• On Oct, 06, 2015
•  Jayne Hembruff
•  Uncategorized

Yesterday I had the pleasure of sharing my passion?for yoga with the?NoteWorthy Singers, a ?seniors choir. My task was to share techniques on how to?relax, ?breath and improve posture.

I thought I would share my?tips here in my post/blog to help other singers and as a reference for?the NoteWorthy Singers.

Posture Check:

Seated:

First, lets check in to how you are sitting. Are you sitting with?a long tall spine? Do you have equal weight on your two bum bones (?ischial tuberosity – the two??a pointy parts as shown in the picture).

While seated, practice spine sparing techniques. If possible, try to sit forward on the chair; not using the back rest.

Are your feet planted firmly directly below the knees (approximately two fist widths apart)?Are your feet parallel to one another, pointed straight ahead?

For both seated and standing:?

Ensure that the spine is perfectly straight with the ears over the shoulders. Avoid sticking the chest our or slouching. This will protect your spine and allow you to fill your lungs more completely.

Are your shoulder over your hips? Is your head over your shoulders? Allow?your sternum (the middle of the chest) and ?clavicle (collar bone) to be up and fly. Or as one of my BoneFit trainers said “Bow Tie High”…..lift open and free your?lungs.

Place you hands on your hips, are the hips at the same height? Are both hip bones pointed straight ahead?

Standing:

If you are standing, check in to see where are the feet. Are they directly below the iliac crest (hip bones)…approximately two fist widths apart? Are your feet parallel to one another and pointed straight ahead? Is there equal weight under the 3 points of your foot (1. ball of foot under the big toe, 2. under baby toe and 3. the heel)?

Slightly soften the knees to take the pressure off the back. standing with a perfectly straight?spine with the ears over the shoulders? This should feel good.

Relaxation Techniques for Singers:?

• relaxation with your?breath: try the?full yoga breath (breathing into the body through the nose. Filling up the?bottoms of lungs, the middle then the top of the lungs)
• Alternate nostril Breathing – taking the?right thumb place gently on the right nostril, breath in for four filling lungs from bottom up. Close the left nostril with your right baby finger and breathe out for four. Breath in for four through the right nostril for count of four, close the right nostril with the thumb. Repeat for 5minutes.
• relax shoulders – inhale shrug shoulders up. Exhale with audible sigh dropping the shoulders. Repeat three times.
• relax neck – On exhale, drop your chin to your chest. Inhale return head to neutral. Exhale look to the right. Inhale return the head to neutral. Exhale look to the left. Be sure to keep the chin parallel to the floor as looking side to side. This will ensure you do not damage or compress the vertebrae in the neck.
• relax jaw – yawn, lion’s breath, catch fly. purse lip breath , drop tongue away from roof of mouth
• relax back – rag doll, spinal twist
• relax and stretch ribs — crescent moon, reaching up high to the sky
• relax and open chest – duck wings (standing camal), rabbit ears

Improve posture:
Strengthen the postural muscles which are the erector spinals group of muscles. These are the muscles that run along the?side of your spine. ?on wither side of your spine. ?One of the best postures to strengthen your posture muscles is the “Yoga Tooth brushing” pose. More commonly called warrior three in yoga or birddog in BoneFit. Take your right toe and tap it behind you. Then take your left hand and rise it up to the sky. keeping your back straight spine and?hing at the hip (when spitting out toothpaste). Do again with left toe tapped back, right arm up.