Healthy Living Club

One of the most recognizable yoga asanas, Vrksasana (Tree Pose) has been identified in Indian relics dating back to the seventh century. “A figure standing in a one-legged balance is part of a famous stone carving in the town of Mahabalipuram,” says Tias Little, the director of YogaSource in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In ancient times, he says, wandering holy men called sadhus would meditate in this posture for long periods of time as a practice of self-discipline.

In some traditions, the pose is called Bhagirathasana, to honor a great yogi king from India who?egend says?tood on one leg for a long time to appease the Hindu god Shiva and to be allowed to bring the sacred river Ganges from heaven to earth. “This posture represents the intense penance of Bhagiratha,” says Kausthub Desikachar, son and student of the yoga master T.K.V. Desikachar and chief executive of the Krishnamacharya Yoga Madiram in Chennai, India. “It’s supposed to motivate us to work toward our goal even if there are many obstacles in the way.” That doesn’t mean you have to stand on one leg for years. “The point is to make a dedicated effort to one’s practice,” he says. “It makes us strong, it enhances our willpower, and we achieve amazing benefits.”

This ancient, reliable pose is often the first balance posture you learn, since it’s relatively simple and strengthens your legs and spine and opens your thighs and hips. When you practice balancing poses, you learn some practical lessons in how to get grounded, find your center, stay focused, and steady your mind. Plus, the processalling and trying againelps develop patience and persistence, humility, and good humor.

Boost your balance

Learning to balance often has more to do with your mental state than your physical abilities. If you’re stressed, or if your mind is scattered, your body is likely to be unsteady, too. And, of course, the very practice of trying to balance is stressful. Most of us, as we try to balance, have unsettling thoughts like “I can’t do this” or “Everyone’s watching me wobble.”

Luckily, there are three tools you can use to quiet distracting mental chatter and steady your mind:

1. Be aware of your breath. Paying attention to your breath helps unite body and mind and establish a state of physiologic calm. As yoga master B.K.S. Iyengar writes in his classic guide, Light on Yoga, “regulate the breathing, and thereby control the mind.”

2. Direct your gaze. Also called drishti, a steady gaze helps focus your mind. In Vrksasana, anchoring your gaze on the horizon or a fixed point directs energy forward to keep you upright.

3. Visualize your tree. Imagine that you are a treeith your feet rooted firmly in the earth and your head extending up toward the sun. Take a moment to meditate on what “tree” means to you and find an image that suits your body and temperament graceful willow, a solid oak, a flirty palm. Invite this mental picture to guide you toward stability.

Lie down

Before you dive into trying Tree Pose, lie on your back and hug your knees in to your chest, drawing slow circles in the air with your toes. Point and flex your feet to prepare your ankles for balancing. To open the hips and stretch the thighs, spend a few moments in Supta Baddha Konasana (Reclining Bound Angle Pose), lying on your back with your knees bent and the soles of your feet together. Support your legs by placing blocks or folded blankets underneath your thighs. Relax here as you tune in to your breath.

Next, try Supta Vrksasana (Reclining Tree Pose) by lying on your back and pressing the soles of your feet into a wall. Keep the backs of your heels on the floor and your toes pointed toward the ceiling. Place your left hand on the front of your left hip to help keep your pelvis level as you bend your right knee and place the sole of your right foot on the inside of your left thigh. If the back of your right thigh doesn’t rest on the floorr if your left hip pops uplace a block or rolled blanket under your right thigh. Reach strongly through your left leg, pressing your left foot into the wall. On an inhalation, lift your arms overhead until they touch the floor behind you, with palms facing each other. Remain here for a few breaths, then do the other side.

Take it to the wall

Stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose) with your hips directly over your feet and your right side close enough to a wall to lightly rest the fingertips of your right hand there for support. Lift and spread your toes, then set them on the floor, pressing down evenly through all four corners of each foothe mounds of the big toe and baby toe and the inner and outer heels. Stack your joints: knees over ankles, hips over knees, shoulders over hips, and ears over shoulders. Bring your left hand to the center of your chest, in half prayer position.

Take a moment to enjoy the gift of having two strong legs. Then mentally send roots down through the earth under your right leg as you imagine attaching a silk cord to the crown of your head, drawing you up. Keep this sense of simultaneously rooting and lifting as you bend your right knee and bring the sole of your right foot to your inner left thigh. You can place your right foot anywhere along the left leg, or if you feel steady, take your right ankle with your right hand and place the heel into the little notch at the top of the thigh just below the groin, toes facing down. Press the sole of your foot and your inner thigh equally toward each other. Take five deep breaths, release the pose, then switch sides.

Center your tree

Now it’s time to practice the full pose away from the wall. If you’re on a wooden floor, try the posture without a mat, letting your feet connect directly with the firm surface. Begin by breathing steadily in Tadasana. Root down through your legs and feet and lengthen up through your torso and head. Shift your body weight to the left leg, and pick up your right heel, keeping your right toes touching the floor. Bring the sole of your right foot to your left ankle and open your right knee out to the righteeping your toes on the floor if you like. Anchor your drishti at eye level on the horizon and press your palms together in front of your heart in the prayer position known as Anjali Mudra (Salutation Seal).

Bring your fingertips to the frontal hip bones (the bony points on the front of your pelvis) to be sure it’s in neutral and one side isn’t lifting higher than the other. Lengthen your waist and gently draw your bent knee back to help open the thigh, all the while keeping your pelvis in neutral. If you are comfortable, bring your foot to the inside of the left thigh. Release your tailbone toward the floor. Elongate your spine as you inhale and press the foot of your standing leg down firmly as you exhale. When you feel ready to experiment with your balance, inhale as you reach your arms up toward the ceiling, parallel to each other with your palms facing in. (In some versions of the pose the palms touch. Try it both ways to see which you prefer.) Lengthen through your fingers as you relax your shoulders, drawing your shoulder blades down your back. Stay in the pose for several slow, steady breaths, keeping your face passive. Then, if you want an extra challenge, try staying balanced in Vrksasana with your eyes closed. Repeat the pose on the other side.

In Corpse Pose, we symbolically “die” to our old ways of thinking and doing. The normally perceived boundaries of body image dissolve, and we enter a state of blissful neutrality. In reply to the question “What does Corpse Pose feel like?” one of my teachers always said “Nothing.”To practice Savasana, start by aligning the body. Make sure that your two sides are resting evenly on the floor and that your ears are equidistant from your shoulders. Physically relax the muscles and bones. Imagine that the mass of your body is sinking down into the floor, then spreading out like a puddle of oil. Next calm the senses. Soften the root of your tongue. Cradle your eyes in their sockets and turn them down to gaze at the heart. Release the inner ears to the back of the skull (yet keep them alert to the sound of the breath). Smooth the skin at the bridge of the nose and melt it toward your temples.

Finally, surrender any and all psychological effort (or at least as much as you can). Even as you lie still on the floor, you’ll discover that you’re still trying, wondering what to “do” in this posture. Drop your brain to the back of the skull. Remember the words of the great sage Abhinavagupta: “Abandon nothing. Take up nothing. Rest, abide in yourself, just as you are.”

