Utitta Hasta – Before and After

Claudia Azula Altucher Eddie Stern, Utitta Hasta Padangusthasana

Last week I wrote a post about Utitta Hasta that generated a lot of comments and so I started looking at the pose a little closer.  It is easy to become a bit “lazy” in this asana unless we are being adjusted, and here comes my suspicious as of why this might be one of the “most adjusted” poses out there.

For example: at Eddie’s studio if you did not want an adjustment you had to either “rush” or “hide” otherwise, you were getting it.

I am beginning to see that one of my -yoga- resolutions for next year might have to be to clean up primary series, and this is perhaps a good place to start.  Breathing the full slow five counts has been a challenge for this year, but now lifting the leg straight, focusing on getting the standing leg solid, straight and as strong as possible while maintaining balance and engaging bandhas/breathing are what comes next.

I did an “AFTER” video in the blue leotard, and although not perfect (and when is it really?), it does show some improvement.  Added the Before too, for comparison purposes.

After

Before

5 thoughts on “Utitta Hasta – Before and After”

  1. Great work, Claudia! I just returned from Kino's workshop. It was great! I'll write more about the workshop later, but Kino did offer some useful tips for UHP, which I'll mention real quick here:

    (1) Ground solidly through the four corners of the standing foot (in particular, through the heel, the base of the big toe and the base of the pinkie toe).

    (2) Engage mula bandha and uddiyana bandha throughout. This is probably the most important point, as it gives you stability, especially when you are transiting from UHP A to UHP B.

    (3) Keep the greater trochanter dropped back and down throughout. The greater trochanter is that bony head at the top of the thigh bone, where it inserts into the hip joint. Keeping the trochanter back and down facilitates openness in the hip. I noticed from your video that your trochanter tends to raise up a bit when you transit into UHP B from UHP A (it happens to me too…). Keep it back and down.

    Hope this is helpful. More on the workshop later.

    Best,
    Nobel

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  2. Hi Nobel, welcome back! so glad to hear you had a good time at the workshop. These are great pointers, I am very happy that you posted them here, thank you!

    Hope you are adjusting to post-workshop life well!

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