Photo Challenge Inspiration 2

 It's time for our second inspiration post! Have I told you how excited I am for this photo challenge? I'm getting you ready. I'm going to have so much fun taking the pictures for these prompts and I want to make sure you have fun too!

This week we are talking about inversions... *cough cough* maybe a prompt *cough cough*

Just so we are all on the same page though, I want you to know that there are SO MANY ways to get upside down without being in a headstand or handstand. An inversion is any pose where you are even a little bit upside down. So... forward fold? Inversion. Downward dog? Totally inverted.

So, let's talk about these poses, shall we?

1. Forward Fold - pretty self explanatory, right? Technically, you are standing for this pose. Your feet can be hip distance apart or together. In this picture, I'm grabbing my elbows behind my knees to get my chest closer to my thighs. You can also just relax your arms down, grab your elbows with opposite hands, or interlace your fingers behind your low back, straighten your arms and bring the heels of your hands together for a nice shoulder stretch.

2. Feathered Peacock - Starting in a forearm plank with your forearms parallel and shoulder distance apart, walk your feet up until you are in an upside down V shape, then kick up and get those feet right over your hips.

3. Headstand is a little bit of a misnomer in this incarnation because there is hardly any weight in the top of my head at all. My body is supported almost entirely by my forearms. Hands are clasped and elbows are one forearm's length apart. To get into the pose, start in dolphin (see below) and walk your feet up until you can hike your hips right on top of your spine. Then slowly lift and straighten your legs.

4. Shoulderstand - Start out laying flat on your back and use your core strength to hike your hips up over your head straight into the air. Once you're there, focus on getting your feet right above your hips instead of over your face. Keep pinching your elbows into your sides and supporting your low back.

5. Scorpion - On your forearms, in feathered peacock pose, slowly shift your head and chest forward as you bend your knees and arch your back coming into an inverted backbend, try and get your toes as close to your head as possible.

6. Handstand - You can start in down dog. Make sure your hands are shoulder distance apart and kick yourself up. Use a wall for support to begin and then try to bring your feet away from the wall.

7. Down dog - remember when we talked about this before?

8. Plow - From shoulderstand, release your feet down over your head and try to touch your toes to the floor. Keep your legs straight and don't turn your head side to side.

9.  Supported Shoulderstand - A favorite restorative inversion of mine, start laying flat on your back. You'll need a block. Take your feet flat on the floor and lift your hips high enough to slide the block right underneath your sacrum (the flat boney spot at the base of your spine), once you're stable and comfortable on your block, straighten your legs and get your feet directly over your hips. Relax.

10. Dolphin - Just like down dog, but on your forearms. Keep your elbows shoulder distance apart, forearms parallel, and press both palms into the floor.

11. Three-legged Dog - Start in down dog, lift one leg. Then you can stack your hips, bend that top knee and point the knee at the sky, or keep your hips square and your foot flexed.

12. Waterfall - Another amazing restorative pose for ya. Scoot your bum all the way up to the wall so it touches. Take your feet to the sky and lay back. Relieve stress on the low back by taking your feet hip distance apart instead of together.

What do you think? Did you learn some new poses today? Are you excited? I'm excited, but you know that already. ;)