Monday Week 7
Overview
- Warrior I, II, III
- Breathe in cold and breathe out hot relaxation
We’ve done triangles before, we’ve done warrior lunges and poses before and we’ve definitely done these poses in series with sun salutations. This week though we focused on warrior series and we also did half moons in series with twists.
The half moon is suppose to improve your balance and concentration and I can totally understand why because it requires a lot of concentration and balance to do. It stretches the hamstring and hips. The half moon also strengthens the outer thighs and obliques. The first time we tried this pose a week ago we did it up against the wall and it was definitely easier for me to do, because it took the balancing out of it. The way to do the half moon is while in series you start from a triangle pose or warrior two, straighten the front leg and put your hands down into pyramid pose. Then lift the back leg so it is parallel to the ground and when you feel stable lift the top hand to the sky expanding your chest.
One of the series that we did this week I think was called warrior series A with the half moon balance pose. The warrior series starts in warrior 1 but we always start in mountain pose and swine dive down to monkey and from their breath our way into warrior 1, warrior 2, reverse warrior and back to warrior 2. From warrior 2 we do a triangle pose and breathe into half moon, forward fold to downward dog and then we get up and start all over with the opposite side we started on. In class we always start with our right leg in the back and then the second round we start with our left foot in the back.
Warrior one is suppose to help tone the hips and legs and release the stiff in your shoulders and back. I have to remember that when I am menstruating I should practice this poses because it alleviates cramping while toning my abs. Start in a runner lunge but standing, with your front leg bent at a 90 degree angle and the back leg straight. Make sure the heels are in a line and your back toes should be facing to the side. The hips should be squared and facing forward and your arms high in the air straight.
With warrior two what we want to do is move our back foot, pointing our toes out while facing to the side and turning our hips to the side as well so that they are parallel to the floor. While contracting your abs, and holding your knee bend over the heel you spread your arms completely parallel to the ground while making sure the back leg is straight. It is easier to go from warrior one to warrior two. Warrior two develops strength and endurance in the legs, back and shoulders while making your hips and knees flexible. The reverse warrior from warrior two: we lift the forward arm into the sky and look up at it, keeping the hips straight we drop the back arm onto our hamstring. The reverse works out your core body, the abdominals.
After we were done with our stretching, our series moves and our balancing acts we did a mental relaxation in which we were to imagine breathing in all the cold and positive energy and releasing or exhaling all the hot and negative energy stored up in our bodies. It was a nice exercise I did it with my eyes closed and although I didn’t mean to I was imagining a gum commercial which from one moment I went to a hot place to a frozen cold place. When I was done I felt like I let go of all of the tension and stress of the body and of the day.
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