August asana breakdown: Aka Ardha Uttanasana

Welcome to our monthly asana breakdown. This month it’s Aka Ardha Uttanasana, also known as half lift.

We all practice this a million times, but I often see it done in a way that doesn't feel very good for your spine. So here I am to show you a couple of things.

When you're doing your half lift, there are multiple options, right? Your hands can be on the ground. However, you want your spine straight. It’s essential to decompress your scapula and AD duct, which means you pull the scapula back and down.

Taught and demonstrated by Sweaty Buddha Teacher: Leah Bersak

If you find that you hunch the spine, what do you do instead? You bend your knees then you can pull the scapula back and squeeze the scapula together. So there's your half lift. If you want to take it up another notch, your fingertips can be on your shins or your knees. Drag your heart forward, squeeze the scapula bones back and down withdrawing the shoulders away from your ears. Take it up another notch fingertips to your thighs. Now pull your ribcage towards the ceiling the heart is lifted, with your eyes gazing out in front of you.

In addition, the folded forward folds, ask you to bend your knees enough so that you can drape your spine over your knees. Bend in your knees gives you the ability to drop into your fold. And then you can go back to your half lift and dive into multiple options. Just working on allowing that spine to be straight rather than compressing and dropping your shoulders is great work.

If you have more questions I love talking about this stuff. Let me know in the studio!