Forward Fold Yoga Pose

Video Transcript

" Forward fold starts standing in mountain pose, the basic standing pose. With the feet hip width apart, outer edges of the feet lined up with one another, knees straight but not locked, tailbone pointing directly down toward the floor, so it’s very slightly tucked and the shoulders relaxed, back and down. Take the arms back to the side, inhaling, bringing your arms up. And then either bending your knees or keeping your legs straight, folding forward over your legs and letting your hands rest on the floor if you come down that far. And for a lot of people it’s very nice to interlace at the elbows so that you can add a little bit more weight to the upper body as it hangs. It’s very important to recognize that stretching the hamstrings and the back at one time might feel like too much stretch at the same time. So you can bend the knees to take some stress off of the hamstrings and continue to stretch the back. This is a wonderful pose for soothing the nervous system. It’s also a wonderful pose for stretching the Achilles tendons, the hamstring, and for the entire back. And to come out of a forward bend, release your arms, bend your knees, and take your arms out to the side and up, press into the floor with the feet, lead with the heart, come all the way up, and bring the arms out to the side and down. "