How to do a Side Angle Stretch in Yoga

Video Transcript

"GINA KENNEDY: In this pose, Faith is going to help me demonstrate how you can take Utthita Parsvakonasana, or extended side angle stretch, into a deeper level using a block. So, we're going to have Faith come here and she's just going to come in to warrior two. So, she's going to turn both her feet towards the right side, her left heel is going to go towards the back. Good. She's going to extend her arms out, inhale in, and then she exhales. She's going to bend through her right knee. Notice the knee stays right out over the pinky toe and she lifted up, so her shoulders are right over her hips. Now, she's going to extend out and just take her elbow to her thigh. Good. So, this is where reaching her arm up. This is where a lot of people come through their side angle stretch. Notice that her hip is down and not pointing out to the sides, so we have one long line of energy. If we use the block and take it to the big toe side of the foot, Faith can then take her hand down, and the floor is elevated up to a point where she is able to come in to that stretch a lot deeper. Good. By using that block to press in, she can open herself up--good--and press her arm bone into her knee, knee into her arm bone, and come into a much deeper opening through the side body."