At first glance, Virasana (Hero Pose) looks simple. You don’t have to balance on your head or bend your spine backward or support all your weight with your hands. Yet the classical seated posture can be enormously challenging the first, say, 12,000 times you practice it. An informal survey of my students confirmed this. They commonly reported feeling that their thighs were on fire, that their knees would explode, or that their ankles were going to break off. Since you don’t come to yoga to increase your physical and mental discomfort, how can you make this pose more accessible?

The answer is not simply to avoid it. While Virasana’s benefits aren’t immediately obvious, there are many. The pose increases flexibility in the knees and ankles, teaches internal rotation in the thighs, reduces tension in the legs, and is said to aid digestion and soothe abdominal discomfort. It is also one of the classical seated postures for meditation and breath awareness. When your body is properly supported, you can sit in Virasana for several minutes at a time, becoming aware of the natural curves of your spine, the contours of your chest, the movement of your breath, and other internal sensations. In essence, it allows you to practice mindfulness, which is at the heart of yoga.

Give Yourself Props

For this version of Virasana, you’ll use a blanket and a block to avoid aggravating your knees. The majority of new practitioners need this setup to do the pose safelyany, in fact, will need to use more than one blanket and block. Even if you can sit on the floor in the classical position, try it once with the props and see if you can work on refining your overall alignment. Then try the pose again without the props.

Fold a blanket in quarters and place it in the middle of your sticky mat with the neat edge facing the wall behind you. Place a block behind the neat edge of the blanket. (You’ll rest your sitting bones on the longest side of the block.) The blanket will relieve pressure on your ankles and the block will raise your hips so your knees don’t have to fold as deeply.

Find Some Leg Room

Kneel in front of the block, with your shins on the blanket and the tops of your feet on the mat. Your toes should point back and the soles of your feet will face the ceiling. Touch your inner knees together and separate your heels so they’re just wider than your hips. Slowly sit on the block.

Do a quick scan of your legs. How do your feet, ankles, shins, knees, and thighs feel? If there’s too much pressure on your ankles, grab another blanketr two. The same goes for your knees. If you feel any sharp, searing, or localized pain as you sit on the block, first try separating your knees so that they’re in line with your frontal hipbones (your thighs will be parallel to the blanket). Then add more props to lift your hips higher? blanket or phone book should do the trick.

Once your setup feels supportive, focus on alignment. Start by bringing awareness to your feet. Look closely at the position of each foot. Before making any adjustments, simply observe how the feet are different from each other. Notice how one foot may turn in more than the other, how one ankle may have more sensation, or how one heel may list further from the hip than the other. After you’ve observed your body’s instinctual alignment, try to make your feet symmetrical. See that your feet are in line with your shins. Hug your outer ankles in and press your heels firmly against your hips. Now place a finger under each foot and draw the skin out to the side so it feels smooth.

Move your awareness further up your legs to your knees. When you adjust the pose properly for your body, Virasana keeps the knees healthy and mobile. But there are pitfalls: namely, twisting the knees (a big no-no) or overstretching the ligaments. If you feel any sharp, localized pain in your knees, sit higher until the discomfort stops. That said, a certain amount of sensation is normal, especially if your body is not accustomed to the pose.

Cup your knees with your hands and draw the skin underneath your knees toward you. This should help decrease any pressure you might feel. Hone your awareness by noticing how one knee feels slightly different from the other.

Now take your attention to the tension and resistance in the front of your thighs. The legs are powerful, and in a fold this deep they can feel as if they want to uncoil, like springs. Breathe smoothly as you feel your legs’ tenacity, recognizing how important it is to do poses like this to help relax and revitalize them.

Park Your Pelvis in Neutral

Move your attention further up the body, to the pelvis. Your pelvis provides the perfect foundation for a long and supported spinehen it’s in its proper alignment.

To find the ideal placement, imagine that your entire pelvic area is a bowl nearly filled with water. Place your hands on your hips and slowly rock the bowl forward, toward your thighs. Then rock it back toward the wall behind you. Imagine that the water sloshes toward the front rim of your pelvic bowl as you shift it forward, then rushes toward the back rim as you tilt back.

Stop the rocking movement and bring your pelvis to the center, so that the imaginary water touches the walls evenly. Finally, tilt your pelvis forward just slightly until the water barely touches the front rim. This is what a neutral pelvis feels like. The hips tilt forward slightly, and the lower back moves into its natural shallow curve, making the imaginary water slightly higher in the front.

(Spinal) Curves Ahead

When you move into an unfamiliar posture, you might notice your body’s tendency to grip in certain areas, especially the belly. Focus on allowing your belly to soften and receive several smooth, full breaths. Let it expand on the inhalation and relax on the exhalation.

Now that you’ve settled into Virasana, you can begin to develop healthy posture by becoming aware of your spine’s natural curves. After the pelvic bowl exercise above, your lower back should arch into a gentle curve. But to be sure, place one hand in the small of your back and feel for yourselfs it arching in, slumping back, or flat? Depending on what you find, adjust your spine accordingly, until you feel a mild sway in your lower back.

Unlike your lower back, your middle and upper back should curve gently backward. To create this shape, move your entire rib cage toward the back of your body. It’s a subtle movementou should feel as if your middle and upper back touch the back of your shirt more than its front. You don’t want to slump or hunch your shoulders up toward the ears, so move slowly and deliberately. Finally, imagine that your chest is full of helium and let it float up as your collarbones expand out away from each other.

Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward-Facing Dog) is an invigorating backbend that opens the chest and shoulders and strengthens the arms and legs. It’s central to Sun Salutations and is practiced repeatedly between other postures in flow classes. Linking breath to movement is important when you’re practicing Up Dog, because the breath animates and illuminates the pose and opens the heart.

Typically, you enter Up Dog on an inhalation. Take a deep inhalation now and notice how it feels: Your heart lifts, your collarbones spread, your pectoral muscles broaden and expand—movements you’ll want to accentuate in Up Dog—and you feel energized. Of course, re-creating those same expansions in the pose is challenging. Students sometimes find Up Dog uncomfortable, especially in the lower back and wrists. Before trying the pose, get clear on the basic setup and then work on easing tightness in your shoulders and thoracic spine (upper and middle back). The following variations will help you find the essential actions and alignment of the pose so you can enjoy it to its fullest.

