by Hélène Roy
A hip-opening sequence building through lunges and half-splits toward Hanumanasana, with an emphasis on the pelvic floor lift throughout. The practice asks less "how far can you go?" and more "can you keep rising while you get there?" — on the mat, and off it. Style: Vinyasa / Alignment Props: 2–3 blocks recommended
Meet your Teacher
Rye, NY, USA
Transcript
Hi, I'm Helen. Welcome. Today we're walking with a shape called Hanumanasana or the shape of Hanuman, The split or the flying monkey. And we are exploring whether expansion is only outward expansion. Or whether it also includes this idea of upward lift and upward expansion. Hanuman, The great monkey hero of the Ramayana, Is known for making the giant leap from the shore of India to the shore of Lanka. But what we often forget about in the story is that before actually taking the lead. . . Hanuman become as big as a mountain and gather all his energy, His prana, To not only step forwards but also lift up and forward. So this is what we are doing today. We need three blocks, Two is good, Three would be great if you have them today. And let's grab one of those blocks. Bring the block between your heels and come to sit on the block. You can even start two blocks if you need for your knees. And we are in Virasana, Hero pose. Bring your hands to your knees. Let's close the eyes for a second. Bring your awareness to your breath. Let's inhale together. And excel. And it brings your awareness to your sitting bone. And notice. . . Where? Your z-point connects to the plot. And we're going to make sure we're fully grounded here by grounding the pubic bone, So the front of the sit bone, Into the pluck. Nice. And bringing your awareness a little higher up, Bringing your navel to the spine. So if you had to do that little forward tilt, Stay there, Stay grounded, Lift up your pelvic floor, Mulamarta, We call this in yoga, That pelvic floor lift, Pelvic floor lock, And we're going to thread the ribs in. Spread the collagones. Drop the shoulders and stack the crown of the head. Onto the perfect stitch. So we're finding already that upward lift. From the pelvic floor engagement all the way to the crown of the head. You take three breaths here, Slowing down. Slow exhale. Feel the energy rising on the inhale. And expand out on the Excel. One more inhale Thanks so much for watching. Let's come forward onto your hands and knees. Keep the blocks close to the mat for now. Let's print. Press the fingers, The hands are shoulders distance apart and we want to make sure that the shoulders are aligned with the wrist and the knees are hip distance apart. I like to ground the shades here by pointing the toes and spreading the toes onto the mat and trying to ground the side, The pinked side of the feet onto the mat, Maybe even the ankle. We'll do a few cat cows to warm up the spy in her brawl lookup. Exhale, Roll that look at your back. Three more like this, Inhale. And Excel. Inhale. Articulating the spine, Exhale. Inhale one last time. And accept. Coming back to neutral spine, We're going to walk the right foot in between the hands. We may need to make some adjustments here, Lifting the back knee and then dropping the back knee again. So you have a nice spread between that left knee and that right. A little bit of alignment first and form right knee into the right armpit right hand outside of the right foot and we press the top of the back foot onto the mat nice And here today, I'm going to show you. Try to find the expansion in every single pose we're doing. So grounding the pinky side of that left foot. I expand through that left hip all the way to the crown of the head. On the right side, That right hip moving back. Spreading the cauliper. Once I'm here, I'm nicely grounded, I'm nice and foaming to rise. Bring the arms at grabbing opposite elbows If you're digging down a little bit, You feel your energy falling down and maybe you're super flexible and you used to be close to the crowd, Lift yourself up a little bit. Bring your right femur into the hip socket and zip it up. I like to visualize the zip for my winter coat going from the pubic bone all the way to the prongs of the head so grab opposite elbow Elbows find your shape here, Right? Feathering to the head socket, Navel to the spine, We do three breaths. Dropping the shoulders, Inhale. Make a warp. Inhale. Ace of two. Ni hao. Exhale, Free, Release the hands, Refrain your front foot, Bring your right knee right into your right armpit. Here we can keep the hands flat on the floor, Maybe come onto the fingertips here to find more spread into the shoulders. We're going to extend that front leg into Hanumanasana, The half variation. So I push with my right heel and send my hips back. When I'm back here, Try to keep your hands forward for now. Spread your cargo board, Send that right hip out, Flex your front foot. A nice Stretching the back of the leg here. Those hamstrings are really feeling it. Inhale, Move forward. Open the whole space. Exhale, Move back. And we're walking from the hinge of the right head. So we'll do this a few times, Three, Maybe five times, Moving