BHARADVAJA’S TWIST – Yoga Journal
- Start in Dandasana (stick pose); Move your sacrum in and up towards your navel and extend your sternum away from your navel to elongate your front body.
- Feel the pubic bone and tailbone fall evenly to the floor – the bowl of your pelvis stands upright and does not spill forward or backward. Also, note that the two sides of your waist are the same length.
- Imagine a central axis running through your torso from the pelvic floor to the crown of your head.
- Emphasize both the length and the integrity of this axis. The column is straight and does not tilt or curve to one side or the other.
- Maintaining the imprint of this central axis, lean against your right hip and swing your legs to the left, bend your knees, and place your feet outside your left hip.
- Rest your left ankle on your right arch and lower your left sit bone to restore evenness in your side body of dandasana.
- Inhale and elongate along the central axis.
- Exhale and twist your upper body that length to the right. Hold your left sit bone heavy.
- Place your left hand under your right knee with your fingers facing back, and place your right hand on the floor behind your right hip.
- Pull back with the head of your left upper arm so that the hand position does not cause your shoulder to curve forward.
- Take your gaze to the right, but make sure that the twist in your neck is not at the expense of the rotation of your spine and trunk.
- Continue the essential pattern of breath; Use inhale to lengthen and exhale to twist any amount more.
- Hold for 8-10 breaths, then release them back to the middle.
- Repeat on the other side.
