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3 Ways to Prep for Ardha Matsyendrasana

Experience stability in your legs and mobility in your torso in these prep poses for Ardha Matsyendrasana.

LARA WARREN

SEP 11, 2018

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Utthita Marichyasana (Extended Pose Dedicated to the Sage Marichi, variation)

BENEFITS Brings balance and stability to your legs and pliability to your hamstrings; prepares your torso for deeper twists

INSTRUCTION Place a chair against a wall. Put a block or sandbag on the floor, about 1 foot to the right of the chair legs. Stand with the right side of your body close to the wall, and face the chair. Raise your left heel on the block with your toes extending toward the chair and the ball of your foot on the floor. Bend your right leg, and place your right foot on top of the chair back (or seat). Bring your hands to your hips, press down through your feet, and draw your left thigh muscles up from your outer knees to your outer hips, drawing back your outer right thigh—this is how you learn to compact, or stabilize, your hips.

Check that your hips are level and both sides of your waist and trunk are extending upward. Take normal breaths. Appreciate how you can find more extension and freedom through the front of your hip now that your left heel is supported above the ball of your foot. Continue to lengthen through your hips and the sides of your torso. Like a climbing vine that grows upward and winds around a vertical support, extend your spine from the bottom to the top, and turn yourself from left to right. Bring your left hand to your outer right thigh and your right hand to the wall, rotating your torso farther. Spread your elbows out to the sides, move your back-left ribs inward, and rotate until your abdomen and chest are parallel to the wall. Stay in this position for 5–10 seconds, breathing normally. Exhale, release your hands, turn back to center, and lower your right leg. Move to the other side of the chair, and repeat on the other side.

See also 7 Best Yoga Props, According to 7 Top Teachers Around the Country

Zev Starr-Tambor

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About Our ProTeacher and model Lara Warren is a senior certified teacher at the Iyengar Yoga Institute of New York, Kula Yoga Project, and Chelsea Piers Fitness in Brooklyn. She started practicing Iyengar Yoga while living in London in her teens, and she has been going to India regularly to study with the Iyengar family since 2003. For more information on her daily classes, monthly workshops, yearly retreats, and ongoing teacher trainings, go to yogawithlara.com.

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 LARA WARREN