Stretchy Sunday's: Ashva Sanchalanasana!

Aloha Poler's, it's ALREADY Sunday!  Thank goodness tomorrow's a holiday for most of us;)!

This week's Stretchy Sunday's Stretch is a great Yoga stretch called the Ashva Sanchalanasana normally known as the low lunge.  This stretch benefits the calves, hamstrings, glutes, quads, lats, shoulders and back of your neck!  Wow, talk about a beneficial stretch!!  Let's get started on it:

Start in a straight arm plank.  From here, go into a downward facing dog pose.  Take 1 or 2 deep breaths and push your left foot up into the air while trying to keep your hips horizontal to the floor.  Slowly and smoothly start the bring your left foot back down while bending your knee and bringing your left foot and knee in front of your torso in a lunge position.  Make sure your knee is not bent in front of your foot but either right above it a little behind it.  From this position slowly and smoothly lower your right knee to the floor and bringing the top of your right foot flat against or horizontal to the floor as well.  While in this position make sure your hands are touching the floor at the sides of your feet, shoulders are rolled back and down, head and chest facing forward (arching your back a little will help) while taking nice and long deep breaths.  After about 3 - 5 deep breaths in this stretch place the ball of your right foot on the floor and place both palms on the floor while pushing your left foot with a bent knee back into your starting straight arm plank position.  From this position, take it into this stretch for your right side.  Once on each side will be enough so after doing once on each side there will be no need for repeating.

That's it!  Very simple yet extremely beneficial stretch that we should all have in our stretching and flexibility routines:).  The most important things to do while stretching and I'll say this many times is to listen to your body (if it hurts modify it to fit you or do not do it at all), drink lots of water, engage your core and breath nice and deeply while focusing on the stretch.  If you follow these as well as the correct way to do a particular stretch you will benefit the most!  Well, have a great Stretchy Sunday:)