what's up everyone welcome to yoga with

Adriene I am Adriene and today I'm

tackling a question about tabletop

position for our yoga tips episode I

often get a question about this tabletop

position people wondering if they're

stacking the bones right and just not

not knowing necessarily if they're doing

it right which in this particular pose I

feel you even though we talked about

it's not about doing it rides about you

know having an experience I did feel

like this one warranted a little extra

chat because we can take the action and

the alignment of tabletop position into

so many other postures so we're going to

come onto all fours I have a little

towel or you can get a little blankie to

pad the knees if you want and we're

going to come into that what we think is

that tabletop position so we're going to

start with the palms so first of all and

I'm going to do my best to really talk

you through this so you can watch this

one time through and then experience it

but I'm going to do my best to really

talk you through so you can experience

this while the video is playing rather

than having to crank your head the whole

time so here we'll take it nice and slow

this is one of the great things about

the foundations of yoga and these yoga

tips is we can really take the time to

break it down in public class or even

maybe you only have an hour for a home

practice or less 10 minutes 30 minutes

you just kind of want to get through

beginning middle in have an experience

but today we're going to break it down a

little yoga tips yoga school okay so

we're going to come on to all fours

we're going to start with the hands hand

to earth hasta on those we spread the

palms wide spread them super wide like

starfish so it really does start here

there's this kind of like thing that

happens with the hands sometimes we keep

them here or the index finger and thumb

get left behind and we're crashing into

the outer edges of the wrist so really

truly spread the palms wide make sure

you're pressing into that in fleshy part

between the index finger and thumb there

is a tendency here to roll to the outer

edges of the wrist and that can cause

unnecessary strain so forget about that

spread the palms wide press into all 10

knuckles

then go ahead and shift your shoulders

over your wrists here so if you need to

walk the palms out go for it and we're

going to keep a soft bend in the elbows

as we practice pressing away from the

yoga mat so here's a tendency there's a

tendency to again kind of just forget

about the hands crash into the outer

edge lock the elbows and shrug the

shoulders but again just focusing on

this part of the body we're going to

press into the palms spread the

fingertips wide soften through the

elbows and again press away from the

earth this is half the battle right here

really paying attention this you might

begin to rock a little front and back

and you might particularly if this is

new begin to feel a little shake and

that prana kind of vibrating the arms

getting really tired and this is a good

thing this means we're working in the

right direction so we're building

strength and awareness with proper

action and alignment here tops of the

shoulders draw away from the ears again

careful not to lock the elbows here but

keep a nice softness and yeah I really

feel this my arms I can feel a lot left

arm trembling a little bit for whatever

reason and I'm stacking the bones great

now let's pay attention to the head and

neck

so tendency here is to just forget that

the neck is an extension of the spine

altogether and just kind of like weight

also you know yoga with Adriene you're

looking at the video so I try to

consider that here so now's it's the

time where you can take your gaze from

the video and draw it straight down

imagine me coming and placing a little

tea cup on the back of your neck so the

neck is nice and long arms are strong

we're working here with a lot of

integrity when you get tired you're

going to want to collapse your heart

down let's see if you can stay pressing

away from the mat finding a little

resistance there great so there's lots

of space between the ears and shoulders

here gazes straight down chin is tucked

in just slightly so again we're not

crunching looking forward or not

forgetting about it but nice long

beautiful neck

then from the crown of the head we light

this fire the spark that slowly travels

all the way down through the spine to

the tip of the tailbone right here we're

just going to begin to walk the knees

underneath the hips and begin to just

light a little light light a little fire

shine a little light what I'm going to

say from the crown of the head to the

tip of the tailbone and for me rocking a

little front and back helps me find that

line and you might notice that you're

dropping the belly here and the tailbone

is rocking up or you might notice if the

lower back is really tight that your

pelvis naturally comes in kind of

arching the back so just see what's

going on there and if you're new to the

practice is starting to hurt your wrist

you're not used to working like this you

can take a little break by coming on to

the fists as we explore this posture

rocking front to back now if you start

to get a little bored you feel like your

time is being wasted just keep going

through your checklist there's so much

to do here then we'll come back to

stillness and now we're going to bring

our awareness to the bellybutton the

navel navel draws up to the spine so

here's an exaggeration of dropping kind

of the belly forgetting about the

abdomen the abdominal wall and I'm going

to spiral the lower ribcage in together

lengthen the tailbone towards my heels

and essentially I'm going to draw the

belly button the navel suck it up

towards the back body the spine don't

forget about that long beautiful neck

and now we're starting to cook with gas

as my mom would say now notice where

your toes are so we have the knees

underneath the hip points just a

reminder now notice where the toes are

they might have started to come in here

or they might come out we might just not

have that awareness so you can draw the

ankles in line with the knees and the

toes in line with the ankles so all

sorts of fun stuff happens back here and

we're going to create nice strong lines

so we're stacking the bones knees

underneath the hip points wrists

underneath the shoulders and we're

drawing straight lines from those knees

to press into the tops of the feet

now inhale in on an exhale press away

from the earth go ahead and slap the

tops of your feet down to the mat press

away from your yoga mat and find that

beautiful beautiful long line from the

crown of the head to the tip of the tail

want to do draw your navel up

so essentially you can come and have a

little tea party on my back here heyyo

really want to say it sorry all right

last but not least we're going to test

out this tabletop connection by lifting

the knees hovering cat so I do this one

as a core strengthener but also as a way

of really checking in with all my lines

and all my muscles making sure

everything is along for the ride because

when I let my knees hover oh there I

have to find that abdominal wall and

able to spine I can't let my shoulder

blades shrug and I have to broaden

through the upper back body to support

everything and when you feel like you've

had enough you can lower down curl the

toes under and take a moment and maybe

just watch the next portion if there is

or tired to maybe relieve any stress in

the wrist this does take time this does

take time it and I encourage you to not

write it write anything off if specially

if you're new to yoga I feel like for

the longest time I kind of just wrote

off that I had bad wrists and then I

kept practicing mindfully and you know

with assistance from my mentor and it's

like now okay yeah we're good and when

my wrists start to talk to me I know to

you know counter that or to take a break

and so don't decide where it ends don't

write yourself off so you might just

watch this next portion if you need to

take some weight off the wrists but I

just want to go through the lines in the

actions one more time so we're pressing

up and out of the palms all ten

fingerprints all the knuckles and

especially the fleshy part between the

index finger and thumb then I'm walking

my wrist out just a bit the base of my

palm out just a bit to make sure that I

have this nice long line

from the top of the shoulder all the way

down to the wrists stacking the bones

then I walk the knees underneath the hip

points nice long line and then I walk

the ankles in line with the knees I draw

the shoulders away from the ears and I

lift up through the center back body

find that long beautiful neck gaze

straight down then draw your navel up

towards your spine now to check this one

last time we'll press in our foundation

and lift up just a gentle tiny lift up

through the knees just to check in with

that line or that Dunda from the crown

of the head to the tip of the tailbone

let's stick or that staff that literally

holds us up one more breath here and

then exhale release curl the toes under

maybe we're joining our friends here

maybe you're taking a moment to rotate

the wrists and that's our table top tips

today so through your practice you'll

notice that the more we strengthen

everything in this kind of tabletop

position the the more we can apply this

to our standing postures high lunge

Halfmoon really all the Warriors plank

considering this one piece and finding

space and grace through the limbs so

always building our poses from the

ground up thank you so much for your

questions if you have questions or you

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friends I love this cool it couldn't be

more grateful and more excited for all

of us

there's so much potential thank you

you