上斜板式变体：用椅子练手臂与手腕力量

Published November 2, 2026 01:51PM

In Yoga Journal’s Archives series, we share a curated collection of articles originally published in past issues beginning in 1975. This article about Upward Plank Pose variations first appeared in the June 2007 issue of Yoga Journal. Find more of our Archives here.

What direction do you face when you practice yoga? Probably whichever way your usual practice space dictates. But the old yogis were very clear that we should face either east or north when practicing, per the classical yoga text the Gheranda Samhita 5.48. Why?

Yoga scholar Alain Danielou writes that the four cardinal and four intermediate points of the compass have special significance. The thunderbolt-wielding Indra, lord of all the protectors and prototype of courage and power in Hindu mythology, guards the east.

By facing in a certain direction when we practice, we acknowledge and draw on energetic properties for support and inspiration. So again, why east and north? East is the quarter of the rising sun, which Hindus revere as the “breath of creatures” or the source of all earthly life.

The sun represents the embodied Self, its dawn the emergence of the “light” of spiritual self-awareness and insight. North is the quarter of the pole star, called dhruva (pronounced DREW-vah) in Sanskrit, meaning “fixed, eternal.” Its constancy amid the ever-wheeling night sky is considered the embodiment of willpower, certainly a quality all serious yogis covet. In India too, north is the realm of the majestic Himalayas, where Hindu tradition places the mythic mountain Meru, thought of as the “navel” of the earth as well as the bridge to the celestial world of the gods and goddesses.

What compass directions would you assign to the back and front of your body? According to the yogis, your back body is the west, your front body the east. In Sanskrit, paschima means both “back” and “west,” while purva means both “front” and “east.” So this terminology gives us the names of two common and related poses: Paschimottanasana (Intense Stretch of the West Pose or, more commonly, Seated Forward Bend), which stretches your back body, and Purvottanasana (Intense Stretch of the East or Upward Plank Pose)—pictured here—a slight backbend and front-body stretch that provides a nice counterpose to its western opposite.

Purvottanasana stretches you all the way from your ankles through the thighs, groins, and belly, up to the shoulders and throat. It also strengthens your wrists and the muscles on the backs of the upper arms (triceps) and firms the buttocks—which, if you believe popular media claims, is a primary benefit of yoga. It will also help improve your sense of balance and calm. And it’s a great counterpose to the commonly practiced Chaturanga Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose).

How to Use Props to Prep for Purvottanasana

If you have serious wrist, shoulder, or neck problems, practice this pose only under the guidance of an experienced teacher. You’ll need a chair, a block, and a wall to practice some of these preparatory poses.

1. Remain Partly Supported by the Floor

Sit on the floor with your legs extended straight in front of you in Dandasana (Staff Pose). Rotate your thighs inward, big toes in, heels out, and press your palms to the floor slightly behind your buttocks with your fingers pointing forward toward your feet. If your shoulders protest, you can turn your fingers outward.

Bend your elbows and sink or hollow your front torso, spreading your scapulas as far away from your spine as possible. Rotate your upper arms inward and widen your elbows, letting the heads of your upper arm bones (humeri) jut forward. Enjoy the stretch between the scapulas for a minute or so.

Then straighten your elbows and lift your chest while leaving your lower body on the floor. Often, students simply squeeze their scapulas together and shove their lower front ribs forward, which hardens the front torso, restricting the free flow of breath, and compresses the low back. Instead, keep your scapulas wide and front torso soft.

Press the bases of your index fingers into the floor and hug your triceps against your humeri. As your elbows straighten out and your chest lifts, maintain the inward rotation of your upper arms, which will help the scapulas stay broad. Release your head back slightly, but don’t fully extend the neck. Trace the stretch along your front torso from your pubis to your sternum (breastbone).

Imagine directing your inhalations into the space behind your sternum (“imagine” because there’s no lung there, just your heart), increasing the lift of your chest. With each exhalation, reaffirm the opposing movements of the inner hands (down against the floor) and scapulas (up against your back). Hold for a minute or two. Repeat two or three times, until you feel confident you’ll be able to recreate the inward rotation of the thighs and arms and the actions of the hands and scapulas while maintaining the soft front torso when called on to do so in the more challenging circumstances of the full pose.

2. Chair Support

Next, sit on the front edge of a chair with your knees bent, heels directly below your knees. Wrap your hands around the back edge of the seat (for this first part of the exercise your upper arms will naturally rotate outward), thumbs pointing outward (Figure 1).

Inhale and slowly lift your buttocks away from the seat until your thighs, torso, and head form one long diagonal line, with your arms more or less perpendicular to the chair seat. Rotate your thighs slightly inward, and push (but don’t physically move) your knees away from your torso. The thigh rotation will tend to make your tailbone sag toward the floor, collapsing your belly, so firm your tailbone against your back pelvis and lengthen it. Hold this position for a minute, then sit back on the chair. On an inhalation, release the back edge of the seat and return to sitting upright. Take a few breaths.

If you like, repeat this exercise with your fingers turned forward, palms on the seat, and your upper arms rotated inward. Hold for one minute, release on an exhalation, and rest.

If you want to take this exercise to its limit, lift your buttocks again and extend your legs. Do your right leg first. Inhale and press out through your heel to straighten your knee, but suspend your foot a few inches off the floor. Then rotate your thigh inward, point your toes, and bring your sole to the floor. Just as the bases of your index forgers press the seat, so the base of your big toe presses on the floor. Repeat with the left leg. Once again, hold for a minute and release on an exhalation.

3. Block Beneath the Head

If you want to continue, brace the back legs of a chair against the wall and lay your block on the seat (if you’re using a wood block, cover the seat with a sticky mat to keep the block from sliding). Set the block on either its lowest or middle height near the front edge of the seat.

Sit on the floor right in front of the chair, knees bent, feet on the floor, heels 12 to 15 inches away from your buttocks, and lean back against the front edge of the seat. Press your hands on the floor with your fingers turned either forward, to the sides, or back—you choose—just in front of the feet of the chair legs.

Inhale and do what you did for the first part of the first exercise: Lift your thighs and torso parallel to the floor (heels below the knees), and then release your head back onto the block to take any pressure off your neck. If the block is too high or too low, come down and readjust. If you are having trouble opening your chest, it may help to reinforce the firmness of your palms against the floor, your scapulas against your back, and your triceps against the humeri. Then again, it may not.

Don’t get discouraged. Just practice this exercise every other day or so for the next few weeks, and you’ll be surprised how quickly things improve. Whatever happens, hold the pose for 30 seconds to a minute, then release to the floor on an exhalation. Smile.

If you can’t boost your chest, though, trying to extend your legs will probably make matters worse, so I don’t recommend it. But if your chest is reasonably lifted, then it’s acceptable to extend your legs.

Having trouble getting the balls of your feet, especially the bases of your big toes, on the floor? Position a rolled-up sticky mat on the floor where the balls of your feet will be when your legs are extended and press against that.