Utthita Parsvakonasana - Extended Side Angle Pose

Week 4 of our 2012 Yoga Challenge is brought to you by Kathy...

oo-TEE-tah parsh-vah-cone-AHS-anna)


utthita = extended 
parsva = side, flank 
kona = angle

The Extended Side Angle Pose is the first pose in which I truly understood how important corrections are to your yoga stance.  I was attending a yoga retreat on Whidbey Island, and Jennifer Isaacson, my fabulous yoga instructor, was leading us in a vinyasa class.  “Think of your body as fitting between two trucks passing close.”  Achieving flat planes is the idea with this pose.  A lightbulb moment for me.  “Ah, rotate the shoulders and hips to create the least space,” I thought to myself.  Arms extended overhead, in line with the legs and torso, to narrowly slide between a small space.  I was starting to understand the alignment with this pose.

Whenever I move into Utthita Parsvakonasana I imagine my body seamlessly sliding between two trucks, and I’m transported back to the gently warmed studio on Whidbey, with the rain silently striking the windows and the trees waving in the wind, with all eighteen or so bodies in the studio performing our orchestrated dance towards enlightenment.

To get into Extended Side Angle from Warrior Two with your right foot forward, pivot at the waist and lean out with your right arm either resting on your knee or with full extension resting on the ground to the outside edge of your right bent knee.  Your left arm raises straight up, allowing your left shoulder to stack directly over your right shoulder.  Bring your gaze up towards the ceiling.  Your right knee remains bent at a 90 degree angle throughout the pose.  Tuck your pelvic in so your left hip opens

An arm variation is to reach your arm forward, creating one single line from left toe to reaching left fingers.

Another variation is to reach your left arm behind your back to join with your right arm in a bind beneath your leg.  Open your chest towards the ceiling

This pose stretches and strengthens the legs, groins, hamstrings and opens the chest and shoulders.