Teaching Saddle Pose: Help Is on The Way

Teaching Saddle Pose: Help Is On The Way
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[00:00:00] Welcome or welcome back to a Yin Yoga podcast. Today we have a whopper of an episode for you, but one I think is gonna be so helpful and it was requested. Somebody asked me, can you go over saddle pose? And I’m guessing the subtext there was, please help me. Most of us as Y teachers when we try to teach saddle pose to a diverse group of students, boy, it’s a lot.

How do we make it available for this person and that person and this person’s knee can’t do it and that person’s foot and oh, now I’ve just spent 15 minutes getting everyone into saddle. Was it even worth it? So we’re gonna go over saddle pose, not 1 0 1. ’cause 1 0 1 is what you see in the books. This is like.

Master’s level, hopefully saddle pose. I’ve got so many [00:01:00] thoughts and variations and substitutions in store for you, so stay tuned for that.

Welcome back to a Yanni Yoga podcast, for those of you that are familiars, and if you’re new around here, welcome. Before we get into today’s deep dive into saddle posts, I wanted to just very quickly, let you know that . If you’re listening to this live, there may be still a spot in the spring round of my, , therapeutic yin training.

Hard to know for sure because I record these in advance. So if you are interested in joining this current training. Or the next one. If you’ve been listening for a while and you’re like, geez, I really wanna do a yin training with Nick, um, there’s a link in the episode notes that says, get on the wait list.

Just click that link. It takes you to the page. And if there isn’t a current training, live there with, but a little button to sign up yet. Then get on the wait list [00:02:00] because then you’ll be first to know when the next round opens. So. I try to keep these podcasts a little more evergreen, not saying specific dates and times, because you may be listening to this far in the future, or you may be listening to this as it comes live, but if you’re interested in more training, you can either click that link to see if there’s one coming up that you can join, or if there isn’t one listed yet,

No sign up button. It’s because registration hasn’t opened yet, in which case you could get on the wait list. Okay. That’s that. And then the other thing I wanted to do was very briefly, , a podcast review and a thank you. Thank you to Linda. I don’t know if it’s Sarco, am I saying your name right, Linda?

I’m not sure for making a little buy me a coffee. For the podcast. So if you didn’t know, ’cause I don’t talk about it much except when people do it. There is a link in the episode notes. So [00:03:00] if you have been listening to these podcasts and finding them super helpful, and you’re, , wanting to contribute in some way, there’s many ways you could contribute, you could contribute financially as Linda just did.

You could just click the link that says, support my work. It goes to PayPal and you just enter in whatever amount, click, send, and pickety, boom. So that’s one way. But if you don’t wanna contribute financially, you can contribute by subscriber or following, giving a five star rating on Apple and maybe a written review.

Or if you’re on Spotify, you could do a five star rating. And then leave me a comment under this episode, , just letting me know how the episode landed for you. Or if you have any ideas that you want me to, , cover on the pod, you can do all of that on Spotify in the comments. Or if you are listening on Apple and you do have ideas for future episodes, you can just get at me at Instagram and let me know.

I keep a little [00:04:00] list in my phone of, both my own ideas and requests from you. A little podcast love I received. This is by mania. Brian, I hope I said your name right.

I’m so happy I came across your podcast. I just listened to the one with Gabrielle and gained so much insight. We’ll definitely be listening to it again as well as all your others. Thank you. So with lots of Oh much. Thank you for taking the time to leave me some feedback. That one was on Spotify. That was a Spotify comment.

So friends, if you’re on Spotify, you can totally leave me a comment. If you are, on Apple and you can’t leave me a com, you can leave a review, five stars and a written review. And you can also, if you happen to be on Apple and you do want to. Touch base with me. If you’ve got a request or something, please feel [00:05:00] free to get at me on Instagram and the dms.

I am on Facebook, but honestly, I don’t spend time on Facebook much. I get in and out. I get into the yin group and a couple other groups and then I just get out. So please don’t message me on Facebook if you’re gonna message me other than email, do it on Instagram. You’ll be more likely to get a response.