Pull

If you feel achy in the lower back during Up Dog, it probably means that your upper back is stiff and your lower back is overcompensating by bending too much. With backbends the aim is to have all areas of the spine participate, not just the parts that are easy to move. If either your lower back or your neck extends too much, your backbend will not be even. If you continue these imbalances over time, you’ll put undue stress on the bendier parts. To remedy this, you’ll need to learn to open the thoracic vertebrae. To access your thoracic spine while limiting the movement in your neck and lower back, practice a modified Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose)

Begin lying on your belly with your forehead on the floor and your feet hip-width apart and parallel, toes extended straight back from your heels. Place your hands on the floor next to your lower ribs, with your elbows stacked over your wrists and the creases of your wrists parallel to the front of your mat. Draw your elbows back and in toward the midline of your body so that your shoulders lift away from the floor and your pectoral muscles spread. Firmly press all 10 toes into the floor, especially your pinkie toes, so that your quadriceps engage and your kneecaps pull up. Active legs are crucial to a happy Up Dog. When the legs are lazy, you tend to sit in your lower back rather than lengthen out of it, so really practice pressing down with the tops of your feet and lifting your thighs. Rotate the inner thighs to the ceiling (this broadens your lower back) and release the flesh of your buttocks toward the floor. Doing this decreases the arch in your lower back and creates more length. Both elements—active legs and the downward release of the buttocks—are critical to creating a backbend in which your lower back is spacious and protected.

Now extend your sternum (breastbone) forward and up. Make this happen by pulling your hands back (still squeezing your elbows in), as if you were on a scooter or skateboard trying to drag your body forward. Your hands won’t actually move back on the mat, but this pulling action will help you find the correct alignment. The heads of your shoulders will draw back and away from the floor, the trapezius (the thick muscles at the base of your neck) will release away from your ears, and the shoulder blades will press forward and into your chest, helping to open your upper back. Continue to direct your tailbone down, and see that your chin is level to the floor so that you don’t overbend in your neck. Hold for 8 to 10 breaths and then release your forehead back to the floor.

Push

For the next variation, place blocks beneath your hands alongside your lower ribs. Putting blocks under your hands gives your torso more vertical space, which helps distribute the curve of the backbend more evenly. Again, make sure that the creases of your wrists are parallel to the front of your mat. Now activate your legs and open your upper back. On your next inhalation, maintain the pulling action with your hands but now also push down so that your elbows straighten and your chest and legs lift.

Check to see that your shoulders are stacked directly over your wrists; if they’re not, adjust your feet (not your hands) forward or back so that they are. If your shoulders are in front of your wrists, the acute angle will put too much pressure on the wrist joints. This also interferes with your ability to open the thoracic area because, once your arms have passed 90 degrees, your chest collapses forward and down, causing your shoulders to round. Conversely, if the shoulders are behind your wrists, you will not be able to use your legs effectively and will end up sitting in your lower back instead of lifting up out of it (which creates space between the vertebrae). When your shoulders line up directly above your wrists with your arms perpendicular to the floor, you will be in a position to both access your upper back and lift out of your lower back.

The added height from the blocks will give you more room in which to access your thoracic spine. Press your hands firmly and evenly into the blocks, and lift your sternum toward the ceiling as you spread across your collarbones and draw the heads of your shoulders back. Stabilize your lower back by continuing to push off the tops of your feet and lift your thighs to the ceiling, as you simultaneously release the flesh of the buttocks toward the floor. Remember that the goal is to bend less in the neck and lower back; you want the thoracic spine to step up and play a role. For now, look forward and keep the back of your neck long. Use the leverage you get from the blocks to draw yourself up and out of your lower back, directing the energy of the pose into the upper back by moving your shoulder blades toward your chest to open your heart. Hold for 8 to 10 breaths and then gently lower back onto your belly.

Pull and Push

For the final pose, remove the blocks and return to your belly with your hands beside your lower ribs. Press down with all 10 fingers and all 10 toes. If your pinkie toes come off the floor, your inner thighs drop, which creates compression across the lower back. Avoid this by giving extra weight to the pinkie toes.

On an inhalation, pull your chest forward and up as you simultaneously push off your hands and feet to lift your body away from the floor. Stack your shoulders over your wrists and lift your sternum and thighs to the ceiling as you release your tailbone toward your heels. Make sure your toes extend straight back and that your feet are planted rather than being dragged along when you pull your chest forward. You want to anchor the pose so that you can explore your upper back.

Use your inhalation to make the pose blossom, take the heads of your shoulders back, and spread your collarbones and pectorals. Imagine your shoulder blades are a pair of friendly hands pressing into your chest and opening your heart, and then carefully raise your gaze so that the curve in your neck is a continuation of the curve in your upper back. Balancing the bend in your Up Dog will protect your spine. Since asana lessons often translate into life lessons, learning how to achieve this balance may also teach you to cultivate a quality of equilibrium off the mat as well.

Dog Stretch

The word vinyasa has become short-hand for the specific sequence of poses moving from Chaturanga Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose) to Up Dog and then back to Down Dog. (Vinyasa is also commonly used in two other ways: to describe a step-by-step progression from one pose to the next or to signify the concept of linking breath with movement.)

The specific three-pose sequence is common to Ashtanga, flow, and Power yoga, and many students are both challenged and mystified by it. It’s an important transition to practice and understand because, when done incorrectly, it can compromise the alignment of the poses it connects, whereas when mastered it tends to enhance and reinforce them.

The key to the transition is moving the chest and legs in opposition, which keeps the center (abdomen and pelvis) from collapsing and protects the shoulders and lower back.

When you move from Chaturanga to Up Dog, push your toes back so that they move an inch or so toward the back of your mat as you roll over them. Making your feet travel on a sticky mat requires some serious effort in your legs, which is useful since active legs are crucial to both Chaturanga and Up Dog.

As you slide your toes back, simultaneously pull with your hands (they won’t actually move) while drawing your chest forward and up, so that your upper body and lower body move in opposite directions.

Only your hands and feet touch the floor in this transition. To keep your body from sagging toward the floor, use the strength of your arms (pulling your sternum forward) and legs (pushing your toes back). To vizualize how this works, imagine holding a piece of ribbon between your hands. When your hands are closer together, the center of the ribbon droops. When you pull your hands apart, it becomes taut. The latter image is the blueprint for your transition.

For the first couple of years of my yoga life, Chaturanga Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose) was the bête noire of my practice. As a flexible person with loose shoulders, I thought the pose was designed for another species—one that had a strength that was completely alien to me. Over time, though, Chaturanga has become a great friend and teacher, helping me to develop the strength and stability that once seemed elusive and imprint actions and principles that serve throughout my practice. The pose is challenging for many students, but its payoffs are great: It strengthens the arms and legs, tones the abdominals, builds healthy shoulders, and prepares students for arm balances, inversions, and backbends. And it’s character building.

Chaturanga presents different challenges for different bodies. It can initially be harder for women than for men. Men generally have stronger pectoral muscles than women and can use their power to muscle through Chaturanga. The key to making the pose doable for any body is to learn proper alignment. Correct alignment builds strength for those who struggle in that department and teaches the sturdier student, who often relies on brute force, to refine the pose in ways that prevent damaging the shoulders. Learn to set yourself up accurately, and you’ll see that Chaturanga isn’t just about upper-body strength—that’s a misperception. To practice with integrity and ease, you’ll need to distribute the work throughout the entire body by rallying the power of your abdomen, spine, legs, and heels.

