Camel Pose with Yoga Blocks

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

A typical concern in training Camel Pose is that straining to succeed in your heels together with your fingers restricts respiration. Working towards Camel Pose with Yoga Blocks raises your fingers and reduces the pressure in your chest, which will help ease your respiration.

Not everybody’s spinal construction helps straightforward backbending. As you possibly can see from the above picture, the lion’s share of the backbend happens within the lumbar backbone. (The thoracic backbone will not be actually designed for greater than minimal backbending.) Some folks’s lumbar spinous processes are giant and thick, that means that they may “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 despite the fact that the thoracic backbone’s vary of movement in backbending is restricted, even a small quantity of extension makes the pose simpler, whereas a curvier thoracic backbone will prohibit motion. All that is to say that training Camel Pose with Yoga Blocks could make the pose accessible to nearly everybody.

Tips on how to Follow Camel Pose with Yoga Blocks

You may follow Camel Pose with Yoga Blocks 3 ways. Yoga Blocks have three completely different peak choices: tall, medium and brief. (The above picture exhibits blocks at their medium peak.) Right here’s the right way to follow Camel Pose with Yoga Blocks.

1. Collect your props: a Yoga Mat and two Yoga Blocks. You might also place a folded Yoga Blanket beneath your knees for additional padding should you like. If you happen to’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 stage on the outsides of your toes. If you happen to’re kneeling on a blanket, make certain your blocks are in your mat or on the ground somewhat than in your blanket to offer them a steady base. (This is applicable to stable flooring similar to 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. Carry your chest and lengthen your backbone as you start to bend backward, reaching to your blocks.
6. Take a couple of breaths with the blocks at their highest peak. Is your respiration 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 respiration is straightforward, be happy to show the blocks on their sides, to medium peak. Test in once more together with your respiration. In case your respiration is free and straightforward, take a couple of breaths right here. Then if you’d like, you possibly can decrease the blocks to their lowest stage. Once more, test your respiration.
8. Free, unrestricted respiration is far more vital than getting your fingers to your heels or to the bottom peak of your yoga block. So maintain checking your respiration to ensure it feels relaxed.
9. Take 5 to eight deep breaths, wherever you might be within the pose. Then return to kneeling and both sit in your heels or sit on one among your Yoga Blocks as your knees permit.

One Extra Suggestion

Yoga Blocks can actually make Camel Pose extra comfy, however it’s equally vital to ensure 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 right way to put together your physique for Camel Pose, and the right way to settle 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 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 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 Crimson Rock Rondo, whose DVD gained two Emmy awards.