Supta Ardha Padmasana: A Lotus for Each Physique

In 2001, I co-taught a instructor coaching with Donna Farhi in Vancouver, BC. The 50 attendees have been skilled yoga academics and physique employees from all around the world. Through the coaching we inspired trainees to query instructing methodologies that shoehorn college students right into a one-size-fits-all mannequin.

One false impression we talked about was the perceived necessity of training what might be yoga’s most emblematic pose: Padmasana (Lotus Pose). That day we spent two hours training the poses Donna practices to prep her physique for Lotus. Once we tried Padmasana towards the tip of the category, I seen that regardless of the depth and expertise of attendees, solely three out of fifty individuals may really do it safely.

This was very shocking to me. Beforehand, I’d been below the impression that anybody who tried exhausting sufficient and practiced proper may ultimately do Lotus. This can be true for some individuals—Donna informed us it took her 10 years of cautious, affected person observe to ease her hip joints into Padmasana.

Nevertheless it’s not true that anybody can kind their legs into Lotus place, regardless of how dedicated their observe. Because of a workshop I took with Paul Grilley on anatomy for yoga, I discovered that tightness in smooth tissue is just not the commonest cause individuals can’t do Padmasana. Based on Grilley, it’s all within the bones.

Why Lotus Pose Would possibly Be Out of Attain

Some our bodies won’t ever have the ability to do full Lotus. This isn’t as a result of the homeowners of those our bodies are inferior yogis or that they’re not making an attempt exhausting sufficient. It could be as a result of their hip joints are fashioned in such a method that they don’t permit the quantity of exterior rotation required to sit down in Lotus.

There are a lot of components—all inside the realm of regular—that affect the quantity of exterior rotation in your joints. The depth, placement and orientation of your hip sockets can affect whether or not your thighs are likely to rotate inward or outward extra simply. The form and rotation of the heads and necks of the femurs additionally have an effect on the rotation, as does the form and rotation of your shaft of the femur bones. You possibly can see some bone samples that display among the potential variations that affect mobility on Grilley’s web site.

Supta Ardha Padmasana—A Lotus Pose for Each Physique

Luckily, there’s no pose in yoga—together with Padmasana—you want to do with a purpose to be a “good” yogi. Yoga has by no means been about what your physique can or can’t do.

All that stated, I’ve discovered that most individuals are able to and may profit from training Supta Ardha Padmasana, Supine Half Lotus (SHL). Amongst different advantages, SHL stretches the piriformis muscle mass, exterior rotators that cross the sacroiliac (SI) joint. When the piriformis is tense, it may press on the sciatic nerve, probably inflicting sciatica, and also can contribute to sacroiliac dysfunction. Working towards Supta Ardha Padmasana can typically alleviate sciatic ache and may relieve extreme torque in your SI joint.

Half Lotus is historically practiced in a seated place. Nevertheless, I wish to observe it mendacity down for a number of causes. First, mendacity in your again removes the restriction of the ground below your legs. It permits your high leg to cross your backside leg extra simply. Second, mendacity in your again offers you suggestions as as to whether your again is in a wholesome place. Many individuals spherical their spines after they attempt to kind Half Lotus from a sitting place. It’s a lot simpler to take care of a impartial backbone if you end up mendacity down. Lastly, having either side of your SI joint on the ground retains the joints in a impartial place.

How one can Apply Ardha Padmasana

1. Start by mendacity on the ground on a Yoga Mat or Blanket. Bend each knees and place the soles of your ft on the ground.
2. Cross your proper ankle all the best way throughout your left thigh in order that your ankle, not your foot, is resting on the thigh. Many individuals desire to position their proper ankle a number of inches from the knee, whereas others (like me) desire to position the ankle nearer to the left hip joint. Strive it each methods, or at factors in between, to see what feels greatest for you.
3. Thread your proper arm by way of the opening behind your proper knee and seize the again of your left leg. Wrap your left hand across the again of your left leg and interlace the fingers of each fingers. In case your fingers don’t join you’ll be able to join them with a belt or a yoga strap.
4. That is essential: Flex your proper ankle and hold it flexed your entire time. This retains each your knee and ankle steady.
5. Draw each legs in towards your torso, stress-free your shoulders and arms. Take deep belly breaths, creating area on the inhalations, and settling into that area in your exhalations.
6. Take 5 to 10 deep breaths earlier than releasing your legs and letting each ft relaxation on the ground. Take a number of breaths merely mendacity in your again to really feel what modified. How are the 2 sides of the pelvis resting on the ground? Does one facet of your physique really feel longer than the opposite? Once you really feel prepared, transfer to your second facet.
7. If at any level throughout SHL you’re feeling even the tiniest discomfort in both knee, please let go of the pose. There isn’t any such factor as a “good” knee ache. Lotus will be exhausting on knees—much less so if you end up mendacity down and training just one leg at a time—however please do be cautious.

The Most Widespread Misalignment

Many individuals observe Padmasana with their ft, moderately than their ankles, atop reverse thighs. If the soles of your ft are dealing with upward, you’re training this misalignment. It is a recipe for overstretched ligaments in your ankles and potential knee destabilization. One particular person I do know sat this manner for an hour and ended up having bilateral knee surgical procedures consequently.

That’s the reason so many skilled practitioners have been unable to do Padmasana in Donna’s instructor coaching. We made certain that folks have been training wholesome alignment rules after they lastly positioned their legs in Lotus. Working towards Padmasana with wholesome alignment, along with your ankles flexed and sitting on high of your thighs, is simply potential for individuals whose hip joints externally rotate very simply. Many individuals can do the misaligned model of Lotus, however not that many individuals have the acute vary of movement required to do it with the ankles—not the ft—on high of their thighs.

There’s Greater than One Approach to Apply Lotus Pose

Whereas Instagram pictures of individuals doing Lotus Pose in bikinis on sunset-lit seashores could conjure romantic concepts about its significance within the canon of yoga poses, please keep in mind that it’s not for everybody. Whether or not or not your physique can do Padmasana—or every other pose—is just not a measure of both your character or value as a yoga practitioner.

Supta Ardha Padmasana, although, generally is a wholesome staple in your repertoire of asanas. It confers lots of the advantages of Padmasana, however few of its potential dangers. What issues is just not whether or not you have been born with a skeleton that may transfer in a selected method. What issues is the care, respect and mindfulness you convey to no matter pose you’re training in a given second.

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and started instructing in 1986. Charlotte is the creator of Conscious Yoga, Conscious Life: A Information for On a regular basis Apply and Yoga for Meditators, each printed 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 people sextet Purple Rock Rondo, whose DVD received two Emmy awards.