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High Lunge

Learn the High Lunge yoga pose! This video is part of our Foundations of Yoga series suitable for beginners and great for anyone attempting to get back to a practice or deepen a current practice.

Get Em High!

This posture is wonderful place to check in with your center. The area between the belly button and the spine. Also, near that second chakra (buzzword!) which is all about our connection to change and ability to accept new experiences. A powerful point the body if I do say so myself. High Lunge is a place where we can take our time and master the yogic collage. (I'm not high, I promise.)

Let it unfold. You cannot do everything all at once so, take your time, and let it unfold dudes - build it from the ground up. Start with your feet and work your way up through your pelvis, your center, then find that unfolding in the chest as you open your heart and travel up the neck and smile as you remember how Adriene (me) must have been high when writing that blog otherwise she would have never written "yogic collage."

By playing with your own expression in high lunge you are never paranoid, never waiting. Enjoy your high (lunge) by finding what feels good while maintaining your alignment and structure. Get the most out of it so you can have more fun in class. Good luck!

"I'm trying to catch the beat... I'm trying to catch the beat"

*If you get the above song reference I will shout your name from the rooftop.

Namaste.

 

Benefits

  • Strengthens and tones calves, thighs, glutes, abdominal wall 
  • Opens hips, heart, shoulders
  • Strengthens ankles, knees
  • You will start to notice you have a pretty awesome waistline after practicing HL
  • Stimulates internal organs
  • Increases stamina and give you energy!
  • Increases lung capacity (But you gotta breathe)
  • Great for indigestion (massages and stimulates the entire digestive tract - this my friends will help improve metabolism as well as treat BLOATING), constipation
  • Therapeutic for those with sciatica

Modifiations

  • Knee injuries or knees in healing- avoid or modify mindfully. But that back knee down for support and build up to high lunge. Also, use a chair underneath the front thigh to take some of the weight of the front leg. Modify. Modify. 
  • If the neck is cranky (wrote cracky at first 🙂 ) keep the gaze down and soft. There is never any reason to crank the neck.

3 comments on “High Lunge”

  1. Hi Adriene! Thank you for sharing such wondrous yoga with the world!! I love your videos, I am working on building a practice of yoga 2-4 times/day!! I have a desk job and carry an immense amount of tension in my body, and currently have a very low range of motion in my limbs so I'm excited to see how I can use yoga to heal my body... and mind!!!

    I have a special request - would it be possible for you to do an hour(ish) long video targeted at tight hips and shoulders? I know there are other videos I can do for these areas but I'm wondering if it could be brought up a few notches, thought I'd ask.

    Thanks a lot, hope you're having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!!

    Erika

  2. Methodically and diligently going through Foundations series to jump start the Quarantine Version of the Yoga Practice that I've long paid lip service to, so THANKS & NAMASTE for having these archived...

    And noticing no one in Comments reported that they knew from where the lyric you threw into this blog on High Lunge, so I will...

    "Get 'Em High" by Kanye with a little help from Yalib Kweli and Common. Never a fan of Kanye, really, but this 2004 track is certainly not representative of the Kanye that emerged in 2016. But in these divisive times, felt good to go listen to this track again in context of Yoga (part of the Yogic Collage, as you would say...).

    Peace & Indica...

  3. Today, I understood perfectly the difference between high lunge, runners lunge and warrior 1...nicely explained!

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