Muscles

Hello!

Welcome to the world of Hot Yoga!!!

Utkatasana. A great pose for those big muscles in the legs, and secondarily in the arms. So you want to know how to *find* them! :cheese:

For all three parts, activate your arms so that they are strong. Straighten your arms and lock them out. Importantly, as far forward as you try to lengthen them and focus the energy like laser-beams, you are also dropping the shoulders down and back. This shoulder movement also helps in arm activation plus the arms will aid your balance. Keep focus on maintaining the strength into, while in, and then out of each part.

Now for the legs:
In Part 1, unless you can get your thighs down parallel to the floor (and this means your bottom is at the same level as your knees) you will NEVER feel your legs getting the full strengthening benefit. One way of doing this is to get down there, push your knees forward toward the mirror and then bringing the weight back into the HEELS. Even try to lift your toes up off the ground. Your arms are the counterbalance, so keep them long and strong, shoulders back. Lifting the chest up off the knees will also help.

In Part 2, you will find your legs working harder if you keep your heels up as high as you can. The moment they start to drop is the moment you stop dropping your bottom (ie come out of the pose a bit) and work on your heel height again. Allowing your heels to drop while bending your legs only a little does almost nothing. Once you have worked out how to keep your heels up, then it is a matter of finding that point where your thighs start to work. Don’t shy away from it. There is a magic point where you can REALLY feel them strengthening and it may change from class to class. Keep your belly strong and your chest up. Also note that if your legs get down to parallel to the floor it usually means that your heels have dropped. Optimal position tends to be with your thighs a little higher than parallel to the floor.

In Part 3, the key is squeezing the knees together tightly and activating the arms on the way down. MAKE SURE that once down there you keep the squeeze going. The hardest thing is to reactivate those leg muscles if you *settle* into the pose and worse if you sit on your heels. On the way up, not only reverse by squeezing knees together but consciously try to push your toes into the floor to help raise your body.

I hope that starts you on the *Awkward* pose path. I would love to hear how you go.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

PS My husband just read this post and said that perhaps you were looking for the names of the muscles that are used in this pose. I answered the question in terms of how to *find* them in your body – how they feel. If you would like it answered differently, please let me know!