How to Achieve the Perfect Staff Pose

Dandasana or Staff Pose is a foundational seated pose that provides the structural basis for all seated poses. 

Benefits

• Strengthens the back muscles
• Stretches the shoulders and chest Improves posture

 The Pose

• Sit on the floor with your legs together and extended in front of your torso
• If you are uncomfortable or leaning backwards, sit on a bolster or block to lift the pelvis
• Option to sit against the wall for this pose
• Careful not to put your lower back against the wall
• Put a rolled up towel between the wall and lower back
• Sit towards the front of the sitting bones, and adjust the pubis and tail bone equidistant from the floor
• Without hardening the belly, firm the thighs, press them down against the floor (or your support), rotate them slightly toward each other, and draw the inner groins toward the sacrum
• Flex your ankles, pressing out through your heels
• To lengthen your front torso perpendicular to the floor, think of energy streaming upward from the pubis to the sternum, then down the back from the shoulders to the tail bone
• Then imagine the tail lengthening into the floor
• Beginner variation: To enable a better stretch in the groin and thighs, lay one to three 10-pound sandbags across the tops of your thighs at the hip crease to help ground your thighs. 

Breaths: Hold for 3 to 5 breaths

Avoid

• Any wrist or lower back injury