Forrest Yoga class 6/9/2005

Today we learned some interesting Forrest mods from Pigeon:
From pigeon with right leg forward, turn to your left and place your hands on the floor, and lean forward, I prop myself on my forearms. Where I feel this is in the right hip, and it opens parts of this are that regular pigeon doesn't seem to touch. For pigeon with the left leg forward, you will be turning to and then leaning to the right. Another modification of this we did last week involved being in forward pigeon and reaching the torso to the foot of the forward leg.

Then there was something called "Yogini foot on the shoulder pose". Imagine your right foot on your right shoulder. I can't get into this and its not easy, so in class we modified this into a hip opener with the ankle of one foot on the knee. Lay down with both knees up, then place one ankle on the other knee, sit up and sweep the arm of the side where the ankle is up on the knee across the body and move the elbow past the knee, at this point your arm will be going cross-wise across your body. This is actually just a prep pose to open the hip to be able to get into the full pose with the foot on the shoulder which the teacher showed us after we were done. Since men generally have tight hips and can't get into this, that's why its called "Yogini foot on the shoulder pose".

Power dead bug. From dead bug the two loose ends of the strap are draped over the feet in opposite directions, and the loop end of the strap is behind the neck. Be careful with this as it involves the neck. You can draw yourself deeper into the pose by pulling the loose ends of the straps. Ah, nice!

I love Forrest for all of the very useful things I learn, its approach to strengthening the body, and lack of repetition like one might find in something like Ashtanga.

Class description.
Forrest Yoga website.