Not a Push-up

The tendency with Chaturanga is to practice it like a push-up, letting the elbows flare out and burdening the upper body. This creates misalignments in the shoulders, placing these delicate joints at risk. To understand how this happens, hold your arms out in front of you at shoulder height with your hands shoulder-distance apart, as if you were in Plank Pose. Then bend your elbows, allowing them to stick out. Observe the effect that this has on your shoulders; the heads of your upper arms fall forward and your breastbone (sternum) sinks. Now do it again, but this time hug your elbows in at your sides. Notice the position of your upper body: The head of the upper arm is in line with (not in front of) the side of your body, and the sternum remains buoyant.

Maintaining this alignment in the shoulders and chest while bearing weight is as challenging as it is crucial. But there are a few ways to make a well-aligned Chaturanga more accessible. First, practice the pose with your knees down on the floor and closely monitor your elbow alignment. Next, notice how deep you go as you lower yourself toward the floor and catch yourself before you go too far. Finally, share the effort of the pose between the upper and the lower body so that the legs can play an active role.

Use Your Triceps

Try a variation that takes some of the difficulty out of the pose so that you can focus on the details that will protect your shoulders as you develop strength.

Begin in Plank Pose. See that your hands are directly underneath your shoulders, your feet hip-distance apart, and your heels stacked over your toes. Pull the navel in to engage your core. Extend your sternum forward as you press your heels back, so that you feel your body getting long and strong. Draw the front of your thighs toward the ceiling—but don’t allow the tailbone to follow, or you’ll wind up with your butt stuck up high in the air. Instead, release your tailbone toward your heels and notice how that makes you more compact at your center.

Keeping your gaze on the floor, look slightly forward so that the crown of your head is a continuation of the line of your spine. From Plank, drop your knees to the floor but maintain the lifted, engaged feeling in your lower belly—almost as though it were a tray carrying your lower back. Keep your toes tucked under so you can retain a sense of your heels pressing back. From here, reestablish your alignment: Inhale, drawing the heads of the shoulders up away from the floor and reemphasizing the lift in your belly as you direct the tip of your tailbone down. As you exhale, bend your elbows, keeping them drawn in against your sides, and slowly lower yourself toward the floor. Keep your body as straight as a plank of wood, neither letting your center sag nor sticking your butt up in the air. Notice the distinction between this modification and the Knees-Chest-Chin variation taught in many classes. Knees-Chest-Chin has many fine qualities but is not an ideal model for imprinting the alignment of Chaturanga. Make sure that as you lower yourself toward the floor, the heads of your upper arms remain at the same height as your elbows (rather than dropping toward the floor as they do in Knees-Chest-Chin).

If you are correctly aligned, your belly will reach the floor before your chest does. Keep your elbows by your sides, pull up through your core, and press back up to all fours. You’ll feel your triceps working. If you don’t, you have probably allowed your elbows to splay out, with your shoulders bearing the burden of the work.

Catch Yourself

The next modification teaches two features of a healthy Chaturanga: catching yourself at elbow height and activating your legs. With a strap, make a loop that’s as wide as your hips. (When you hold the loop flat across your abdomen at hipbone level, it should go from one side of your hips to the other.) Place it around your arms just above the elbows and come into Plank. As you inhale, reach your sternum and heels in opposite directions to get long, then lift the tops of your thighs
and direct the tailbone toward your heels. Feel how the previous two actions prevent you from collapsing at your center and activate your core. As you exhale, energize your legs, keep the shoulders lifted and the chest extended forward, and bend your elbows until the strap catches you. Your shoulders should be at the same height as your elbows, so that each arm creates a 90-degree angle.

When you lower yourself beneath elbow height, it is very hard to maintain correct alignment in the shoulders, and they can become compromised. With the strap to support you, stay in the pose and reactivate the legs so they are lively participants. Heels back and heart forward will galvanize the quadriceps; thighs up and tailbone down will engage the belly, giving the pose vitality at its center. To deepen the difficulty and reinforce correct actions, use your core and legs to press back up to Plank.

Ready to try the full pose? Come to Plank. Ideally, your body in Chaturanga will look just like your body in Plank, except with bent elbows. Emphasize these qualities, lifting and firming the entire body. Look slightly forward so that your head is not drooping (which tends to drag the shoulders down as you move into Chaturanga). As you exhale, keep your elbows drawn in and your shoulder heads lifted. Slowly lower down. Create 90-degree angles with your arms, with your upper arms parallel to the floor and forearms perpendicular. Your goal is to stay straight and strong; keep pressing your heels back and reaching your heart forward so that your body remains taut.

Avoid common Chaturanga pitfalls: One tendency is to either sink at the center of the torso (creating a backbend), another is to leave the butt up in the air as the shoulders dip toward the floor (creating a pike). The more you can activate the front of your body so that it supports the back of your body, the more success you will have at avoiding these polarities. Engage the belly and quadriceps by lifting the tops of the thighs to the ceiling and drawing your tailbone toward your heels.
Another pitfall is to put so much energy into reaching the chest forward that you forget to press the heels back. When this happens, you come too far forward onto your toes and lose the strength of the legs, forcing the shoulders to work overtime. If the shoulders carry the pose, they often collapse, sacrificing alignment and creating vulnerability. To prevent this, stack your heels over your toes in Plank, and keep pressing them back even as you enthusiastically extend your sternum forward and move into Chaturanga. When your legs come to the party, your shoulders will thank you.

Staff of Life

Practicing Chaturanga Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose) plays a vital role in doing the Sun Salutations that are central to Ashtanga and vinyasa flow yoga. The pose strengthens and tones the entire body, helps teach important alignment, and prepares you for a multitude of positions, including the following:

Arm Balances The upper-body and lower-belly strength that you develop by practicing Chaturanga, combined with the confidence it instills, translates beautifully into the kind of power and core consciousness you need for arm balances such as Bakasana (Crane Pose, often called Crow Pose), Galavasana (Flying Pigeon Pose), and Vasisthasana (Side Plank Pose).

Inversions Chaturanga creates a stability in the shoulders, a sense of compactness at the center, and an alertness in the legs. These are crucial to doing safe inversions. When practiced with attention to alignment, Chaturanga becomes the ideal training for poses like Sirsasana (Headstand), Pincha Mayurasana (Forearm Balance), and Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand).

Backbends The legs feature prominently in a healthy Chaturanga and in healthy backbends (in which the curve of the spine is evenly distributed). Learning to use the legs effectively in Chaturanga imprints this awareness, so that the legs can play an active role in poses such as Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward-Facing Dog), Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge Pose), and Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow Pose, often called Wheel Pose).

Halasana (Plow Pose) is often taught hand-in-hand with Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand); both poses are great mood stabilizers, said to simultaneously relax your nervous system and boost your energy level.You can do Halasana, which takes its name from the humble horse-drawn plow it resembles, before or after Sarvangasana, (itself referred to in much more regal fashion as the queen of asanas), but there no reason Halasana can be practiced, with a proper warm-up, all by itself.

