Utkaṭāsana - Fierce Pose

Utkaṭa = fierce, powerful, mighty, proud, immense, difficult, mad, drunk, superior or excessive.

1. Stand with your feet together (can be done with the feet a little way apart where hips are wide or inner thighs bulky).

2. Ensure that the toes are level and not turning out.

3. Raise arms on an inhalation.

4. Inhale, lift the arms, both palms facing inwards towards one another, from the hip joints to fingertips, shoulder-width distance (closer, if there is a deep drawing in and opening of the mid-upper mid-back). The elbows should not bend as this drops the weight and makes the pose heavy, instead shoulder tightness is alleviated through more extension of the spine.

5. Pull the sitting bones down, pulling down on the waist.

6. Drive side and back ribs in and extend upwards, creating lightness to the waist as it is pulled from two directions.

7. Keep legs even (if together pressing into one another).

8. Draw the hip joints in and lift the inner groins.

9. Stretch the lower back as if holding onto pull-up bar, extending the buttocks down as if to sit on a piano stool.

10. Keep the head in a normal relationship to the trunk as when standing looking forwards.

DURATION: Stay for 5 to 15 breaths or about 30 seconds.