Alright, my friends. Let’s dive into the topic at hand. I gotta say, when this request came in, I was. Super stoked to do it, but also realize that trying to do a pose breakdown and variations and options in an audio format is a little tough. So I reached out to my friends at tummy. If you don’t know about Tummy, I’ll tell you about them because Tummy’s amazing.

And ask them if they would partner with me on this episode. So to be clear, this isn’t a sponsored episode. Tummy didn’t pay for this. [00:06:00] Shout out. This is me reaching out to TUMMY and saying, Hey, I’d like to do an episode on a particular pose, but I realize that it’s going to need a visual companion to go with.

So it, dear Yoga teacher, if you’ve not heard of tummy. You are seriously missing out. It’s T-U-M-M-E e.com. I will of course link them in the episode notes, but they have a platform with little drawings of people doing yoga poses that you can like make your own sequences, and they have so many variations.

It can also go there for inspiration. , You can enter the name of a pose and see how many other teachers are doing this. So they’re little drawings and you can even submit, if they don’t have your drawing, you can even submit a photo and say, Hey, can I get this one added to the library? And unless they already have it, they’ll often do it for you.

And so that’s what I did. I reached out to Tommy and I said, Hey. I would really [00:07:00] like to do an episode on a particular pose, but I realized that trying to do that in an audio format without a visual, will be frustrating to the listener. And so I said, would you be willing to draw up some new versions and collaborate with me on this?

And they said yes. So my friends. I have so many versions of what we can do to make saddle pose more accessible, and also what can we do instead? Because no matter how many props you have and how smart you are, there are just gonna be people that can’t do saddle. So let’s dive into that. First, let’s talk about the very most important part is the why.

Before you get into how do I modify it, how do I help this person? You have to understand for yourself, why am I putting saddle in this sequence? What is the function of saddle posts? [00:08:00] Because that’s gonna help you. So there’s two kind of obvious ones. One, you may be putting saddle pose in for the quadricep stretch, right?

The front of the thighs. Maybe that’s why you’re doing it. Okay. Then that determines what alternatives you would give people if, , they can’t do saddle. Or maybe you’re like, actually I’m doing saddle for the backend action and I’m not overly concerned about the quads. And then that would determine a different route that you might take with modifying, giving props or giving someone an alternative shape.

Or maybe you’re doing it for both. Maybe you’re like, yeah, I want the quadriceps, but I also want them to be in a bit of a backbend. And then that of course, would also inform what variations, options, et cetera, that you could choose. So I wanted to mention that first because, dear teacher, if you don’t know the function of saddle.

Why you’re putting it in. And again, there’s, there could be, , three at least there. [00:09:00] I just listed quads, backbend, or combo, right? Why am I putting saddle in the sequence? When you put it in and you know why you’re putting it in, then it makes it so much easier for you to troubleshoot , when things go awry, which they will if you try to teach saddle to a mixed group.

Of, yeah, your average human, you’re gonna have some work attached. So that’s the first thing to mention. First you have to understand why am I putting it in the sequence? Because if you’re putting it in for the backend, then maybe not all of these will apply. If you’re putting it in for the quadricep stretch, maybe not all of these will apply.

If you’re going for the combo, maybe not. All of these will apply. So I’m gonna go through and I’m gonna describe some of the. Pose variations that you could do and explore. And then also alternatives. And again, remember there will be a companion visual, a wonderful document that I made took quite a while, . And tummy drew many versions of these saddle poses that they didn’t have based [00:10:00] on my requests and my photographs. So shout out again to TUMMY for partnering with me on this. I’m not an affiliate. They did not sponsor the episode, but they’re awesome and they partnered with me to make the companion PDF that will go with this episode so that you can see what it is that I’m talking about.

So first we have to know why. Why are we doing saddle? And then I wanna say, I’m gonna give you many variations of ways you can modify saddle, but there are people who will never be able to do saddle posts. Maybe they’ve got something going on with their knee and it just won’t bend that far.

Knee replacement or who knows, some kind of an injury. , Or it could be their foot or their ankle also that’s really limiting them in saddle. When I was talking to my friend , Addie d holster in the,, episode on props, which I will link, , she mentioned, and I thought this was like so obvious and yet so brilliant, like, why didn’t I think of this?

