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

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

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

(laughs) or, multiple names.

Dandasana is 
a beautiful posture.

It's another one of those asanas

where there's more 
than meets the eye.

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

in this little video 
to break it down.

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

(upbeat music)

Okay so from a nice 
cross-legged position,

I'm gonna sit up nice and tall.

Really right away 
bringing my awareness

to the crown of the head

and then letting it
trickle all the way down

to the tip of the tailbone. (laughs)

Sorry, that was silly.

Okay, so sitting 
up nice and tall.

Elongating through the spine.

Coming into the breath.

I'm gonna break 
down Dandasana,

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

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

so we have wider 
than the hip points,

and then we have 
heels straight together.

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

just straight in line
with the hip points here.

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

so activate the legs here. 
Active legs.

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

The toes point up 
towards the sky.

Or you can imagine your toes
pointing towards your heart

or back towards your face.

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

Palms are gonna come to
the tops of the thighs here

for just a moment, 
for just a couple breaths.

We're gonna use 
this as a reminder to

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

In fact, there's a 
little rotation here.

Kind of similar to the rotation
in Downward Facing Dog,

where the tops 
of the thigh bones

are gonna rotate in towards
each other just slightly.

So we're thinking 
about the quads,

the tops of the thigh bones,

drawing in together and down.

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

engaging quality here.

So definitely a pose 
like I said before

that there's a lot going on.

More than meets the eye. Okay?

Now, from the heels I travel up

engaging the quads,
tops of the thigh bones,

drawing down, toes still
pointing up towards the sky.

Now I'm gonna 
continue to travel up.

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

I can release my fingertips
from the thighs now

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

So pressing up slightly
out of the fingertips

to find that length.

Imagine lifting from
this area of your body,

your armpit chest.

In fact, everyone take your
thumbs and give yourself

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

Bringing the thumbs 
to the armpit chest

and using it, 
the power of touch here,

to just give yourself
a little bit of length,

a little bit of lift.

Then maintain that lift,
that openness in the heart,

and release the 
fingertips back down.

We're drawing the navel
in towards the spine

and then lengthening through
the back of the neck.

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

Tops of the thighs down,

shoulder blades in 
together and down.

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

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

that there's these

two opposing 
forces in Hatha yoga.

So here we have the lifting up

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

This lifting of the heart.

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

And balancing the two of
those we find our posture.

So I'm working 
hard here in the legs.

Taking nice, long, 
smooth, deep breaths.

Extending through 
the crown of the head.

Lifting through the heart,

and grounding 
tops of the thighs down.

Shoulder blades 
in together and down.

Navel to the spine.

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

A couple of variations.

If you feel like the navel
is really like a magnet

sucking you towards 
the back of your mat,

so you're having 
this syndrome, fear not.

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

so that you have a little
more of a fighting chance

to kind of find that space

and lengthen 
through the side body

and lift through the heart.

Another option is to
simply soften the knees.

Find that lift here.

So we can soften 
through the knees

and then in due time
slowly draw the heels out.

So we have Dandasana.

And in Sanskrit, "Danda"

literally translates
to "stick" or "staff",

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

And the Danda is, 
and actually I learned this,

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

I just want to give 
her a little shout out

cause this totally
changed my yoga practice.

But thinking about 
the Danda, the staff,

the spine that 
literally holds us up

from the crown of the head

to the tip of the tail bone.

And I feel like in Dandasana,

in the Stick Pose 
or the Staff Pose,

I just can't think 
of a better way

to connect to that line
here than in this posture.

So even though this might
seem like an easy posture,

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

not worth your time,

if you're trying 
to get a work out

or have a restorative practice,

I encourage you to give it a try

and see what you can discover

in just this asana.

Checking in. 
Full body experience,

and engaging that Danda
from the crown of the head

to the tip of the tail.

Okey dokes, 
so that was Dandasana.

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

Leave comments below.

Always open to 
feedback and conversation.

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

And, yeah, let's keep connecting

to this area between 
the crown of the head

and the tip of the tailbone

and especially in Hatha yoga

in our asana,

it's not just 
about the abs, right?

Abs are good and 
we're all gonna get

ab-licious this summer

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

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

to the tip of the tailbone.

Dandasana is a great pose
to experiment with that.

So let me know what you think,

subscribe to the channel
if you haven't already,

and I'll see 
you next time.

Namaste.

(upbeat music)