In almost a decade of instructing yoga, I’ve but to come across a scholar who’s lukewarm on pigeon pose. Yoga college students both love this hip opener or hate it.
Pigeon pose, or kapotasana, feels wonderful if you do it proper — the entrance leg externally rotates to stretch the hip, whereas the again leg affords the flexors an excellent stretch — so it’s price studying the way to safely set it up.
“Pigeon pose will not be a one-position-fits-all train,” says Stephanie Saunders, vice chairman of health programming for BODi and an authorized yoga teacher.
Kapotasana is a variation on king pigeon pose (eka pada rajakapotasana), a one-legged backbend from ashtanga yoga‘s fourth collection (which truly offers a special pose the title kapotasana).
In the case of pigeon pose, yoga is filled with variations, like seated pigeon, reclined pigeon, and even flying pigeon pose.
And why do we name it pigeon pose? Once you’re within the upright place of kapotasana, your chest is lifted similar to a pigeon’s. Right here’s the way to get there safely and successfully.
Pigeon Pose (Kapotasana): Step-by-Step Directions
We’ll stroll by way of each the upright and forward-bend variations of kapotasana.
- Get on all fours, together with your fingers shoulder-width and knees hip-width aside.
- Convey your proper knee ahead, inserting it on the ground behind your proper wrist.
- Slide your proper ankle towards your left wrist, so your proper shin crosses your mat at a snug angle.
- Prolong your left leg straight again and slowly decrease your hips to the ground. The highest of your left foot needs to be flat on the ground.
- Hold your hips stage, together with your weight evenly distributed between them (keep away from sinking into your proper hip).
- From right here, you possibly can both stay upright — preserving your fingers on the ground in entrance of you, your chest up, and your core engaged — or you possibly can fold ahead, slowly strolling your fingers out in entrance of you and decreasing your chest to the ground.
- Maintain the pose for five to 10 breaths, then change sides and repeat.
- To return out of the pose, tuck your left toes beneath, press into your fingers, and slowly carry your proper foot again to the beginning place.
The way to Make Pigeon Pose Simpler
In case you have tight hips or encounter discomfort in your knees or decrease again, there are many modifications you are able to do to make pigeon pose simpler.
- Use a block or folded blanket beneath the hip of your bent leg to assist preserve the burden balanced between either side of the pelvis.
- Use blocks beneath your fingers when upright, or a bolster beneath your chest when folding ahead.
- Flex the toes of your bent leg to maintain your knee supported.
The way to Make Pigeon Pose More durable
In case you have completely satisfied hips that love the stretch in pigeon pose, right here’s how one can go deeper.
- Work the entrance shin nearer to parallel with the entrance of your mat (so long as there isn’t a discomfort in your knee).
- Whereas activating your adductors (interior thighs), come onto your fingertips — or problem your stability by lifting your arms overhead.
- Bend your again leg, and attain for the highest of your foot for a deeper hip flexor stretch, shoulder opener, and backbend.
Newbie Ideas for Doing Pigeon Pose
For those who’re new to pigeon pose, begin sluggish and hearken to your physique. Make sure that your entrance knee is comfy. It is best to by no means really feel ache or stretching in your interior knee, hip joints or decrease again.
For those who do, come out of the pose and begin once more, specializing in externally rotating your femur within the hip socket.
Resist the urge to line up your shin with the highest of your mat. Whereas this alignment cue is taken into account “best,” Saunders says, “this may put strain on the knee, particularly if there may be any restriction within the hip joint.” So select a place to your shin that retains your knee protected.
Advantages of Pigeon Pose
Pigeon pose stretches each the hip flexors on the entrance of the thigh and pelvis (together with the psoas) and your hip rotators on the again/facet of the pelvis (together with the piriformis).
It additionally will increase vary of movement of the femur within the hip socket.
Pigeon pose helps heat up the physique for backbends or seated poses that require exterior hip rotation, like lotus pose.
It’s additionally useful for the again. “We all know that growing flexibility within the hips and pelvis might help with sciatica and again ache,” says Saunders.
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