Day 28: Bikram Yoga Challenge - Standing Head to Knee Tip

Me in Standing Head to Knee in 2008, notice my head is NOT on my knee! (still working on it.)

Today in Standing Head to Knee I tried a new technique I learned yesterday in Advanced class and really felt a difference is my ability to balance and get my head to my knee. Standing Head to Knee is where you stand on one leg, grab the foot of the other leg and lift the leg straight in front of you so both legs are perpendicular to each other, with both knees locked.The dialog of the pose tells you to bend the elbows down to the calf muscle and eventually the elbows will go below the calf muscle. Next you are to tuck your chin and touch your forehead on the knee.

Tucking my chin in and touching my forehead on my knee always makes my elbows come up so they are no longer below my calf muscle. But today I used more of my back and shoulder muscles to round, like in Rabbit Pose, or put another way expanded my upper back as if I was hunching over. This seemed to give me more room to tuck my chin and get my forehead to my knee and also gave me more space to drop my elbows down.

I still need to work on it, I feel out of both sets, but I could get my forehead closer and I could tell a significant difference in my stabilization in the posture. It also helps to push the hip of the raised leg, pushing the knee even further out, giving more room to touch the forehead to the knee.

Standing Head to Knee is one of those postures I think I could work on my whole life and not completely master. There are so many tiny nuances and things to correct, I love working on it and trying to always make minor corrections or changes and watch what my body does. Some day I hope to be able to keep my kicking leg parallel to the floor, without my hands clasped against the foot! Now THAT would be AMAZING! I have the rest of my life to work on it.... namaste.