Get ready to work your entire body. This challenging balance posture develops strength and mobility in your lower body, core, and shoulders. You will hold it for much less time than other yoga postures, but that just means you need to give it your all when you do it. If it’s too difficult, master Airplane first.
TARGET AREAS
• core • hamstrings • hips • shoulders • back
BENEFITS
• Strengthens lower body, core, and upper body • Improves hamstring and shoulder mobility • Decreases risk of lower-body, back, and shoulder injury
1 Stand in the middle of your mat and step your left foot back 2 to 3ft (0.5–1m). Rise onto the ball of your left foot and bend your right knee into a shallow lunge. Keep hips and feet facing forward. Lengthen torso and keep chest upright. Raise your arms overhead, press palms together, and interlace fingers with index fingers extended.
2 Inhale as you lengthen your body, then exhale as you press down through the right foot and lift left leg. Hinge at the hips until your torso is parallel to the floor, and straighten your left leg until you feel a stretch through left hamstrings. (You don’t have to lock your leg.) Firmly engage glutes and core to keep torso and left leg in a straight line. Make body as long as possible by pressing fingertips and toes away from each other. Hold the posture, inhaling as you lengthen the spine, and exhaling as you tighten your core. Repeat on the other side.
YOU SHOULD FEEL
• Stretch in lower hamstrings and both shoulders
• Total engagement of both legs
• Engagement of glutes, core, shoulders, and upper back
YOU SHOULDN’T FEEL
• Strained or arched lower back; if so, firmly engage core
NOT THERE YET?
