Yoga Mountain Fold Pose for Upper Body Strength

Video Transcript

"We're going to launch into a variation of a sun salutation, and with a focus on upper body stretching and strengthening. So stand at the top of your mat into dasana, which is mountain pose. The heels are directly under the hips, crown of the head is rising so the breath comes slowly, long and strong. Inhale and exhale. The first thing that's going to happen is we're going to actively bring energy into our fingertips, so the shoulders are dropping and there's lots of energy through our fingers. Keep the elbows straight and inhale. Just bring those arms straight up with lots of energy through the fingers as if somebody were pulling the energy right out of your fingers. Inhaling, extended to dasana, and then as we exhale we're going to let those arms open wide so your expanding, this is your wingspan and you really want to let it reach. Arms open wide as you fold at the waist, and when you can't keep that back flat anymore, you let it round, let the hands come to the floor and here we are in a forward bend. So that went like this: inhaling and exhaling into uttanasana, and then we'll prepare to move forward in our sun salutation."