STANDING FORWARD BEND POSE (Uttanasana)

Standing Forward Bend Pose (Uttanasana) will soothe your mind. It is a calming posture that lengthens the hamstrings and activates the inner legs.

Method: This pose stretches the back of the body entirely. You must prepare for it, so always remember to warm up before you get into this asana. Here are steps to follow:

Step 1: Stand erect and rest your hands on your hips. Inhale as you raise your arms. Exhale and bend forward from the hip joints rather than the waist. As you descend draw the front torso out of the groins and open the space between the pubis and top sternum.

Step 2: Keeping your knees straight, place your fingertips or palms on the floor beside your feet, or touch the back of your ankles with your palms. Let your hands rest on the ground, next to your feet. Let your chest float over your feet. Widen the space between your chest bone and pubis. Turn your thighs inward, and root yourself into your heels. This will allow better alignment.

Step 3: Let your head hang from the root of the neck, which is deep in the upper back, between the shoulder blades. Bring your weight a little bit forward into the balls of your feet so that your hips stay over your ankles.

Step 4: To exit the pose, return your hands to your hips and slowly lift up, keeping the length in the front and back of your torso. Don't roll the spine to come up. Instead bring your hands back onto your hips and reaffirm the length of the front torso. Then press your tailbone down and into the pelvis and come up on an inhalation with a long front torso. Slowly stand up.

Special Tips: Emphasize the perfection of technique. Let it be performed just after Spot Jumping exercise to get more flexibility and stamina.

You must make sure to keep your stomach and bowels empty before you practice this asana. Have your meals at least more than two hours before you do the asana so that your food get digested and there is enough energy for you to expand during the practice.

Modifications and Variations: You may need to modify this pose if it is uncomfortable or difficult at first. Once you have mastered the usual form, set a new goal and work to master a harder technique. As a beginner, it might be hard to increase the stretch. To make it easier, gently bend your knees, and imagine the sacrum sinking deep into the back part of the pelvis. Now, decrease the distance between your tailbone and the pubis. As you feel the resistance, push the top part of your thighs back and press your heels down. Straighten your knees. But be sure you don’t lock your knees when you straighten them.

After bending forward, slide the index and middle fingers of each hand in between the big toe and second toe of each foot. Then curl the fingers under the bottom and around the big toe and wrap your thumb around your fingers. With an inhalation straighten your arms and lift your front torso away from your thighs, making your back as concave as possible. Hold for a few breaths, then exhale and lengthen down and forward, bending your elbows out to the sides.

Benefits: Traditionally, Standing Forward Bend Pose is said to help relieve insomnia. It not only heals but also rejuvenates your body. In this pose, your head is below the heart, and this allows for blood circulation in your head instead of your feet, giving your cells a rush of energizing oxygen. It eases symptoms of menopause, asthma, high blood pressure, infertility, headaches, and insomnia. Take a look at what more this amazing pose can do for you!

It is regarded as a relaxing and stress-relieving pose. It calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild hopelessness. It calms the mind and balances the nervous system. It reduces anxiety, depression and fatigue. It relieves headache and restlessness.

It relieves tension in the spine, neck, and back. It keeps your spine strong and flexible. It can relieve tension in the lower back when practised with bent knees. It stretches the back of the legs, the hips and spine. It also strengthens the legs, thighs and knees. It not only activates the abdominal muscles but it also stimulates the kidneys, liver and spleen.

It stretches and lengthens the hamstrings, hips and calves. It is common to have tight hamstrings if you run or play a sport that involves lots of running.

Results of this pose and the preceding exercise may vary from person to person depending upon many factors such as technique used, availability of time, age, health condition, regularity, discipline, mood, interest and so forth.

Final Position: Now enter into Natural Standing Posture and relax your body.