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Step 1
Stand up straight and contract your abdominal muscles.
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Step 2
Bring your right leg straight back behind you and lift both arms up overhead with the palms facing each other. Begin to lift your back leg up off the floor and tip your upper body forward. The key is to keep a straight line from your fingertips to your heel. It is common in this pose to not lift the back leg very high and to drop the upper body too far forward.
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Step 3
Instead of thinking about tipping forward, think about lengthening the body. Reach the arms forward and reach the back toes back as if you were pulling the hands and foot away from one another. In Step 3 if you are able you can come to the point where your back leg and chest are parallel to the floor. Again make sure the back leg is as high as the chest. You can keep the arms forward or your can reach them out to the side in airplane or even reach the arms back.
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Step 4
If you wish to go deeper, keep your back leg lifted and lower both hands to the floor. You can keep the hands on the floor or bring one or both hands to the ankle bone. Continue to keep the back leg lifted as you do this. Also let the head and neck relax. Do not lift the head as this will compress he neck.
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Step 5
Hold for several deep breaths. To come up, once again pull forward with the arms and pull back with the foot, keeping the abdominal muscles engaged. Repeat other leg.