back. And see, Can you keep your hips level here? Can you keep your heart space? Open, One more round. Nice. When you come to the front, Release the shea, The right knee back, And left foot forward. Symphony of the South. Same adjustment if you need, Lengthen the back leg, Drop the back knee again so you have nice spread and steady Point the right toes. Left knee into the left armpit, Left hand right outside of the left foot. Right hand to the mat, Maybe the thicker text. And I'm pressing the pinky toe side of my right foot, Extending, Extending all the way to my knee, To my right hip, Spreading the collarbone. Nice. And once I'm grounded here, Lift it back slightly, Hoping to rise. Grabbing opposite of the opposite, So just reach side. Same walk, We avoid to collapse down, We send the energy up. From the pinky toe side, From my right foot, All the way to the pelvic floor. Zip it up, Navel to the spine. Ribs in, Nice, Shoulder down, Crawl with the head Towards the sky, Three breaths. One. And we release the hands to the mat, Reframe into the armpit, Maybe a little higher this time on your fingertip, Final extension back to front and moving from the hinge of the left hip and pushing that hip back by flexing the left foot and the leg And we go a few times. Trying to keep your heads level. Maybe your long rigs connected to your left thigh. Spreading the collarbones. Sending the energy back and forth at the same time so you expand outward Nice! Come forward. Decide to touch your back toes, Lift your back knee, Ground your hand while stepping back in downward facing dog. Sometime I like to first find my client. So I'm sure I am measuring. And then push the hips back, Downward facing dog. Let's take a moment here, Let's walk the dog. I need one leg fully in the other. Sending the heel one after the other to the back. Then bend both knees Be on the ball of your feet, Lengthen the tailbone back. Squeeze your navel in, Lift that pelvic floor, Even here in the dodo, We'll find that lift that lunge. Through the belted through. Nice three breath here you can lengthen your legs a little bit if you wish maybe some of you have your heels down. Be comfortable here. Don't compromise the hinge into your hips. Two breaths. Inhale. Excel. Mmm help? And exhale. Come high onto your tippy toes, Look forward. Let's walk to the front of the mount. Feet hip distance apart, You can measure two fists. Like this together in between the arch of the feet. And fold down your knees. As you fold, We're going to squeeze the inner thigh. When I squeeze my inner thigh in, I feel my pelvis is tilting a little bit. I find more hinge into my head and it allows me to free my shoulder, Free my upper arms. Maybe I can grab opposite elbows here. And won't sign hedging fully. Maybe my knees come in connecting to my armpits. Requires a lot of strength in the legs and a nice deep fold into the hips to release the upper thigh and find expansion here even if you are looking down Let's release the elbows. Grounding from your feet, We rise all the way up. In her eyes. All the way, All the way, All the way. Gaze up at the top. Maybe poke your thumb if you wish to give yourself a nice stretch. Stretching one side. Stretching the other. Hanuman getting big. On the shore of India, Ready to leave. To Lankan, Bring your hands to the side. Next. Let's come to the front of the mat. So, Fend and ease. Standing tall and straight. Ta-da! So now, Like a mountain. Trôle à commenter. In her eyes, Gaze up, Gaze at the dance. If you want to work your thumbs and lengthen, Stretch a bit more tiny in the back. Make them refold completely. Inhale, We send the right foot back, All the way back. Right knee down. Before we rise, Find your form. Ground your right knee. Point your right toe, Screw on the ankle, The pinky side of the right foot. Bring your left knee to the upper arm. Lengthen, Find your extension here in that lower version and then inhale right, Arms up. This time let's keep the arms How? Same thing, If you're sinking here, Lift yourself up. Find the lift in the pelvic floor, In or under. Push that left hip back. Nice. Now let's move the right hand to the mat, Right fingertip, And we'll add a little twist here. Be mindful not to collapse into that right shoulder. Open. Spacious. We can stay here optioned to walk the left foot a little bit to the left. And then he sent the left ambar. Think about expressing that openness. Big monkey form. And then funky monkey, We call this shape, We grab the back for totally optional here. Three breaths, Wherever you are. Inhale. Excel. