Yoga Asana Series - #2 Uttanasana

Uttanasana 

(Ooh-ta-nas-ana)

(Mark Stephens)

I LOVE THIS POSE! Too loud? 😂 

Uttanasana, also known as Intense forward bending pose is just that, intense! It can be used as a resting posture or used to build strength.

This yummy postures gives the hamstrings some loving along with your posterior chain (back of the body). 

When I hang in this position whether it be hands to the ground or grasping my elbows, I always feel the intense stretch in my upper back. It is designed to stretch the spine & back, but it just so happens the hamstrings get some attention too. If you have tightness in your back like I do, this pose is so lovely to fall into. 

Keep reading as I have a great tip further down to help you increase your flexibility over time with a little bit of anatomy science 😍

The Anatomy:

As we fold forward we mainly stretch our:

Spine

Hamstrings (back of thighs), 

Glutes (bum), 

Traps (upper back) 

*Highlighted in red*

And we contract/squeeze/work our:

Quads (front of thighs)

Abdominals (front & sides of belly/waist)

A little bit of deltoid (front of your shoulder)

*Highlighted in blue*

To begin we stand in Tadasana (see my explanation of this posture here )

So feet together standing tall in Tadasana

Three ways to come into this posture:

1. Swan dive - Inhaling arms out to the side and up towards the sky, exhaling keeping the arms out as you fall into your forward fold.

(Now you will never forget why it's called a swan dive 😉)

     2. Heart Center: Inhale arms to the sky, fingers to touch, exhale hands come through at heart center (together in prayer at your chest) and all the way down to meet your feet.

(Couldn't find a pg version of this image in anatomy style 😋)

3. Extended Arms: Inhale arms up, exhale with the arms fully extended overhead. This requires a lot of strength and should only be performed if you have strength in areas such as lower back, legs and core.

Checklist from feet to head in Uttanasana:

Feet:

• Feet can be hip width apart if needed for stability
• Heels firmly rooted down
• Weight coming slightly forward onto toes (I mean slightly as in your heels stay grounded, don't fall over)

Legs

• Bend the knees to take the pressure off your hamstrings & lower back if needed

Relax the hamstrings as much as possible in this pose to allow the stretch. 

If these muscles are tight (there are 3 muscles under the hamstring umbrella given below), you will definitely be limited in forward bends and even internal or external rotation of your leg (external = outwards, internal = inwards). Hence the need for a bent knee ☝

(The 3 hamstring muscles:

Bicep Femoris

Semitendinous

Semimembranosus)

• Like we did in Tadasana, continue that upward pull of energy in the front of your legs, lifting the knee caps and squeezing the thighs (easier said than done when your hamstrings are screaming at you 😂 which mine ALWAYS DO). In this pose your Quads (front thighs) are contracting, which means they are strengthening. 

(The 4 Quad muscles:

Rectus Femoris

Vastus Intermedius

Vastus Medialis

Vastus Lateralis)

• Relax your glutes (bum) as you fall into Uttanasana. This posture is stretching your posterior chain so you want it all to be as relaxed as possible. If your glutes are tight, this will limit your forward bending.

Gluteus Maximus

Pelvis:

• As we spoke in our Tadasana post briefly, for this pose we will be bringing our pelvis into a anterior pelvic tilt. Think about what I told you about the pelvis tilts, anterior = front, hips bones fall forward. This is where we want the movement to come from for this pose. When the pelvis tilts forward, the hamstrings get the passive stretch ! 

• Keeping weight slightly forward onto the balls of your feet while your heels stay grounded as you tilt forward, think of the yummy stretch that gives the hamstrings (back of your thighs.

Back & Shoulders:

• Coming into Uttanasana through swan diving, it opens up your shoulders

• As we fall forward and place our hands where ever we can reach to, it's important to stay connected through the hands, pull them towards your mat to contract your delts (front of shoulder - highlighted in blue) if placed on the ground. If grabbing the back of your legs, attempt to pull your hands forward, it will have similar impact. This connects the upper body to the lower body.

*On a side note - I don't always use Uttanasana as a working posture. Remember it can be a resting posture and to me, that means allowing my upper body to melt down, this is where I always feel the yummy upper back stretch all the way up my neck. And this is my tip further down*

• Draw Shoulder blades together and down the back 

Abdominals:

• Contracting (engaging) the abdominal muscles in forward fold allows the back to release. I would go in to antagonist and agonist muscle groups here but I think that is for another time. Don't want you even more confused. I get a bit carried away with my anatomy 😆 Let's keep it simple and just say that if the abs squeeze, this allows the back to release as we fold forward in turn giving the muscles along the spine a lovely delicious stretch. 

Arms & Chest:

• Keep your arms engaged if you are in the working posture. This will help switch on your shoulders as well as work to keep your heart (chest) forward. Don't collapse into your chest and round your shoulders!

• By using the heart center method of coming into this posture, you can collapse your chest so be aware of that too 😊

Head:

• Allow your head to hang. You should be able to move it from left to right. This gives a beautiful stretch along your neck muscles. Yummy. Who doesn't want a neck stretch. Gosh mine cracks like no ones business haha!

💡 Tip:

So I mentioned above that I have a tip or a little anatomy lesson to help you increase your hamstring flexibility in Uttanasana. It is something I learned from Lucas Rockwood of Yoga Body 

www.yogabody.com He describes it as Gravity Yoga. 

This is where we allow gravity to further us into our stretches as we breathe deeply. Inhale for 4, exhale for 8 through the mouth. He has a whole flexibility guide about these postures.

The extended exhale tricks the stretch receptor ( our goji muscle tendon ) in our muscle to effectively stretch even further. We don't pull, we don't force, we simply hang and breathe.

The goji tendon senses our stretch but if we use extended exhales, we can work past this sense allowing gravity to extend us further. This is in all muscles. So all stretches should be held for longer and with deep breathing. 

Once you don't pull or force yourself into a stretch you won't hurt yourself. 

Always listen to your body. Never overdo or overstretch. And never stretch through pain!

I have done this and it actually really works. It is something I try to incorporate daily but need to get better at it. I might add one or two of the stretches into my morning routines 😍 

You should practice the stretches between 2 to 5 minutes. The hard part is not fidgeting, getting bored and wanting to leave the pose. This is where focusing on our breathe as we do in meditation comes in to play 😊

So for Uttanasana or just a general hamstring stretch, do this before bed every evening and see the benefits for yourself!!

So there ya have it. It was very anatomy based, if you made it this far WELL DONE YOU! 💜 I introduced some muscle names to you but not all so as not to totally scare you away 😉

I feel it's an amazing way to teach us about our own bodies, the muscles we ALL have and how best to utilise them in our poses. 

Please let me know how you are finding the descriptions and theory. 

Any questions or feedback, please comment below or catch me on social media below:

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I had such a thrill and revision session writing this piece so I truly hope you find it as beneficial as I did.

Love & Light,

Elisa x

References/Photos:

Mark Stephens - Teaching Yoga
Ray Long - The key muscles of yoga

http://www.dailybandha.com/2011/01/use-your-shoulders-to-deepen-uttanasana.html

https://www.pinterest.ie/silvialozanonav/ardha-uttanasana/
http://www.yogachicago.com/may12/uttanasana.shtml
http://www.dailybandha.com/2011/01/how-to-use-abdominals-to-release-back.html
https://fitwithme.org/tag/neck/
https://fightyourinfertility.com/57/yoga-poses-for-infertility-treatment-in-women
http://slideplayer.com/slide/9893721/