My favorite pose. It releases the shoulders, lengthens the back, and loosens up the back of the legs.

From CHILDS POSE, lift the hips up to the sky, back is straight and flat, lift your navel towards the sky, strong through the elbows, flat hands, fingers spread wide, pull back with your shoulders, relax the neck and breathe easy...extending the hips to the sky, Drop the heels towards the ground and breathe...
When you are ready, release, the knees to the ground, hips lean back onto your heels, and drop the forhead on the ground, breathe and relax...

It is an easy shoulder opening that you can do any where anytime.

There are different foot openings in this ASANA. This particular sequence begins with your feet shoulder width apart, angling the toes forward. On your exhale, clasp your hands behind your back, inhale and lift your head to the sky keeping your chest lifted, exhale and fold reaching lifting and extending forward. Extending out of your legs and lifting with your hips towards the sky. Exhale and relax your head. Breathe into the pose...
When your are ready, inhale lifting up out of the shoulders up to standing and release your hands to your side.
Is a balancing, leg strengthening, and shoulder opening posture

Standing shoulder width apart, engaging your core, lifting to your spine with your navel. Keeping your eyes gazed on a specific point to keep your balance and focus. Reach back with your right hand and grab ahold of the inside of your right foot. Lifting out of your standing leg, and kicking back with your right foot, and reaching up and out with your left hand. The focus is on kicking up with the foot and lengthening out of your standing leg. Hold and breathe light...The arms are there for balance, creating an opening in the hips, shoulders and back of the legs.
When you are ready release and come to standing and switch sides.

With form comes function. Bones move where muscles tell them. If our bones are in good alignment, then muscles work functionally. Muscles must work in pairs and equally on both sides of the body.

Our bones are designed to vertically load. With the laws of gravity we stack our bones like building blocks. Our legs are like towers, our hips like a bridge. Our hips become a foundation for our spine, our head balances at the top of the spine. These bones are stacking bones. Our shoulders and ribs are a hanging bone system. Our caller bone shoulder blades and arms drape over the rib cage. Our rib cage hangs from our vertebrae.

Dynamic tension exists between the front and back of our body at all times. Muscles at the back or posterior are responsible for extension back and knee bending for example. Muscles in the front of our body are for flexion, forward bending.

If our bodies are not functioning bilaterally the location of the center of gravity is altered causing compensated posture and dysfunction. A functional muscle is designed to evenly distribute the shock to each joint socket. If there is dysfunction the shock is not evenly distributed and begins to wear away the joint. Therefore misalignments cause pain, limited range of motion or set our bodies up for injury.

Our goal is to align the bones, load our joints vertically and restore proper function to our muscular skeletal system. If you don't change the position of the joint nothing changes.

Visit her website http://northshoreyoga.org for more information about her yoga studio - The North Shore Co-op, or read more about her in the Community section.