Yoga Pose Focus: Uttanasana

there’s more than one way to do a standing forward bend

Me, circa 2019 playing around with using the door as a yoga prop. I don’t mention this in the post below, but just wanted to show, we can get creative with our yoga practices:)

Why standing forward bends are good for yoga mamas

Honestly, forward bends are good for most people, if done with awareness! In September the yoga pose focus was Ustrasana (Camel Pose) and it’s a lovely way to counteract any hunching or slouching we do. Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend) is somewhat of a counterpose to this, meaning it moves us in the opposite direction, but we can tweak it to address different areas of our body (which I’ll describe in the next section on ‘how to.’).

Mainly, this pose is great for setting the foundation of the spine. Our posture really begins in the hips and acts as a base for the spine. Try this micropractice to feel what I’m talking about: sit or stand, whichever is most comfortable for you now. Don’t think too much about avoiding slouching. Instead, bring the focus to your hips. If you’re sitting, you might bring attention to your sitz bones; if you’re standing, you might just feel your feet on the ground at the same time you bring awareness to the hips. Now, exhale and tuck the pelvis (think of a dog tucking its tail between its legs). Then, when the inhale comes, tilt the pelvis forward (imagine sticking your butt out). Repeat a few times. It’s similar to what the pelvis does when you practice cat-cow.

How to do it

Uttanasana is a forward bend, but it’s important to ask ourselves, ‘what is bending forward?’ It seems the answer would be obvious, but let’s zoom in a bit. First, I’d like to suggest that maybe the word ‘bend’ is not quite accurate. I’ve heard a lot of teachers cue this pose and use the word ‘hinge,’ which really captures it. In Uttanasana, we are hinging at the hip and as the hips tilt forward, the whole spine goes along for a ride. Check out this little video for more details on this:

 

Connecting to this month’s theme of Falling

Our theme for this space of time between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice is Falling. I shared my thoughts on this just a few days ago in this post linked here. In the post I talked about bhavana, which is a way of infusing our yoga postures with feeling, intention, or attitude. When I think of the action of falling in yoga, I think of release, surrender, letting go of effort, and making friends with gravity.

In Uttanasana, there is an invitation to do this. As we hinge forward at the hips, we might bend the knees a little so that we can allow the weight of the torso, arms, and head to fall forward with gravity. The result is a pose where we discover where to apply just the right amount of effort while also learning where we can release all effort (everything from the waist up here can just go on vacation!).

The pose on all levels

Last month I touched upon the koshas, that yogic concept of the layers of ourselves (physical, mental, energetic, intellectual, and spiritual (blissful). Here’s a nice article on the topic, too. I love bringing awareness of the koshas into practice because it makes yoga more holistic, rather than just a set of weird shapes we put our bodies into. So let’s see how we can look a bit into how Uttanasana might express itself through a few of the different koshas or layers:

Physically: Hinging at the hip, effort and steadiness in the legs, effortlessness and fluidity in the upper body, exhale becomes easier.

Energetically: quieting, relaxing, focus goes inward, savoring how shifting the weight on the feet changes where you feel the pose and how it makes you feel energetically.

Mentally: attention turns inward at the same time the mind inquires, where is my weight on my feet? And where can I let go of effort?

Just some reflections on how I personally experience Uttanasana physically, mentally, and energetically. It might be the same for you, or it might be different! If you care to share how it feels for you on all these levels, please comment and let me know!

Parting thoughts

I hope you had some time to check out the video above; whether or not the guidance I gave there was new to you, what matters most is just practicing. You might know about certain alignments, ways of moving, or techniques for stretching but the repeated practice is what matters because our bodies and minds change daily, so no matter how familiar a pose is, we might experience it differently each day. 

Do you like Uttanasana? hate it? feel indifferent about it? What questions do you have left about it? Please feel free to comment or ask questions here and I’m happy to share my thoughts and experience with you:)

This Yoga Pose Focus will be a monthly offering here. This time around, it’s free to all but in the near future it will be part of the paid subscription. I thought I’d offer it free as a sample so you can get a taste of what it means to be a paid contributor of this community. Either way, you can still become a paid or founding subscriber for now simply to show your love and appreciation of my work!

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