On today's episode of "What did my teacher just say?", we are looking at the old faithful, "root down to rise up". Different cues help different people, sometime flowery language can help a student figure out a posture, and sometimes it can leave a student more confused. "Root to rise" confused me for a while! Let's break this one down together.
You might hear "root to rise", or "root down to rise up" when you're in a standing posture like tadasana (mountain pose), or a balancing posture, like virabhadrasana 3 (warrior 3 pose).
But, what does it mean? And what are you supposed to actually do?
The idea of this cue is to get you to think about your foundations, and building stability from the ground up.
When you feel (physically) grounded in your lower body, you might find more ease and lightness in your upper body.
In a standing posture, it might look like this:
Find a comfortable stance - hip width, or slightly wider/more narrow (every body is different).
Lift your toes, spread them out and plant them back down.
Press down through these three points in your foot:
Similarly, this cue might come in a seated posture, like sukhasana (easy cross-legged pose), or before paschimottanasana(seated forward fold).
In this case, think about all the parts of your body that are connected to the ground. Activate all the muscles in your lower body to build a sense of stability in which to lift from.
“It is in the roots, not the branches, that a tree’s greatest strength lies.”
- Matshona Dhliwayo
Leave a comment if you want us to break down any other yoga cues!
Emilie & Julie ♡
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