Parsvottanasana, or Intense Side Stretch

The last pose was ½ of this one, Parsvottanasana, or Intense Side Stretch. I hope you were able to try reverse prayer! It couldn’t be better, honestly, as a quick-hit partner to Saturday’s pose, Urdhva Hastasana or Upward Salute. You could do both of these in <2 minutes before a meeting at the office. Lifting those arms, then rolling those shoulders back = more optimism, uplift, breath, and shoulder health. #whatsnottolove?!
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Today’s pose, Parsvottanasana is one of those poses that just keeps coming for you. It has been woefully hamstrung (literally?) in much of modern postural yoga because its expression with hands behind the back is really hard. Yikes! Yes, it *is* OK to do it with hands below you on the floor or on blocks, and you need to start there in order to learn the leg stability (I call this getting your legs underneath you). But staying here by definition cannot #smooththeslump and actually might make it worse 😕. This is because the arms are not an integrated piece of the full pose; over time if you don’t place them behind you in some fashion, they are encouraged to hang loose and keep the abdomen from toning, which is one of the main benefits of doing the pose!
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Parsvottanasansa is in many ways the most important pose of my @yogajournal sequence — that’s why I have it at the halfway mark. I often tell students: You use the legs to relax the brain. Here, especially, that’s just what you’re doing. Furthermore, you strengthen the wrists and get rid of hunched shoulders. Plus that abdomen tone. It’s an all-in-one pose for what we’re trying to accomplish, especially to reduce #textneck and some of the other problems that come from too much #techuse.
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