Yoga Poses / Pictures

Side Angle Stretch (Parsvakonasana I) - [Pars-va-cone-ahs-anna]
Parsva = side or flank
Kona = angle

Because the full posture demands strength and flexibility, look at the variations before performing this pose to find helpful modifications.

1. Stand in Tadasana and walk your feet apart approximately 4 ft or to your comfort level. Turn your left foot out 90 degrees and your right foot in toward the left about 10-20 degrees.
   
   
2. Inhale and raise your arms out to the sides at shoulder height, looking straight ahead. Exhale and bend your left knee, so that the thigh is parallel to the floor (as in Warrior II).
   
   
3. On your next exhalation, simultaneously raise the right arm into the air while dropping your left hand or fingertips onto the floor behind your left foot. Continue to stretch the right arm over your ear to come into the final position. Look straight ahead.
   
   
4. Keep your body still, yet allow yourself to make any slight modifications to settle into a comfortable stance. Stretch the entire length of the body through the fingertips, keeping your hip inline with your shoulder. Remember to breath deeply and use the full capacity of your lungs.
   
   
5. To emerge from the posture, inhale while lifting the entire torso away from your thigh, left hand lifts off of the floor and the right arm pulls away from the head back into the position in #2 (Warrior II). Exhale. Inhale while straightening the left leg, and then exhale the arms down. Turn the feet back toward the front. Rest and breathe. Repeat on the other side. Walk the feet back into Tadasana.

Benefits:

• Relieves sciatica and arthritis pain
  
• Strengthens ankles, legs, hips
  
• Opens ribs to allow full use of the lung capacity
  
• Stimulates digestion and intestinal tract

Cautionary Notes/Modifications:

• For support in this posture, bend the left arm and place the left elbow on the knee. This will allow you to widen your stance and perform the pose a little easier.
  
• Variation, turn your face to look upward once in the final pose
  
• Variation, instead of reaching your arm over your ear, rest it behind the waist looking straight ahead. Work on keeping the shoulder inline with the hip.