Eddie’s so smart that if [00:11:00] she’s got saddle on the menu for a pose, the first before she does it, she will get everyone to go into child’s pose. Now, you might be thinking why child’s pose saddle, huh? When she does get them to go into child’s pose, what she’s looking for is she’s looking at their, how close does their bum come to their feet?

Is it possible for them to sit on their heels, near their heels, et cetera, due to their knees or. Flexibility perhaps. And the second thing she’s looking at is their ankles and feet. If they’re top of their foot and their front of their ankle, right where your ankle connects to your shin, that area there, if that doesn’t touch the ground when someone’s in child’s pose, then you know right away you’re gonna have to do, start doing some modifying.

So I thought it was such a brilliant way to just take a look at a whole room full of people, see who’s gonna need. Some, some help. You might have a hit right there as to who might need some help. Now that [00:12:00] doesn’t mean other people won’t also need help, but those are the kind of obvious ones. Can’t sit on their feet, can’t bring the front of their top of their foot and the front of their ankle to the floor.

Those are gonna be obvious ones where you’re like, ah, we’re gonna need to modify a little bit here. , So I thought that was really brilliant. So I am gonna talk about how to modify saddle. But then I’m also gonna talk about replacements because there are people that just due to their foot or their ankle or knee issues are just not gonna be able to do saddle.

The weight of the hose being reclined in nature on the ankle and foot and knee , is a lot for some people. So I have plans for that too. Okay, so we’ve talked about why. Function. So why are we putting saddle in? Because that will determine which of these variations or substitutions you’re gonna explore.

It might be different if you’re looking for quads versus backbend or combination. [00:13:00] First, let’s just talk about, say oppose sometimes called hero or occasionally thunderbolt in Haha, that is a good precursor. To saddle. There are plenty of people. So if you’re looking for quads, there are plenty of people in the world that are gonna feel their thighs getting a stretch, even just by sitting on their feet or between their feet on a block.

So not everybody needs to recline back in order to get a stretch in their quads. So this is usually where I would start people. I always start people in like say, suppose we’ll just speak in. Just know that CA might also be called hero or thunderbolt, but learn to speak in, if you’re teaching in, um, in CA pose, if somebody can do that, if they can sit on their feet or between their feet on some support and they’re feeling a stretch in the front of their, their thighs, they’re feeling their quadriceps, then I don’t need to get them to recline.[00:14:00]

So just know that I know as teachers we think that like we’re, we have this. , Unrealistic view of the average human’s body, right? Because we hang out with teachers too much. So lots of people are gonna be good just doing hero. So I’m gonna describe some variations of hero and some ways to make that more accessible.

So first of all, you could sit on your feet or between your feet . Your knees do not need to be together , for some of you that are from others lineages, you might be going say, what? What? The knees don’t need to be together. No, they don’t. So you could sit on your feet or between your feet, your knees could be together or they could be apart, or you could sit on a yoga block if sitting on your feet or between your feet is too much.

Another thing that often happens is the knee joint, maybe due to a past injury, just doesn’t have enough space in it. And so you can actually take a little blanket roll or a folded [00:15:00] blanket or even a washcloth. And when somebody comes up to just say kneeling on their knees as if they were gonna step forward into a lunge, you can put the little blanket roll or the washcloth, like right close to the back of their knee and then ask them to sit back.

And sometimes that creates just a little bit of space in the knee joint, which allows them more comfort there. It doesn’t always work. Um, and you’d need a blanket. ’cause then the great thing about a blanket is you can fold it higher or lower. , But I have a picture of that here with a little blanket roll you’ll see in the document.

And that one, , can be good for some people if they just need a little more space in their knee. So that’s an option. You could do both. You could sit in cesa on blocks with a blanket roll. Behind your knees. You could also put a blanket roll right underneath the front of the ankle. So remember [00:16:00] when I said that in child’s post, some people’s foot and ankle don’t come to the floor?

That’s bone structure, not flexibility typically. So you know that’s not going to change. So instead, roll up a little blanket and put it right where the top of their foot and their ankle. Connect and that’ll create a little space. It’ll give them a little support. It sort of fills the space that their bone structure won’t allow for the foot to come down and that will give them more comfort.

