YOGABODY’s Lucas Rockwood shows how to go from downward dog, to sit and from sitting to chaturanga.

Step 1: Start in Downward Facing Dog

From downward facing dog, you want to come up onto the tips of your toes, and practice moving your weight forward into the palms of your hands. Naturally, your weight will sink into your legs, but in order to float your legs through to sit, you need to move the center of gravity and the pressure into the ground more forward.

Step 2: Tips of Your Toes

Since we're moving to a seated position, the tendency can be to try to move downward. This is not the motion you're looking for. You actually want to lift up as high as you can in the hips, so your legs are light and free. You'll see some people practicing this movement like a handstand where they jump up really high and then move through to the floor. This is overkill and not necessary. As you get better at this, you hardly jump at all. You just lift to the tips of your toes, and then release your legs under you.

Step 3: Bend Your Knees & Jump

This is the most-subtle part of the jump through, but people make a big deal out of it. It's not even a jump really, just a lifting off from the ground. It does not require massive muscles or big jumps at all. You just get up as high on your tip toes as you can, bend your knees just a tiny bit, and then hop your toes forward and your chest out over your hands.

Step 4: Thru to Sit

The next part is fairly straight forward, but people get really excited and try to whip their legs all over the place. This is not helpful. Firstly, keep your arms straight at all times. Straight arms are MUCH stronger than bent arms. So don't bend them no matter what. Secondly, don't worry if your legs don't shoot all the way through at first. If you just jump up and sit down between your hands, that's great. Extend your legs and carry on... slowly, you'll find the pose. To make this lighter and smoother, there's a tight tuck that happens right below your naval, a hugging of your knees to your chest if you're doing this with bent legs. That lower abdomen squeeze is where you'll find the most strength is needed, and it's more energetic strength than muscular strength.

Step 5: With Straight Legs

Eventually, you can learn to jump through with straight legs. It looks harder, but as long as you have the flexibility in your hamstrings and shoulders, it's actually less effort to just keep everything straight and slide through. To see if you're ready for that, just palm the floor and come way up on your tip toes. If you CANNOT keep you palms flat and lift to your tip toes between your hands, than it's going to be very difficult to come through with straight legs. But just keep working at it. You'll get it soon. To practice the motion, you want to hop from down dog forward, landing your HEALS as far forward as possible. It's essential that you land on your heals so you start to feel that connection with your lower abdomen.

Step 6: Jumping Back from Sit

This is a tricky movement that comes naturally to some, but most people really have to work at it. It's basically the same "tuck and squeeze" routine from before, but it takes about 2x's as much strength to jump back than it does to jump through. The strength is mostly in your core, but there's a decent amount of brute arm/shoulder strength as well.

Important Tips:

a) Cross your legs, flex your toes, and squeeze your knees to your chest really really hard. This is an awkward thing to do, but do your best and keep at it.

b) Spread your fingers all the way apart, hands wider than your hips and slightly forward.

c) Lift up by pressing itno the hands, and then look BACK (toward your toes) until your hips teeter, and then immediately look forward to you don't roll onto your head. Your head is a balancing tool here and it weighs a lot, so you need to first use its weight to teeter your hips up, then look forward to level off and jump back.

d) To practice this, if your feet won't lift off, simply cross your legs, and then hop, hop, hop 3x's until you're back. Do NOT uncross your legs, and DO NOT stop trying to lift, tuck, teeter, and then shoot the legs back. Keep your palms all the way flat (no finger tips), and do it a bunch of times. The practice motion will build to the full motion quickly.

ABOUT LUCAS ROCKWOOD

Lucas Rockwood is the founder of YOGABODY Naturals. He teaches yoga exercises for flexibility and nutritional coach based in Thailand. If you’d like to learn more about his hatha yoga poses and FREE email course, please visit: www.YogaBodyNaturals.com or call 310.878.4829

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"After taking YOGABODY for a week, I can do Marichyasana D right now, and I can feel that my backbend poses can further be deepened. Yet, I don't feel sore even after a strong practice. My body can recover very soon! It's amazing!" ( Maisie Chan, Hong Kong)

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