Plow is said to have the same benefits as Sarvangasana, which yoga master B.K.S. Iyengar calls one of the reatest boons conferred on humanity by our ancient sages.?In his famous manual Light on Yoga, he catalogs the many ways that Sarvangasana benefits various organs and glands; it can also, he says, alleviate breathing problems, headaches, hypertension, and insomnia. Regular practice of Halasana and Sarvangasana, he concludes, gives strength and vigor, joy, and confidence. Some people, however, should steer clear of this superduo of posesf you have neck injuries, high blood pressure, or glaucoma, avoid them. And forgo practicing during menstruation and pregnancy. If you have never practiced yoga, or havenpracticed for a while, do this pose only under the watchful eye of an experienced instructor.

Got Props?

If you learned the pose without blankets, you might ask,  I really need them??Trust me: It important to support your shoulders and upper arms on a stack of blankets, especially if youe a beginner. Why? The answer is simple: The cervical vertebrae in your neck are delicate structures. If you do these poses unsupported, you risk putting pressure on them. But if you elevate your shoulders off the floor with blankets, youl decrease how much your neck has to flex, so you can keep the back of your neck and throat soft. Also, if your shoulders are tight, you probably won be able to tand?on them yet; instead, your upper back will sag, and youl struggle to hold yourself up with your arms. If you give yourself a break and use blankets, youl balance higher on your shoulders with less effort. I recommend a stack of three (preferably firm and thick) blankets, though you may need more. Fold your blankets into two-by-three-foot rectangles. Note that one of each blanket three-foot edges has a firm, neat fold, while the opposite edge is open-sided and floppy. Stack these firm edges one atop the other to provide a solid support for your shoulders.

Prep Yourself

To get a feel for the shape of Plow, flip it upside down by sitting on the floor right-side up in Dandasana (Staff Pose). Sit upright with your legs extended. Lean your torso slightly forward and return to upright.

Contract and press your thighs actively against the floor and reach through the backs of your heels, stretching your soles. Press your fingertips against the floor beside your hips, firm your shoulder blades against your back torso, and lift the top of your sternum (breastbone), which is just below the small hollow at the base of your throat. Be sure that you don? push the bottom of the bone forward, which only sharpens the front ribs, hardens the upper belly, and compresses the lower back. Bring the bottom of your sternum slightly into the torso and lengthen it down toward your navel. This may feel as though youe making your chest sink, but if you secure the bottom of the sternum and lift the top of the bone straight up, perpendicular to the floor, youl feel a subtle lightness in your heart and brain. Last, lower your chin toward the top of your sternum, but donthe bones together. As you do, draw what I call the rook of the throat?(the crease that forms between the underside of your chin and the front of your neck) diagonally up into your skull, toward the top spine. Sit here for a while. Then reach your arms out to the sides, elbows slightly bent, palms up. Rotate your arms externally so your palms turn toward the wall behind you and your thumbs point down. Hold for a minute and feel how this rotation firms your shoulder blades (scapulas) against your back and slides them down to further boost your chest. Hold for a few breaths, then release your arms.

Here? a simple exercise to help stretch your shoulders and open up your chest. Lean back slightly and press your palms to the floor about six inches behind your pelvis, shoulder-width apart, fingers pointing toward the wall behind you. This will externally rotate your upper arms again and squeeze your shoulder blades together. Maintain the arm rotation, but at the same time spread your shoulder blades as much as you can away from your spine to broaden your base of support and stabilize the position. Again, lift the top sternum and hold this mild backbend for a minute or two, breathing smoothly. Keep your head upright and look forward, chin near, but not jammed against, your sternum. On an inhalation, lift your torso and come back to Staff Pose.

Plow Into It

Many beginners can safely and comfortably touch their feet to the floor, not only because of limitations in their shoulders and neck, but because of short hamstrings. If youe just learning this pose, elevate your feet on a chair seat (or other stable height) for the time being. Place your blankets on the floor a little less than a leg distance away, with the folded edge facing the front of the chair. If you think the chair will slide while youe in the pose, put it on a sticky mat or brace it against a wall.

Now sit with your back facing the chair and lie back on the blanket stack with knees bent and feet on the floor. Make sure there? an inch or so between the tops of your shoulders and the firm edge (you?l tend to roll toward the edge when you lift up). Many beginners find their elbows sliding apart in Shoulderstand and Plow. But you want them to be stationary. If need be, you can roll up a sticky mat and put it under your elbows.

With your arms by your sides and palms facing down, push your hands against the floor; on an exhalation, contract your belly, bring your knees toward your torso, curl your torso into a loose ball, and lift your feet off the floor. Using this momentum, swing your feet to the floor or onto the chair seat behind you. For now, round your torso slightly and keep your knees bent. Once in this position, do not turn your head, but look straight up at your thighs.

Roll With It

Again, externally rotate your arms, then press your fingertips against the floor and roll your shoulders under your body. I emphasize oll?because you don want to pull your shoulders away from your ears—that only strains your neck. Maintain the rotation of your upper arms and spread your palms onto your back (with pressure on your ring and little fingers). As much as possible, press your outer elbows into your support (or rolled-up mat). You can also stretch your arms out along the floor behind your torso and either press your palms to the floor or clasp your hands. Apply what you learned in Dandasana: Bring your pelvis over your shoulders, lengthen your spine, draw the sacrum deep into your body, activate your legs and feet, and relax your neck and jaw.

If your neck is overstretched, if youe choking and red-faced or wish you? taken up tai chi instead, come down immediately and add another blanket (or more) to your stack until you feel comfortable. In the beginning, hold Plow between 15 and 30 seconds and build your time gradually over several weeks and months. With regular practice, aim toward three minutes. To exit, bend your knees and roll down slowly on an exhalation.

As you continue to practice Halasana, be mindful of your alignment; your stay in the pose will get more comfortable. It a nice cooling-down pose to practice toward the end of a yoga session. Inversions like Halasana are great because, like yoga itself, they turn things upside down and give you an entirely new perspective.

At its most basic, a forward bend opens the entire back of your body. When you take the shape of a forward bend, you fold in toward yourself, which encourages a sense of introspection and stillness that is sometimes hard to find in postures that are more invigorating, such as backbends and standing poses. However, as you move into a pose like Upavistha Konasana (Wide-Angle Seated Forward Bend) and begin to stretch your hamstrings and adductors (inner-thigh muscles), you may notice your thoughts and emotions becoming stimulated. You may find yourself making comparisons to others or wishing you could draw your body closer to the floor. Upavistha looks simple, but the mental patterns this pose engenders can be revealing and enlightening.

The yogic sage Patanjali described the conflation of who you really are (an eternal soul) with who you think you are (the only one in the room who can’t get my chin to the floor!) as asmita, or egoism. This confusion causes suffering. Yet, as Patanjali also said, “Heyam dukham anagatam” (or “The pain that is yet to come can be avoided”). How does all this relate to Upavistha Konasana? Patanjali’s observation invites you to back off from a version of a pose that may be too intense for you (or even injurious). When your ego rears up and urges you to go deeper, remind yourself not to mistake who you are for how you do a pose. As the floor beckons you, move gently and attentively, opening both your muscles and your mind along the way.