Okay, so these are all ways to modify just starting by sitting in cesa and then seeing how we do from there, right? So we’ve got sitting on a block or two on sitting on your feet or between your feet, knees apart, knees together, a blanket behind the knee pits. A blanket behind the knee pits and sitting on blocks, a blanket under the front of the ankle, perhaps sitting on a bolster.

And all of these can be done,, with one [00:17:00] leg or both. So this can all be done as, you know, one leg forward, one leg back, or both legs back, right? So these are all precursors to saddle. And of course, in saddle we have half saddle and full saddle. So all of those can be done. Symmetrically or asymmetrically.

And then we’ve got the option again of a halfway, so maybe one leg is back and one leg is up, is straight out on a block, this will make more sense when you see the pictures too., I’ve got a variation here of CESA with the knees wide, because in some schools, some of us were trained, I was that’s , sacrilegious or something to let your knees come apart.

Okay, so now we’ve got, can they just sit in CESA and are they feeling a stretch there? And if they are, just keep them upright. There’s no need for them to recline at all unless they’re not feeling anything. But let’s just say, okay, they’re not feeling anything. Well now how do we start to come back and make these more accessible?

Well, first of all, you [00:18:00] can just walk their hands back behind them and they can lean back into their hands. True story. You don’t need to lay on anything. You could just lean back into your hands. You could put your elbows on a bolster behind you, so you could put the bolster going. I don’t have a picture of this one.

So use your imagination muscles for a moment. A bolster going horizontally just to bring the floor up. And then maybe they lean back and rest their elbows on a bolster or on some blocks. So maybe their elbows aren’t quite able to reach the floor, but they want a little more than just bringing their hands back behind them.

That’s an option. Or they could lean back onto their elbows. And then we start to get into all the versions of saddle that we can do with props. So here we go. Let’s say lean back on their elbows is an option. , Lean back on their elbows on a bolster or blocks. Those are options. And [00:19:00] then we can do, let’s just say they’re coming back.

We could stack blocks under them. So I know some of you don’t have bolsters, so I’ve got an image in here where there’s two blocks under the torso and another block under the head as a way of bringing the floor up so they don’t have to lay back so far. For those of you who don’t have bolsters, another option for the bolster free crowd is to take a block under the head and then roll up a blanket and put that under the torso, so there’s an image of that as well.

You could have them lay on a bolster with blankets on top or several blankets, an option that I very rarely see being taught, but this is one of the ones that tummy had to draw for me, so shout out. Thank you, tummy. If you have a chair, you can turn the chair, flip it upside down. On the floor so that the back of the chair is [00:20:00] actually resting on the floor and the legs are sort of sticking up.

And then you put a bolster between the chair legs and you have someone sit in front of it and then lean back onto the bolster. So the chair is lifting the bolster and they’ve got a bolster. So it’s quite a supported version. There’s a picture in the. In the document if that one doesn’t make sense. So if you have access to chairs and bolsters, that one can be a fantastic option.

In the image, there’s blocks under the hands that may or may not be necessary depending on how long their arms are. Another one that tummy drew for me. Thank you so much. Tummy is doing a reclined version at the wall. So you sit in front of the wall in cesa, you grab a yoga block. You put it right next to the wall and then you put another one right in front of it and you put a bolster on top of the one that’s further away going vertically, but the bolsters on an angle,

so the [00:21:00] bolsters leaning against the wall. So you’re essentially using the wall to keep the person a little more upright, but they still have the bolster to lean into. So that was a version that we did a lot in my very first teacher training and tummy was nice enough to draw for me. And then let’s talk about the people that maybe can come to their elbows.

You know, there’s a cool bunch of cool variations I threw in here that were just fun that weren’t necessarily, \, to make it more accessible. Like there’s one here with somebody on their elbows and they’re in half saddle. Instead of stretching the other foot out straight, they’ve lifted it up and they’ve crossed it over their thigh.

So that’s kind of cool. And then we’ve got half saddle on a bolster. So any of the things I just said about saddle pose can also be done one Legg at a time. Right? I think that’s hopefully obvious. So any of the variations that just went over. [00:22:00] You could always do that one leg at a time. And doing one leg at a time is more accessible for more people.

