Name: Playbook - Claire Thomas - Pillar 5: Inversion & Safety
Uploaded: 2024-04-29T18:26:45.334Z
Duration: 20 min
Description: Pillar 5: Inversion & Safety

Michelle

Stephanie Powell

Pillar 5: Inversion & Safety

A common phrase said in yoga is, “Honor your body.” When you’re going upside down, it takes a large degree of trust and awareness. Take it slow; be aware of the space and objects around you. Always clear your space and have an idea of how you will come out of the inversion, before going upside down. The most common way to safely exit the handstand is stepping off to the left or right, just to the outside of the hand. In order to fly freely, we must know where the ground is, and how to safely return.

You will see many of these inversions in the follow along classes, but if you don’t have time to doing an entire class, feel free to come back to this section to practice these inversions at your own pace. There is no particular order/time grams to these inversion practices. Go at your own pace & listen to how your body is feeling. 

Make sure you always get a proper warm up in before jumping into these. If you haven’t mastered the drills in Pillar 4, go back to  practice before continuing on.

Claire: Intermediate example
Dawn: Advanced example

To practice your frog hop, start in downward facing dog or put your hands on the ground 2-3 ft in front of your feet. Widen your feet to the width of a yoga mat (if using a mat, take feet to edges.). Shorten your down dog so your feet come closer to your hands. Look in between the hands; focus the gaze on an unmoving point. Begin to kick the feet off the earth on an exhale, so the hips now raise over the shoulders. Imagine there is a wall behind your back. Start low to ground with hops and increase the jump slowly. Press the earth away with the hands. Begin to kick the feet out to the sides as the hips reach over the shoulders (joint stacking). Flex (activate) the feet.

To try the advanced variation, once frog hop is stabilized in the inversion, begin to slowly straighten the legs to a handstand straddle. Point the toes.

Frog Hop Inversion Practice

The floating push-up allows you to keep control of your inversion, and return to the earth safely. One leg is raised in a shortened down dog position, either in shiva squat or standing split. Top foot is pointed, bottom foot is active on the ball. As the bottom foot kicks off the earth, the top leg straightens. Activate naval lock/core. As you come down, the core stabilizes from the pelvic floor through the torso. Slowly come down into 90 degree elbows/chaturanga push-up position. Elbows are pulled into the ribcage, directly over wrists. Land in pushup position, on the ball of the foot of the bottom leg – little to no sound on the ground (do not slam foot into earth). This requires focused core control and proper hand lock. To advance the posture, find hang time with the legs L shaped, as you “dance the hands”/distribute the weight from the hands to the feet in the inversion.

If this feels too difficult, refer back to the drills in Pillar 4 & practice the Shiva Squats to Switch Kick.

Floating Push-Up Inversion Practice

This is my favorite way to get inverted into my handstand. Once you find your balance, try to slowly straighten out your bent knee & meet your foot at the top.

Kick ups are done from a shortened down dog Shiva squat or standing split stance. One leg is raised in a shortened down dog position. Top foot is pointed, bottom foot is on the ball. As the bottom foot kicks off the earth, the top leg straightens. Activate naval lock/core. As the top leg raises, the knee of the bottom leg bends and pulls into the body at the hip crease. Keep everything tight through center. Start small and increase the kick. The feet come down in the same place they left the Earth. If you kick up too hard, stay engaged through the midline and step/jump off to the side to land (exit strategy). When you find stability in the kick up, you can then begin to transfer the bottom leg to meet the top, closing the gap. Engage the inner legs and point the toes to the sky.

Kick Up Inversion Practice

Pillar 5: Inversion & Safety

Alexis

Love the intro and how informative you are!

Lauren

Journey to Handstand Intro

Excited to be intentional in working on my handstand practice this year! It’s been a goal of mine for a long time.

Abbie

Amy 

Pillar 1: Mindset & Meditation

Excited to add this to “skills” day!!!

Christine

Pillar 2: Philosophy & Anatomy

Great activation tips. Paused and completed the other side warm up!

Tiffany

There were a lot of waves. It was peaceful but I couldn't hear everything Dawn was saying

Jamie Huttly

Pillar 3: Warm Up & Activation

Marion

Pillar 4: Drills

So good!!! I could do more than I thought and oh my gosh those ocean waves and birds💕

Francais

Loved this so much! My 6 year old did alot with me. We will journey to handstand together!

Pillar 5: Inversion & Safety

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