SCISSOR POSE
Modified Parshvottanasana
parshva = side
uttana = intense stretch (NOTE: in Sanskrit, when a “u” begins a word that follows a word that ends in “a,” like this, parshva uttana, the two words are joined and the letters blend to an “o,” like this, parshvottana)
1. Stand on the front left corner of a short end of your mat so the length of your mat is behind you. Swing the right foot to stand to the outside of the left so the legs are crossed, or we could say “scissored.” Exhale and lengthen the torso forward into a standing forward bend. If you can’t easily touch your hands to the floor, rest them each on a block.
2. Look back along the length of your mat at the right edge. Inhale, step your left foot back about a yard to that edge, so that now the right foot is on the left front corner and the left foot on the right edge. Straighten both knees and bring the inner feet parallel to the long edges of the mat.
3. Check the position of your right hip. Typically, if you’re tighter in the hips, the right hip shifts off to the right and up toward the right shoulder, which shortens the right side of the torso. If needed then, hook your right thumb in the hip crease and push in and back, lengthening the right side of the torso. Sometimes when you do this the weight shifts to the outside of the right foot. If needed, as you continue to release the hip, use your left thumb to firmly press on the base of the right big toe–not the toe itself, remember, but on the toe’s mound on the ball of the foot.
4. While pressing the right big toe mound firmly to the floor, think of doing two things: 1) draw imaginatively up along the inner leg from the ankle to the inner right groin, softening that groin more deeply into the pelvis; and 2) from the base of the toe, again draw up in your imagination, this time diagonally across the leg to the outer hip. Imagine the legs are pressing toward the back of the mat as the torso lengthens forward.
5. From the release of the inner groin and outer hip, lift the torso slightly up and forward on an inhale and from deep inside the pelvis, draw the belly out, creating as much space as possible between the pubic bone and navel. Then exhale and lower your torso down again, maintaining the length in the lower belly.
6. You can continue to perform the pose as a forward bend, but if you want to create more a bit more stretch in the outer hip, rotate your torso to the right. Keep the left hand on the floor inside the right foot, and bring the right hand up onto the hip. Let the left hip drop slightly toward the floor, and soften the inner right groin to receive the twist. Make sure you don’t lean to the right, keep your torso more or less perpendicular to your legs. Remember that as with all twists, the rotation is rooted in the groins, not in the lower back and belly. You might spread your right palm against your sacrum and press back through your tail bone to maintain the length of your lower back.
7. Hold for 30 seconds to a minute, release the twist with an exhale, and with an inhale lift the long front torso up by drawing down on the tail bone. Be sure not to finish by stepping forward onto the right foot. Turn the feet parallel to each other and step or hop the feet together. Reverse to the left side for the same length of time.