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale release let's come back to the front refrain the front foot maybe walk your foot back to the which was letting into the left armpit high in your fingertips second round inhale we move and push the hips back Exhale, We come forward. And we go two times around, One breath, One movement. Keeping our hips level. And keeping that extension. So even when I extend my hips back, I'm looking slightly forward and sending my collarbone, My heart space forward. This is where we want the energy. To go nice next time you bend the front knee bring your hands in walk your hands to the right side and come onto your feet here the feet are parallel we have that wide v grounding the big toe rounding the heels soften the knees here a little bit hands to the mat or your fingertips. Imagine you're squeezing huge blood between your eyes, And then to lift up more lavender again and find a hinge to fall into the hands. If your hands come to the mat, You can walk them back, Ground above the hands, Feet and toes in the same direction. Squeezing the elbows, Two more breaths, Inhale Relax the neck. So. We have. And mix. I'm looking up Lifting halfway, Walking the hands up to the left grounding of the hands, Stepping back Now we're facing the right. And we'll do the other side from here. So right foot in between the heart. Left knee down. We adjust again, We find the form, Right knee to the right. Unpin it, We frame that foot nicely, We ground the left The left foot, The pinky side of the left foot, We find an extension. And you rise, Arms parallel, Dropping the shoulders, Lifting up, Zipping your core, Bite firmer into the Hitsoke. Navel up. Nice. One breath. Inhale, Exhale, Left hand to the mat, Right arm towards the ceiling. Same option as the other side here, Stay soft on your left shoulder. We can stay here, We can walk the right foot a little bit to the right, Expand your monkey chest, Open your heart space and maybe grab your back foot, Your funky monkey variation, Three breaths. For one. And three max release the back foot if you walked your foot to the side bring it back to where it was right into the right armpit and second round here we move from the head we keep that extension extension from the back toes all the way to the heart space the crown of the head and a few rounds we go back and we cook forward one breath, One movement. If the inhale is going back. . . And make sure you Excel free as you go forward and vice versa. Find a pattern that works for you here. Next time you come forward, This time touch your toes, Lift your knee. And we're going to walk the hands to the inside of the right foot and walk the hands towards the left Okay, We can do the same variation of that wide V, That wide straddle, Or we can do another one. I'm grabbing the big toe with my. . . First two fingers. I'm going to flip around so you can see me here. Grabbing the beak with the first two fingers. Nice, Squeezing your gigantic glutes between your legs, Soften your knees, Refine the hinge into the head, Lifting the pelvic floor. So even if we're upside down here, We still have that upward movement. Motion, The energy is rising. Through the legs the tail bone. All the way towards the ceiling. Relaxing the upper body. One more breath. Inhale it, And you're going to walk your hands to the right. And step to the front of the mat. Folding fully into here, The feet are hips distance apart And inhale, We rise all the way up. Hands to the side. Nice. Building on in her rise case at the dance Excel, Hinge and Fold. Inhale, Right foot back, All the way back. This time we're going to keep that knee lifted. So I'm higher on my lunge here, Moving from low lunge, Anjali asana, To the higher violation. So pushing the right heel towards the back, So I don't collapse into my right hip. The left knee can come to the left armpit. I can ground my hands, But still spread my collarbone and send the energy forward through my crown of the head. Nice, Let's keep your right hand rooted here. We'll add a gentle and spacious twist. Three breaths, Inhale. Excel Inhale. Like so. Slowly release. Frame your front foot and find your form again, Lengthening to the left armpit. Lengthening. Here I like to use blob circuits, Two blocks. You can bring them right below your hand, Probably on the lower side, It's fine. And we need to do the same sending the left hip back so I push for my left foot and I'm going to send the hip back so I've got the wide version of the pyramid and then forward And we do the same thing we did on the other side. You can lift the frog foot. Or keep it grounded. Focus more on your heads here. If you find yourself moving your hips around to find more momentum Then reconsider your form here, Less is more. Form is better. Time and pictures. Nice. Next time you come forward. Move the blocks slightly, Moving your hands towards the center, So to the right. And this time we're going to. . . Move into Skandhasana, So flexing one knee, Extending the other leg. And moving back and forth here. If you round, Once you get comfortable you can lift your hand, Open your heart space. Same upward moving motion here. Okay, Next time you extend your left leg, We're working with the left leg first here, We're going to drop the left sit bone onto the mat. And then, If your knee allows, We're going to drop the right knee forward. So that right leg is down, We're in a half-euro pose. If that's too much pressure on your right knee, You can do the same in Janusha Shasana, This shape. Nice or if you need a little lift you take a block and you slide the block below the left the let's see bomb here. Nice. So I