Double Leg Kick

Lie face down with your head turned to one side. Keep your legs together.

Clasp your hands together behind your back, placing them as high up on the back as possible. Interlocking the thumbs will help keep your hands together when you move. Let your elbows fall toward the floor.

Inhale: Pull your abs in, lifting your belly away from the mat. As you do so, lengthen your spine, anchor your pubic bone down to the mat, and create as much space as possible along the front of the hips. Extend the feeling of length through your body, lifting your legs slightly off the floor.

Exhale: Keep your legs together, and on a three-part exhale, kick your heels toward your hips in a three-part pulse-kick (each pulse is part of the exhale). To kick, emphasize using your hamstrings to pull your heels as close as you can to your sitbones.

As you kick, your hips stay down. It is tempting to allow the hips to move up away from the mat. Do not let this happen. Also, refrain from allowing the pulse-kick to rock your body forward and back.

If you experience knee pain or difficulty keeping your form (if your hips pop up, for example), try developing the kick with the alternate kick pattern shown at the bottom of the page.

Inhale: Keep you hands clasped and extend your arms behind you, lifting your upper body high off the mat. At the same time, stretch your legs out straight, just above the mat

Protect your lower back by keeping your spine long and pubic bone anchored into the mat. This part of the move is a wonderful stretch for the chest and shoulders but move slowly and use control as it can be intense.

Exhale: Return to the starting position with your head turned to the opposite side.

Repeat: Do this exercise twice to each side.

Since double leg stretch is such a powerful extension exercise, it is a good idea to follow up with a counter stretch from a forward flexion exercise like spine stretch or single straight leg stretch.

Traditionally, the kick is taught as I have above, where all three pulse-kicks come as close to the buttocks as possible. An alternative is to develop the kick in three levels: low, medium, high. This is a helpful technique for learning to engage the hamstrings to pull the legs in, and for keeping good alignment throughout the exercise.