- Hey, everyone, and 
welcome to Yoga With Adriene.

I'm Adriene, and 
today we're gonna continue

our Foundations of Yoga series

with Uttanasana, also 
known as the Forward Fold.

Very soothing, 
grounding, awesome pose,

so hop on the mat and 
let's swan dive right in.

(upbeat music)

For Uttanasana, 
the Forward Fold,

we're going to 
start in our Mountain Pose

which we did a 
video for last week,

so you can refer to that video

to get the 
foundations of Mountain Pose.

So I'll quickly just go through my

checklists, if you will,

here as I lift and lengthen

up through the 
crown of the head,

spread my weight evenly

between all four 
corners of the feet.

Lifting the 
toes helps with that.

Tucking my pelvis in 
to meet my pelvic bone,

and then finding that 
natural lift in the heart

as my shoulder blades squeeze

in and together and down.

Chin parallel to the earth.

For beginner's Forward Fold,

I would recommend 
taking your paws to your waist

and maybe even hooking your
thumbs behind your waistline.

In fact, I'll 
turn to the side here

just so we can demonstrate
this a little more clearly.

I'm tucking my pelvis in,
drawing my navel in,

stacking the spine,

and coming to this,
like, Superhero Pose.

In kids' yoga we call this,
like, Wonder Woman or Superman.

Shoulder blades 
squeezing together,

I'm gonna inhale, extend
through the crown of the head.

Now, as I dive 
into my Forward Fold,

I'm gonna keep 
pressing into my heels.

I'm gonna keep 
drawing this energy up

through the arches of my 
feet just like I establish

in Mountain Pose so I 
have an active body lifting.

So I'm grounded 
through my heels,

but I'm lifting and 
lengthening up towards the sky.

Just energetically,

subtle body 
lifting, lengthening.

Okay, here we go.

I inhale, lifting 
through the crown of the head.

As I exhale, I'm gonna slowly,

keeping this 
nice lift in my heart

and a nice, straight spine,
I'm gonna move forward.

The tops of my 
thighs are drawing up,

kneecaps drawing up,

navel drawing in.

I begin to shine my sit bones
towards the wall behind me,

and I'm squeezing my 
shoulder blades together,

moving nice and slow 
so I can really be honest

about what this journey is like.

It's a tough thing sometimes
in yoga to really witness

what the body is 
actually experiencing

and what your body might
actually be experiencing

right now is a 
screaming in the hammies.

That's okay.

The hammies need some love.

They need more 
love than we give them.

So we'll soften 
through the knees.

In fact, bend your knees as
generously as you need to,

and, in time, 
we'll get to a point

where we can 
straighten the legs.

So I'm here about halfway,

extending through 
the crown of the head,

bending my knees if I need to,

bending them as 
generously as I need to,

and I'll begin to melt down,

belly to the tops of the thighs.

And then once the weight 
of my head releases down,

I'll draw my 
fingertips either to the mat,

to the earth, 
palms to the shins,

or maybe even I grab my elbows

and rock them a 
little side to side.

If this is a little bit of a
balancing challenge for you,

I recommend taking the feet

and stepping 
them hip width apart,

just like we talked 
about in the Tadasana video.

So here I am in my Forward Fold,

bending my knees if I need to,

really shining my sit 
bones up towards the sky so,

if I had a tail,

it'd be shooting straight up
towards the heavens right now.

I'll grab my elbows,

rock a little side to 
side if that feels good.

Uttanasana is about letting the
weight of the body hang over

and then being with the breath.

So we have other 
versions of this pose

that are a little more active,

that really draw the nose to
the knees and all this stuff.

Here we're just going 
to practice as beginners,

or even as non-beginners,

just creating a 
little space in the hammies,

and then using the breath.

I cannot stress this 
enough how important it is

to take nice, solid, 
sweet, deep breaths here

because that's where I'm gonna
really create some movement,

some space, this liquid spine

as we like to sometimes call it.

And that's where it 
becomes fun to play with, too,

where, instead of just 
holding in a painful posture,

we're moving and kind of 
grooving with the breath.

This is kind of an 
awkward place to be talking.

So I'm gonna stop 
talking for a second

and come into the pose 
so that I can really release

the weight of my 
head completely and fully.

Drawing my navel 
up towards my spine,

I hang forward, Uttanasana.

Bending the knees as 
generously as we need to,

and sometimes pulsing 
here bending the knees.

Straightening is good.

Creating a little bit of space.

Again, shaking the head yes, no,

and using that 
breath to find a little bit

of lengthening as you inhale,

and then releasing 
on the exhale, Fold.

Perhaps a little 
more length as I inhale,

then Folding on the exhale.

To come up, I'm gonna 
bring my hands to my waistline,

hooking the thumbs behind,

and same thing,
I'm gonna press into my heels,

draw my 
shoulder blades together,

elbows behind me 
as I lift and lengthen

up through the 
crown of the head.

Heart lifts.

I use my thumbs 
actively here to remind me

to tuck my pelvis in,

and nice and slow,

sending breath all the way
through the backs of the legs.

I begin to scoop my tailbone in,

find that lift in the heart.

I have this 
awesome tingly sensation

going all the way 
down to my toes right now.

Feel good.

And I come back to 
Mountain Pose, Tadasana.

I can take couple 
breaths here and dive back in.

I do want to say one thing.

I don't know if I 
have time to say this,

but I'm gonna try to 
sneak it in really fast.

Often when I'm in Forward Fold,

I think about 
the backs of the legs

as two pieces 
of saltwater taffy.

And I know that sounds 
kind of cheesy, but it works.

It works for me for some reason.

If you were to imagine these
muscles from your sit bones

all the way to your 
heels being like two pieces

of saltwater taffy, if we
were gonna share that taffy,

you wouldn't be 
able to just grab one end

and me grab the 
other and us walk away

and break.

That would be very painful.

But rather we have to 
think of these muscles

like that piece of candy,
that saltwater taffy.

We're going to, 
in order to share it,

we're gonna have to 
create a little bit of space.

We're gonna have to move it

a little bit, breathe with it,

laugh a little bit, you know,
take our time creating space,

melding that taffy 
so that eventually,

we break off with that treat
and we feel good and walk away.

Maybe that's a 
little far out there,

but you know what I'm saying is

you can't just dive 
into the Forward Fold

and expect the magic to happen.

You have to be with the breath.

You have to look at 
what's really going on

in the backs of the legs,

and then, of course, 
Find What Feels Good.

Okay, so that was 
Uttanasana, a Forward Fold.

I hope you enjoy 
trying the posture.

If you have any 
questions or comments,

please, please leave 
them in the comment box below.

I'd love to hear from you.

Also make sure you 
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so you don't miss anything,

and we'll see you next time.

Thanks so much.

Namaste.

(upbeat music)