Featured Pose Warrior 2 for Upper Body Strength

by Baxter and Nina

Warrior 2 is the first pose in our upper body strengthening series because it is a very easy and accessible pose that is very strengthening for your arms and upper body. Even though you don’t bear weight on your hands or arms, the arm position entails resisting gravity. This strengthens the muscles that lift your arms to your sides and all of the small muscles inside the joint that help you stabilize your arms at the shoulder joint, including the deltoid and supraspinatus, which are important for maintaining the health of those joints. In addition the pose provides equal strengthening of both your upper back, around the shoulder blades, and your chest, around the collar bones, as you build strength in your upper trapezius. And of course an added benefit is that this  pose is very strengthening for the legs as well as the upper body!

This pose is accessible even if you have something going on in your shoulders that is challenging because it doesn’t require full range of motion in the shoulder joints. And you don’t need to bear weight on your hands, so if you have wrist or hand problems you can still can do the pose.

Because we’re focusing on upper body strength for next several weeks, we’re going to give you three different ways to strengthen your body with Warrior 2. Version 1 is the traditional pose, and Versions 2 and 3 use a slightly different arm position.

Instructions: Starting in Tadasana, step your feet wide apart. Turn your right foot out 90 degrees, then, pivoting on the ball of your back foot, shift your left heel back an inch or two to your left so the foot is slightly turned in.

Next, inhale and raise your arms up so they are parallel to the floor, with your palms facing down toward the floor. Keep your shoulder blades relaxed and moving down your back (not sliding up toward your ears) as you raise your arms. Then, on an exhalation, bend your right knee directly over your right ankle while keeping your torso centered over your pelvis (not leaning over your front leg). Allow your hips to rotate slightly toward your right knee but rotate your chest away from your right knee so your chest faces directly forward. Finally, allow your head and neck to turn so you gaze over your right hand.

Once you are in the pose, use your eyes to check both arms to make sure they are in an even line with the tops of your shoulders, that they are neither too high or low, and that they are parallel with the floor.

Because your purpose in doing Warrior 2 this time is to develop strength in your upper body, you should keep your arms out to your sides for a decent amount of time. Start with 30 seconds and work your way up to 1 to 2 minutes over time, gradually building up endurance. Of course if you’re very fatigued or shaking, come out earlier. Notice that the longer you hold your arms up, the more you unconsciously will slide your shoulder blades up toward your ears. If this happens, consciously move relax your shoulder blades back down your back.

To come out of the pose, exhale and release your arms. Then straight your knee, turn your feet to a parallel position, and switch to the other side:

Version 2: Palms turned up

Because of the external rotation in your shoulder joint required to turn your palms up, this variation allows you to strengthen areas that aren’t strengthened with the first version With your palms up you activate a different portion of your deltoid muscles (front portion) and other muscles deeper in your shoulder joint. You could do Version 2 of the pose immediately after doing Version 1 or you could alternate different arm positions on different days. activates a different portion of your deltoid muscles and activates other muscles deeper in the shoulder joint.

For this version, follow the instructions for Version 1. When it comes time to raise your arms, start by spinning from your upper arms to turn your palms to face front. Then as your raise your arms, keep spinning form your upper arms to turn your palms up toward the ceiling.

Version 3: Holding blocks

This version strengthens the same muscles as version 2, but provides increased strength building because you are holding a weight. You can use yoga blocks, same-weight books, or even bags of rice or beans. However, we recommend building up your strength practicing Versions 1 and 2 before trying Versions 3. We also recommend that you start off with lightest weight possible, such as foam blocks, and work up to heavier weights over time, such as cork or wooden blocks.

For this version, start by holding the props and then follow the instructions for Version 1. As you lift your arms, rotate your upper arm bones so as you arms come out to the sides, the blocks are resting on your upturned palms.

Because of the additional weight, you may feel the additional work, and you may need to reduce the time you stay in the pose! If you become fatigued or shaky, release your arms. Gradually, over time, increase your time in the pose to up to 2 minutes.

