Above the Surface: The 3 Must-Do’s

1.) Keep your hips square as you fold over the leg.  Do not let your left hip start to rotate up.

2.) Focus more on bringing your chin over your leg rather than your face.  This will facilitate an upward lifting action of the shoulders.

3.) Shorten your stance.  Your stance should be approximately 2/3 the distance of your Warrior 1 stance.

Under the Surface

Pyramid Pose or Parsvottanasana is a great pose for stretching your hamstrings.  However, you must be careful to not overstretch in this pose and you must be aware of your lower back at all times.

Front Foot

Ground equally through all four corners of your front foot and make sure the inner arch of your foot does not flatten.  Doing this will protect your knee.

Another thing to watch out for in this pose is your ankle.  Because you will be lowing your torso over your front leg, the joints will be baring extra weight.  Make sure you are actively trying to lift your ankle bone up.

Back Foot

Your stance should be about 2/3 the distance of your Warrior 1 stance and your front heel should be lined up to your back heel. Heel-to-heel alignment.

Your back foot should be turned in 30-45 degrees.

Front Leg

Your front leg should be completely straight, but the knee should not be locked.  The muscles in the leg should be engaged to protect your knee and your other joints.

Undoubtably, you will feel the stretch in this pose primarily in your front hamstring.  That’s a good thing.  However, make sure you feel the pose stretching in the right place.  Ideally, you should feel the stretch happening in the belly of your hamstring, right in the center.  If you feel the stretch too high up, you could be tugging unproductively on your hamstring attachment.  If you feel the stretch too low, you could be pulling on your knee ligaments, which you definitely don’t want.

If you can, lift your quadriceps up toward your hip socket.

Back Leg

Getting the engagement right in back leg makes all the difference in how stable you’ll be in this pose.

Think the back leg in Warrior 1.  Try and find the feeling of having your inner thigh rotate forward and slightly down. As I stated above, you want your hips to stay as square as possible and engaging your back leg in this way helps greatly.

Hips

The primary thing you are focusing on in this pose is simply keeping the hips square.  Secondarily, you may find that your right hip wants to poke out a little bit.  If that’s the case, hug it back in toward the center of your mat and push your right big toe into the ground a little bit more. That should solve the problem.

Torso

As much as is possible you are folding your torso over your font leg.

Important. Important. Important.

Too often, I see students making the priority of the pose simply trying to fold their torsos completely flat over their legs, even though their bodies are clearly not ready.  Don’t fall into this trap.

It’s easy to get caught up in the visual side of the pose but often times focusing on that will lead to an injury.  In this case, the hamstring attachment and your lower back.

The primary goal of this pose is to simply stretch your front hamstring.  If you comfortably feel a stretch in your front hamstring, you are doing great, even if you only had to move your torso an inch to make that stretch happen.  Be patient and give your hamstrings a chance to adapt.

Shoulders & Arms

There are a couple of arm variations that you can play with in this pose.

1.) You can put your arms in reverse prayer behind your back.  This is a good one for opening up the shoulders. If the reverse prayer is too much for you, alternatively, you can make fists behind the back or grab for opposite elbows.

2.) You can simply let your arms hang to the ground.  If you are doing this try and get the hands somewhere in line with your front foot.  This version will help you create more extension in your back.

3.) You can interlace your hands behind your back and lift the arms overhead.  Another way to stretch your shoulders.

Neck & Head

Even if you have no problem folding your torso over your front leg, keep one thing in mind.  Think more about folding your chin over your leg rather than your face.  The lower and lower you get, the higher and higher the probability you have of rounding in your back.  If you focusing on lowering the chin you create an upward lifting action in your shoulders that will keep the entire spine straighter and flatter.

Master the Feel: Homework Questions

1.) How does widening the stance effect the pose and your body’s ability to fold?

2.) How does shortening the stance effect the pose and your body’s ability to fold?