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In almost a decade of educating yoga, I’ve but to come across a scholar who’s lukewarm on pigeon pose. Yoga college students both love this hip opener or hate it.
Pigeon pose, or kapotasana, feels superb while you do it proper — the entrance leg externally rotates to stretch the hip, whereas the again leg affords the flexors an excellent stretch — so it’s price studying methods to safely set it up.
“Pigeon pose is not a one-position-fits-all exercise,” says Stephanie Saunders, vice chairman of health programming for BODi and an authorized yoga teacher.
Kapotasana is a variation on king pigeon pose (eka pada rajakapotasana), a one-legged backbend from ashtanga yoga‘s fourth collection (which truly offers a special pose the title kapotasana).
When it involves pigeon pose, yoga is filled with variations, like seated pigeon, reclined pigeon, and even flying pigeon pose.
And why do we name it pigeon pose? When you’re within the upright place of kapotasana, your chest is lifted similar to a pigeon’s. Here’s methods to get there safely and successfully.
Pigeon Pose (Kapotasana): Step-by-Step Instructions
We’ll stroll via each the upright and forward-bend variations of kapotasana.
- Get on all fours, along with your arms shoulder-width and knees hip-width aside.
- Bring your proper knee ahead, inserting it on the ground behind your proper wrist.
- Slide your proper ankle towards your left wrist, so your proper shin crosses your mat at a cushty angle.
- Extend your left leg straight again and slowly decrease your hips to the ground. The high of your left foot must be flat on the ground.
- Keep your hips degree, along with your weight evenly distributed between them (keep away from sinking into your proper hip).
- From right here, you possibly can both stay upright — preserving your arms on the ground in entrance of you, your chest up, and your core engaged — or you possibly can fold ahead, slowly strolling your arms out in entrance of you and decreasing your chest to the ground.
- Hold the pose for five to 10 breaths, then swap sides and repeat.
- To come out of the pose, tuck your left toes below, press into your arms, and slowly carry your proper foot again to the beginning place.
How to Make Pigeon Pose Easier
If you have got tight hips or encounter discomfort in your knees or decrease again, there are many modifications you are able to do to make pigeon pose simpler.
- Use a block or folded blanket below the hip of your bent leg to assist hold the load balanced between either side of the pelvis.
- Use blocks below your arms when upright, or a bolster below your chest when folding ahead.
- Flex the toes of your bent leg to maintain your knee supported.
How to Make Pigeon Pose Harder
If you have got joyful hips that love the stretch in pigeon pose, right here’s how one can go deeper.
- Work the entrance shin nearer to parallel with the entrance of your mat (so long as there isn’t any discomfort in your knee).
- While activating your adductors (inside thighs), come onto your fingertips — or problem your steadiness by lifting your arms overhead.
- Bend your again leg, and attain for the highest of your foot for a deeper hip flexor stretch, shoulder opener, and backbend.
Beginner Tips for Doing Pigeon Pose
If you’re new to pigeon pose, begin sluggish and hearken to your physique. Make certain your entrance knee is snug. You ought to by no means really feel ache or stretching in your inside knee, hip joints or decrease again.
If you do, come out of the pose and begin once more, specializing in externally rotating your femur within the hip socket.
Resist the urge to line up your shin with the highest of your mat. While this alignment cue is taken into account “ideal,” Saunders says, “this can put pressure on the knee, especially if there is any restriction in the hip joint.” So select a place to your shin that retains your knee secure.
Benefits of Pigeon Pose
Pigeon pose stretches each the hip flexors on the entrance of the thigh and pelvis (together with the psoas) and your hip rotators on the again/aspect of the pelvis (together with the piriformis).
It additionally will increase vary of movement of the femur within the hip socket.
Pigeon pose helps heat up the physique for backbends or seated poses that require exterior hip rotation, like lotus pose.
It’s additionally useful for the again. “We know that increasing flexibility in the hips and pelvis can help with sciatica and back pain,” says Saunders.
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