So often if I’m gonna do a saddle, I’ll do like a half saddle. It’s, it’s easier for most people to do kind of one leg at a time. So again, you could do half saddle on chairs, on walls, on bolsters, et cetera, on blankets, on blocks, and. I put another fun variation of a prop in here with a bolster going horizontally.

That might be a fun option. And then of course, for those who can, certainly nothing wrong with people using no props. So if someone is able to sit on their feet or between their feet and recline all the way back and lay on the floor, they are a rare, magical unicorn. I know as teachers, we think that’s.

Normal, but that’s not normal. That’s very unusual range of motion for the average Western body. But if someone can do that comfortably, of course they should. They should feel free to. , And the same thing with half saddle, right? So they could do one leg [00:23:00] bent back, one leg straight, and then they could also do half saddle with one leg bent back, and then the other one has one foot on the floor knee pointing towards the sky.

Some people find that that version is a little softer on the low back. Another version is to do half saddle, so one leg back, and then with the leg that would normally be straight, you’re actually hugging it in towards your chest. That’s a fun variation I found while I was perusing tummy. And then of course, there’s just full saddle.

As well for those who can do it. So those are a multitude of different variations and ways that you can modify saddle, that you can make it more accessible, that you can provide propping, et cetera, et cetera. But here’s the thing, there are people that still won’t be able to do any of those, and so then you have to ask yourself.

Is it the backend I’m looking for? Or the quad stretch? ’cause that’s where we’re going next. [00:24:00] So let’s just say, okay, I was doing this mostly for the backend, but I do want a little quad in there. Get them to flip over on their belly and take hinx poses. Now you’re getting the little backend and then. We’re gonna talk about all kinds of ways they could bend their knees in order to bring this into their quads.

So they could just come onto their, into their sphinx pose and bend one knee at a time, or they could bend both knees up and they could just sort of let them be in the air. But there’s all kinds of other fun ways too. So coming into Sphinx takes a lot of the pressure off the knee joint and off the foot.

So for those people whose feet scream at them or their knees don’t handle. , Doing saddle sphinx pose with bent legs of some version, which we’re about to chat about, many of them is sometimes a perfect solution. In fact, I would more likely start there just because,, my public dropping class is only 75 minutes.

If I waste [00:25:00] 15 of that trying to get everyone in saddle, that’s a lot of time. So I would probably take sphinx with op, but bent leg options. Then say out loud to people, if you’d prefer to do saddle, if you’re comfortable, go for it. But this would be far faster. So they’re on their belly.

They’re bending either one leg or both legs, as if they’re kind of bringing the legs straight up or towards their bum. Another fun option is to take a yoga brick or a bolster. Put it underneath your knees in Sphinx pose, so you’re in Sphinx. You put a little bolster or a yoga block underneath the knees as you bend the legs, and that just actually adds a little bit more back bend and a little more quad stretch for some folks, you can use the wall, so you can scooch your hinx pose up to a wall, and then bend your legs and let your legs rest against the wall so your head’s facing into the center of the room.

The wall is holding the legs into position. [00:26:00] That’s a fun variation. Okay, so that’s all. If you’re focusing mostly on backend, here are some other fun options. What I often call baby Dragon. Some people call, um, lazy Dragon, where you are in what haha might call wind relieving pose. Or half wind releasing pose.

So you’re laying on your back and you’re hugging one knee into your chest and you’re extending the other leg out straight. Now this can be done without support under the hips, or I usually do it with my students with a folded blanket or a bolster under their hips to exaggerate a bit of that stretch in the hip flexor of the straight leg.

So this is a one leg at a time. Hug one knee and stretch the other leg out straight. Fantastic pose for anyone who cannot do dragon. I [00:27:00] know we’re not talking about dragons today, but we could if you want, um, just let me know. But that is a great way to get into the quads and the hip flexors. So if you were doing saddle mostly for hip flexor quads, well that might be a good option.

Either just laying flat on the floor, hugging one knee in leg straight, or elevating their pelvis on a bolster or a block and hugging one knee in. Let’s talk about bridge pose. Bridge pose is a fantastic opener for hip flexors and quads, and also a bit of a backbend, so. No pressure on the ankles or the knees.

