Seal stretch question

Hello

When performing seal, the athlete shows both her hips on the floor, and her arms are straight. I am not flexible enough to achieve that position. Which is better? To keep hips on the floor, and focus the stretch on the lumbar spine with bent arms? or to keep one's arms straight, and allow the stretch to be distributed along a longer anterior region, but the hips are well above the floor? 

If a video would help describe this let me know and I can shoot one.

Thank you

Hey Anthony welcome to GB, you can elevate the hands but hold them straight as much as you can, can you post a photo from the side.

Hello Alessandro, I've uploaded three pics.

During seal, I am more comfortable in the stretch when my hips are off the floor, and my hands are close to beneath me. 

The video instruction says to have the hips ON the floor, when I try that, I have to move my hands much farther out in front of me, and I feel that my lower back is taking on too much stress. 

Any feedback? 

Putting the hands forward it is a solution as putting something under the hands.

One another thing you can do while moving the hands forward you can straddle your legs.

One of the primarily focus point it is to retract and depress the scapulae so that the major part of the bending occurs in the thoracic spine and not in the lumbar part.