Hello everyone, and welcome to Yoga With Adriene.
I am Adriene, and today we are going to learn
Baddha Konasana, it's a seated posture,
or the Bound Angle Pose as they call it.
Seated posture, that increases
flexibility in the hips, also in the groin.
And then we're also going to take it down
onto our backs and learn Supta Baddha Konasana,
which is a reclined version, which is super yummy.
So, let's get started.
(gentle acoustic music)
Okay so, Baddha Konasana,
if you ever took ballet when you were little
then you're probably familiar with this pose.
Okay, so we're gonna start
by drawing the right heel in followed by the left heel in,
and just bring the soles of the feet together.
And then same thing, if we wanna lift the hips
we can on a blanket, or a block, or a bolster,
or a pillow, or a book, or a newspaper roll.
Probably not very good.
Bringing the soles of the feet together,
I'm gonna take my thumbs to the arches of my feet
and just give myself a little massage.
Why not, we don't touch ourselves enough.
In yoga.
Okay, so just giving myself
a little bit of stimulation in the feet,
on the arches of the feet,
opening my feet maybe like a book here.
Coming into the breath, of course.
And then I'm gonna take my fingertips behind me
and just lift my tail, or lift my sit bones
and bring my pelvis as close to my heels as I can.
And then just making sure that I feel comfortable here,
if you feel any pain whatsoever,
then maybe inching your toes forward,
and we'll get closer to the heels on another day.
So, just checking in with that.
Softening the groin here, I'm gonna interlace my fingertips,
bring them around my toesies.
And then same thing as we do in Sukhasana,
just coming into the pose by rounding, chin to chest,
breathing into the back,
feeling the skin of the back stretch.
Elbows go out left to right here.
And then from here,
from my foundation, that which is touching
the earth or the floor, I'll grow tall.
Coming into this Bound Angle Pose
or the butterfly, Butterfly Posture.
Okay, but rather than thinking about
pressing the knees down,
think about drawing the tops of thighs out and down.
So external rotation, tops of the thighs
instead of pressing the knees down.
So, there's this sweet waterfall from the quads
melting down, down, down.
So, opening up your little lamb chops here.
Okay, if I want a deeper stretch in the groin,
I can take my middle finger and index finger and thumb
and I can interlace them around my big toe, okay?
Then I'll bring my elbows left to right
and find that nice, long line
from the crown of the head to the tip of the tailbone.
I may even wanna draw my navel in towards my spine.
Tops of the thighs actively drawing down,
opening my feet up like a book here.
I'll take a nice, sweet inhale in,
and then bend the elbows left to right, coming forward.
But rather than allowing the spine to round now,
I'm going to set my intentions to keep a nice, flat back.
Tops of thighs actively drawing down,
inhale in, exhale, come forward.
You may only come a little bit, and we'll just breathe here.
Again, softening the groin, keeping the sit bones rooted.
Okay, we can begin to pulse, maybe, here,
and then in time we'll be able
to bring the belly closer to the heels.
But I think it's important to stay connected
to that Dunda or that staff,
this nice long line from the crown of the head
to the tip of the tailbone
rather than forcing ourself into the pose.
In general, if we ever feel
like we're compromising anything, the breath especially,
it's always a good idea to ease, ease up.
Okay, so here we are
in Butterfly Posture, or Bound Angle Pose.
Five to 10 breaths, pulling the elbows left to right
and coming forward if that feels yummy.
We can keep the chin drawing into the chest
to keep this nice line between
the crown of the head and the tip of the tailbone.
Okay, after about five to ten breaths here,
then, ah, fly, you can release
and go ahead and allow the spine to round.
Tops of the thighs are still active
as I draw my chin to my chest and my nose towards my toes.
Breathing.
Drawing the navel in.
Then when I feel satisfied here,
I'll come back to that flat back position,
extending through the crown of the head,
drawing the shoulders away from the ears,
and then tops of thighs draw out and down
as I come back up to seated.
Okay, I wanna do the same pose six months from now
and see if my hips have opened up any more,
'cause I'm gonna be practicing more regularly.
So, you should do it too.
Okay, now I wanna take it to the back.
Okay, same pose, Baddha Konasana,
but we're gonna recline it, Supta Baddha Konasana.
So, we'll grab two blocks and come to lie flat on our back.
Or if you don't have blocks,
just come to lie flat on your back, okay.
