This video was shot at my Berlin intensive workshop in 2018. I'm working with Marie -Teresa who has a problem with her knees. This pose coming forward and rotating over a bent front leg can potentially put a lot of pressure on the knee joint. So we needed to make sure that the weight was being borne directly form under the front foot rather than being dropped into the knee.
Also we were making sure that Marie - Teresa was keeping length, expansion and openness throughout her torso. Rather than taking the top arm up into the air, I ask her to extend the arm so that it connects into the length along her side while she keeps the bottom side of her torso similarly lengthened. As you can see in the video she starts to do what many do when they begin to rotate more deeply into the pose - than is to pull in, narrow and shorten her back. At that point I need to both remind her and adjust her out of that in order not to be constricting and tightening through her lower back, which for many people is already over-contracted.
I'll be back teaching in Europe from late June to the end of August 2019, including running a week long residential course in Assisi and weekend workshops in Germany, the UK, Ireland and the Czech Republic.