and adductors of the straight leg
and all along the spine – stimulating the kidney and urinary and liver
meridians’ chi (energy). - Sleeping Swan
Slowly come up and extend
your left leg out wide then
go towards the straight left
leg into half butterfly. Soften
the knee and relax into the
shape – hold for 2-5 mins.
Half butterfly stretches
the tendons and ligaments
of the hamstrings and
adductors of the straight
leg and all along the spine
- stimulating the kidney and
urinary and liver meridians’
chi (energy).
yin yoga