Knees Up

This pose is easy and good and helps your back. You can learn this pose and improve at it by paying attention to how you feel and following this description.

The pose has four stages. Lay back on your mat. If needed, put your head on a pillow.

1. One leg at a time bring both your knees up while keeping the soles of your feet flat on your mat. Pause and rest in this position. Look up at the ceiling and focus on the back of your pelvis and the back of your shoulder blades resting on the mat. If you can easily rest your knees together this becomes pyramid rest.
2. One leg at a time bring your knees up and hook your fingers around the top of your shins. Let your arms get pulled straight and feel a pull across your shoulders. Let your lower legs just hang down. Pause and rest in this position.
3. Keeping your shoulder blades on your mat and toward your butt, pull your knees toward your chest just enough to feel your lumbar spine flatten and rest onto your mat. Rest and linger in this.
4. Pull your knees more toward your chest enough to feel a slight pull through your back. Pause and rest in this.

Then do the stages in reverse pausing at each. Then repeat.

We can do a lot more with this pose in person that doesn’t fit into words like neck position, shoulder blade range of motion, back arch, and pelvic muscle release. But it works as written and serves as a good base to do a lot more.