So maybe you get them to come up on a yoga brick and do bridge poses. And remember my dear teachers that yoga blocks have three heights, the flat, the middle, and the high. And that not everybody will get up to the highest one in bridge based on their leg length or flexibility. So bridge pose [00:28:00] with a block under the sacrum.

I prefer the block to be, vertically versus horizontally. That’s just for concerns about. Some people’s vertebrae, but you do you, so hi hips are up in the air block, under the sacrum that’s gonna open up the quads, the hip flexors, and you’re getting a backbend. So that could be nice. You can also do exactly the same pose, but with the legs stretched out straight.

And that is what Paul and Susie used to call pontoon. Now I prefer if we’re doing pontoon myself to use, a bolster or folded blanket than a yoga block. It’s just more comfortable and gives people’s pelvis more space. But you could also use a block, so that’s like bridge pose, and then you stretch the legs out straight.

So now again, you’re getting that opening of hip flexor quad, but you’re also getting a little back bend.

And then I’ve got several variations of those with different amounts of height, different props. So I [00:29:00] won’t describe each one, but you know, hips on a block, hips on a bolster, et cetera, et cetera. A one legged version, right? So that’s another thing you could do. Get them to come into bridge and stretch one leg out into pontoon, keeping the other leg bent foot on the floor.

It’s lovely option. And then let’s talk about Sphinx pose also with straps. So you could do sphinx pose, as I mentioned, where you bend the legs and you use a wall. Or maybe you just bend the legs and kinda let the knees or the, or you just bend the legs and let the feet kind of just be in the air at 90 degrees.

Or you can loop a strap over their feet and draw the feet in towards their butt. In Sphinx pose, you could do this with one leg at a time. , You know, hook one foot, draw it in. So you’re just in sphinx pose how you normally would be, you’re on your elbows or whatever, but you’ve last sued your foot and you’ve got the strap in your [00:30:00] hand.

You could do that with one leg or both legs, and this is usually what I’ll do. Rather than going into saddle. So if I’ve got a mixed group, I’m more likely to do that version of Spinx pose. With the strap, it’s much more accessible, way more people can do it. And then they have total control over how much they’re pulling on the strap and how close they’re bringing their foot into their bum.

So they have total control over how much sensation they’re getting.

And you could do that again, one leg at a time, or both legs at a time. Got a couple other fun versions of bridge in here. I won’t go over them all just ’cause you can check them out. And then there’s a version of Sphinx where the legs are straight, but you’ve got a bolster underneath the quads. And as soon as you elevate the quads up, you’re putting someone in a little bit more of a back bend.

And they also make it a little more quad stretch. So those are all there. So those are [00:31:00] great. If your goal was, oh, backend and quad. You could do all of those different fun variations of sphinx with bent legs, or you could do bridge pose, you know, with one leg straight, one leg bend, both legs straight, both legs bend, both feet on the floor.

There’s a million versions that you could do. So if your goal for was, , quads and back bend, those would be the ones that I would recommend those fun versions of Sphinx, or maybe bridge as an alternative for people who just, no matter what props you give them, saddle’s not gonna happen. Now let’s talk about what if your goal was actually more quad hip flexor?

You weren’t really doing it for the back bend. Well, my friends have, we forgot that we can do dragon pose with the back le back leg bent. I think, I don’t know if it was Bernie or someone else, somebody I’ve heard call it Screaming Dragon, which I think is hysterical and accurate. Here are a few ways that you could do that.

So you get them to come into Dragon Pose, which is a low lunge. For those of you that do not yet speak in [00:32:00] back knee is on the ground, front leg is in whatever position works for them. I highly recommend a blanket always under the knee for this because our poor little patellas are kneecaps. We’re not designed to be knelt on for minutes at a time on hard surfaces.

So unless someone’s got a swoosh mat and a carpet, I always say, let’s pull out a blanket or a chip phone block or something under the knee. So there are some very fun versions of Dragon in here as a way to access the, as a way to access the quad more. So if you wanted to do that, you could just reach back with your hand and hold the foot.