Okie-doke, so Supta Baddha Konasana,
we're gonna take it to a nice, yummy variation
or modification by coming flat onto our backs.
And then why don't we go ahead
and hug the knees into the chest
just for a second here, wrapping the arms around the shins,
around the legs, curling the shoulders down.
Just rock a little, side to side.
Give yourself a little massage
on the lower back and the kidneys.
You can even take the knees in a circle
if that feels good, okay?
And then we'll relax the shoulders and elbows down,
and then I'll bring the soles of my feet to the earth,
then I'll take my palms to the tops of the thighs
and open the book,
drawing the soles of the feet together, okay?
So same thing, opening my little butterfly wings,
bringing the soles of the feet together.
(Adriene breathes deeply) Take a deep breath in.
As you exhale, release the weight of the body
completely and fully into the mat.
So Supta Baddha Konasana, reclined Baddha Konasana,
is a restorative posture.
So, we definitely wanna take the time to exhale.
I just thought of "Waiting to Exhale."
I have never made that joke in yoga before, and I will.
But not today.
So, I'm going relax with the exhale,
then see if I can maybe crawl my heels
up towards my root maybe just a little bit more.
Outer edges of the feet connected to the earth.
Same thing, tops of the thighs
are rotating out and melting down towards the mat,
but this time I have gravity help me do the work.
So, I can even take my palms, bring them to the inner thighs
and just rotating them out a little bit.
Okay, now we can interlace the fingertips,
bring them to rest on the belly, which is great,
because then we can breathe into our hands here.
(Adriene breathes deeply)
Letting the belly rise on the inhale,
look at that, and then exhale, fall.
I love bringing my palms to my belly sometimes
when I wanna tap into my breath,
because I can actually use it as a guideline,
or a visual image of inhaling,
allowing my belly to let my hands rise,
and then on the exhale, (Adriene exhales sharply)
allowing my belly to let the hands fall.
Okay, couple other yummy variations here,
I can interlace the fingertips, bring them behind the head,
extending the thumbs here to massage the neck.
I like to call this Barton Springs posture here,
letting the arms and the legs mirror each other,
and really getting a nice, little sweet backbend here.
So, there's space between my lower back on the mat.
Opening the chest, opening the hips, opening the groin.
Another variation is cactus arms,
or football goal post arms.
I'm in Austin, Texas, so anything,
any time I can bring football into anything,
people dig, okay?
This isn't burnt orange, but it's close enough.
So, football goal post arms here.
So, bending the elbows at kind of a right angle,
and this is also great
if you spend a lot of time at the computer.
Opening the shoulders, opening the chest.
And then again, letting that exhale,
(Adriene exhales sharply)
really take all the tension away.
Filling the belly with air on the inhale,
and then on the exhale releasing the weight of the body
completely and fully into the mat.
Feels super yummy.
If, if by chance you happen to have
two of these little blockies,
there are a million variations
for all of these Asanas, and especially for this one,
but here's just one little suggestion
is to take the one block lengthwise to the spine
and put it underneath the shoulder blades here,
and then this one, the second block
we can bring as a pillow for the head,
just supporting the weight of the head.
And then same thing you guys,
drawing the soles of the feet together,
opening the arches of the feet,
tops of the thighs, rotating out.
So, rather than thinking about pressing the knees down,
I'm just letting my thighs open up,
and then ahh, opening up the shoulders.
You can go cactus arms.
Ooh, Hallelujah!
You can just go open palms,
interlacing the fingertips, whatever feels good for you.
Then close the eyes and relax here.
(Adriene breathes deeply)
Supta Baddha Konasana, super yummy.
Okay, so that was another basic posture,
Baddha Konasana, or Bound Angle Pose,
and then we also took it on our backs,
Supta Baddha Konasana, or Reclined Bound Angle Pose.
And you can enjoy that while you watch TV.
Get off the sofa, improve that posture,
open your hips, your groin,
and do some butterfly while you watch television.
I'm not judging you for watching television.
I'm just saying you could do this pose
while you watch it if you wanted to.
Okay, thanks guys.
If you have any questions or comments,
or you wanna talk about how judgmental I am
to people who watch TV, I watch TV too,
then please leave it in the comment box,
and if you haven't already subscribed to the channel,
please do, and visit Yoga With Adriene for a lot more.
Thanks you guys, namaste.
(gentle acoustic music)