Mind Map from Elwanda Klucik

Science of Stretching Mind Map

March 2024 Class

Wide Dog

Like short dog, feet wide, target between shoulders

Props:

• Stool
• Blocks

Setup:

• Kneel near stool
• Hands on stool
• Prop up into down dog
• Feet wider than mat or even wider
• Knees bent if pinching in back
• Play around and get target into shoulders (didn’t do this for 2 years, huge change for me)

Options:

• Stool
• Lower to blocks
• Lower to ground (I can hold this, but I cannot traget my shoulders, I stick to option 1)

Passive Squat

Props:

• blocks

Setup:

• Two blocks on the floor (long way)
• Sit on the blocks
• Feet out a bit
• Feet turned out a bit (10 - 12 degrees), wider might torque knees
• Wiggle arms between your legs (not trying to press)
• Hands on ground, palms up

Options:

• 2 Blocks
• 1 Block
• No blocks
• Might use mat under heals

Twister

Supine passive twist. Expect spinal articulations (pops)

Props:

• Maybe bench or blankets

Setup:

• Lie on your back on your mat (supine)
• Hook left foot under knee
• Place right hand on outside of left knee
• Twist to your right
• Place hands in a T to your sides

Options:

• Hook foot
• Left leg over right leg (left hamstrings on right quads) - keep right hand on outside of leg, left leg out perpendicular
• Left leg over and left foot under leg (this isn’t important, took me 6ish months, and I had to lose weight to do it), hand remains on knee
• If knees don’t go over, might use blanket, stool to not twist too far

Warnings:

• Come out slowly, this is a deep stretch of the QL (lower back)
• I take 30 - 60 seconds to come out after a 5 minute hold

2022 SoS Teacher Training

Warning: This is me working ahead using the notes from the last class, my guess is we will workshop different poses on our day 7. Even so, the instruction and content might be for a different day, but the information should be correct.

Wide Dog

Same setup as short dog, with feet wide. Intention is to target between the shoulders. Where we use pretzel arms to stretch this area, this pose might help to relax thoracic spine down to the floor. It might also target the back of the legs. (Side note) I did this pose for 2 years and targeted the backs of my legs. After watching this video and making the adjustment using a stool, it unfroze my shoulders from when I fell off a train bridge around 1982. A week later, I managed to engage my pelvic floor. This one adjustment is worth the price of the class alone.

Setup

• Get into a down dog.
• Move your hands toward your feet, goal is to be able to comfortably put your heals on the floor
• Melt you head snd shoulders to the ground
• Goal is to sink into your shoulders
• Feel most of the weight in the shoulders

Target

• Between the shoulder blades
• Maybe back of the legs
• (Short Dog Target) Hamstrings, calves, gluteal group
• (Wide Dog Target) Get into your shoulders and you might get what short dog targets

Options:

• Hands on ground
• Bend knees to get the focus to your shoulders
• Use a bench instead of the floor (this is the one that works for me, on the floor is gives me the same results as short dog)

Passive Squat

Setup:

• Feet at least hip with apart, and slightly turned out
• Wider is fine, and necessary for some people
• Press your bum back
• Sit down, down, down
• Keep ankles touching
• At bottom, relax hands, palm up
• Melt your heads between your arms
• Heals grounding down
• Knees feel stable

Options:

• Bench/Stool under bum
  • If you have a chair with no back, sit on the corner
  • The chair will be further back than feels necessary
  • Caution, possibility of negative talk about flexibility, bum knees
  • This is where we are, better to be at a 3/10 than 7/10 with shooting pain, and likely longer term damage
• Block under bum
• Mat under heads (need to be stable)

Twister - asymmetrical

A supine (on your back) pose. This is a personal favorite, and also one that I have to be doubly careful coming out of when my right leg is on top.

Setup

• Lie on your back.
• Swing your right leg over your left leg
  • If you can double cross (keep going around and get your right foot back around again under your left leg), that is fine. But it took me 8 months or so on my left side, and 6 on my right.
• Place your left hand on the outside of your right leg
• Gently pull your crossed legs to the left.
• Once you can maintain balance (not swing back to the middle), stop using pressure (my suggestion, not Lukas’)
• Place your right arm, palm up, on the ground perpendicular to your body
• Look up
• Expect several spinal articulations (pops) - I often get them up to my cervical spine.
• Yes your right hip and shoulder will be off the ground

Props:

• stool
• Pillows/blankets/blocks (careful, be on the flat side or you’ll leave a nice welt )

To Come Out (what I do):

• Release my foot if double twisted
• Relax my back
• Slowly rotate back to on your back
• Pause here and notice the difference between the left side and right side of your back
  • One side will feel (not sure) thinner/higher off the ground. The difference is clear, but hard to describe

Options:

• If you cannot get your right leg over, hook your right foot under the left knee, same thing. Not as strong, but go from where you are.
• Your right foot is on your left knee, lean to the side
• Your right hamstrings are touching your left quads
• You might use a stool to keep from going too far over (or a pile of blankets - my go to)

Observation:

In this style of practice it is hard to do twists. Hard to be passive in a twist, we often use muscular strength to achieve axial rotation. Using muscles stimulates the sympathetic nervous system. We are trying to use Yang to achieve Yin. And from a survival basis, the sympathetic nervous system is going to win. Physiologically, the sympathetic nervous system can turn on instantly (fight, flight, freeze), whereas the parasympathetic nervous system takes a minimum (average/typical) of 20 minutes to kick in once the fight/flight/freeze response has kicked it. It takes that amount of time to clear the various stress hormones injected into the bloodstream.

Personal Experience:

TAKE time getting out of this. It would be easy after doing this pose to tear your lower back / QL (Quadratus Lumborum) if you turn back too fast. In a 5-minute twister, I take 30 - 45 seconds to come out. You cannot come out too slowly.