Peak Pose: Urdhva Dhanurasana – Hugger Mugger

I first discovered Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow Pose) once I was finding out ballet in grade faculty. It was one in all my sisters’ and my favourite ballet warm-ups. We might typically “stroll” across the yard in Upward Bow Pose for enjoyable. I’m certain 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. As a consequence of my loosey-goosey ligaments, shallow hip sockets, flexible backbone and the bony construction of my shoulder joints, it felt fairly easy, and at all times 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 normal sense of postural stability, Urdhva Dhanurasana yields many advantages. Listed below are a couple of:

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

Working towards yoga additionally requires that we hearken to our our bodies’ wants. Irrespective of how a lot we’d wish to apply Urdhva Dhanurasana, there are occasions after we shouldn’t. These would come with instances of:

• Accidents within the shoulders, neck, elbows, wrists, or backbone
• Being pregnant: within the second and third trimesters, it’s finest to not apply backbends.
• Hypertension or coronary heart situations on the whole: The stimulating nature of the pose can elevate blood stress 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 Everyone

Past the contraindications listed above, Urdhva Dhanurasana might or might not be accessible to your explicit skeletal construction. Shoulder joints which are on the extra steady aspect might limit the flexibility to straighten your arms. Additionally, individuals with a extra pronounced convex thoracic curve might discover it tougher to apply backbends.

Paul Grilley says “yoga is within the bones.” It could be price 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 pictures of in another way formed scapulae and shoulder joints that may clarify why some shoulders are extra amenable to Urdhva Dhanurasana. The final picture of the scapula group is very useful in understanding why some individuals’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 should bend, making Urdhva Dhanurasana a lot much less enjoyable to apply.

The opposite factor is: no one’s thoracic backbone is designed to backbend. The thoracic backbone can ahead bend, rotate and bend laterally, however the way in which the side 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 fashioned in another way. Some lumbar spines bend quite a bit 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 harm to organize the physique for Urdhva Dhanurasana anyway. That is true even when your bony construction is not going to help you apply the traditional pose. The prep poses that observe might 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 at liberty to make use of this sequence as a information, or discover designing your personal sequence utilizing the identical ideas.

1. Collect your props: a Yoga Mat, 2 Yoga Blocks.
2. Begin in Downward Going through Canine Pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana). Transfer round within the pose to mobilize your varied joints.
3. Working towards a couple of 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 optionally available. This pose shouldn’t be agreeable to everybody’s knees. So be happy to skip it and apply one other spherical of Crescent Lunge.
5. Hand Yoga: All or any of these stretches might help you put together your wrists.
6. Supported Fish Pose (Salamba Matsyasana): Mendacity over your Yoga Blocks might 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 in this hyperlink to information you into the pose. As soon as I’ve ready for Urdhva Dhanurasana, I wish to apply it at the very least 3 times. By the third spherical, it often feels far more free. If Urdhva Dhanurasana nonetheless feels incompatible together with your physique construction, apply a couple of extra Bridge Poses.
9. Revolved Stomach Pose (Jathara Parivrttanasana): A supine twist is a pleasant solution 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 among the best ahead bends for stretching the quadratus lumborum.
12. Seated Ahead Bend (Paschimottanasana)
13. Leisure Pose (Savasana)

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and started educating in 1986. Charlotte is the writer of Conscious Yoga, Conscious Life: A Information for On a regular basis Follow and Yoga for Meditators, each revealed by Rodmell Press. Her third ebook 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 Pink Rock Rondo, whose DVD gained two Emmy awards.