Featured Sequence: Agility Practice

by Baxter

Today’s sequence will focus on cultivating agility. As we wrote in our post Cultivating Agility and Yoga agility requires all of our other YFHA physical skills—flexibility, strength and balance—plus the integration of isolated movement skills using a combination of balance, coordination, speed, reflexes, strength, and endurance. Agility is the ability to change your body's position efficiently as you move through time and space. So although today’s practice will have some static poses, focus especially on the moments of transition from one shape to another, and attempt to do the poses with control, balance, and precision to the extent you are able. 

1. Cat/Cow (Cakravakasana): Come down onto your hands and knees, with padding under your knees if needed. Start with your spine in a neutral position. Then, on your inhalation, start moving from your pelvis, tipping your hips downward toward the floor. As you continue to inhale, gently lift and lengthen your spine into a gentle backbend. Lift your breastbone forward and up, and allow your head and neck to lengthen out and back, coming into the Cow backbend.

Then, as you exhale, start by releasing your pelvis in the opposite direction, moving the back of your waist upward toward the ceiling. As you continue to exhale, allow your middle back to arch up towards the ceiling and drop your chin toward your chest, coming into the Cat forward bend. 

Repeat Cat/Cow pose for six rounds, moving with your breath.

2. Hunting Dog Pose: Start by doing Hunting dog statically on both sides as described Featured Pose: Hunting Dog Pose. 

Then, create a dynamic sequence as follows: 

1. On your first inhalation, lift your right leg and left arm into the full pose, and then on your exhalation, lower your hand and knee back to the ground.
2. On your second inhalation, lift your left leg and right arm into the full pose, and then on your exhalation lower your hand and knee back to the ground. 

Repeat this pattern 3-5 more times, focusing on keeping the center of the body steady and strong.

3. Mountain Pose (Tadasana):  Stand in Mountain pose (Tadasana) for several breaths to get ready for your standing work. Notice how balanced you feel today before you head to the next series of poses.

4. Arms Overhead (Urdhva Hastasana): For today’s sequence, I’d like you to do the basic version of the pose (without bound hands or holding a block). From Mountain pose, on an inhalation, take your arms forward and up ideally aligned with your ears, but modified as needed. Take a few breaths in this position and then on an exhalation, lower your arms to your sides. Then, move your arms up and down rhythmically with your breath, inhaling your arms up and exhaling them down, about six times. This should be fairly easy. Now here’s where it gets exciting! Add to what your are doing with your arms by slightly lifting up onto the balls of your feet as you inhale and raise your arms, and lowering your heels back to the earth as you exhale and lower your arms. Focus on keeping balancing evenly on the balls of both feet. Repeat this variation for six breathsm then, come back to Mountain pose for a few breaths.

5. Sun Salutations (Surya Namaskar): Sun Salutations are wonderful for cultivating agility, and any form that you usually practice will be beneficial. But switching up to another version will be especially effective. Another idea is to try doing them with your eyes closed sometime! If you’d like to try my basic Sun Salutation, it goes like this:

1. From Mountain Pose, inhale your arms overhead, and on your exhalation, release your arms and bend into Standing Forward Bend, with your fingers on the floor if possible.
2. On your next inhalation, bend your left knee and step your right foot back into High Lunge pose, and on your exhalation, step your left foot back to come into Downward-Facing Dog pose. 
3. From Downward-Facing Dog pose, on your next inhalation, swing your shoulders over your wrists and then come into a Cobra pose by bringing your knees to the floor, moving your hips forward towards your hands, and allowing your spine to backbend. If you can’t do full Cobra pose comfortably, bend your elbows and do a low version of Cobra instead. From Cobra, exhale and swing your hips up, returning to Downward-Facing Dog pose. 
4. From your second Downward-Facing Dog pose, on your next inhalation, step your right foot forward to High Lunge pose, and then on your exhalation, step your left foot forward into Standing Forward Bend. 
5. From Standing Forward Bend, inhale your body and arms up into Arms Overhead Pose, and on your exhalation, release your arms by your sides into Mountain Pose. 
6. Repeat this pattern again, leading with your left foot this time. Feel free to slow the Sun Salutation down a bit by adding an extra breath cycle here and there, such as in Cobra or Downward-Facing Dog pose. 

Do several rounds, practicing an even number so you work equally on both sides.

If full Sun Salutations are too challenging for you, try practicing just moving back and forth from Downward-Facing Dog to High Lunge pose with your breath. Place your hands on blocks in High Lunge if you can't easily bring your fingertips to the floor.

5. Warrior 2, 1, 3 Sequence (Virabhadrasana 2, 1, 3): Linking a series of poses together with your breath, and focusing on how you in and out of the poses will help improve your agility:

1. From Mountain pose, move into Warrior 2 pose, with your right foot turned out 90 degrees, staying for four to six breaths. 
2. Then, kick your left heel back another one to two inches and shift into Warrior 1 pose for four to six breaths. 
3. Finally, shift into Warrior 3 pose for two to four breaths, either with your arms at your sides or reaching forward. 
4. From Warrior 3 pose, step lightly back into Warrior 1 to two breaths. 
5. Adjusting your left heel, come back into Warrior 2 for two breaths.
6. Finally, release into Mountain pose for a few breaths before trying the second side. 

Focus on making the moments of transition as smooth, strong, and graceful as possible. If you're not able to do a full Warrior 3 pose, try doing this sequence so that you will be facing a wall when you are in Warrior 1 pose. You can then try coming into Warrior 3 with your hands on the wall as part of this sequence.

6. Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana): As a nice counterpose the Warrior sequence, come into Standing Forward Bend for several breaths, enjoying the stability of the pose. 

7. Seated Straight-Legged Forward Bend (Paschimottanasana): To cool down a bit more before completing your easy (always a relative term!) agility practice, come down and sit with your legs out in front of you, placing a bolster over your shins, and tipping your hips forward as you come into this supported version of the pose. If you can’t do this version comfortably, try using a chair seat to support your arms and head. Stay for up for 8-10 breaths, or longer if it is feeling good for your body and your back. See Soothing Yourself with Supported Forward Bends for more information.

8. Legs Up the Wall Pose (Viparita Karani): This pose is a nice finish to your practice, as sometimes it can feel more grounding than Relaxation pose (Savasana). So, set yourself up in your favorite variation (see Featured Pose: Legs Up the Wall Pose) for 5-10 minutes. 

Cautions: If you have trouble with balance, work near a wall while doing this sequence so you can use it for support if necessary. 

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