Padangusthasana (Big Toe Pose)

Padangusthasana. So, Alana's going to fold forward whenever you're ready. Yeah. And then she's going to take her first two fingers between big toe, second toe, and her thumb on the inside of the big toe, and then just gently pull herself into the pose. And let's do this. Inhale, lengthen halfway up, and then exhale, just ease deeper into the posture. All right. We'll talk about the essentials of the alignment, and then I'll show you one simple adjustment. We want the legs strong and engaged. This is very clearly a hamstring stretch. So when the quad muscles are engaged, they support the opening and the lengthening of the hamstring muscles, right? If you see knees dropping, thighs collapsing, you can say engage the quad muscles, lift the kneecaps. If it's challenging for the student to reach their toes, it is absolutely okay to take a soft bend in the knees and just work on lengthening the legs over time. Okay? Then we want to take a slight tip of the weight forward into the front of the feet, which is going to accentuate the stretch through the backs of the legs, and then a release of the upper back, head, and neck. No strain, no effort in the neck at all. Then let's check out the shoulders. So right now, Alana's just kind of dropping them down. What we're looking for is a lift and drawing back. So gorgeous through the shoulders. Okay? Then now that she's so beautifully aligned, we'll look at a really simple adjustment. I have one foot out to the side of her and one foot back, just bracing my own body. And then I'll take a hand to her sacrum and another hand kind of mid upper back, depending on proportions. This hand on her sacrum is stabilizing her, and then this hand is gently guiding the upper body down and a little bit deeper into the fold. So as this hand is pressing down, it can even move down the back to encourage that action. Okay? And then we just gently release that hand and step out of it. I want to take a note of the hand on her sacrum that my fingers are lifted, not on her butt, that the emphasis is on the sacrum, a nice, safe, clean adjustment. Okay? And then releasing that. Thank you, Anna. Gorgeous. And thank you.