Sivananda Yoga Dolphin Pose

Video Transcript

"We're going to be showing a dolphin pose which is a wonderful way to prepare for headstand. So Martha here is going to be showing the dolphin pose. It, one of the main parts about dolphin pose is you're going to be using your tripod, and it, this pose, really prepares you to work with it, strengthen the arms, strengthen the shoulders, to where you can go into headstand very easily. Martha, I'm going to have you come into tabletop. Now, I'm going to have her drop her elbows down to the floor right underneath the shoulders. Now measure off, you want to make sure your elbows are not too far apart or too close together. So with a nice hold just like this you're in the perfect form. She released her hands into a nice clasp. Now kind of relax the arms, make sure they're nice and even, and she's going to be evenly distributing the weight between it when she comes in to dolphin pose. Tucking the toes, take a nice inhale. Exhale; lift the hip pointers up into the sky, coming into dolphin. Now I want the crown of your head facing the mat, but it's not relaxed on to the mat. Beautiful. See the nice long neck, nice beautiful long spine, and her hip pointers are pointed straight up to the sky. Now if you want to take this pose a little bit further, have a little bit of fun, we're going to have her do some dolphin push-ups. So I'm going to have her lift up her head, lower down, chin over her fists, and lifting right back into dolphin. Let's do that again. Look up, lower the body down, let the chin past the fists, and press back into dolphin. Take a nice inhale, exhale lower down the knees, and press into child pose."