Half Chair Pose
Half Chair Pose
Do you ever find it hard to determine how stressed/grounded you may be? I suffer from this sometimes.
Grounding and Standing Balancing postures are wonderful check-ins for ourselves. If your mind is scattered at that moment, these postures will be difficult to hold.
This family of postures invite us to slow down, feel our feet on the ground, direct the attention of our gaze (drishti) and come into the moment!
That’s why I love them.
Tree Pose (Vrksasana) is usually the first Balancing posture students learn in classical yoga.
Once you feel comfortable in Tree pose, you can try Half Chair.
As in all standing balance postures, utilize your *drishti.
*Softly focus your gaze on a downward slope.
**For added challenge, gaze upwards.
***For the overachievers, try closing your eyes.
Half Chair Pose (Ardha Utkatasana)
Half Chair Pose (Ardha Utkatasana)ALIGNMENT
From Mountain Pose Tadasana, align your drishti.
Shift weight onto one foot. Lift the inner arch, drawing the inseam of the leg upwards.
Float the other foot off the ground. If you feel unstable, stay here and practice Steps 1 -3.
Set the ankle on the top of the knee and flex the foot, placement similar to Reclined Pigeon.
Lift the arms but soften the shoulder blades down.
Sit down into a Chair.
WORK IN THE POSE
Sit by reaching the tail back
Keep the standing leg’s knee over the ankle
Keep working the chest towards vertical (versus folding over the leg)
Bring the inner biceps in line with ears
BENEFITS
Strengthens legs, ankles, feet and shoulder girdle
Improves balance and focus
CONTRAINDICATIONS
Knee or ACL/MCL surgeries
Low blood pressure
(Visited 121 times, 1 visits today)
Catherine Tingey
Entrepreneur, yogini, designer, award-winning filmmaker, personal trainer and former marathon runner. She left a career in finance to start her own business and along the way, became a yoga teacher. She has been practicing yoga for 31 years and teaching privately for 11 years.
About the Author
Catherine Tingey+ Entrepreneur, yogini, designer, award-winning filmmaker, personal trainer and former marathon runner. She left a career in finance to start her own business and along the way, became a yoga teacher. She has been practicing yoga for 31 years and teaching privately for 11 years.
Related Posts
Standing Splits →
Drishti, The Yoga Gaze →
STANDING HAND TO TOE POSE (Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana) →
![I'm feeling so much gratitude today. I deliberately took time off around Thanksgiving--did not even send out a Thanksgiving newsletter. I wanted to give myself time to feel into my new location...it's an ongoing exploration!I am so grateful for yoga to have given me a strong and flexible body. This picture is recent, 50 year old body. [Yoga has also given me injuries, so be forewarned.] This is one of the primary reasons I am a conservative and watchful teacher; I hope to spare my clients overuse injuries and improper alignment injuries. When you know better, you can teach and do better.I just published this #asana on my website.📸@guibittencourtphoto#standingsplits #privateyogateacher #privateyoga #thecoachcat #practiceandalliscoming #yogaeveryday](https://cdn.catherinetingey.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)
