Confessions of a Standing Postures Nerd
And yoga alignment confusions!
Confession time. I’m a standing postures nerd! How about you?
I thought pārśvakoṇāsana was my favourite but maybe it’s this one, pārśvottānāsana?
Well for sure, the longer you practice, the more you appreciate standing postures.
This arching of the back as an entry used to be popular, but became a no-no in Mysore. I still like to do it sometimes, particularly when I’m really working into the back of the legs, so this works as great prep for a straight-backed forward bend.
But shouldn’t our backs always be straight in a forward bend? Well, like everything in yoga-asana, it depends!
It can be really beneficial to try this posture, by curling into the lower back, coming into spinal flexion. You’ll find there is a lot of inner bandha work that takes place for this option, so I would consider it to be a more advanced variation – remember you are not rounding the back because you can’t straighten it. Both options need to be accessible.
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