load this into the shape here, Not an easy one. But a great one to sign. Mula Banda, Pelvic floor engaging. So I'm sitting here on the inside of my heel. I'm going to zip it up, Needle to the spine. Zip your coat. Take that left foot, Pull the left thumb into the hip socket. Some of you, You'll stay here. Stable and grounded, Although maybe you can find a little hinge into the head. Nelly grabbed from foot. Three breaths, So keep squeezing your inner thigh, Knees towards each other, Lifting the pelvic floor. And take a moment to appreciate how grounded you can be into your legs to find that fold. Movement, That forward flexion here with a little more ease. One more breath together. Nice now we're ready for our lick so we've been raising and lifting up in different version of this warm-up sequence and we're going to make it into bouncing forward so pressing to your right knee here come higher and just a little bit your step we want to find that same spread as we had for the runner's stretch or the half and manasana earlier when we were going back and forth and you can do it a few times here again to find the spread of the legs. Nice. Okay, Moving forward with our shape. I'm going to demonstrate different expression of the shape. And I will ask you to consider to only do maybe 80% of what you think your halomanasthma can pick. So the first version of it will be a half-halomanasthma. We've done this a few times here into the sequence. We're just going to bring some support below it. So you can do a block. On the higher edge or two blocks. That you can stack this way. If you have a lot of blocks. I'm going to go for the higher variation here. So sitting a little lower in the glove but still using the connection to the earth with my knee so i'm i'm high and i'm going to use those blocks here to help me find my fault. So if you're comfortable there, We stood there. If you feel like you are a little more opening into your hips and you can slide your left foot forward, We can do so. Be mindful if you're one of those people who can go all the way down. If I do that, I will feel my energy crashing down through my left hip. Crushing down into the floor. And this is the opposite of what we're trying to do here. So do 80% of what you're doing. Think you can too. Then use your blocks to the side, On your fingertips, And lift yourself up a little. Because I want you to bring your awareness to your hips and to bring them to love them. So we want to pull that left femur into the hip sockets and we want to rotate the right hip forward and reposition here like this. Once your hits are level, To the extent of how big it is, We're going to zip it. So instead of Collapsing down into the head. Lift yourself up. Visualize that zipper on your winter coat. You zip, Bring the two parts of the zipper together, Add up your deep bone, Zip it up, Navel to the spine. Lift from lavender. Lift up all the way to the crown of the head. Maybe the arms can follow. Maybe the gaze can follow. Now you're flying, And not only you're stretching your legs from one shoulder to the other, You're also lifting and rising. That's your botany show, That's your show. Mission your dharma you're flying off with lightness while expanding. From the back to front to the past to the future nice release Use your extra blocks here super handy to lift yourself up. Slide that left leg back Keep your vlogs near, Bye! Let's clean the hand. Step back into a curl. Vandenice! Downward facing dog. Paddle the legs Move the heads around. Nice. Once you're ready, Come onto your toes. Look forward. Let's take a chain step to the front of the mat. And forward. Inhale, Rise. All as tall as possible, Gaze up, Hands to the side. As tall as a mountain, Then we do the other side. In her eyes. Gaze at the tops exhale hinge from the hips and fold This time that's the left leg walking all the way back and we keep that knee lifted off the ground. Right knee into the right armpit. Extending from the back here all the way to the crown of the head by spreading the heart space, Spreading the cognitive potential Left hand grounded, Right arm up. Three breaths. A nice spacious twist here without collapsing on the left shoulder. Inhale. Excel. Inhale Exhale. Inhale. Exhale, Bring your right hand back, Driving into your right armpit, Take your blocks, Frame your front foot give yourself some space here to work there. And from the hips, From the right hip, Pushing with the right heel, Extend the frog head. Can I keep that expansion in the chest while I'm moving, Hinging from my head, Back and forth? Finding your breath and movement coordination one more time. Once you come forward you can move your blocks to the side and we're going to walk the hands towards the left side. I'm going to. . . Show you my back my bottom for a second come to the center and then we start them in one knee scale this so now so same thing as we did on the other side and yeah the second round so maybe we are a little more space here to expand. One hip is starting to open Quiet the pet until the other one is going to catch up. Next time you bend your left knee, But now