Upavista Konasana is a seated forward bend which, depending upon your hamstring and adductor flexibility, can either be deeply gratifying or deeply frustrating. Sit on height (a bolster or blanket), take modifications, and have patience as needed.

Start in Dandasana, then extend the legs out to the sides as far as they will go while still allowing you to grab the big toes or feet (about 90 degrees). Check to make sure the thighs are rotated neither too far externally or too far internally. The kneecaps should point straight up as should the toes. If you can’t keep the knees from rolling in, bend the knees here to take some of the pressure off. Keeping the spine straight, extend forward from the hips, keeping the spine straight as you come forward. For those with really open inner thighs, make sure to maintain some weight in the sit bones as you come forward. You can either keep the hands extended out in front or reach out to grab the feet or big toes. Once you have found a stretch deep in the belly of the hamstring (and inner thighs for most people), stay here and breath in to the pose.

For people with sufficient flexibility, extending the legs out to the sides gets the thighs out of the way of the pelvis, allowing it to (potentially) drop all the way to the floor between them. It also takes some of the pressure off the hamstrings by moving their insertion points out to the side slightly. This can incredibly satisfying if flexibility allows. If, on the other hand, the adductors and hamstrings are tight, you won’t be able to extend the legs out to the sides far enough or tilt forward enough to get either of these benefits and beginners can struggle a bit here. If you find that you can’t bring the pelvis forward enough to prevent strain in the lower back, finding the standing variation of the pose (Prasarita Padottanasana) can help you find the same opening without the same struggle.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you or see you at one of my classes!

Standing in Tadasana bring your weight over to your right foot. There are several variations for the left foot here. You can just come to the tiptoes for support in the balance, you can place the foot on the calf, or you can take the left ankle in the left hand and place the left foot on the inner right thigh. Placing the foot at the knee can put pressure on the joint so make sure the foot is either below or above. Press the lifted foot lightly into the standing leg and press the inner leg back into the foot. This opposition can help bring stability to the pose. Spread weight evenly across the right (standing) foot and firm the thigh, pulling the kneecap gently up toward the hips.

The pelvis should be centered directly over the standing foot and should be level. Don’t worry about getting the knee of the lifted leg out to 90 degrees. Usually this simply results in twisting the hip out to the side compromising alignment in the rest of the pose. Instead, keep the hips square to the front of the mat and open the knee until you feel a gentle stretch on the inner thigh. Tuck the tailbone slightly to lengthen the low back.

There are several variations for the hands here as well. They can be at the waist, palms pressed together in Anjali Mudra at the heart, or lifted overhead with the palms either facing each other or together. Keep the shoulder blades wide and gently drawn down away from the ears. You gaze can rest (in order of difficulty) on the floor in front of you, on the wall opposite, or up between the palms toward the ceiling. When you are done with one side of the pose, repeat for the same amount of time on the second.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you or see you at one of my classes!

Bound Angle Pose is a hip opener that can be very rewarding for both beginners as well as more advanced students. To begin, find a comfortable seat (you might begin in Dandasana) and bring the soles of the feet together with the thighs opening out to the sides. If you are tight in the inner hips or groins, sit on a blanket or a bolster to lift the pelvis up a bit. Traditionally, the feet are pulled in as close to the pelvis as possible, but since different distances between feet and pelvis will lengthen different adductors, feel free to experiment with this distance and play around if you like.

Grab on to the big toes, feet, or shins, making sure to keep the outer edges of the feet pressed into the floor. If the hips aren’t very mobile, this pose can put strain on the knees. One way to counter that is to actively rotate the inner edges of the feet away from each-other like opening a book. Also, as you open the legs, try to think about pressing the femur down to the floor and not the knees.

On an exhale, you might fold forward over the legs. You can pull gently on the feet if you like, though make sure to keep the shoulder blades wide and the muscles of the back soft – don’t strain to come forward. Keep the back relatively straight and chest open as you reach the belly button forward over the feet. If the intention is to get the head down as opposed to the belly button forward (and this is true for all forward bends), the result is more spinal than pelvic. Keeping the spine somewhat straight also helps to keep breathing as unobstructed as possible. As long as it doesn’t put any strain on the knees, you might press lightly into the legs with the elbows as you fold forward to deepen the stretch. Hold for as long as feels comfortable. As you increase your flexibility, the forward bend is aided more and more by gravity, allowing you to release deeply into the pose and really surrender to the breath, which can be very rewarding.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you or see you at one of my classes!

