Extended Side Angle Pose

Amy and I are back to take a look at side angle. Before I bring you into the pose, I just want to say that the foundation of this posture is very similar to Warrior II, Triangle and Reverse Warrior. So as we look at the details of those alignments, we want to keep that in mind, same basic principles. Okay? So would you start in Warrior II?

Great. Good. Let's look at the legs and the hips. Amy's going to keep all of that as she eases forward and down into side angle, forearm to thigh or hand to earth. It's up to you.

So either variation, same principles of alignment adjustment. All right. The back heel is grounded. The outer edge of the back foot is pressing down. If it's not, you can take your hand and gently guide it there.

And the other hand to her inner thigh, gently drawing up and back as we've done in the others. Okay? And then we take a look at the front foot, front knee. Again, Amy has them beautifully pointed straight ahead. If we saw the knee caving in, we could gently take a hand to the inner knee and her thigh and encourage it to open while verbally cueing.

Open your knee in line with the toes. Great. All right. And then let's take a look at the hips tailbone. Tailbone is descending down towards the heel.

Belly is drawing in and up. She's nice and long through the spine with the shoulders down the back. So just for a moment, Amy, you can come up and rest for a breath or two. All right. So we have a fundamental alignment of the pose.

And now we're going to move into a couple hands-on adjustments. All right. Nice and strong through the foundation. I'm drawing my left leg behind Amy's right hip, just a little stability. I might not make contact, but it's there if necessary.

Left hand to her upper rib cage, my right hand to her lower rib cage. And then I roll back with my left hand. I guide forward with my right hand. And you can see Amy's torso rolling open and her heart expanding. All right.

Another key element of side angle is this upper arm. So, Amy, I'm going to draw you way out of alignment, just splay it back. Yeah? Okay. This is exaggerated, but we see variations of this.

In side angle, we want an internal rotation with the arm going up and over the head. So in order to do that, I'm taking my left thumb into her upper shoulder and my right hand to her forearm. And then I'm rolling the shoulder open with my left hand. And that internal rotation with my right hand. Right?

Shoulder blade down the back, energy out through the fingertips. Beautiful. All right. As you're ready, just gently ease down and step out of it. Nice.

All right. And take your time rolling up. Mm-hmm. So there's a lot to explore there. Thank you so much.

Give it a try. See how it feels in your own body. And enjoy.