1.Stand with your feet outer hips distance apart and the outer edges of your feet parallel with each other. Bring your hands to your hip creases, right where the thigh bone attaches to the hip joint.
2. Inhale and lengthen up through your spine. Exhale, hinge at the hip creases and fold over the legs. Let your hands come to the ground in front of you.
3. As you inhale, lengthen your spine and the sides of your waist forward, rising up to the fingertips. With an exhalation, bring your left hand to the outside of your right ankle and your right hand to your sacrum – the very back of your pelvis – with your palm down.
4. Lengthen through your spine once again, letting the sides of your waist be long. As you come to your next exhalation, gently pull with your left hand and rotate your belly and torso to the right. Be mindful the sides of the waist stay long, your hips balanced and your chest open.
5. Hold for 3 – 5 breaths. Inhale to come out of the twist. Pause in your forward fold. Repeat on the opposite side.
Tightness in the backs of the legs and buttocks can often limit our forward folds. This can make our knees bend and our spine round, collapsing the chest. If you find this happening to you, bring a block to the ground at its highest level about a foot in front of you. When you fold forward, bring your hands to the block instead of the ground. When you are ready to take the twist, center your left palm on the block and bring your right palm to your sacrum. Twist from here.
Stretches the entire back body and the sides of the waist; stimulates the abdominal organs; brings flexibility to the spine; strengthens the abdominals; improves digestion; help to reduce fatigue and anxiety.