Chapters (7)

How to Do an Extended Side Angle | Yoga

Howcast · 1:43

In this practice

Key teachings

Proper alignment in foundational poses
Creating space and opening in the body
Active engagement through pressing arm into leg

Ideal for

Beginners learning foundational poses
Practitioners refining pose alignment
Individuals working on hip and chest flexibility

Lesson

Instructions

Next what we're going to work through is an extended side angle. So we're going to start with warrior 2 legs. So front heel, back arch alignment, reaching your arms up and open. Nice and long with the energy.

Take the front forearm for the front thigh and rest it there. Back hand comes onto the hip. And what you're going to do is actually scrub the forearm down into the thigh and use that to bend your front knee. So I'm literally trying to create space in this hip flexor here by brushing the bones forward and the muscles forward.

Then from here this left shoulder will roll back. Right. So that's what having this hand on the hip will allow you to find that opening in the chest. And then you can reach the finger tips up. Often times what we see most is this had just kind of goes rogue back here. We don't know where it is. So we won't to pretend there's this imaginary glass wall right in line of your nose that you're pushing into.

This finger here can come down to the floor or to a block. Yes, you can have a block here, or it can come onto the outside. It just depends on what you're trying to work. So if you have your fingertips on the inside you're going to work your inner thigh. If you have the fingertips on the outside, you'll work the outer thigh. And you want to use that, the arm and the leg, as a reference point of where to hug into.

So say my fingertips were on the floor, my knee will hug into my arm, my arm will hug back into the knee and then elongates from there. Extended side angle. Exhale.

Steps

Extended Side Angle (Utthita Parsvakonasana)
Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II) setup
Using a yoga block for support

Benefits

Increases hip flexor mobility
Opens the chest and shoulders
Strengthens legs and core stability
Improves body awareness

Transcript

Next what we're going to work through is an
extended side angle. So we're going to start with warrior 2 legs. So front heel, back arch alignment, reaching
your arms up and open. Nice and long with the energy. Take the front forearm for the front thigh
and rest it there. Back hand comes onto the hip. And what you're going to do is actually scrub
the forearm down into the thigh and use that to bend your front knee. So I'm literally trying to create space in
this hip flexor here by brushing the bones forward and the muscles forward. Then from here this left shoulder will roll
back. Right. So that's what having this hand on the hip
will allow you to find that opening in the chest. And then you can reach the finger tips up. Often times what we see most is this had just
kind of goes rogue back here. We don't know where it is. So we won't to pretend there's this imaginary
glass wall right in line of your nose that you're pushing into. This finger here can come down to the floor
or to a block. Yes, you can have a block here, or it can
come onto the outside. It just depends on what you're trying to work. So if you have your fingertips on the inside
you're going to work your inner thigh. If you have the fingertips on the outside,
you'll work the outer thigh. And you want to use that, the arm and the
leg, as a reference point of where to hug into. So say my fingertips were on the floor, my
knee will hug into my arm, my arm will hug back into the knee and then elongates from
there. Extended side angle. Exhale.

Practice summary

Level: all levels
Duration: 2 minutes
Equipment: yoga matyoga block (optional)
Target areas: HipsInner thighsOuter thighsChestShouldersCore
Energy: balancing

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