Benefits:

For your body:

• Massages your abdominal muscles and strengthens your spine
• Stretches your shoulder and arm joints
• A hip and quad stretch

For your mind:

• A pose to learn that your mind is not your ego
• Concentrates your mind on your breathing rhythm to feel how it can move your body
• To calm tension in your body in this pose it takes the ability to think clearly and relax as you are in the pose

For your spirit:

• “Can i really massage my guts with this pose?”
• You can begin to feel that there is no repose
• This pose opens you up to your personal flexibility in life, what’s possible and what’s not

(Your body is your own so be sure to do these poses the certain way your body needs to do them, not the way my body does them in the pictures.)

Modifications:

• Use a strap or towel to wrap around your feet.
• Do one leg at a time which helps improve your flexibility.
• Just reach back for your feet and focus on your breath, flexibility will come through practice.

Pose Description:

1. Start in a belly-down position.
2. Engage your core and breath.
3. Bend one knee and reach back for your feet one at a time.
4. Grab the outside of your foot without any side flexion.
5. Kick your feet into your hand and pull yourself up.
6. Lift your shoulders and flex your thighs alternate relaxing them.
7. Your breath will move you forward and back.
8. Keep your knees hip and shoulder-distance apart.
9. Relax your eyes and breath here for a few cycles.