Uttanasana

Standing in Tadasana, arms sweep up into Urdhva Hastasana.

Open the arms, hip hinge, forward fold into Uttanasana.

Right? You can just use your words.

If they know all those poses, you can just use your words to talk them through that.

And they do not need to see you do them.

Because actually, if they're doing Uttanasana, stepping back into Downward Dog, they can't see you anyway.

Right? So instead, you get to stand there, be grounded, watch your students speak clearly, smile on your face, right? There's something I think students can learn from seeing a teacher who is comfortable being grounded and still.

So this is a useful rule, by the way.

And then take a step forwards.

Come into Uttanasana for a moment.

Let it be a bit of a passive Uttanasana.

Relax the shoulders, relax the neck, relax the legs.

Fold over yourself.

Exhale, step the right foot forwards.

Sweep the arms up.

And then exhale, step the left foot forwards, find Uttanasana.

most poses, I would say, most poses are seated.

Standing, we have only one pose, which is like dangling, which is like Uttanasana,

just

holding forward and dangling the body.

Separate your feet again, please.

Slide your hands under your feet, Padahastasana.

Stepping on the palms as completely as possible.

Inhale halfway up as best as you can with your hands trapped, and then exhale, fold back down, and hang out.

You know, you're just like you're standing in Tadasana, walk them through that.

And then before you say anything about how they're holding themselves, you just guide them down into Uttanasana.

But then as they're coming back up out of Uttanasana, you're making all these little adjustments.

I really like that.

I also use that as a Shavasana replacement, but that's a conversation for another day.

It's the back of your body.

And combined with Uttanasana, it's an opening, an intense lengthening of the west side of the body.

So normally we would just... say this is a seated forward fold, but Tapasji Motanasana is much more complicated than that.

So this is a sitting pose.

That's a pretty nice one that a lot of people can do and if you can't get down on the floor, you can also do it lying on your bed.

Then there's Uttanasana, a forward bending pose.

All the forward bending poses are going to be really helpful.

If you can do salabhasana or locust, it's supposed to be absolutely brilliant for the prostate.