If you have that range, you could less soothe the foot with a strap and then pull the strap maybe over your shoulder and kind of hold that as you come forward. , And then there’s a fun variation in here that I had tummy draw for me, where you’re actually laying on a bolster and you’ve got a strap around the foot and then also around your shoulder so that you’re not having to hold the [00:33:00] strap.

It’s just kind of hooked into place and then you’re coming down lower. So that’s a fun version of Dragon. That would be great. Quad stretch. So you could check that one out too. It’s in the document. And then of course we’ve got. The option that no one ever thinks about, which is lying on your side.

Crazy but true. Someone could just lie on their side and then grab their foot if they can reach it, or grab a strap and then draw their foot towards their bum. Again, taking all of the pressure. Off of the ankle and the weight off of the knee that way, and they can determine how close in they’re bringing that foot to their bum.

So that sideline one Legg at a time with a strap.

For those of you on YouTube, my apologies, you just saw me make a face. It’s because my cat is chewing my headphone cord. Okay, I digress. . [00:34:00] So you can lie on the side, grab the foot or grab a strap. And that’s a great option too. I do that one often right before I do a side body stretch. So get them to lie on their side and I’ll get them to grab their foot or grab a strap and I’ll have a bolster going horizontally.

There’s no picture of this one, sorry. It’s a hybrid pose, , in their waist. And I’ll get them to hold onto their foot for a little bit. And then I’ll get them to, um, you know, do that for a couple minutes and I’ll get them to let go of their foot and then stretch their arm out and do a sideline posture.

So it’s a good multitasker. Of course, there’s also cattail, which is, could be a quad opener, and a backbend and a twist all together. Now, haven’t put cattail. In this sequence document, because it’s such a hard pose to teach that I feel like Cattail on its own could be a whole episode. And again, if you want me to do other poses, you gotta let me know in the comments.

I’m happy to [00:35:00] do breakdowns like this. , And I’ll see if Tummy’s willing to partner with me again for a document. So. Cattail is also an option if somebody can reach their foot or grab a strap that can get a quad, and then if they pull the foot away a little bit, that’s a bit of a back bend. The reason I haven’t included it in this is because I feel like cattail is a challenging pose as challenging sometimes to teach as saddle.

So I didn’t wanna give you like a pose that’s just as hard as saddle to help make saddle easier. But just know verbally, I’m telling you, cattail might be an option. And again, cat tail’s a tricky pose. So that on its own could be , a whole episode perhaps. So my friends, I’m gonna review this. I’m not gonna go over each pose, but I’m just gonna review our general principles.

First thing, first we have to start with why. Why am I putting saddle in? If you’re putting saddle in for the quad, that will determine which of these variations you play with. If you’re putting saddle in for the backend, that will determine which of these [00:36:00] variations you’re gonna play with. If you’re doing it for a little bit of both, that will determine which of these variations you could play with.

Remember that not everybody will be able to do saddle period, the end full stop, no matter how many blankets and blocks and bolsters you give them. And that’s why I’ve given you so many other options as well. So there’s a gazillion ways that you can practice saddle listed in here. And remember, sometimes just sitting on your feet or between your feet on a block is a stretch for quads, for people or leaning back into their hands.

Not everybody needs to be lounging around on the floor to feel it. So start there. Always start with the easiest, simplest version, and then add on if you don’t feel it in your quads, then you could do this rather than doing full saddle. Okay. Everybody sit on your feet and lay down. Oh, you can’t do that.

Okay, well now we’re gonna go through all the props. No, no, no, no. Start with the easy one and then go to the harder one. From there. If people need it, they may not. So you could start with caa. [00:37:00] That’s the precursor to saddle. They might be fine just there. Or CAA leaning into their hands. We’ve got a bunch of different variations in here with props and et cetera, et cetera.

If they do need, if they can come into saddle, but they just can’t come all the way back, maybe their knee and foot. Do tolerate saddle, then we can lay on blocks, we can lay on bolsters, we can lay on blankets. I told you about the cool chair variation where we flip the chair upside down and add a bolster.

And then I also told you about the one that I often did in my first training where you lean a bolster up against a wall and they lean there. So those are all available if they can do saddle, but they’re just not that flexible. But if they’re, if they’ve done a knee replacement or something, none of these are gonna work.

