Dancer's Pose with your Flexistretcher

DANCER’S POSE - Natarajasana

This pose is great to improve leg strength for balances, leg movements to the back such as the arabesque, spinal extension and mental focus.

Performing this pose with the Flexistretcher can help you extend your reach and allow you to concentrate on form, control and full muscle activation.

Here are some key points to focus on:

• Focus on scapular mobility in this pose. Watch out for over mobilizing the shoulder joint when getting the arms into the position. For a general rule of thumb do not let the arms go behind your head.
• Engage the abdominals to encourage a full spinal extension and really focus on mobility in the extension of the thoracic spine.  Watch out for sinking into hyper mobility in the lower spine.
• Keep the standing leg parallel and activated. Watch out for locking back in the standing knee.  Rather than locking into a passive position with your weight in the heel, fully activate the muscles of the standing leg to support and protect the knee with your weight evenly distributed. Pull up on the thigh while co contracting the hamstring.
• As you press the back foot into the strap, you can start to lean forward. This is where it is key to keep dropping the tailbone down to release the low back. Make sure hips are square to the floor.
• Keep elbows pointed up towards the sky by pressing hands into the strap. To deepen the pose walk your hands down the strap drawing the foot closer to your head.