Featured Pose: Standing Leg Stretches

by Baxter and Nina

The Standing Leg Stretch series, one of our five essential office yoga poses, provide the same hip opening and leg stretching benefits that you receive from many of the standing poses, while allowing you to keep a neutral spine. Even though you tend to feel all the stretch in the top leg, you get some benefits for the standing leg at the same time. So these poses are good antidotes for hip and leg tightness due to sitting, walking, or standing all day and for tightness in your lower back. They also take up less space than the standing poses, and you can do them in your office, airport, or anywhere there is a chair or even, if you are flexible enough, a desk, ledge, window sill, or dresser. If you have balance issues, you can do the sequence with your back or side near a wall.

As part of a larger sequence, this series is an excellent way to warm up for your standing poses.

Baxter prescribes these poses for:

•    leg tightness
•    hip or buttock tightness
•    low back pain
•    atheletes trying to improve their performance, including runners and bikers
•    improving balance for conditions such as osteoporosis
•    improving circulation in your legs
•    leg fatigue
•    antidote for a day spent walking or sitting

Instructions:

Variation 1: Leg to the Side (Triangle Version)

If possible, place the chair against the wall or make sure it’s in a stable position (like a bolted to the floor airport chair) or on a sticky mat. Then stand sideways to chair seat, about a foot and half a way (depending on the length of your legs) and a little bit behind it, with your feet pointing straight forward.

Keeping your left leg straight, turn your right foot out 45 degrees. Then bend your right knee and lift your right heel onto the chair seat (or, if you are more flexible, onto the chair back or a higher support). Next, straighten your right leg, keeping your hips parallel with the floor and squared with the wall in front of you, maintaining the natural curve in your lower back. Keep your hands on your hips and just work your legs with your torso in a neutral position. Or, you can inhale your arms out to the side, parallel to the floor, then exhale and tip your hips over to the side, as if you were moving into Triangle pose. A final option is to lift your arms overhead, as if you were in Tree pose. Hold this pose for 1 to 2 minutes (or work your way up to that timing).

Low Version

High Version

To come out, release your arms and bend your top knee a little bit before you bring your top leg back to the floor. Watch your balance during the transition. Repeat the pose on the second side. Then, after coming out, pause for a couple of breaths before moving on to the next pose.

Variation 2: Leg to the Front (Parvottansana version)

If possible, place the chair against the wall or make sure it’s in a stable position (like a bolted to the floor airport chair) or on a sticky mat. Then, stand facing the chair seat, about a foot and half a way (depending on the length of your legs), with your feet pointing straight forward. Keeping your left leg straight, bend your right knee and lift your right heel onto the chair seat (or, if you are flexible, onto the chair back or a higher support).

Then inhale and raise your arms overhead, reaching down through your left leg and up through your arms, and maintaining the natural curve in your lower back. (If you’re more flexible, you can bend forward from the hips and place your hands alongside your feet, coming into a forward bend, though you should avoid this version if you have lower back pain).  Hold the pose for 1 to 2 minutes (or work up to timing).

 To come out, release your arms and bend your top knee a little bit before you bring your top leg back to the floor. Watch your balance during the transition. Repeat the pose on the second side. Then, after coming out, pause for a couple of breaths before moving on to the next pose.

Variation 3: Twisting (Revolved Triangle Version)

If possible, place the chair against the wall or make sure it’s in a stable position (like a bolted to the floor airport chair) or on a sticky mat. Then, stand facing the chair seat, about a foot and half a way (depending on the length of your legs), with your feet pointing straight forward. Keeping your left leg straight, bend your right knee and lift your right heel onto the chair seat (or, if you are flexible, onto the chair back or a higher support).

Now take your left hand to your right outer thigh and your right hand to the back of your right hip. Establishing the strength of your left leg and the stability of your pelvis, on an exhalation, turn your upper belly and chest toward your right leg, maintaining the natural curve of your lower back. Alternating your focus, lengthen your spine on your inhalation and encourage the twist to the right on your exhalation. Hold the pose for 1 to 2 minutes (or work up to that timing).

 When it’s time to come out, first release the twist. Then, release your arms and bend your top knee a little bit before you bring your top leg back to the floor. Watch your balance during the transition. Repeat the pose on the second side. Then, after coming out, pause for a couple of breaths.

Cautions: In general, when doing the Version 1, watch for pain near the pubic bone, which might indicate overstretching of your inner leg muscles (adductors) and while doing Version 2, make sure your lower back is pain free, otherwise, pull back a little. If you have tight hamstrings, keep your top knee a little bit bent while still allowing a small amount of stretch in your raised leg. Be careful not to overdo—pain in your sitting bone is bad sign that you might be overstretching the hamstring tendon. If you have lower back issues, be sure to maintain the natural curve in your lower back while doing these stretches. For those with osteoporosis, you should do Version 3 with moderation, not going  into your full twist. Also be cautious with Version 2, making sure your spine is neutral if you take your pelvis forward.