Welcome to Day Eighteen. Reclining Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose. Supta Utthita Hasta Padangustasana.
I know, right? When I first started practicing yoga, I made a point of mastering Utthita Hasta Padangustasana just because I loved the name so much.
Reclining Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose is an excellent pose for relieving low-back pain. It helps relieve sciatica and menstrual cramps. It stretches the hamstrings and the calves and strengthens the knees. Use a strap, if your hamstrings are tight.
Practice Days 1-17 of our challenge, before lying down into Savasana, move into Supta Utthita Hasta Padangustasana in this way:
- Lie down on your back
- Find length through your entire body
- Inhale, bring your right leg up to 90 degrees (or as far as is comfortable)
- Keep your left leg engaged, straight, and pressing into the mat (if tenderness in your low back prevents such a stretch, bend your left leg and press the sole of your left foot into the mat)
- Flex both feet
- Interlace your fingers behind your right thigh
- Press your leg firmly into your hands
- Keep your shoulders and your head pressing into the mat
- Hold for several breaths
- Release for the second side
Here is today’s complete practice:
- Take a comfortable seat
- Close your eyes, Bring your attention inward
- Inhale, lengthen the spine, Exhale, keep that length
- Notice deeply
- Continue in this way for 10 or 20 breaths
- Open your eyes and move to a kneeling position (sit back on your heels)
- Perform Kapalabhati for 20-50 breaths, Repeat (as you like)
- Come to Child’s pose, enjoy the effects of Kapalabhati
- Come up to Table, then move with breath: Table > Down Dog > Table > Child’s Pose…
Repeat Five times (or as many or few times as you like) - Balancing Table (both sides)
- Lower arm/leg back to Table
- Exhale as you Push back to Downward Facing Dog
- Inhale, Step forward to Standing Forward Fold
- Exhale here
- Inhale up to Tadasana, Mountain Pose
- Sun Salutation (both sides)
- Tadasana
- Close your eyes, bring your hands together in Prayer Pose, Anjali Mudra, at the center of your chest
- Breathe
- Uttanasana, Standing Forward Fold
- Sun Breaths
- Step back to Downward Facing Dog
- Lunge (right foot back)
- Runner’s Stretch over left leg
- Lunge (left foot back)
- Runner’s Stretch right leg
- Step back to Downward-Facing Dog
- Lower down to Child’s Pose
- Step to Tadasana at the front of your mat
- Vira II (both sides)
- Tadasana
- Pyramid (both sides)
- Step back to Tadasana
- Revolved Twist (both sides)
- Step back to Downward-Facing Dog
- Lower down to Dandasana
- Release into Sukhasana
- Twist
- Come back to Sukhasana for a few breaths
- Supta Utthita Hasta Padangustasana (both sides)
- Lie back into Savasana
