Yoga learning Eagle Pose - Foundations Of Yoga > Yoga

 

Hey, everyone.
Welcome to Yoga with Adriene: Foundations
Yoga.
Today we're gonna learn Garudasana or eagle
pose.
This is a request I get a lot and it's a great
one because, especially for a beginner, this
pose can look like a pretzely yoga pose that
you just don't even want to mess with.
But it's really fun and it has a lot of therapeutic
benefits.
You're probably going to come across it in
a Hatha yoga class, in a public class.
So it's a really fun one to learn, and if
you like the eagle, like I do, then it always
feels good to practice.
What can I say?
I like the eagle.
Eagle is actually a special symbol in my family,
so shout out to the Martinez family here.
All right, let's hop on the mat and learn
Garudasana.
All right, so we're going to begin standing
today, and feet two brick apart.
Just need a second to bend the knees generously,
send the hip bones way, way back.
We're just going to do a little squat here,
sending the fingertips forward, spreading
awareness through all four corners of the
feet, just kind of gearing up so we're not
going to Eagle pose just yet.
And this is an attractive pose to demonstrate.
No.
I'm just going to take a second here to just
bring awareness to the weight distribution
in my feet, to send my sit bones back, fingertips
forward.
The legs get a little wake up call, a little
charge.
And then last but not least, I'm going to
bring awareness to my belly and my ribcage,
just kind of drawing energy in as I send the
fingertips out.
So this is actually a great workout here,
a little squat.
Take a deep breath in, maybe you sink a little
lower, lift your toes, spread awareness through
all four corners of the feet, and then on
an exhale, tuck the pelvis, should feel good,
and release the fingertips down.
Awesome.
Now we're going to bring the feet together,
maybe keeping just a little bit of space,
like almost a thumbprint's worth of space,
between the heels.
Once again, bend the knees generously.
We're gonna come to an Utkatasana, setting
the sit bones back, fingertips forward.
We actually have a Foundations of Yoga for
Utkatasana, on chair pose, but we're just
kind of checking in with the legs, and once
again, lifting the toes, connecting to the
foundation here, which is the soles of the
feet, right?
Drawing energy up from there.
Take a deep breath in.
Maybe sink a little lower.
Inhale in, and exhale.
Should feel awesome to press into the earth.
Tuck your pelvis and find that lift up through
the heart, and the crown of the head.
Great.
We take just a pause here in Mountain and
then we're going to send the fingertips forward
and explore Garudasana.
So right away, again, foundations of yoga,
we're really breaking it down here.
I'm going to reach the fingertips forward.
In fact, I'll turn again, profile, so you
can see this in my shoulder blades.
I'm going to reach, reach, reach forward,
spreading my shoulder blades left to right,
reach, reach, reach.
Then I'm going to loop my shoulders and plug
them in.
Keep reaching energy forward through the fingertips,
but we're going to come from this like, "Gimme,
gimme, gimme" shape to looping the shoulders
and kind of plugging the shoulder blades in
and together and down.
So again, you can see this.
I'm going from reaching here, to looping the
shoulders, finding this lift through the sternum,
and a bit of poise comes to my shape, and
it feels good, feels active.
Excuse me, allergies, good ol' Austin allergies.
Looping the shoulders down, finding that lift
in the heart.
Stay here.
Take a deep breath in, long breath out.
And we're going to find a soft bend in the
knees.
So you don't have to go into a big, generous
bend, just a soft bend here.
And again, we remember that squat as we really
spread awareness through the soles of the
feet.
Now we're gonna drop the right arm underneath
the left, and then we swing the fingertips
up to kind of come into this Kiai pose, so
the elbows are hooked here.
We kind of come into this ninja posture here.
And i remember to sink my hips a little bit.
Great.
So from here, stay at this V. I'm going to
peel my right toes up, cross my right toes
over my left leg here, and then I can stay
here, and the reason I stay here is not just
to be cute and fun in this ninja pose, but
to really gauge my hips and shoulders.
So right toes touching the earth, I'm going
to pull my right hip down.
Fingertips are pointing up towards the sky.
I'm going to pull my right shoulder down.
So there's a tendency to kind of do this.
I'm really low on my eagle.
I'm all twisted up.
But given that this is Foundations of Yoga,
we're really going to consider our foundation
and then you're going to really be able to
soar in this Garudasana, with practice.
I go from my Kiai V here.
I cross my right toes.
Again, pull the right hip crease down, and
pull the right shoulder down.
Nice.
And if you're new to the shape, this could
be where you kind of stop today and go, "All
right, I'm really going to work with integrity,
pulling that right hip crease down, keeping
an awareness to the sole of my left foot,
and then pulling that right shoulder down,
lifting up through the sternum," okay?
To go a little deeper, we might continue the
wrap of the arms around.
Palms come together but not at the sacrifice
of these shoulders being kind of in line,
in alignment.
So keep that right shoulder down and then
maybe l lift my right toes up and maybe, just
gonna fix my mic here, maybe i wrap my right
toes all around, but again, not at the cost
of this hip rocking forward.
So I'm going to imagine an imaginary thumb
pulling my right hip crease down.
So again, I may just stay here with the right
toes on the ground, and this kind of awesome
Kiai V here so that i can practice leveling
the shoulders and leveling the hips, and still
really connected to my standing leg in a nice,
really strong, just integrated way.
So what I'm getting at is we're not kind of
getting into the pose and then holding on
for dear life.
We're getting into the pose in a way where
we're fulling integrated.
All those intrinsic muscles are going along
for the ride.
I'm connected with my breath.
And yeah, from there, Eagle pose, you can
really soar high, fly high with the breath.
So if we are able to wrap the palms and we
are able to wrap those toes, then we're just
going to keep a constant awareness of the
hips and shoulders.
