Uttanasana
Ut: Intense, Tan: Stretch Asana: Pose
As Ut means intense, we we can take this to mean an intense relief as the back of the body stretches out, not intense effort. There are many ways to go in and out of the posture, importantly, everything must feel at ease when in it. The upper body hanging down provides the weight to stretch through the back of the body. If it feels ok to have straighter legs, that is fine. It is sometimes taught holding on to the ankles to draw the body snug to the legs and then working to straighten the legs without losing the body thigh contact.This could potentially bring tension to the head neck and shoulders. It is also sometimes taught standing on the hands under the front of the foot or under the heels. In this series we’ve opted to keep the upper body relaxed as much as possible. It is also often taught hinging from the hips with a straight back, whereas we’ve considered moving in and out with flexion in the spine.
If pregnant, have the feet wider and keep knees extra bent.
This mini series also considers flexing the spine in a few other forward bending postures. This encourages proprioceptive and interoceptive awareness whilst moving and when we are still.