Long Lines

In the first yoga workshop I ever took with a senior teacher, John Schumacher told his students that in practically every yoga pose, you work on lengthening your spine. This is particularly important to keep in mind in forward bends, since the tendency is to collapse inward when going further and deeper into the pose. Tight hamstrings will definitely interfere with your ability to lengthen the spine. The hamstrings attach to the ischial tuberosities (sitting bones), which are the bony points that you can feel through the flesh of your buttocks. When the hamstrings are short, they pull the back of the pelvis down, creating what is known as a posterior tilt. This happens when you tuck your pelvis and round your lower back. When you bend forward with a rounded lower back, you put pressure on the disks and strain the lower-back muscles, leaving yourself open to injury. In many cases, the solution to this potentially harmful situation is to elevate the hips by sitting on blankets. This lessens the pull on tight hamstrings and gives the spine more freedom to lengthen.

Proper Props

To determine whether to use a blanket or two, sit in Dandasana (Staff Pose) with your legs extended in front of you. Open your legs slightly wider than a 90-degree angle, keeping your kneecaps facing the ceiling. Then turn your attention to your sitting bones. Are you right on top of them, or are you on the back edge or even behind them? Place your hand on your sacrum, the flat bony plate at the base of your spine. Is it vertical, or is it tilted backward, causing you to round your lower back? If you are leaning on the back of your sitting bones and your lower back is collapsed, you have a couple of options.First, look at your thighs and notice whether they are rolling forward or backward in your hip sockets. (Ideally, your knees will be pointing straight up toward the ceiling.) If your thighs are rolling back with your knees pointing behind you, you may be able to correct the tilt of the pelvis by rolling the thighs forward until the knees face the ceiling, and the thighs are in a neutral position. Take hold of your inner and outer thigh, one leg at a time, and shift the flesh forward. In other words, lift your outer thigh and release your inner thigh toward the floor. Are you now more securely and evenly on top of your sitting bones? You’ll know that you are if you can more easily lengthen your lower back.

simultaneously stretches the hamstrings and opens the shoulders—two actions that will improve your yoga practice and increase mobility in your daily life. Acumen is required to make progress in both areas, which sometimes seem to be in conflict. When you pursue the forward-bending aspect of the posture (which elongates the hamstrings) with so much enthusiasm that your shoulders round forward and your chest collapses, you’ve missed an excellent opportunity to increase the range of motion in your shoulders and counteract some postural habits that our increasingly computer- and car-driven lives promote. Although Parsvottanasana contains a forward bend, it’s dramatically improved by weaving in an element of backbending: keeping length along the front of your body.Marrying opposites, of course, is central to the big picture of hatha yoga, often defined as the union between the opposing solar and lunar energies. You also need to find a balance between freedom and stability in Parsvottanasana. The freedom you can find in your upper body as you extend your spine and open your shoulders is very much facilitated by the stability of your base and the strength of your legs. As you explore the pose, embrace its dualities. Your physical alignment will improve, and with the liberating effects of embodying opposites, you may experience an energetic alignment as well.

Set Your Base

To begin, stand facing a wall and place your hands on it shoulder-distance apart and at hipbone height. Step your right foot back about 4 feet, placing your left foot about 1 1/2 feet from the wall and reaching your hips back so that your arms and torso are parallel to the floor. Make sure you create a straight line from your hands to your shoulders to your hips, with your ears in line with your upper arms and your gaze to the floor. Set up with your heels in line with each other, with your front toes pointed forward and your back foot at a 45-degree angle.

Now start to bring the base of the pose into alignment. The goal is to square your hips; this usually involves pulling the front hip back and shifting the other hip forward. To achieve this, press down with the ball of your big toes and engage your quadriceps, drawing your front outer hip back and up and firming it into the midline of your body. Then release your back inner thigh to the wall behind you to roll your back hip forward.

Notice whether your thigh rotation caused your back foot’s inner arch to collapse; this is fairly common, but you want to make sure to lift the inner arch so that the outer edge of the foot stays heavy and grounded. Once your hips are even, use the strength of your arms pushing against the wall to lengthen your spine and the sides of your body by pressing your hips into the center of the room.

The asana name Parsvottanasana derives from the Sanskrit words parsva (side, or flank) and uttana (intense stretch). Remember this as you aim to establish an expansive quality along your torso. Hold for 8 to 10 breaths, then switch sides.

Make Space

For the next variation, face the center of the room and place one heel against the wall. Use the same stance as in the last round, and square your hips again. Try “scissoring” your inner thighs: Energetically draw them toward each other, which will help create stability in your base. With your next inhalation, take your arms out to the sides and internally rotate the upper arm bones (humeri) in your shoulder sockets so that your palms face the wall behind you.

As you exhale, make gentle fists and bring your knuckles together behind your back just below your shoulder blades. When you do this, your shoulder heads may collapse forward, and your trapezius muscles may tighten up. Rather than reinforce this less-than-ideal position, draw the shoulder heads up and back and externally rotate the upper arms by spinning the inner arm toward the outer arm.

It won’t be a dramatic motion, but the action is important for developing the range of motion in your shoulders. Make sure when you do this that there is no pain in your shoulders; if there is, back off slightly so you can ease your way into creating openness.

Take an inhalation, and accentuate the space along and across the front of your body by lifting your sternum (breastbone) away from your navel and spreading your collarbones. With your next exhalation, extend out over your front leg as you keep your hips square and your shoulders drawing up and away from the floor.

Resist the impulse to surrender to gravity, which would cause your shoulders and chest to collapse. Instead, keep your base active by engaging your quadriceps—drawing the inner thighs toward each other—and pressing the back femur (thighbone) firmly toward the wall behind you so that your heel is grounded between the floor and the wall to secure the pose. Let the crown of your head be an extension of the length of your spine, so that your entire neck is long and your gaze is toward your big toe. Hold for 8 to 10 breaths, and then switch sides.

Find Union

For the classical version of the pose, move your mat to the center of the room. Stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose) at the front of the mat, place your hands at your hips, and feel your frontal hipbones pointing straight forward like a pair of headlights. Keeping your hips square, step the right leg back 31/2 to 4 feet, and recreate the heel-to-heel alignment from the last rounds. For maximum extension in your spine, take a long stance. To make sure your hips are square, activate your front thigh and draw your outer hip back and into the midline of your body. Before you shift your other hip forward, however, make sure that your back foot is at a 45-degree angle, which will help protect your knee and align your hips. If the angle of your back foot is too open to the side, the knee gets wrenched when you roll the right hip forward to square it with the left. If, on the other hand, the toes point too far forward, you’ll struggle to keep the back heel down and will lose stability.

