Pandoraspace

Day 5 of cramming for Faeq Biria’s workshop: Prasarita Padottonasana is a pose where you spread your legs four to four and a half feet apart, and while keeping your legs straight and the metatarsals active, you bend until you can place the crown of your head on the ground. I dread this pose as I always feel a burning sensation on the side of my lower legs and would get cramps on my hips.

As my teacher Alya knows that I have extreme difficulty doing this pose, she told me that she would be giving this pose during the class so I could work on it. She also told me to make sure to rotate my upper thighs outwards during the pose.  ”What!?” was my surprised reaction to Alya’s advise as  I would always rotate my legs inwards during this pose.  It immediately dawned on me that I was doing this pose wrong all along.  

In yoga, a simple adjustment of a body part could make all the difference in the way the pose is executed.  This is what I learned today.