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- Hello, everyone, and 
welcome to Yoga With Adriene.

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I am Adriene and today we
are going to learn Dandasana,

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or the Stick Pose, or also
known as the Staff Pose,

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(laughs) or, multiple names.

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Dandasana is 
a beautiful posture.

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It's another one of those asanas

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where there's more 
than meets the eye.

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So it's kind of fun 
to have the time here

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in this little video 
to break it down.

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So, hop on the mat and
let's learn Dandasana.

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(upbeat music)

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Okay so from a nice 
cross-legged position,

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I'm gonna sit up nice and tall.

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Really right away 
bringing my awareness

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to the crown of the head

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and then letting it
trickle all the way down

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to the tip of the tailbone. (laughs)

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Sorry, that was silly.

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Okay, so sitting 
up nice and tall.

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Elongating through the spine.

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Coming into the breath.

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I'm gonna break 
down Dandasana,

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so I'm gonna send 
my legs out in front.

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I'm gonna keep my heels in
line with my hip points here

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so we have wider 
than the hip points,

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and then we have 
heels straight together.

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For now, for beginners,
I'm gonna send heels

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just straight in line
with the hip points here.

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Now speaking of the heels,
I'm gonna press into my heels

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so activate the legs here. 
Active legs.

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I'm gonna press into the
heels, flexing the feet.

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The toes point up 
towards the sky.

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Or you can imagine your toes
pointing towards your heart

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or back towards your face.

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So we're really engaging
the full sole of the foot.

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Palms are gonna come to
the tops of the thighs here

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for just a moment, 
for just a couple breaths.

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We're gonna use 
this as a reminder to

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one, draw the tops of the
thigh bones down, down, down.

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In fact, there's a 
little rotation here.

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Kind of similar to the rotation
in Downward Facing Dog,

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where the tops 
of the thigh bones

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are gonna rotate in towards
each other just slightly.

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So we're thinking 
about the quads,

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the tops of the thigh bones,

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drawing in together and down.

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So there's no lazy legs
here, but really nice,

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engaging quality here.

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So definitely a pose 
like I said before

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that there's a lot going on.

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More than meets the eye. Okay?

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Now, from the heels I travel up

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engaging the quads,
tops of the thigh bones,

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drawing down, toes still
pointing up towards the sky.

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Now I'm gonna 
continue to travel up.

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See if I can align head over
heart, heart over pelvis here.

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I can release my fingertips
from the thighs now

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to the sides using this as a
bit of a support system here.

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So pressing up slightly
out of the fingertips

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to find that length.

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Imagine lifting from
this area of your body,

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your armpit chest.

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In fact, everyone take your
thumbs and give yourself

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a little lift here if
you're not too sweaty.

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Bringing the thumbs 
to the armpit chest

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and using it, 
the power of touch here,

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to just give yourself
a little bit of length,

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a little bit of lift.

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Then maintain that lift,
that openness in the heart,

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and release the 
fingertips back down.

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We're drawing the navel
in towards the spine

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and then lengthening through
the back of the neck.

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So we're finding that upward
motion while still grounding.

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Tops of the thighs down,

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shoulder blades in 
together and down.

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We're talking about that a lot
in our foundations of yoga,

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and you'll see that 
come up more and more,

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that there's these

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two opposing 
forces in Hatha yoga.

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So here we have the lifting up

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as if Marilyn Monroe's
skirt's blowing in the wind.

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This lifting of the heart.

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And then we have this grounding
quality, that dual action.

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And balancing the two of
those we find our posture.

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So I'm working 
hard here in the legs.

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Taking nice, long, 
smooth, deep breaths.

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Extending through 
the crown of the head.

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Lifting through the heart,

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and grounding 
tops of the thighs down.

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Shoulder blades 
in together and down.

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Navel to the spine.

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Talking really quiet here,
I'm getting all Zen'd out.

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A couple of variations.

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If you feel like the navel
is really like a magnet

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sucking you towards 
the back of your mat,

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so you're having 
this syndrome, fear not.

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Maybe take a blanket or a
block and lift your hips up

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so that you have a little
more of a fighting chance

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to kind of find that space

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and lengthen 
through the side body

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and lift through the heart.

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Another option is to
simply soften the knees.

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Find that lift here.

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So we can soften 
through the knees

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and then in due time
slowly draw the heels out.

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So we have Dandasana.

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And in Sanskrit, "Danda"

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literally translates
to "stick" or "staff",

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which is why we call this
the Staff Pose or Stick Pose.

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And the Danda is, 
and actually I learned this,

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or I was turned onto this
from Shiva Rea who I love.

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I just want to give 
her a little shout out

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cause this totally
changed my yoga practice.

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But thinking about 
the Danda, the staff,

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the spine that 
literally holds us up

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from the crown of the head

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to the tip of the tail bone.

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And I feel like in Dandasana,

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in the Stick Pose 
or the Staff Pose,

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I just can't think 
of a better way

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to connect to that line
here than in this posture.

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So even though this might
seem like an easy posture,

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a beginner's posture,
or a posture that's

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not worth your time,

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if you're trying 
to get a work out

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or have a restorative practice,

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I encourage you to give it a try

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and see what you can discover

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in just this asana.

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Checking in. 
Full body experience,

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and engaging that Danda
from the crown of the head

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to the tip of the tail.

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Okey dokes, 
so that was Dandasana.

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Give it a try and let
me know what you think.

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Leave comments below.

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Always open to 
feedback and conversation.

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Particularly if it's 
about yoga (clicks tongue).

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And, yeah, let's keep connecting

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to this area between 
the crown of the head

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and the tip of the tailbone

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and especially in Hatha yoga

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in our asana,

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it's not just 
about the abs, right?

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Abs are good and 
we're all gonna get

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ab-licious this summer

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and I'm gonna help 
you with that as well,

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but let's think about integrating
from the crown of the head

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to the tip of the tailbone.

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Dandasana is a great pose
to experiment with that.

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So let me know what you think,

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subscribe to the channel
if you haven't already,

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and I'll see 
you next time.

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Namaste.

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(upbeat music)