Yoga Arch Pose

Video Transcript

"The next part of the Vinyasa Flow series that I've been building on is Artautanasana which is arching up from forward bend. So what you'll do is start with Mountain Pose which I did go in through detail in the previous clips. Find that nice weighted position in your feet evenly. Femurs or thigh bones push back, tail bones melt down, open the palms, slowly going to scoop the arms up and fold forward. As you reach down towards the floor, you can tippy your fingers or press your palms in towards the ground. Or if your hamstrings are too tight, you can use a block either flat, on its side this way or on its side this way, or holding down onto the block. As you get yourself down into that forward fold, slightly arch the back and arch the head up. You should not really be able to see the ceiling or the wall in front of you or anything like that. It's just a slight arching. Then you see abdominals to engage, and pull you back. If you notice my hands aren?t on the floor, pull you back in towards your legs. That's really engaging those core muscles. So just go ahead and arch up and then pull this body towards the legs. If you feel any tightness in the back of your knees, just bend your knees just ever so slightly and take pressure off in the hamstrings and the knees. Again if you have any low back issues, any sort of eye, ear infection, sinus infection, anything like that, it's not recommended to do this or do that misdeeply. You can do the modified. A good modification is to take, put your hands here, leave the knees slightly bend, arch the back up and slowly fold forward. And arch up and slowly fold forward. In this type of stretch in the modified version also works well if you're pregnant. And fold forward. And then you can slowly just roll yourself back up. And that's Artautanasana or arching up from forward fold."