High Lunge

Get Em High!

This posture is wonderful place to check in with your center. The area between the belly button and the spine. Also, near that second chakra (buzzword!) which is all about our connection to change and ability to accept new experiences. A powerful point the body if I do say so myself. High Lunge is a place where we can take our time and master the yogic collage. (I’m not high, I promise.)

Let it unfold. You cannot do everything all at once so, take your time, and let it unfold dudes – build it from the ground up. Start with your feet and work your way up through your pelvis, your center, then find that unfolding in the chest as you open your heart and travel up the neck and smile as you remember how Adriene (me) must have been high when writing that blog otherwise she would have never written “yogic collage.”

By playing with your own expression in high lunge you are never paranoid, never waiting. Enjoy your high (lunge) by finding what feels good while maintaining your alignment and structure. Get the most out of it so you can have more fun in class. Good luck!

“I’m trying to catch the beat… I’m trying to catch the beat”

*If you get the above song reference I will shout your name from the rooftop.

Namaste.

Benefits

• Strengthens and tones calves, thighs, glutes, abdominal wall 
• Opens hips, heart, shoulders
• Strengthens ankles, knees
• You will start to notice you have a pretty awesome waistline after practicing HL
• Stimulates internal organs
• Increases stamina and give you energy!
• Increases lung capacity (But you gotta breathe)
• Great for indigestion (massages and stimulates the entire digestive tract – this my friends will help improve metabolism as well as treat BLOATING), constipation
• Therapeutic for those with sciatica

Modifiations

• Knee injuries or knees in healing- avoid or modify mindfully. But that back knee down for support and build up to high lunge. Also, use a chair underneath the front thigh to take some of the weight of the front leg. Modify. Modify. 
• If the neck is cranky (wrote cracky at first 🙂 ) keep the gaze down and soft. There is never any reason to crank the neck.