Tip of the Week: Standing Bow Pulling Pose

• Be sure to start with the knees touching together to ensure balance.
• Grab the inside of your ankle with the inside of your elbow facing out.
• Bring your opposite arm up so that your shoulder is almost touching your chin.
• Focus on one spot in the mirror, and don't move your eyes off that spot!
• The standing leg is your foundation. Keep the knee locked with a firm contraction of thigh. If you don't feel that you have the balance to go forward yet, stay in this position until you have a firm foundation.
• Use your glute muscle to kick all the way up, as you bring your torso down creating a perfect counterbalance. Always remember that, “kicking and stretching are 50/50, equal, simultaneous.” When you increase the force of your kick you must also increase the energy of the arm stretching toward the mirror to maintain your balance.
• Feel your spine arching backwards as you kick and imagine that you are getting that same "tear drop" arch in your spine as Bow Pose laying on the ground. Even though you are stretching your body forward, you are also pulling your chest upward.
• Keep your weight toward the front of your foot, watch that the weight does not move into the heel as you initiate your kick. 
• Bikram’s dialogue says to touch the shoulder to the chin, not chin to the shoulder. Keep your chin lifted and extend the arm forward to bring the shoulder and chin together, helping to promote the proper alignment of the shoulders.
• Keep your hips square and parallel to the mirror, the same as if you were doing the splits on the floor. Often when people start the kick, their hips get out of alignment which causes them to tip sideways and fall.
• Don't let your kicking knee swing out to the side. The more you squeeze inner thighs together the more you can prevent this from happening.
• Make sure you are breathing. When you inhale, try to lengthen the body and when you exhale try to go deeper into the posture.
• Ideally your stomach, abdomen and chest are parallel to the floor, with both shoulders in one line from the side and both legs in one line like standing split. 
• If you fall, good! Get back in again! The more you practice, the better you will become.
• Remember that often it is our minds that give up before our bodies do.