Downward-Facing Dog to Upward Bow
By Barbara Benagh
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When you can no longer maintain the pose with steady comfort, come down and rest for a minute or so in Child's Pose before returning to Downward Dog and beginning your flow toward Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow Pose).
Twisting the Torso
Once you are back in Downward Dog, stay mindful of a few pointers that are crucial to the coming sequence. First, keep pushing your hips firmly away from your shoulders. Second, keep your shoulders extended and aligned as you have practiced. Third, don't forget to breathe. And fourth, remember this is a dance: Have fun!
In Downward Dog, turn your left hand farther to the left and strongly root it into the floor. Though turning your hand is not absolutely necessary, it will help you achieve the shoulder rotation you'll eventually need to move into Urdhva Dhanurasana. Next, raise your right leg, bending the knee and swinging it up and behind you so your right hip lifts and turns your abdomen with it, beginning the spin of the belly and spine that will eventually take you to Urdhva Dhanurasana. But let's not focus on the backbend just yet. First, enjoy this fabulous spinal twist.
Relax your leg and let it hang, allowing its passive weight to tug on your right hip and roll your abdomen farther to the right. Focus more on letting go than on trying, adopting a go-with-the-flow attitude that invites a sense of curiosity as you move off the beaten path. Keep extending back through your hips as you use your breath to soften the muscles along your spine and make its movement more fluid. As before, explore gently moving the spine to help release holding patterns. Try to feel which part of your back is tightest and give it extra attention, "sweet-talking" it with your breath.
When you have rotated the spine as deeply as possible, lift onto your right fingertips to create even more room for the hips and chest to turn. You can also deepen the twist by bending your left knee and lifting up on tiptoe with the left foot. With these actions, you can bend more deeply at the hip and probably coax a bit more movement in the spine until, finally, your whole torso revolves, your right foot hovers just off the floor, your heart faces up, and you can look under your arm.
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