Let them go and give them something else. Um, or if they’ve got like a serious ankle or foot pain to the point where if they roll up a blanket and put it under the front of their ankles, that doesn’t fix it, then just get them in a different position. So we’ve got. [00:38:00] All kinds of fun variations of saddle and have saddle in here with props so that if the person can do saddle, but they’re just not as flexible as you know, the person on the cover of Yoga magazine, there’s lots there for you.

And then if they can’t do saddle, now we have to ask ourselves, is it the backend we’re looking for, or is it the quad stretch or is it a combo? We can do sphinx pose with bent legs, that’s gonna give a combo. And there’s many, many options in here. We can do bridge pose. That’s a combo either with straight legs, bent legs, or one bent, one straight.

We can do, um, what I call baby dragon. Some people call lazy dragon, laying on your back with some support under your hips, hugging one knee into your chest. That could be an option that’s mostly quad, but also a little bit of a backend. If you elevate the pelvis on a block or a bolster, then they’re in a backend as well.

There’s bridge poses, golar, [00:39:00] pontoon, half bridge, full bridge, et cetera. And then of course, there’s using a strap all laying on your side or catching your foot, laying on your side. Don’t forget about the side. Lying options. And don’t forget about Screaming Dragon. If somebody has a serious knee pain, though they may not be able to kneel in Dragon, and so that’s why I like the recline version laying on your back for those who cannot kneel.

But it is available for people who maybe can kneel on their knee but they just can’t recline. Or if they’ve got a foot ankle thing, then maybe you throw them into uh, dragon pose and you either give them a strap or their hand to reach for their back foot. That is also an option. So I’ve given you so many options to play with.

I’m sure there are so many cool, fun variations that I haven’t even thought of that aren’t even in this document. So I may make it a living, breathing document [00:40:00] and when I find more, I may just add them. Um, but just know that this document is linked in the show notes for you. Thank you again. To Tommy for partnering with me on this episode and being willing to draw all these crazy cockamamie versions of poses that I sent them pictures for so that you would have visual representations, because learning about a pose in an audio format not as helpful.

Um, so feel free to listen to this, uh, as you open the document if you would like, um, or just, you know, know that the document’s there for you if you wanna listen, and then open it up and save it later. It will be there for you. Um, and if you have not checked out tummy, if you’re a teacher and you haven’t checked out tummy, I cannot recommend them enough.

Not only because it makes it super easy to sequence your poses, but also just the sheer inspiration that you would enter any pose into the search, and it’ll show you so many different versions of ways that they could be propped or [00:41:00] practiced. Very, very cool. Now, I will say the only thing with Tommy as a yin stir is that everything is listed in, , the Indian name, not in the yin names.

But you can go through in your documents and rename them, which is what I will have done for you here. By the time you get the document, I will have renamed. The poses so that they are speaking yin, but otherwise, absolutely fantastic resource for you as a teacher. Um, it is a paid resource, but it’s not expensive.

And I think, what did I do? I paid for a month to try it out, and then at the time, I don’t know if they still had this, but at the time they had like a lifetime. Thing that you could do like a one fee for your life. And I was just like, yep, done. We’re paying for that for life because it’s so helpful.

If any of you have attended my free workshops that I do seasonally, the Resource Teacher’s resource is always in tummy. , I use it in my current teacher training manual. For all the poses. TUMMY is, is a [00:42:00] really good resource if you’ve never heard of them, T-U-M-M-E e.com and of course they will be linked in the show notes.

So big thank you to Tummy for drawing up some images for me for this episode, and I hope that you found this helpful. I wanna hear feedback on this, y’all. So if you’re on Spotify, let me know in the comments. Did you go get some ahas with saddle? Uh, if you’re on YouTube, let me know in the comments. Is there something in here you hadn’t thought of?

Do you have some fun variations you can play with now with yourself and your students? , And if you have any other poses that you want me to do a breakdown on, please, if you have poses where you’re like, oh, I hate teaching this pose, it’s so challenging, please let me know. Happy to do this again, and we’ll see if Tommy’s happy to do it again.

I’ll ask them. You never know. All right, my friends. That’s it for now. Until we meet again. Bye for now.