Assisting Wanda in her intermediate/advanced class tonight she continued to work on opening the upper body & shoulder in preparation of inversions. Reminding often to open the collar bones from the sternum outward all the way to the finger tips. The Iyengar way of opening from the midline outward is a tried and true practice for working from your center.

Starting with breathing to center and open the full lung and chest area.  Full complete breaths to help open the collar bones lifting the sternum and opening the heart center. The pectoralis muscles as well as all the shoulder and back muscles must be warmed and open for inversions.

Working with Marjarasana moving each vertebra of the spine~ opening each space slowly and with mindfulness and love.  Preparing the spine for inversions.  We then went into shoulder openers working not only the shoulders but all the way into the side body flank.  Wanda always finds ways to open and bring awarness to this important area that is often overlooked.

Using the wall and facing the wall for Virabhadrasana I so that the bent leg was stabilized with a block under the knee on the shin & into the wall.  This brought awareness to the knee placement as well as the awareness of the hip pointers facing the wall.  The hips in alignment with the shoulders is a key awareness for all inversions.

Moving away from the wall into a variation of Urdhva Prasarita Ekapadasana (Standing Split) just so that everyone could find that feeling of the hips in alignment while standing on one leg (prep for the kick up in Sirsasana (headstand), & Adho Muka Vrksasana  (handstand).

To the wall for work on the L Shape on the wall and hands in Sirsasana position.  Feet are on wall at hip height and the shoulders are over the elbows with the back straight and strong.  This is hard work for all of us and everyone was able to get up.

To further open the hips and to imprint the feeling of the hips level for inversions Wanda had those with strong shoulder alignment do  the Urdhva Prasarita Ekapadasna using the wall or Hanumanasana on the floor using bolsters and blocks to maintain the proper hip alignment.

Closing with Forward folds and cooling postures a well done class and one that will lead to safe inversions.  Wanda is having an inversion workshop at Yoga 4 All on Sat Feb 27th  1-4pm.  I will be there to assist.  Hope to see ya there.  Namaste….