Cautions: In general, Warrior 2 is a very safe pose. However, if you experience pain in your shoulder joints or neck, come out of the pose and get some advice from a yoga teacher about your alignment. If you have a history of rotator cuff injury or dislocated shoulder, approach the pose carefully, especially Version 3.

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Childrens Fitness NYC To Enhance Strength And Confidence In Children

By Sally Delacruz

It is important for every child to be physically fit because this enhances strong and confident growth for the child. Childrens fitness NYC is coordinated in form of programs that are specially designed to improve the awareness of the body of the child and their confidence too. The classes are usually divided to fit the children of different ages and also depending on the results they expect. The classes also assist in the development of kids who attend.

The first class is the one that is designed for the children two and five months. It is called the infant milestone class and it enhances the natural development of the kid. There are different activities that are carried out in this class such as music, stretching, gentle stretching and massaging of the babies. Differentiated techniques of massage that are used so as to energize as well as calm the child. They also help to stimulate the visual, auditory and physical development of a child.

Movement actions are first introduced to the children between 5 and 12 months. These lessons are set such that they are capable of enhancing the movement of toddlers such as cruising, crawling and the first stride. This period is conducted using sensory gadgets in a very harmless surrounding. Grown-up participation is compulsory so parents can watch when their children start their first movement.

The next class is the one for children between the age of fourteen to eighteen months. This is a class for the newly moving toddlers. In this class the skills learnt in the previous class are further developed through the introduction of some basic gymnastic skills. The child will be able to build their physical confidence through activities that focus on strengthening of upper and lower body, balance and co-ordination of body movement.

Children who are between fourteen and twenty four months are combined in the next level class because they are usually considered to be confident enough to move around. They are therefore introduced to gymnastics as a sport. Here they are taught different skills and they are also taught about sporting skills. The parents need to attend these classes because it is a grown-up participation class.

After they have been educated on the simple skills of aerobics, the children will now be trained on the central skills in an autonomous period. This is a session for older kids who are between 2 and 4 years old. This is a session in the gym periods where their assurance and coordination is indeed improved as they have an amusing time.

Every child who gets an opportunity to attend these classes will have natural development and they will also grow up as confident and strong children. There are gymnastic guidelines of USA that are strictly followed by these programs therefore the safety of your child is guaranteed.

Parents require several requirements that are needed in these classes like balances, trampoline, exercise mats and other things. Everyone who lives in New York City and has a child should enroll them in the gym programs so that the development of their children may be enhanced and that they may be healthy and strong.

About the Author:

You can visit www.beeinmotion.net for more helpful information about Childrens Fitness NYC For Strong And Confident Kids.

Building Upper Body Strength the Easy Way Revisited

by Nina

In a post from a few of years back Building Upper Strength the Easy Way, I included a mini yoga practice for building upper body strength. In those days, we didn’t have the collection of photographs we have now (thank you, Melina Meza!) and we didn’t have as much information about the individual poses in that mini sequence that we have now.

So I thought today I would revisit that sequence and include photographs of the poses and links to their full descriptions when we have them. The reason this came up for me is that just yesterday I was practicing all these poses in my home practice. Yes, I work regularly on maintaining my upper body strength by doing some simple, accessible yoga poses. As I wrote in Building Upper Strength the Easy Way  you don’t have to do handstands or arm balances to build upper body strength. Any pose where you put weight on your arms builds upper body strength, including Cat/Cow pose, Downward-Facing Dog pose, Upward-Facing Dog pose, Plank pose, Side Plank pose, and Upward Plank pose. 

So I’d like to encourage everyone else to incorporate some of these simple poses into your home yoga practice. For most of these poses, there are modifications for people who have wrist problems, such as practicing with forearms on the floor or using a chair or wall instead of the floor.

Also, any pose where you hold your arms up or out to the side builds upper body strength, including Warrior 1, 2, and 3, Tree pose, Triangle pose, Extended Side Angle pose, Half Moon pose, and so on. Do you doubt me? Try keeping your arms in position instead of releasing them as you change from the first side to the second side of Warrior 2 (or any other pose). I bet you’ll find it’s harder than you expected.

