Hello Gabrielle

In Utkatasana, the second part, is it more important to bring your hips
down as far as you can (but not letting them drop below parallel) or to be
as high up as you can on your toes?

Thanks
Susan

Hello Susan

You know, that is a great question. And once again, it depends!!!

For most students and especially beginners, I like to see them focusing more on keeping their heels up as high as they can. It makes sense that if you can stand up on your toes before you descend into this pose, then you SHOULD be able to keep your heels up as high, as you hips start to come down. So the best course of action for most students is to keep attention on the height of their heels (or the opening through their ankles). Remain vigilant to the slightest movement from this upward position. As soon as the heels start to drop, back out of the pose a tiny bit and then place the weight forward in the feet again by pushing through the ankle.

Once that is handled then the student can bring their attention more fully to the hip position. You are right that the hips should never drop below parallel. I believe that the hips really do have to be marginally higher than the hips as a final position to keep the forces working forward through the ankles.

So both are important, but the hierarchy: is feet before hips.

Namaste
Gabrielle

thank you! what a great response. I have heard different instructions from different teachers. some say that you “have to bring your hips down to get the benefits of the posture,” and others will say “it is more important to stay up high on the toes, than to bring the hips down.” thank you for the clarification. I used your advice last night while teaching, and some of the students told me after class that they could feel a huge difference in the opening of their ankles and the necessity to build strenth in the toes.

Hello Susan

It means a lot to me that you take the time to come back and tell me how well it works! It made my day…

Namaste
Gabrielle

I’ve been merrily piggybacking off this post and tried the really concentrating on the feetz - it’s good ;~) and I’m not loosing much in terms of the alignment of the back or depth.  Great post