Trikonasana is a lateral bend of the hips that helps tone the legs and open up the back of the forward leg as well as the outer back hip.

Starting in Tadasana, jump the feet out to the side anywhere between 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 feet apart. The optimal distance here depends upon your flexibility, so beginners will start with a narrower stance, and widen as flexibility is increased. Turn the right foot out to 90 degrees and turn in the left foot around 5 to 10 degrees. The foot and knees should be pointing in the same direction (this is a good rule of thumb for all standing poses), so the angle will vary slightly depending upon the rotation of the back hip in the final pose. As you inhale, lift the arms to the sides and firm the thighs, then on the exhale extend the torso out over the right leg, bending from the hips and not the waist. Make sure that the upper body stays in line with the legs. Instead of trying to get the head and hand closer to the floor (As my teacher says, “there is nothing down there”) focus on keeping the right side of the waist long so the spine stays straight. Keep the torso open to the side of your mat.

Let the right hand come to the shin, a block, the foot, or the floor (depending upon your flexibility) and let the left arm extend out in line with the shoulders. Keep your neck in line with the spine and if comfortable, turn your gaze up toward the left hand. Keep the tailbone tucked so the lower back stays long here. Check in with the front foot and make sure you are bringing as much weight to the inside of the foot as the outside. This ensures that the hamstrings will lengthen evenly.

As you bend to the side, the left hip will rotate slightly forward to let the right hip drop further. How much this rotates out depends upon the relative flexibility of various muscles of the hip. The more the pelvis rotates toward the floor however, the more the spine must twist to stay open. If you are tight at the outer hip, you will feel the Gluteus Medius and Tensor Fascia Lata lengthening as the back leg adducts in relation to the pelvis. As flexibility increases, the back hip needs to rotate forward less and less, and the pose gets closer to a pure sideways bend at the hips.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you or see you at one of my classes!

At the end of each week, I post the sequence that I’ve been teaching that week during my classes in Seattle. For more sequences from other weeks, click here. And if you would like to see these sequences in action, come join me for a class!

Grouding and Warm Up

Flow 1 – 2x

Flow 2 – 2x

Standing Poses

Seated Poses and Inversion

Bridge Pose (or at least what we are here calling bridge pose – the name describes different poses in different yoga traditions) is a great beginning backbend that opens the front side of the body and gets the neck and shoulders prepared for plow and shoulderstand.

Lay down on your back and bring your heels as close to the sit bones as you can. Both the feet and the knees should be about hip width distance apart. Place your hands by your waist and on an inhale, lift the torso by pressing into the inner edges of the feet. The feet should point straight forward and the thighs should stay parallel with the knees right over the heels. A good way to practice this is to squeeze a block in-between the thighs as you lift up. While the glutes should be slightly engaged, make sure that they are not hardened. Instead, try to press more into the inner feet and imagine that you are being pulled up from the outer hips.

Clasp the hands behind you and roll the shoulders underneath one at a time. Extend through the arms as you roll onto the top of the shoulders, opening the front of the chest and pressing the sternum toward the chin. If this compromises the neck in any way, you can put a blanket underneath the shoulders as you would for shoulderstand, releasing some of the tension at the neck. As you press the sternum toward the chin, the lower ribs will lift up and move away from the hip bones, lengthening the belly. Tuck the tailbone underneath so that the lower back stays open and the quadriceps lengthen.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you or see you at one of my classes!

Utkatasana works the legs and glutes and is part of the traditional Surya Namaskar B series. It is also a great pose to practice on its own as a way to develop strength and build heat during your practice.

There are several ways to come into Utkatasana, but for our purposes we will start in Tadasana with the feet and knees together. As you inhale, reach the arms overhead with the palms either together or facing each other shoulder width apart. The shoulder blades should say wide and drawn lightly down the back away from the ears. As you exhale, bend deeply at the ankles, knees, and waist. The gaze can either be straight ahead or up toward the hands (more traditional).