And if you decide to practice this mini sequence in its entirety, feel free to rest between the poses.

Mini Upper Body Strengthening Sequence

1. Cat/Cow Pose (Cakravakasana), 6 rounds. 

If kneeling isn’t possible or you have wrist problems, you can do this pose in a chair (see Featured Pose: Seated Cat/Cow).

Start in Hands and Knees position with padded under your knees if needed. Start with your spine in a neutral position. 

On your inhalation, start moving from your pelvis, tipping your hips downward toward the floor. As you continue to inhale, gently lift and lengthen your spine into a gentle backbend. Lift your breastbone forward and up, and allow your head and neck to lengthen out and back, coming into the Cow backbend.

On your exhalation, start by releasing your pelvis in the opposite direction, moving the back of your waist upward toward the ceiling. As you continue to exhale, allow your middle back to arch up towards the ceiling and release your chin toward your chest, coming into the Cat forward bend.

2. Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) pose, 30 seconds to 2 minutes.

See Featured Pose: Downward-Facing Dog for instructions. If you have wrist problems, you can practice this pose on your forearms, either with parallel forearms or with hands clasped into a Headstand position.

3. Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana), 30 seconds to 1 minute.

4. Sun Salutation, 2 rounds, or Downward-Facing Dog to Plank Pose.

My original sequence included Sun Salutations. But I'm thinking now that you might like to keep it even simpler and just practice moving from Downward-Facing Dog into Plank pose and back. You could hold the Plank pose for an extended period of time or you could do the poses dynamically, move in and out of Plank with your breath. See Featured Sequence: Upper Body Strength for information on how to practice Plank pose. People with wrist problems could do the forearm version.

If you want to do Sun Salutations for this sequence, practice Plank pose instead of Pushup Pose and High Lunge instead of jumping. This is not only easier but is safer for most of us because frankly after a certain age, Pushup pose (Chaturanga Dandasana) is quite stressful for the shoulders and jumping around is hard on the knees.

Also, to be honest, I do my Sun Salutations differently than Baxter does. You can see his instructions in his post Featured Sequence: Agility Practice. My version focuses more on upper body strength as it includes both Plank pose and Upward-Facing Dog pose. Baxter’s is milder, as includes Cobra instead of Plank and Upward-Facing Dog. You should do whichever works best for you. 

Here is the sequence of pose I include in my Sun Salutations. I’m not going to give instructions today, just the order of the poses. Don’t worry about moving quickly with your inhalations and exhalations. It’s fine to take a breath or two in each pose, or even stay longer in the arm strengthening poses. 

1. Mountain pose (Tadasana)
2. Arms Overhead pose (Urdva Hastasana)
3. Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana) 
4. Extended Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana with extended rather than rounded spine)
5. High Lunge (Vanarasana), right side
6. Downward-Facing Dog pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
7. Plank pose
8. Upward-Facing Dog pose (Urdva Mukha Svanasana)
9. Downward-Facing Dog pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
10. High Lunge (Vanarasana), left side
11. Extended Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana with extended rather than rounded spine)
12. Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana)
13. Powerful pose (Utkatasana)
14. Arms Overhead pose (Urdva Hastasana)
15. Mountain pose (Tadasana)

For the second round, step your right foot back into the first High Lunge and right foot forward into the second High Lunge.

5. Sideways Plank Pose (Vasithsasana), 30 seconds to 1 minute per side.

See Featured Pose: Side Plank Pose for information. People with wrist problems can practice with the forearm on the floor.

 People who want to build up the strength to do the full pose can do the wall version.

6. Upward Plank Pose (Purvottanasana), 30 seconds to one minute.

See Featured Pose: Upward Plank Pose for information. People with wrist problems can try the chair version, where you bear less weight on your hands.

Repeat the pose two times. Rest in Constructive Rest pose in between. 

7. Child's Pose (Balasana), 1 to 2 minutes.

Take the classic pose, with your arms by your sides, rather than stretched out in front of you. Relax and rest your arms and upper body before moving on to Relaxation pose.

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