March Posture of the Month: Parivrtta Uttkatasana

Posture of the month: Parivrtta Uttkatasana
Partvrtta = Revolved - Utka = Powerful - Asana = Pose
Revolved Powerful Pose or Revolved Chair Pose or Prayer Twist.

I like this pose because it helps me to feel grounded - hips and legs are stable and strong, feet are grounded into the mat - distributing my weight and helping me to find that lovely sense of balance where I can shift my weight back and stack the knees over the ankles. 

Tip 1: Work to keep your knees in alignment with each other by sucking the thighs into their hip sockets.

All of this grounding, strength and stability in the hips, legs and feet allows for lightness in the spine and openess in the chest. The lightness in the spine allows for the body to twist. When you twist, look to your abdominal muscles to engage and rotate your torso along the lengthened spine.

Tip 2: Don’t rely the strength of your shoulders and elbows to force you body to twist. You need lightness in the spine to allow your abdominal muscles to engage, rotate and follow the twist of the spine. If you force the twist, relying on the large muscles in your back, chest and shoulders you force your spine to twist beyond its natural ability. If you force the twist you can’t lift the chest. If you can’t lift the chest the body falls forward - the weight comes to the toes, the heels loose their grounding and you miss out on that lovely sense of stability, balance and lightness.

Be brave, practice the modified version, work with the feeling of sending your weight back to your heels. Release the sacrum so the sit bones can head down to the floor. Resist the booty pop! Find the strength in your core to twist and lift. Allow the core to revolve with the spine - work with the limits of your spine today - maybe tomorrow your spine will feel different. Enjoy the sensation of opening your chest in the revolved position, gaze up and over your shoulder. Breath.

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