Day 7: Standing Head to Knee

Dandayamana-Janushirasana, Standing Head to Knee

This posture will test all of your yoga skills - concentration, determination, patience, faith, balance, strength, and flexibility. The most important thing to remember is DON’T GIVE UP! As a beginner, it can be challenging to simply grab your foot, so you start there. Once you have your foot in your hands then you practice “locking your knee”. Remember, we never mean hyper-extension when we say lock the knee. Lock the knee simply means that your leg is completely straight, your kneecap is lifted (thigh muscle contracted) and your body weight is equally distributed all over your foot. Once your leg is truly locked, you will begin to unlock all sorts of new depths of your yoga practice. Start where you are, work the posture step-by-step, and you get 100% benefti!

Benefits of Standing Head to Knee include:

• Raises heart rate to improve cardiovascular fitness.

• Tones legs muscles, especially inner thighs and quadriceps.

• Stretches hamstrings, shoulders lower back.

• Improves abdominal strength.

• Interlocked finger grip strengthens fingers and hands.

• Locking the knee strengthens the muscles which support the knee joint.

• Teaches self discipline, determination, concentration, patience and faith.