Teaching Script Week 5 – Salambhasana

From all fours, lower yourself to the floor. Place a block between your inner thighs, and as you lie on your belly, release the arms along the sides on your body. Place your forehead on the floor, but keep the neck long. Bring your breath to your lower back; focus on maintaining the length in your spine. Inhale and feel the space between the vertebrae increase, exhale and release any tension from the muscles in your back. Bring your breath to your legs and feel how the inner thighs must spiral inward and up to the ceiling to maintain the block in position. Inhale and extend your legs strongly, lifting them just one inch off of the floor. Exhale and lower the legs to floor. Remove the block to the side, but remember that spiral of the inner thighs during the pose. Now bring your breath to your neck. Inhale and lengthen, lifting your head and shoulders just one inch off of the floor. Exhale and lower, again placing the forward on the floor, maintaining the length in the cervical spine. Take a breath here. On the next inhale, lift the head, torso, arms, and legs off the floor one inch. Hold on the exhale, releasing any tension in the glutes. On the inhale, lengthen the torso forward, drawing the shoulder blades in toward the sternum. Release to the floor on the exhale. Take a breath here, finding any tension in your neck or low back and releasing it on your exhale. Inhale and rise into Salambhasana, maintaining the work in the upper body from the previous round. Hold the position on the exhale, releasing the glutes away from the waist and drawing the frontal hipbones toward the bellybutton. Continue to hold the position, lengthening the spine from neck to tailbone on the inhale and reaching strongly through the feet to the back of the room. Release to the floor on the exhale. Take two breaths here. On the next inhale, rise again into Salambhasana, maintaining the work from previous rounds. Hold on the exhale and notice if you are clenching the glutes; if so, relax them. Inhale and extend the sternum forward while expanding across the collarbones. Hold the pose on the exhale, releasing the shoulders away from the ears, stretching the arms firmly toward the feet with the palms toward the floor. Release and lower to the floor. Press back into Balasana to release the spine.