Mandukasana; Uttan Mandukasana

Hi I'm here with my good friends Ilana and Betsy and we are going to demonstrate a pair of poses called the frog mandukasana and the raised frog utana mandukasana. So I'm going to ask Betsy to sit with her back to you and Ilana to sit facing front and this pose is a is a wide knee pose. What you want to do as you can see here is sort of wiggle your buttocks down onto the inner arches of the feet so that the inner feet serve something like a saddle and you can separate your knees quite far. I've seen pictures of other practitioners doing this. Their knees are quite wide apart so anywhere from maybe 90 degrees and out is fine and for this pose what I like to do to start is take my thumbs into my groins right where the thighs join the pelvis and push down as hard as I can against the heads of the femur bones. I want those I want the heads of the femurs to ground very deeply into the pelvis and whenever you do that what what you'll find I believe is that there's a immediate reaction in the front of the spine or the front of the torso depending and you feel a lift through the top of the sternum bone. So the thighs the thigh bones ground and the top of the sternum bone lifts and then you can rest your hands on your lap or on your thighs or on your knees as you prefer and stay for a few minutes if you like opening the groins grounding the femur bones and lifting the sternum bone. It's a very nice way to sit at the beginning of a practice but from here I like to go on to what's called the raised frog Utana Mandu kasna. So what I'll ask them to do is to raise their right arm toward the ceiling with an inhalation and then I'm gonna ask them to turn the palm back. Now not from the wrist or from the elbow or even from the shoulder joint when you turn your hand back I want you to feel that right from the scapula so the right shoulder blades should reach away from this from the spine and then I'll ask them to bend their elbow and bring the hand on to the upper back and then reach across with your left hand to grab on to the right elbow. Now there's three things you want to do at this point. Number one you want to draw the arm in to the side of the head and as you do that you can use the hand on the upper back to push down a little bit on the shoulder blades toward the floor. Number two I want them to lift the elbow up toward the ceiling and as you do that remember to keep that side that thigh bone on the right side pressing down to use as an anchor. And then number three I want them to pull the arm back a little bit but this is a little bit tricky. You have to be careful that you don't push the ribs forward and push the tailbone up. So Alana needs to bring the ribs in and down slightly and pull back but not push the ribs forward and Betsy has to do the same thing put the tailbone a little bit closer forward put the ribs in. When you do when you pull the arm back if you just put if you push the ribs forward you're really not doing anything with the arm you're just shortening the lower back. And if you like you can lean a little bit to the left to increase the stretch along the right side of the torso. And again if you care to you can imaginatively breathe into that side and use the inhalations to create more space. Very nice and then exhale and release. Come back to center if you lean to the side release the hands take a few breaths. Beautifully done now take the left arm up inhale and again when you turn turn from deep inside the upper back the idea being that no turn the palm back yes the idea being that the arm is not so much rooted in the shoulder joint it is physically but energetically you want to imagine the arm is rooted in the spine and then bend the elbow exhale bring the hand down. And again reach across inhale bring the arm up and then reach across and take the elbow. Three things number one draw it in but where I'm sitting you can see how Betsy just let the upper shoulder release which is really very intelligent thing to do. The second thing is to pull the arm up and as you do that remember that the anchor is in the head of the thigh bone right there. So that thigh bone is dropping down as you're reaching up through the elbow. And then finally the third thing again is to pull the arm back. Now again both of my friends here are pushing their ribs forward to accomplish that movement. So I wonder if you could take the ribs in and send the tailbone back down toward the floor. Yes much better. It's a little bit tricky when you bring the arm back because if you pull back just from the elbow what happens is the head of the humerus bone gets pushed forward into the armpit. What you really want to feel when you bring the arm back is that the head of the humerus bone is leading the movement. So the armpit stays very soft and very deep. Nicely done. Good and then inhale, exhale, release, bring the hands down. And now the full pose Utana Mandukasana raise both arms toward the ceiling. Inhale and then turn the palms back from the scapulas. That's right. Good and bend the elbows bring the hands down. Yes now it's interesting they've crossed the wrists and that's one way of doing it. I've seen several ways. Number one is to bring the the wrist across as they're doing so the hands come on to the contralateral shoulder blade or you can bring the hands on to the same side shoulder blade. Push down with your hands lift up with your elbows or finally instead of bringing the hands on to the upper back I just saw a picture the other day of this pose where the practitioner had the elbows of the forearms crossed above the top of the head. Would you try that Betsy? Like that. So there's different ways you can play with this exercise to get different effects and you might want to try each one to see which one suits you the best or just use all three whenever you whichever time you feel like. Good and before we end I'd like those ribs to come back into the torso again and the tailbone to descend especially you. There you go very nice and this is a Mandukasana the frog pose and Uttana Mandukasana the raised frog. Thank you very much you can release your arms with an exhalation. Bring your hands back down onto your legs very good and thank you very much.