Now, direct your back inner thigh to the wall behind you so that your hip spins forward. Keep your tailbone heavy so that it anchors you. On an inhalation, take your arms out to the side. As you exhale, rotate your arms and press your palms together behind your back. If you can, point your fingers up in a prayer position. Your -shoulders might immediately collapse forward. Externally rotate the upper arms in their sockets, spinning your inner arm toward your outer arm so that your shoulders and chest lift.

With your next inhalation, reach your sternum away from your navel to open your heart. Keep your quadriceps engaged and your hips square. On an exhalation, extend forward without shortening the front of your body. Look toward your left big toe with a gaze that is soft but unwavering. Remain rooted through your feet and legs and stay compact in your hips; the steadiness in your base will translate into greater freedom in extending your spine as well as more latitude in opening your shoulders. A firm foundation will help you maintain your balance so that you can focus on the work in your upper body.

There’s also a link between the stability of your foundation and the spaciousness in your torso—you’re basically flavoring your forward bend with a backbending element when you strive for length along the front body. This is the union of opposites&mdashthe yuj, or yoke, which yoga teaches us to inhabit.

What compass directions would you assign to the back and front of your body? My front (my belly!) has been going south for the last few years, but thatnot what I mean. In Sanskrit, paschima means both ack?and est,?while purva means both ront?and ast.?So according to the yogis, your back body is the west, your front body the east. This terminology gives us the names of two common, related poses: Paschimottanasana (Intense Stretch of the West Pose or, more commonly, Seated Forward Bend), which stretches your back body, and Purvottanasana (Intense Stretch of the East, or Upward Plank Pose), a slight backbend and front-body stretch that provides a nice counterpose to its western opposite.

Purvottanasana stretches you all the way from your ankles through the thighs, groins, and belly, up to the shoulders and throat. It also strengthens your wrists and the muscles on the backs of the upper arms (triceps) and firms the buttocks—which, if you believe popular media claims, is a primary benefit of yoga. It will also help improve your sense of balance and calm. And it? a great counterpose to Chaturanga Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose). If you have serious wrist, shoulder, or neck problems, practice this pose only under the guidance of an experienced teacher. You?l need a chair, a block, and a wall to practice.

Propless Prep

Sit on the floor with your legs extended in Dandasana (Staff Pose). Rotate your thighs inward, big toes in, heels out, and press your palms to the floor slightly behind your buttocks with your fingers pointing forward toward your torso. If your shoulders protest, you can turn your fingers out to the sides.

Bend your elbows and sink or hollow your front torso, spreading your scapulas as far away from your spine as possible. Rotate your upper arms inward and widen your elbows, letting the heads of your upper arm bones (humeri) jut forward. Enjoy the stretch between the scapulas for a minute or so. Straighten your elbows and lift your chest. Often, students simply squeeze their scapulas together and shove their lower front ribs forward, which hardens the front torso, restricting the free flow of breath, and compresses the low back. Instead, keep your scapulas wide and front torso soft.

Press the bases of your index fingers into the floor and hug your triceps against your humeri. As your elbows straighten out and your chest lifts, maintain the inward rotation of your upper arms, which will help the scapulas stay broad. Release your head back slightly, but don fully extend the neck. Trace the stretch along your front torso from your pubis to your sternum (breastbone).

Imagine directing your inhalations into the space behind your sternum magine?because there no lung there, just your heart), increasing the lift of your chest. With each exhalation, reaffirm the opposing movements of the inner hands (down against the floor) and scapulas (up against your back). Hold for a minute or two. Repeat two or three times, until you feel confident youl be able to recreate the inward rotation of the thighs and arms and the actions of the hands and scapulas while maintaining the soft front torso when called on to do so in the more challenging circumstances of the full pose.

Chair Support

Next, sit on the front edge of a chair with your knees bent, heels directly below your knees. Wrap your hands around the back edge of the seat (for this first part of the exercise your upper arms will naturally rotate outward), thumbs pointing out. Inhale and slowly lift your buttocks away from the seat until your thighs, torso, and head form one long diagonal line, with your arms more or less perpendicular to the chair seat. Rotate your thighs slightly inward, and push (but don? physically move) your knees away from your torso. The thigh rotation will tend to make your tailbone sag toward the floor, collapsing your belly, so firm your tailbone against your back pelvis and lengthen it. Hold this position for a minute, then sit back on the chair. On an inhalation, release the back edge of the seat and return to sitting upright. Take a few breaths.

If you like, repeat this exercise with your fingers turned forward, palms on the seat, and your upper arms rotated inward. Hold for one minute, release on an exhalation, and rest.

If you want to take this exercise to its limit, lift your buttocks again and extend your legs. Do your right leg first. Inhale and press out through your heel to straighten your knee, but suspend your foot a few inches off the floor. Then rotate your thigh inward, point your toes, and bring your sole to the floor. Just as the bases of your index fingers press the seat, so the base of your big toe presses on the floor. Repeat with the left leg. Once again, hold for a minute and release on an exhalation.

Blockhead

If you want to continue, brace the chair against the wall and lay your block on the seat (if you?e using a wood block, cover the seat with a sticky mat to keep the block from sliding). Set the block on either its lowest or middle height near the front edge of the seat.

Sit on the floor right in front of the chair, knees bent, feet on the floor, heels 12 to 15 inches away from your buttocks, and lean back against the front edge of the seat. Press your hands on the floor with your fingers turned either forward, to the sides, or back—you choose—just in front of the feet of the chair legs. Inhale and do what you did for the first part of the first exercise: Lift your thighs and torso parallel to the floor (heels below the knees), and release your head back onto the block to take any pressure off your neck. If the block is too high or too low, come down and readjust. If you are having trouble opening your chest, it may help to reinforce the firmness of your palms against the floor, your scapulas against your back, and your triceps against the humeri. Then again, it may not.

Don get discouraged. Just practice this exercise every other day or so for the next few weeks, and youl be surprised how quickly things improve. If you can boost your chest, though, trying to extend your legs will probably make matters worse, so I donit. But if your chest is reasonably lifted, then it acceptable to extend your legs. Having trouble getting the balls of your feet, especially the bases of your big toes, on the floor? Position a rolled-up sticky mat on the floor where the balls of your feet will be when your legs are extended and press against that. Whatever happens, hold the pose for 30 seconds to a minute, then release to the floor on an exhalation. Smile.

When you?e ready, try the full pose, remembering the actions you learned in the preparatory poses. Come back to Dandasana with palms pressing into the floor slightly behind your pelvis and fingers pointing forward. If this strains your wrists or shoulders, point your fingers out to the sides or even straight back. Eventually you?l press your palms to the floor. On an inhalation, firm and lift your buttocks and roll over your heels to touch your soles down. If this is difficult for you, start in Dandasana, then bend your knees and set your feet on the floor, heels about 18 inches away from your buttocks. Inhale and lift into a reverse table: shins and arms perpendicular to the floor, thighs and torso parallel. Firm your tailbone against the back of your pelvis, then straighten one leg at a time and press your soles down. Roll your upper thighs inward, and press the mounds of the big toes firmly against the floor. It? probably best to hold your head in a neutral position at first, or to use a chair to support your head in the pose. Stay for 30 seconds or to your capacity, then lower your buttocks to the floor on an exhalation.

