A short instructor-led YouTube yoga lesson by Giselle Toner teaching Chaturanga Dandasana (four-limbed staff pose). The video walks viewers through beginner modifications (palms under shoulders, ankles crossed, toes up, hips low), cautions about upper-body strength, and offers progressions to the full pose with core engagement and transitions into Upward/Downward Facing Dog and Child's Pose. Tone is encouraging and safety-focused, aimed at building strength gradually.
Chapters
Namaste. Hi, everybody. I'm Giselle and today we're going to be going through Chaturanga Dandasana. So this is a four limb staff pose that I'll be showing you today, taking you through the beginner level to the intermediate advanced level. Now, I want you to be careful because usually our upper bodies really aren't too strong unless we practice this for a while. So that's why I want you to take your time with it and just do the beginner levels that I'm going to be showing you. And then eventually you'll start to get a lot stronger. You'll be able to go into the full pose. Okay, so again, it's Chaturanga Dandasana, four limb stance pose, Beginner level. First, let's start out with the palms under the shoulders. And the position of the body is going to be ankles crossed, toes upward. What we want to do is keep the hips low rather than in an all fours position with the tailbone lifted. So we're going to make sure that we're forward. Hips are going downward, toes are pointing upward to the sky to keep the hips low. Breathing in deeply, let's start to come down with the elbows towards the body. And we're going to be working the triceps pretty hard here. And let's just hold for a few seconds and then come all the way down and take a break. So now, in the beginning, you may find it very difficult to go down slowly with the elbows to the body. It is going to take significant amount of strength in the quad and the triceps, which is the muscle behind your arm. So let's try that one more time. Same basic move, elbows to the body. Take it down slow so the ankles are crossed. We're going to start out with a nice deep breath, palms under shoulders. Inhale, exhale. As you start to come down with the elbows to the body and try to hold it here a couple of seconds to really get strong. Now if you collapse, that's okay. Come on down gently. Good. Now let's go into the full pose if you feel ready for it. If not, just continue with your beginner level for a while. The full pose is a straight body. Taking a deep breath again, going to start coming down with the elbows to the body with one straight line. Hold it here and then you can come into an upward facing dog and a downward facing dog and do a nice stretch here. Palms flat, tailbone high. Breathe deeply and exhale. Let's drop it down onto the knees and relax in child's pose. When you come up, just roll it up gently and feel your spine releasing to relax your head, neck and shoulders as you come up. Let's do that second level one more time. Okay, Coming into the full Chaturanga Dandasana. Only if you feel ready for it. If not, stick with that basic level that I showed you. Palms flat, come into a nice long line. Start engaging your abs, keeping your abs tight, breathing in deeply. Come on down with the elbows to the body. Try to hold it for a few seconds and then roll into Urkha Lukshanasana, Upward Facing Dog. And then roll over the toes into Adho Mukha Sinasana, Downward Facing Dog. Take a deep breath here. Long inhale and long exhale. Let's come onto the toes just for a little bit of a stretch for the ankles, or rather a little workout for the ankles. And then drop it to the knees and let's go back into child's pose for a nice stretch. Let's roll it up and take a deep breath. Okay, great. So just practice that and eventually you will start to build the strength. So go into it easily. Namaste.
