URDHVA PRASARITA EKA PADASANA
Like so many other modern poses, those that have been entered into the asana canon over the last century, the Sanskrit name given it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue when translated to English. Urdhva means something like “raised, elevated,” prasarita “stretched out,” eka, “one” (the Sanskrit root of our “one”), and pada “foot” (the Sanskrit root of “pedestrian”). So what do you think? Raised Stretched Out One Foot Pose? Actually Kim, our director, when we were discussing if this pose would be our monthly offering offhandedly, dubbed this pose with a perfect name, one that had never crossed my mind before: from now on, at least here at Nest Yoga, this pose will be called in English the “Standing Splits Pose.” Let’s hope it catches on.
As you can see, the Standing Splits is a balancing pose on one leg. As with all poses of this type, it will if practiced over time strengthen the muscles that straighten the knee. Also, one-leg balancing helps to strengthen some muscles around a joint we often don’t think of as needing strengthening, our ankle. With the raised leg we’ll stretch the front of the standing thigh and groin.
PREPARATION
You’ll need two blocks. Stand at and facing one of the short edges of your mat, with a block on the floor just outside your left foot (if you’re right-handed, right foot if left-handed) in case of emergency. Firmly squeeze the second block between your thighs mid-way between your pubis and your knees. Inhale, lift through the top of your sternum, and creasing at the groins, exhale and lengthen your torso down into standing forward bend (uttanasana). As always, try as much as possible, as you fold over, to maintain the length of your front torso, especially between your pubis and navel.
Now press your hands to your sacrum and spread the bone away from its vertical midline, widening the back pelvis as you do. Repeat several times until you’re confident you can maintain the feeling of this width, then slide your hands to your outer hips. Ideally the hips should be relatively relaxed. It’s possible that if you’re squeezing the block too firmly, the hips will harden. If such is the case, reduce the legs’ pressure on the block, hopefully softening the hips somewhat. Now slide your hands down along the outer thighs until they’re opposite the block.
Now we all know that it’s the muscles of the inner thighs, the ad-ductors, that are squeezing the block. So call on your yoga imagination and pretend it’s your outer thighs, the ab-ductors, doing the squeeze. Help this image along by pressing your hands against the thighs. Hold this pressure for awhile, resisting as much as possible any inclination to also squeeze the outer hips. Then very slowly, maintaining their pressure, slide your hands down the outer thighs to the ankles. Repeat the full stroke several times: away from the sacrum, down along the outer legs to the outer ankles. When you have a feeling for this, the descending outer leg channel, reach with your dominant hand and slide the block back and out, imparting a slight inward rotation to the thighs. Put the block on the floor on the outside of the same-side foot. Then bring your hands to your inner ankles and stroke up to the inner groins. Repeat several times. This is the ascending inner leg channel.
Finally, combine the two channels into a circuit. Start at the sacrum, using either your hands or imagination, widen side to side across the sacrum, over the outer hips, down the outer legs to the outer ankles, then up the inner channel to the inner groins. At this point, imagination is called on again, and from the inner grois, imagine two lines of energy lifting through the interior of the pelvis to the sacrum, where they spread apart and whole circuit begins again. Repeat several times. If you need to bring your torso out of uttanasana for a break, you’re welcome to, and when you’re ready, fold back to uttanasana again, hands on the floor or blocks outside your feet.
Shift your weight onto your right foot, and with an inhale raise your left leg more or less parallel to the floor. Your left hip may hike up a bit higher than the right, but that’s not a problem. You might try drawing the inner channel of the right leg more deeply into your pelvis. That may help lower the left hip.
Now slowly exhale and lower your left foot slowly toward the floor as if moving into a lunge. But don’t step your foot onto the floor. Instead, tap the tip of the big toe lightly against the floor, then inhale, slowly re-straighten the right leg and lift the left back to parallel. Do this a few more times, descending and raising the left leg slowly, exhaling on descent, inhaling on ascent, pressing actively through the left heel all the while. Remember, to straighten the bent right knee, be sure not to press back on the knee itself. Instead, resist the knee and press back on the topmost thigh right where it connects to the pelvis.
At the end of this exercise, bring your leg and pelvis back to neutral, parallel to the floor. Then inhale and lift your left hip up until you feel a comfortable stretch across the inner right thigh and groin. Be sure not to force the hip too high, that may put strain on the knee.
From here, bring the left hip back to neutral, then swing it toward the inner right thigh. Ideally you’ll feel a stretch on the outer right hip. To intensify that stretch, bring your left leg slightly behind the right. Recreate that feeling of squeezing the block, firming the outer thighs inward to help keep the base of the big toe firmly to the floor. Then repeat both exercises in turn 3-4 times, inhaling to open the pelvis, exhaling to bring the raised hip to the inner standing thigh. When you’ve done both sides for about equal time, return to uttanasana. Again if you need a quick rest for the forward bend, raise your torso up and maybe take a walk around the room.
FULL POSE
Now the full pose. From uttanasana, return the left leg to the raised, neutral position. If you feel sufficient stretch in the back of the standing leg with the raised leg parallel to the floor, then stay right there and be happy. But if you feel you can go farther without strain or struggle, then hold the right ankle with your left hand and VERY GENTLY draw your torso into a deeper fold. Remember not to pull your torso down; rather, release the torso from the depth of the inner right groin. Imagine your torso hanging from the height of the groin, and as your torso descends, raise the left leg a little above parallel.
As you take the leg higher, do what you can to keep the pelvis more or less parallel to the floor. To assist with that, maintain the depth of the inner right groin and release the outer right hip. Stay for 30 seconds to a minute, then slowly bring the left foot to the floor, and repeat with the left leg standing for approximately the same length of time.
SOMETHING TO TRY
This little trick may help you raise the raised leg a bit higher. From the neutral position, bend the raised knee and bring the heel close to the same side buttock. When there, lift the thigh just slightly higher, and doing what you can to maintain that little lift, straighten the raised knee. Did it work? Is the leg now slightly higher? Exercising the usual cautions, repeat as many times as possible. But as the Eagles sing, take it to the limit, but don’t force beyond what’s reasonable.
