Stand
When I first started practicing yoga, coming into Mountain Pose, known as Tadasana in Sanskrit (tada=mountain, asana=pose) meant nothing to me except a transition pose to go to the next in a sequence. It was a movement for me that lacked any awareness on my part. If cued during a sun salutation it was a brief pause to catch my breath before reaching up into upward salute to start the next round. There was no stillness, mentally or physically as my brain was plotting the next step – always ahead of itself.
God forbid if the class started in Tadasana. Similar to Savasana back in those days, I thought it was a waste of time. I wanted to MOVE. As an instructor, I see this in many of my students in my Vinyasa Flow classes. That look of “come on Kari, let’s get this show on the road”.
This seemingly simple pose (is it simple?) is one of the least understood. Tadasana is the foundation for all other standing postures. Richelle Ricard, author of The Yoga Engineer’s Manual, refers to it as “the blueprint for actions that apply whenever we’re on our feet”. The integrity of posture, alignment, breath, form, are all presented to us in this one posture that we do daily (even outside of the yoga studio) without much thought.
Despite the absence of external exertion, yoga happens within. In Tadasana, true activity is unapparent to the naked eye. The substance of breath, alignment and engagement in this pose, makes this one of the greatest postures one can practice. It is the art of active stillness.
How to practice Tadasana (general cues – seeing you in person allows for customized alignment for your body):
Stand with feet hips-width apart. This may seem simple, but most of us have no idea how to measure our hip width, feet placement. Here is a standard way to measure:
Make two strong fists and line them up together with your thumb knuckles on your pubic bone. Your pinky fingers will line up just about where your thigh bone meets at your hip joint.
Next, move those two fists straight down to the space between your inside ankle bones.
Inside ankle bones should touch the outside edges of each fist. This aligns your feet just under your hip joints.
This position provides stability AND places less stress on the knees.
In Mountain Pose, have soft knees. Do not lock out. Find a bit of buoyancy.
Pull hips back over heels. We often lean forward when we stand. Feel the weight shift to the heel of the foot while maintaining connection to the ground on all parts of the bottom of both feet.
Lift your tail. What does this mean? It means don’t tuck your tail! We are trying to maintain the natural curve of the lumbar spine, but we want it to be active. Lifting the tail toward the back of the heart activates your low back muscles.
Gently gather the low belly back towards the sacrum (the bony part of your low back). Key here is gentle. Don’t overdo this where you end up holding or limiting your breath.
Find your breath at the base and back of your ribs. Think around the kidney area.
Do not force your shoulder blades down your back as that will cause you to pop your chest. Instead, have light shoulders.
Broaden across the collar bones/chest without collapsing the back of the heart. You can do this by pulling the shoulder blades towards the spine, but only to the point where the chest and upper back are balanced
Lengthen the back of the neck. Think about the throat/vocal cords drawing back towards the spine. This will naturally raise the crown of your head
Rotate the upper arms outward (external rotation) to neutral with palms facing forward. Spread palms wide to activate the energy in the fingers.
With those general alignment practices, we can move towards the subtle body. In the above, I was sneakily having you engage bandha energy while focusing on the physical components of the pose. Let’s explore the bandhas used in this pose.
What are bandhas?
A bandha is a lock or bind in yoga, which is performed to direct and regulate the flow of prana (life force energy) to certain parts of the body. Also referred to as an energetic lock or seal, bandha was practiced by yogis of the past to promote energy flow and maintain optimal health.
Bandhas used in Tadasana:
Mula bandha: Mula is a Sanskrit word meaning "root." The "root lock," as it may also be called, involves gently contracting the perineum muscles inward, then lifting them upward to hold energy. Performing mula bandha promotes energy flow to the pelvic region.
How to engage: With your eyes closed, gently pull in the low belly. You may notice a slight lift deep in the pelvis. Keep that engagement soft, do not clench or harden
Uddiyana bandha: Uddiyana is a Sanskrit word meaning "to rise up." In this bandha, energy moves upward more forcefully than it does in mula bandha. Uddiyana bandha stimulates the abdominal muscles as they are pulled in.
How to engage: Gather your solar plexus toward your spine. Notice how your front ribs draw down toward the pelvis and your back ribs lift up off the pelvis. Allow your breath to expand into the lungs to help broaden the chest. Don’t force the breath as it will lift the front ribs. Instead, find the breath expanding behind your heart with the exhale focusing your energy on containing that solar plexus engagement
Jalandhara bandha: Jalandhara is a Sanskrit word derived from the roots jal, meaning "throat," and dhara, meaning "flow." It is performed by bringing the chin down towards the chest (or more precisely, drawing it back towards the spine); therefore, it is also called the "chin lock."
How to engage: Using that broad chest and engaged belly, lengthen the back of the neck by drawing your throat/vocal cords back towards the spine. This will create space at the back and base of your skull, lifting the crown of your head. Keep an even, soft breath.
Pada bandha: Pada bandha is a yoga technique in which the soles of the feet are placed on the ground so the weight is evenly distributed in the triangle formed by the big toe, little toe and ankle. This bandha connects the yogi’s body with the earth through the feet. The term comes from the Sanskrit pada, meaning “foot,” and bandha, meaning “lock,” “tighten” or “harness.”Pada bandha is a yoga technique that involves engaging the muscles of the feet and lower legs to create a sense of grounding and stability. Known as the Foot lock.
How to engage: This is the big one. While this is an energetic center, it is linked to the musculofascial body. What this means is you can physically and energetically make connections from the soles of the feet up to the legs, hips, across the pelvis to the mula bandha. Pada bandha provides to root to the root container of mula bandha when standing. It all starts here. And this is why yoga instructors are obsessed with your feet.
There are many ways to engage pada bandha. For mountain pose, let’s make it easy. Shift your attention to the soles of your feet. Notice the inside edges, outside edges, heels, toe mounds, the arch of the foot. Engage the arch so it is not dumping. This basic awareness moves you into equal standing. And guess what? Another name for Mountain Pose is Samasthiti = neutral/equal standing.
Now that I have overwhelmed you with the details, how do we do all of this in a flowing vinyasa class? You probably won’t do all, as you won’t have the time to adjust before moving to the next pose. Instead, find a few of the above to work on and incorporate that into your next mountain pose in a class. If anything, root down through the feet. That is all you need to do. Find a blip of grounded stillness.
Outside of class? Practice these alignment cues of equal standing anywhere! I do this during the day when I have activated my standing desk during an online meeting. I started doing this anytime I am standing in line – and the mental effects are profound. Shifting to grounding my feet, finding neutrality and spinal alignment takes me out of my mind chatter, and softens my reaction to annoyances around me (I did this recently when boarding a flight. The passenger in front of me was taking forever to store her bags and get seated, thus holding us up. From equal standing, I softened, didn’t take it personally, and saw her as an imperfectly perfect human being.)