Peak Pose: Urdhva Dhanurasana – Hugger Mugger

I first discovered Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow Pose) once I was learning ballet in grade faculty. It was considered one of my sisters’ and my favourite ballet warm-ups. We’d typically “stroll” across the yard in Upward Bow Pose for enjoyable. I’m positive it wasn’t fairly, however we had fun.

Later in life, as I started training yoga asana, it was enjoyable to revisit Urdhva Dhanurasana as an grownup. Attributable to my loosey-goosey ligaments, shallow hip sockets, flexible backbone and the bony construction of my shoulder joints, it felt fairly easy, and all the time exhilarating.

Whereas Upward Bow Pose isn’t one of many Hatha Yoga Pradipika’s unique poses, the pose, together with yoga’s many different backbends, offers stability for our largely forward-bended lives. Give it some thought. A lot of the issues we do in our lives require that bend over issues—keyboards, steering wheels, counter tops, and many others. Backbending helps reverse that behavior.

Advantages and Contraindications of Upward Bow Pose

Along with offering a basic sense of postural stability, Urdhva Dhanurasana yields many advantages. Listed below are just a few:

• Strengthens the spinal extensors
• Strengthens the shoulders, arms and wrists
• Stretches the chest, shoulder joints, wrists, stomach and hip flexors
• Will increase vitality by stimulating the thyroid and pituitary glands
• Will increase breath capability by increasing the chest

Practising yoga additionally requires that we take heed to our our bodies’ wants. Irrespective of how a lot we would need to apply Urdhva Dhanurasana, there are occasions after we shouldn’t. These would come with circumstances of:

• Accidents within the shoulders, neck, elbows, wrists, or backbone
• Being pregnant: within the second and third trimesters, it’s greatest to not apply backbends.
• Hypertension or coronary heart circumstances on the whole: The stimulating nature of the pose can elevate blood strain or stress the guts.
• Carpal tunnel or wrist tendonitis: The pose requires most wrist extension, which can exacerbate current accidents.
• Glaucoma, indifferent retina

Urdhva Dhanurasana is Not for All people

Past the contraindications listed above, Urdhva Dhanurasana could or will not be accessible to your specific skeletal construction. Shoulder joints which might be on the extra secure aspect could limit the flexibility to straighten your arms. Additionally, folks with a extra pronounced convex thoracic curve could discover it more difficult to apply backbends.

Paul Grilley says “yoga is within the bones.” It will be value your whereas, whether or not you’re a pupil or instructor, to take a look at this web page that reveals variations within the bones. There are a a number of photographs of in another way formed scapulae and shoulder joints that may clarify why some shoulders are extra amenable to Urdhva Dhanurasana. The final photograph of the scapula group is particularly useful in understanding why some folks’s shoulder joints simply elevate to vertical or past (permitting for the arms to straighten) and others fall brief. Within the latter case, the elbows must bend, making Urdhva Dhanurasana a lot much less enjoyable to apply.

The opposite factor is: no person’s thoracic backbone is designed to backbend. The thoracic backbone can ahead bend, rotate and bend laterally, however the way in which the aspect joints come collectively restricts spinal extension. The spinal extension required for Upward Bow comes from the lumbar backbone. And once more, all our spines are shaped in another way. Some lumbar spines bend lots earlier than the spinous processes make contact with one another. For others, longer, thicker spinous processes will limit the quantity of motion.

How Can You Put together for Urdhva Dhanurasana?

All that mentioned, it doesn’t damage to arrange the physique for Urdhva Dhanurasana anyway. That is true even when your bony construction won’t assist you to apply the traditional pose. The prep poses that observe will help make any backbend really feel extra easeful. Additionally, the prep poses are nice for countering the consequences of a number of sitting and all of the ahead bending we do in our lives.

So, what must stretch and mobilize to facilitate Upward Bow?

• Quadriceps and hip flexors
• Wrists
• Stomach, chest and shoulders

A Sequence for Working As much as Upward Bow Pose

There are many yoga poses you’ll be able to apply that stretch all the required areas. Be happy to make use of this sequence as a information, or discover designing your individual sequence utilizing the identical rules.

1. Collect your props: a Yoga Mat, 2 Yoga Blocks.
2. Begin in Downward Dealing with Canine Pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana). Transfer round within the pose to mobilize your varied joints.
3. Practising just a few Solar Salutations (Surya Namaskara) will assist you to mobilize the joints general. Ensure to incorporate Crescent Lunge Pose (Anjaneyasana). It will start the method of stretching your quads and hip flexors.
4. Half Hero’s Pose (Ardha Virasana): That is elective. This pose will not be agreeable to everybody’s knees. So be at liberty to skip it and apply one other spherical of Crescent Lunge.
5. Hand Yoga: All or any of those stretches will help you put together your wrists.
6. Supported Fish Pose (Salamba Matsyasana): Mendacity over your Yoga Blocks will help develop your chest, stomach and shoulders.
7. Bridge Pose (Setu Bandhasana): Bridge Pose stretches the chest, stomach and hip flexors.
8. Upward Bow Pose (Urdhva Dhanurasana): Use the directions on this hyperlink to information you into the pose. As soon as I’ve ready for Urdhva Dhanurasana, I wish to apply it not less than 3 times. By the third spherical, it normally feels way more free. If Urdhva Dhanurasana nonetheless feels incompatible along with your physique construction, apply just a few extra Bridge Poses.
9. Revolved Stomach Pose (Jathara Parivrttanasana): A supine twist is a pleasant strategy to start stretching your again in the wrong way, one aspect at a time.
10. Hug each knees in towards your chest and roll round a bit to additional launch the backbone.
11. Head-of-the-Knee Pose (Janu Sirsasana): This is likely one of the best ahead bends for stretching the quadratus lumborum.
12. Seated Ahead Bend (Paschimottanasana)
13. Rest Pose (Savasana)

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and started instructing in 1986. Charlotte is the creator of Aware Yoga, Aware Life: A Information for On a regular basis Apply and Yoga for Meditators, each revealed by Rodmell Press. Her third e book is titled Hip-Wholesome Asana: The Yoga Practitioner’s Information to Defending the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Ache (Shambhala Publications). She writes a month-to-month column for CATALYST Journal and serves as editor for Yoga U On-line. Charlotte is a founding board member for GreenTREE Yoga, a non-profit that brings yoga to underserved populations. A lifelong musician, Charlotte performs oboe and English horn within the Salt Lake Symphony and folks sextet Purple Rock Rondo, whose DVD received two Emmy awards.