Camel Pose with Yoga Blocks

A number of weeks in the past, I wrote a put up on the best way to put together your physique for Camel Pose (Ustrasana). Camel Pose is a difficult backbend. It stretches the complete entrance physique, particularly the quadriceps, stomach, chest and shoulders. Within the put up, I outlined a sequence you possibly can observe with a purpose to stretch and mobilize these important areas of the pose. In in the present day’s put up, I’ll describe how one can observe Camel Pose with Yoga Blocks to make the pose extra accessible and comfy.

A standard concern in working towards Camel Pose is that straining to succeed in your heels together with your fingers restricts respiratory. Working towards Camel Pose with Yoga Blocks raises your fingers and reduces the pressure in your chest, which might help ease your respiratory.

Not everybody’s spinal construction helps straightforward backbending. As you possibly can see from the above photograph, the lion’s share of the backbend happens within the lumbar backbone. (The thoracic backbone isn’t actually designed for greater than minimal backbending.) Some individuals’s lumbar spinous processes are giant and thick, that means that they are going to “hit” one another a lot prior to shorter, thinner spinous course of do. This restricts vary of movement in spinal extension.

As well as, some practitioners have a extra pronounced thoracic kyphosis (convex curve). This additionally restricts vary of movement in backbending. So though the thoracic backbone’s vary of movement in backbending is proscribed, even a small quantity of extension makes the pose simpler, whereas a curvier thoracic backbone will prohibit motion. All that is to say that working towards Camel Pose with Yoga Blocks could make the pose accessible to virtually everybody.

The right way to Observe Camel Pose with Yoga Blocks

You’ll be able to observe Camel Pose with Yoga Blocks 3 ways. Yoga Blocks have three totally different peak choices: tall, medium and brief. (The above photograph reveals blocks at their medium peak.) Right here’s the best way to observe Camel Pose with Yoga Blocks.

1. Collect your props: a Yoga Mat and two Yoga Blocks. You might also place a folded Yoga Blanket underneath your knees for further padding when you like. Should you’re utilizing a blanket, fold it in order that it’s narrower than your mat, and place it within the heart of the mat.
2. Come to a kneeling place in your mat and/or folded blanket.
3. Place blocks at their highest degree on the outsides of your toes. Should you’re kneeling on a blanket, be sure that your blocks are in your mat or on the ground relatively than in your blanket to offer them a steady base. (This is applicable to strong flooring resembling wooden or concrete. I wouldn’t advocate utilizing blocks on plush carpeting.)
4. Place your fingers in your pelvic rim and press down, releasing your tailbone towards your knees.
5. Raise your chest and lengthen your backbone as you start to bend backward, reaching in your blocks.
6. Take a couple of breaths with the blocks at their highest peak. Is your respiratory free and unrestricted? If not, keep right here for a couple of extra breaths to see if it turns into simpler.
7. In case your respiratory is straightforward, be happy to show the blocks on their sides, to medium peak. Test in once more together with your respiratory. In case your respiratory is free and simple, take a couple of breaths right here. Then if you would like, you possibly can decrease the blocks to their lowest degree. Once more, examine your respiratory.
8. Free, unrestricted respiratory is far more vital than getting your fingers to your heels or to the bottom peak of your yoga block. So hold checking your respiratory to ensure it feels relaxed.
9. Take 5 to eight deep breaths, wherever you’re within the pose. Then return to kneeling and both sit in your heels or sit on certainly one of your Yoga Blocks as your knees permit.

One Extra Suggestion

Yoga Blocks can actually make Camel Pose extra snug, nevertheless it’s equally vital to guarantee that we put together the physique to the fullest extent potential earlier than we embark on Ustrasana. I extremely advocate that you simply learn the put up I wrote a couple of weeks in the past about the best way to put together your physique for Camel Pose, and the best way to quiet down afterward to rebalance your physique. Your breath—and a pair Yoga Blocks—can information you right into a Camel Pose that’s each exhilarating and relaxed.

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and commenced instructing in 1986. Charlotte is the writer of Conscious Yoga, Conscious Life: A Information for On a regular basis Observe and Yoga for Meditators, each revealed by Rodmell Press. Her third guide 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.