UTTHITA HAStASANA

UPWARD FACING HANDS

ALIGNMENT PRINCIPLES

HANDS:

Fingers spread, middle finger facing forward

nECK:

Head hanging loosely in line with spine

sHOULDERS:

Squeezing back into the spine

lOWER abdomen:

Belly button moving towards spine

HIPS:

Square to the ground, neither rocked forward nor back

FEET:

At hips width, middle toe through heel parallel to the sides of the mat

FROM THE ANATOMY OF HATHA YOGA:

Standing Postures - Setting Priorities

For novices, standing postures are the best training ground for experiencing the principle of learning to establish priorities from the distal to proximal parts of the limbs. This means you should constrcut standing poses from your feet to your hips to your torso, and from hands to shoulders to your torso, rather than the other way around.bbThat's desirable because your awareness of your body get porror and your ability to control the muscle diminishes as you move from distal to proximal, and if you first bend or twist the trunk and then manpulate the extremities, the latter movements take your attention away from the prximal structures of the body over which you have less awareness. By contrast, if you settle the distal portions of your limbs first, you can keep them stable with minimal effort while you place your attention on the central core of the body.

Sincere thanks to H. David Coulter

Reproduced with the permission of H. David Coulter from The Anatomy of Hatha Yoga (Body and Breath, 2001), p229

TRANSITIONS

Uttanasana Samastithi