walking with the right leg. So look forward, Frame your front leg. Legs. At foot and come to seat on your right seat belt. Same option here, Be very mindful with your knees. So if you need to adjust, Please do so. The block below the seat it's a nice adjustment here to help you lift your hips and bring your hips to level And if you can sit nicely, Both sitting bones. Make sure your space. Hands to the side, Fingertips to the side. Mou lavenda, Pelvic floor engagement. This is what prevents you to fall over. Zip it up, Nibble to the spine. Spread the color crown of the head, The energy is rising. We can stick here, Maybe we inch into that right leg, Maybe we grab the front foot. Stronger as I relax, Make you relax. Inhale. Like so to walk in hug Excel. And how? In Excel. In your eyes. Use your hands, Press into your left knee and come up. And we need to readjust a little bit. It was a little bit too short, So walk that back knee to the back. Same action as before. Let's move again, Like we did on the other side. Back and forth a few times. Every time you go back, You're already in Hanumanasana. That's the half variation. Very valid variation. We know how hard it is to keep our heads low. So be gentle with yourself. Okay, Same direction as on the other side. I can stack two blocks. So this way I can put one block high and I find that support here. It's both a support and a boundary. Can extend my leg and I'm in a high variation. And that have honey when I ask you. If I have the states, I'm going to lower down. But again, Let's do 80%. Yeah, I'll stack a block here. You can have two, You can have three. If you have zero, Just be mindful you let it not completely collapse into your flexibility. Use your blocks to the side, Or your fingertips if you don't have extra blocks. And give yourself a chance to find a form first. So lift yourself up. Literally off the block and square your head so my right tip goes back My left hip goes forward and I clay chair with the strength of my legs with the connection of the pinky toe side of that back foot. Once I have this, We zip it up again. And wellness to that new level. I want to fly across the ocean. I don't want to crash into the water midway. So I'm going to rise up. Expand outward. On one shoulder with the other. Are also expanding upward by lifting energy through the early flow. Go do it now. Taking an extra breath, Inhale. Excel release nice use your extra block Extra blocks. Lift yourself up. Slide that through back. Move your blocks to the side Oh, Readjust. Yeah and then let's find out facing God Ooh, I can pedal just nice. Now it feels much more authentic. A really stretchy nose. Eplexor. They all saw us and about the legs. Nice. This walk there. Feet to the hands and twist cross Come to sit. Grab a block. One last time. And lay down on your back. So we'll finish with a little bit of heatflex to release and extension. Using this block if The block poses your low back. To be in paint and we don't use the block you can do the same thing as I'm here just flat on the floor If you want a triumphal block, Replace the block the right below with a sacrum. So, Turn the table on towards the front, Lengthen the lower back. Yeah, Nice. And crown your table on the stepper. Go slowly so you can test your boundaries here. Extend one leg, Push with the heel towards the front of the room. And then extend the other leg. So pushing the heels. The front. You can grab opposite elbows and stay here. Keep the legs active here so you're really stretching and tapping into the front body here, The hip flexor releasing the psoas. If you want a little more release you can bring one knee, Maybe the right knee, To your chest. Keep pressing the liquid for. So with the blobs we have a little of a lift here. So more of a stretch. The key, My phone. And then just switch side. Or release. When you feel flat on the floor, Lift your seat to remove. The block and its manual needs to your chest to finish. Give yourself a nice hug. And whether you were able to do the full variation of Hanumanasana, The full split, Or any variation in between, They all were flying up. We were all lifting the bell before getting the upward extension. So now let's go straight onto the mat. Make yourself comfortable. We'll do a few breaths together. If you're home you can Stay there for a few more minutes. When you're ready, You can start to move your toes and your fingers. Stretch, Expand one more time from the toes all the way up to the fingers. Bring your knees to your chest, Give yourself a last hug and rolling to the side when you're ready to finish your practice. So nice to have you here, And congratulations on your split, Your halumanas. And as you see, As much as we work to expand and get one leg behind and the other all the way to the front, The work is actually less. And that work will find in all The yoga practice really, This idea of lifting the energy and the image of Hanuman is lifting and crossing the ocean but at the same time fulfilling his dharma, His mission and expanding his vision and his reach. Thank you for being here. Stay tuned. See you soon.
