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Heels down

Yoga Heart ChakraHeels up

Press the palms of your hands and your heels downward.
Bring up the squeeze and press your pubic bone upward, allowing the pressing to lift your hips off the ground.
Press out through the tips of your toes.

 


Now exhaling, push your top thighs back and stretch your heels down toward the floor. Straighten your knees with out locking them. Firm the outer thighs and roll the upper thighs inward slightly.

Then against this resistance, push the top thighs back and the heels down and straighten the knees again.

Do the pose as described at the top under "Technique." Place a rolled mat under the balls of both feet bring your toes up with heels down. This makes the hamstrings and calves feel a more of a stretch.
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  Before taking your heels downward toward the floor, first take them back toward the wall behind you and maintain that action throughout the pose.

While practicing standing poses, carefully press the big toe mounds and inner heels down into the floor, and powerfully recoil the arches up into the inner ankles.

This can be an intense stretch, so be sensitive; don't overdo it. Turning the buttocks upward and pressing the heels downward (another two-way stretch) will create a strong pull on the hamstring muscles.

Eventually practice squatting with the feet together and the heels down. In all cases, practice squatting with proper yogic alignment. Keep the center of the heart area open and floating and the sitting bones dropping as if they were heavy.

See also: Asana, Stretch, Body, Yoga, Breath