As you drop the hips, don’t let the pelvis tilt forward relative to the torso. Take out any excessive curve in the lower back by tucking the tailbone, keeping the lumbar spine nice and long and the front ribs drawn back. The upper body will tilt forward to keep your weight centered. Generally, the torso will create about a 90 degree angle relative to the thighs. Trying to keep the upper body too upright results in either a more shallow squat than we are aiming for or an excessive lower back arch.

Try and hold for 30 seconds initially, increasing the time (and depth) as you gain strength.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you or see you at one of my classes!

Finding a comfortable seat in Dandasana, start by moving the flesh out from underneath the sit bones. Sit up as tall as possible, with the hands resting lightly by the sides of the waist. Rotate the thighs slightly inward with the outer edges of the feet pulled back toward the outer hips. On an inhale, lift the arms overhead, pull the inner thighs back into the pelvis and lean forward from the hips, keeping the spine straight and heart lifted as you come forward on the exhale. As flexibility increases, you can take hold of the shins, grab the big toes, reach over the soles of the feet, take the outer edges of the feet with the hands, and finally, take the right wrist with the left hand or vice versa. As you take hold of the feet, gently lengthen the spine forward making sure not to pull so hard that you create strain in the muscles of the arms.

If tight hips or hamstrings prevent you from coming forward here and you find gravity working to pull the hips back, not forward, sit on some height (a blanket or bolster) or bend the knees to come forward. Relying too much on the abdominals and hip flexors to come forward can create unwanted tightness at the hips, so use modifications until you can comfortably relax into your forward bend, aided by gravity.

After coming forward into the forward bend, check in with the outer edges of the feet again. If you find they have moved away from the hips, pull them back again. Engage the quadriceps to gently pull the kneecaps back toward the pelvis. The body actually extends here in both directions, with the heels, sternum, and the crown of the head moving forward, and the shoulder blades, sit bones, and head of the femur moving back. The shoulder blades should stay wide. Use the breath – as you inhale, lengthen forward in the spine and as you exhale fold a little bit more deeply.

While there is a lot to think about in the pose, try to stay relaxed. As Pashimottanasana is often held for a significant amount of time, the key here is to let go into the pose, letting the breath lead you gently further, and not your will power. Fill the back of your legs and back with breath, and surrender to the work in the posture. The rewards of patience are well worth it here.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you or see you at one of my classes!

Tadasana, or Mountain Pose is typically thought of as the starting pose for all of the standing postures. The variations differ slightly between various yogic traditions, but the essential focus on properly aligning the body to prepare for other postures remains the same. Tadasana can be used as home base in between postures and can also be an excellent pose to practice on its own as a way to identify postural habits.

Stand with the big toes touching, and the heels either touching or very slightly apart. Alternately, the feet can be hip width distance apart for extra stability, though you want to make sure the big toes are as close as or even slightly closer together than the heels. Distribute weight equally between the heels, the base of the big toe and the base of the little toe. Spread the toes out on the mat and lift the arches. Straighten the legs (without hyper extending the knees) and engage the thigh muscles to slightly pull up the kneecaps. Keep a subtle inward rotation of the thighs, while at the same time tucking the tailbone. Make sure that you are tucking the tailbone just enough to bring some length to the lower back but not so much that the weight of the torso moves back behind the center line (from the crown of the head to the middle of the feet).

Engage Mula Bandha, lifting from the center of the perineum and lightly engaging the abdominals so that the belly button is pulled back toward the spine. Lift the front of the rib cage from the sternum, while at the same time broadening across the mid back to ensure you are not squeezing the shoulder blades together. Instead, they should stay wide while drawing them down the back away from the ears. Bring the ears in line with the shoulders and lift through the crown of the head. Soften the jaw and throat and find a steady, even rhythm to both inhale and exhale.

The hands are either at the sides of the waist, palms facing in or in front of the heart with the palms lightly pressing together. It can be helpful sometimes to transfer weight into the toes, the heels, and side to side to find the edges of your balance before coming back to the middle and grounding straight through center.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you or see you at one of my classes!