Uttanasana
Uttanasana provides you a complete stretch of the upper and lower back, as well as the leg and calf muscles. In this posture, you literally stretch stress, tiredness, and stiffness from your body and at the same time, you learn how to rest and relax.
Benefits:
- Calms the brain and helps relieve stress
- Stretches the hamstrings, calves, and hips
- Strengthens the thighs and knees
- Improves digestion
- Helps relieve the symptoms of menopause
- Relieves headache and insomnia
- Therapeutic for asthma, high blood pressure, infertility, osteoporosis, and sinusitis
Instructions:
- Begin in Tadasana (Mountain Pose), feet together, all four corners of the feet rooted to the ground, inner thighs engaged, tailbone tucked, and hands in prayer position at heart center.
- Inhale and raise your arms overhead, palms together or separated shoulder width apart. Gaze is upward, toward your fingertips, stretch up toward the sky while grounding your feet to the earth.
- Exhale and bend forward from the hip joints, with soft knees, leading with the chest. As in all the forward bends, emphasize lengthening the front torso as you tilt the pelvis keeping the low back curve intact and fold the body in half.
- If possible, with your legs straight, bring your palms or finger tips to the floor slightly in front of or beside your feet. Bring your weight a little forward into the balls of your feet so that your hips stay over your ankles.
Modification: If you feel any strain in the hamstrings, low back or neck, bend your knees. If your hamstrings are tight, bend your knees to the point where your chest rests on your thighs.
- Let your head hang and relax your neck and shoulders.
- Anchor your heels firmly into the floor and lift your hips up toward the ceiling preserving the lumbar curve. Engage your quadriceps muscles and rotate them inward.
Tip: The more you engage your quads, the more your hamstrings will open up.
