Align & Flow Sequence: The Relation between Ardha Chandrasana & Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana

For the last couple of months I've been planning my classes Friday morning and then repeating a scaled-back version on Monday evening.  This week I followed the same general plan but needed to make some larger changes to the Monday class because several people attended both.  That's unusual because of the very different times, but with the holiday week, several students made it to both.

In both classes I wanted to take what we did last week with revolved postures and just tweak things enough to explore the non-revolved versions.  This meant building a class that looked at the relationship between Ardha Chandrasana & Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana.

Here's the general idea:

Opening

• Friday morning is a longer class, earlier in the day, so I started on the ground in an exploration of Supta Padangusthasana.  We made small circles, sweeping toward bigger ones, and then went through the usual open, cross-over, and figure 4.
• All-4's ... Cow/Cat ... Extended Cow/Cat Spinal Activation
• Down Dog ... Walk the Dog
• Walk to Front of Mat ... Bend Knees Deeply & Relax ... Roll to Stand

Neck, Shoulders, Trunk

• Head Up/Down with Active Arms & Chest/Back
• Gentle Neck Rolls with Hands Interlaced Around Back of Neck
• Infraspinatus & Supraspinatus Awareness - Watching for Clicks & TIghtness
• Lavator Scapulae & Deltoid Work
• Gentle Oblique Twists
• Feet & Hands

Flow

• Surya Namaskar including Open-to-Grace Anjanayasana & Sphinx
• Surya Namaskar including High Lunge & Cobra
• Prasarita Padottanasana
• Surya Namaskar to Virabhadrasana II --> Parsvakonasana --> Trikonasana
• Vrksasana

Pinnacle Poses

I put these poses together because they feel similar to me when I practice.  That's probably because they're both basically standing one-leg balances with one using a hand on the ground and the other connecting it to the extended foot. 

• Lunge with Blocks to work on Lunge Lifts - Back Leg - Front Leg - Etc
• Ardha Chandrasana
• Vinyasa
• Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana

Seated

• Vinyasa to Down Dog
• Eka Pada Rajakapotasana - Relaxed & Deep
• Marichyasana-Like PNF Stretch
• Eka Pada Bandha Paschimottanasana with Hand Behind Back or Strap

Ending

• Roll onto Back
• Pull Knees to Chest
• Easy Twist
• Savasana

While writing this blog I found a great idea on how to expand this class.  Christina Sell made this graphic which shows other things that relate to the postures I was really focused on:

Original Link: http://christinasell.blogspot.com/2012/06/making-obvious-obvious.html