Wherever you are, we're all going to bring
our awareness now back to the breath, and
then pay attention to what's going on in the
pelvis.
So there might be a tendency, although this
is an awesome kind of full variation of Eagle,
we're going to keep it nice and stacked today.
So just notice what's going on in the pelvis
and lengthen the tailbone down and find that
lift up through the heart again, the sternum.
Then you might take your gaze from the video
now and focus your gaze just past your nose
here, finding a soft gaze, or we call this
focus Drishti in Sanskrit, down past the nose.
So the heart is lifting up, the shoulders
are grounding down, the fingertips might reach
up, and the elbows, nice integrated moment
here, so we're not just reaching forward,
but we're finding the balance between this
lift and lengthen and this grounding down.
Take one more breath wherever you are.
You might challenge yourself by sinking in
a little deeper.
If you are further along in the practice,
you know there are variations of Garudasana,
Eagle, Sleeping Eagle, that you can play with.
But wherever you are, let's take one more
full, buoyant breath, and then we'll release.
Unravel the arms.
Unravel the legs.
Press into both feet evenly.
And let's inhale.
Reach the fingertips up towards the sky, full
body stretch, and then exhale, let it go,
back to mountain.
And let's try the same thing on the other
side.
So we spread awareness through the feet, and
we're going to bend the knees generously again,
just kind of softly coming into a bend.
So there is this thing of kind of rushing.
It's the same thing when we look at the foundations
of tree pose.
If you just dump the weight into your right
foot, kind of into your right hip, and then
build the pose from there, you're really putting
a lot of undue pressure on the joints, a and
b.
It's going to be harder to be this buoyant,
free, beautiful, find your energy, your prana,
your kundalini vibes, or whatever in your
posture, if you're not connected.
So really slow it down and let's play here
with the process, I guess, is what I'm trying
to say.
Bend the knees.
We find this comfortable seat here.
It's not comfortable.
And we find a little seat and we find a place
of ease here, I should say.
And we reach the fingertips forward once again.
Take a deep breath in, long breath out as
you ground down through the shoulders, and
remember that reach and pull.
See if you can find that movement as we plug
the shoulders in and lift the heart up.
This time we'll draw the left fingertips down,
so left arm comes underneath the right and
once again, we hook the elbows and lift up.
Okay, this is going to be a little different
for everyone, right? just find what feels
good here.
And we're going to start paying attention
to the shoulders.
So left arm underneath, and this time we keep
this energetic lift up through the center
channel as we peel up through the left foot.
We squeeze the left knee up and we cross it
over, so we're here, and here.
Left toes touch the earth, and we now bring
our awareness to those hips creases again.
So you might imagine again pulling that left
hip crease down.
We might sink a little deeper, lengthening
the tailbone down towards the earth, and we're
here, playing with the shoulders.
So again, if you're starting to torque, this
is really not the Eagle we're looking for,
kind of holding on for a wing and prayer,
Eagle wing and a prayer.
So you might just stay here, leveling the
hips and leveling the shoulders.
If you feel like you can play with that, even
wrassle with it is good, while still bringing
the palms around, even if they don't touch,
you can still play with continuing this twist
around, you might do that.
And the same thing with the toes, but we're
just going to play here, finding the breath
and finding a softness, paying attention to
the hips, head over heart, heart over pelvis
here as we lift the fingertips up maybe on
this variation.
And once again, when we're ready, taking our
focus from the video, and maybe bringing it
into a softer gaze of focus down past the
nose line here.
We breathe into the belly, stretching and
strengthening the lower body as we lift the
heart up, Garudasana, Eagle pose.
We inhale, lift the fingertips up, exhale,
ground down.
Maybe you sink a little bit deeper into that
standing leg.
If you want to take a variation here now,
if you're like, "I did it all on one side.
I'm gonna try it on the other," maybe you
go ahead and practice a little, playtime here.
But otherwise, work on your breath.
And if you have to come out of it and in and
out of it, this is the time to play, so rock
on.
So the thing about Eagle is we kind of just...
I speak from my own experience.
We kind of just wrap into a tight... trying
to master the shape rather than build the
process and the experience.
And the more you kind of focus on the process,
the richer the experience is going to be,
especially when you're in public class and
this comes up.
So wherever you are, take one more deep breath
in and then we'll use the exhale to unravel
the arms and the legs, press into both feet
firmly, and again, we'll reach up nice and
tall, maybe slight back bend this time if
it feels right, and then we'll exhale back
to mountain pose.
Awesome.
Just notice how you feel.
Notice the differences between the right leg
and the left leg.
Shake it off if you need to here.
Shake it off.
Taylor Swift shout out.
Only in my yoga videos, right?
We take a second to close the eyes.
Seriously, take your gaze off the video.
Maybe draw your attention inward.
Notice your breath.
Open the palms.
Life is good.
We take a deep breath in, and exhale, let
it go.
All right, awesome work, my friends.
So that was Eagle pose.
If you're craving more foundations of yoga,
I just wanted to tell you, a couple videos
that you might want to try after this, if
you have some time, that will go good with
your Eagle pose.
You might try Tree pose.
You might try Recline Twist.
And i think that actually Wind Relieving pose
would be a fun thing to end with.
So if you wanted to kind of couple up a couple
of foundations, that was redundant, then that
might be a fun place to go after Garudasana.
And i will raise you up, on eagles' wings...
Name all the songs you know with eagles in
them down below.
Thanks, my friends.
I love doing Foundations of Yoga with you.
Leave questions, comments below.
I really like tending to the foundations questions
so that we can all grow our practice, to be
really strong, and happy, and healthy.
All right?
Find what feels good.
I'll see you next week.
Namaste.