Purvottanasana is an excellent pose that prepares you for various backbends. If you end your practice with it, be sure to release your back with a few twists and an easy forward bend. Remember, the east side is raped?over the west in Purvottanasana: Your buttocks, scapulas, and triceps support the structure and keep it from collapsing in a heap. As always, watch your breath. If it stays relatively soft, you know youe on the right track.

It might be surprising that the Sanskrit name Utkatasana is sometimes translated as Fierce Seat or Powerful Pose. The asana looks fairly straightforward and simple—you bend the knees as if preparing to sit on a chair. It looks so much like someone sitting on an imaginary chair that it’s commonly called Chair Pose.

But rather than let you relax back into a La-Z-Boy, Utkatasana requires you to support yourself in a standing squat. This action engages the muscles of your legs and back—and is arguably the single best movement for strengthening the thighs, both the quadriceps and the hamstrings, as well as the erector spinae muscles in the back. Leg-strengthening squats are workout staples at the gym, where people often do them holding weights. Utkatasana is similarly strengthening but should generate less wear and tear on your joints over the long haul.

Supporting your weight in Utkatasana is challenging. It’s recommended for athletes involved in sports requiring strong legs, and it helps prevent a loss of muscle mass as you age. In some versions of Utkatasana, such as in Sun Salutation B in the Ashtanga practice, feet and knees are kept together and palms are pressed overhead. Other traditions keep the legs apart, which makes balancing easier, and the arms parallel, which puts less stress on the shoulders. My teacher, the late Esther Myers of Toronto, believed a wider stance to be more appropriate for most Western bodies—and especially for women, whose hips tend to be broader than men’s. So I practice and teach the pose this way.

Pelvic Power

The pelvic region controls the flow of energy along the spine. For optimum energy flow, the pelvis must be properly aligned. The idea is to keep the pelvis balanced and centered as the knees bend and the buttocks release down, while you simultaneously keep the torso lifted and the spine long.

To experience the action of the pelvis, stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose) with feet hip-width apart, knees soft, and hands on your hips. Place your fingers on the pointy protuberances at the front of the hip bones (the anterior superior iliac spine, or ASIS) and tilt your pelvis forward and backward a few times. Tilt your pelvis forward by moving your pubic bone back. Notice how your lower back sways and compresses into an arch. Next, tilt your pelvis back by tucking your tailbone under. Notice how your abdomen becomes tight and constricted. To find a healthy balance between these two extremes, do both movements but more subtly. Gently move your tailbone slightly forward as you move your pubic bone back. These two bones seem to move toward each other and find a balanced middle ground where the lower back is long and uncompressed and the abdomen is firm but not gripped. To support the lower back, draw the belly in and up toward the spine. Don’t suck in your gut by tightening your abdominal muscles. Instead, let the action be a gentle lift.

Now, retain this balanced pelvic alignment in a “mini-chair” pose. Slightly bend the knees—be sure they track out directly over your toes—and lower your buttocks an inch or two. Keep your chest lifted, shoulders relaxed, and feet pressed evenly into the floor. Stay here for two or three breaths, keeping your spine long and pelvis stable, then return to Mountain Pose.

Greeting Gravity

Utkatasana becomes more challenging the deeper you squat; the lower you go, the harder your body must work to resist gravity. Holding the legs and torso upright as the buttocks descend demands much of, and ultimately strengthens, the thigh muscles. The pose can therefore present a paradox for people with knee problems. Although strengthening the muscles that support the knee can ultimately benefit this vulnerable joint, squatting too deeply can strain the knee—particularly if you have had any injuries. People with knee concerns are advised to stay with the modified versions and avoid excessively bending the knees.

To help build strength in the thighs, first practice the supported Utkatasana against a wall. Stand with your back against a wall, your feet shoulder-width apart, and your heels 12 to 18 inches from the wall. Keep your knees slightly bent and rest your hands on the top of your thighs. Press your feet into the earth and lengthen your spine by extending up through the top of your head. Let the back of your head, your shoulder blades, and the back of your pelvis rest lightly against the wall. Bring your pelvis into balance—tailbone and pubic bone moving toward each other—so the lower back retains its slight natural curve. Inhale length into your spine and draw your belly in and up.

On an exhalation, slowly bend your knees and release your buttocks toward the earth. Extend your spine and lift your chest as you slightly slant your torso forward, being sure to hinge from the hips and to keep good pelvic alignment, with the back of the pelvis supported by the wall. Let your hands slide down your thighs toward your knees. Stay as relaxed and as lifted as possible and continue to breathe slowly and deeply through your descent. When you reach a place where you feel challenge but not strain, stop and stay in the pose for two or three breaths, being sure to soften your face, shoulders, and throat. Do not lower your hips below your knees, and do not let your bent knees extend past your toes. To come out of the pose, press your feet into the earth as you inhale, straighten your legs, and slide back up the wall.

Ignite the Fire

Next, try the pose away from the wall with a modification that extends the arms forward, providing a nice counterbalance for the upper body as the buttocks descend. Stay with this version of Utkatasana if you have shoulder problems or find the full pose too intense.

To do a standing squat, stand with your feet hip-width apart. On an inhalation, bring your arms out in front of you at shoulder height, palms facing down. The forward position helps with balance; extending your arms forward is easier than holding them over your head.

On an exhalation, bend your knees and drop your buttocks toward the floor. As you squat, let your body angle forward. Keep good pelvic alignment, with the chest lifted and the crown of the head extending skyward. Move toward having the thighs parallel to the floor, breathing as you hold the pose for two or three breaths. To release, press the feet down on an inhalation and straighten the legs.

To perform the full pose, stand with your legs hip-width apart and bring your arms up overhead as you inhale, palms facing each other. Relax your shoulders down away from your ears and gaze softly toward the horizon. On an exhalation, bend your knees slowly and drop your buttocks toward the floor, maintaining a balanced pelvis as you let the body angle slightly forward. Remember to draw the belly in and up, hinge from the hips, bend the knees directly over the toes, and root down evenly through your feet. Keep your head in line with your spine so that your gaze is forward and slightly down.

Focus on dropping your sitting bones down while simultaneously lifting your heart as you tune in to the inner sensations of the posture. You may begin to feel a fiery heat in your belly and a sense of lightness in your head. Challenge yourself to sit deeply, but don’t cross the edge into strain or tension. Continue to sink deeper on exhalation and lengthen up on inhalation. When you’re ready to come out, press down with your feet, straighten your legs, and relax your arms. Then hinge forward into a cooling Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend) for several breaths.

Remember to be patient with yourself and consistent with your practice. Don’t worry if the posture feels awkward at first—in fact, one translation of the Sanskrit name is Awkward Pose. Over time, you’ll make progress—and be rewarded with strength, stamina, and powerful legs that can take you surely and steadily wherever you choose to go.