All posts tagged: Standing Poses

Extended Side Angle Pose

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I`m not going to lie… Extended Side Angle Pose aka Utthita Parsvakonasana is a hard one for me! The side stretch is just so deep that I find it hard to revolve my torso and keep my breath even. I usually practice this pose with a block, sometimes at the highest level and as I get warmer and continue to enter the pose throughout the practice I may lower the block, get rid of it or even go for a bind. As always listen to your body, respect the principles of alignment and give your breath priority over a form you wish to achieve. How to get into the pose: Step your feet about 4 feet apart. From deep within the hip socket, rotate the front leg out to align the front foot parallel to the long end of your mat. Pivit the back heel out, heel to arch aligned. Let your hips open naturally. While both frontal hip points aim towards the long end of your mat, most hips won`t allow for a shape …

Extended Triangle

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When sequencing externally rotated standing poses, we will often enter Extended Triangle aka Utthita Trikonasana after Warrior II, taken that the position of the feet, legs, hips and torso are virtually the same with the difference of a straight front leg and a side stretch of the torso. How to get into the pose: Step your feet about 4 feet apart. From deep within the hip socket, rotate the front leg out to align the front foot parallel to the long end of your mat. Pivit the back heel out, and align your front heel with your back arch. Root down through the back foot and straighten the leg. Keep a microbend in your front knee, align the knee with your second toe and root down through the big toe mound of your front foot. Let your hips open naturally. While both frontal hip points aim towards the long end of your mat, most hips won`t allow for a shape where the hips align parrallel, but rather the back hip will come slightly forward. Extend …

Warrior II

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After warming up and before getting into neutrally rotated standing poses like Warrior I, where the hips are square, it is a good idea to prepare the body with slightly more approachable externally rotated standing poses like Virabhadrasana II aka Warrior II. Here, we gently open the hips and stretch our ankles, legs, groins, chest and shoulders while we find strength and stamina paired with an even breath. This pose does also a great job in educating us how to keep the pelvis neutral in the transverse plane, so that we don`t dump into our lower back, which becomes crucial for neutrally rotated standing poses like Warrior I. How to get into the pose: Step your feet about 4 feet apart. From deep within the hip socket, rotate the front leg out to align the front foot parallel to the long end of your mat. Pivit the back heel out, heel to arch aligned. Let your hips open naturally. While both frontal hip points aim towards the long end of your mat, most hips won`t …