I can’t do that! Or can I…?
Being a newcomer to Hot Yoga is exciting. We quickly learn lots of new movements and although it’s hard work sometimes, there’s a real sense of progress. Every now and then, the instructor pulls a more complicated or difficult pose. A handful of people can follow the instruction, but it’s clear that others are struggling. Over time, we see that our bodies adapt to some of these more demanding positions, but there are others that we just can’t do. And that would seem to be that; you’d be forgiven for thinking you’ve reached the limit of your capability and these postures will always be out of reach. But you probably can do most of the more complex positions – if you work intelligently and give yourself enough time.
Why intelligently…?
Every posture is the result of a set of joint movements. To master a posture, apply intelligence and break it down into the required joint movements. Then look for ways to practice and strengthen these movements in isolation.
It really is as simple as that. It does require patience and perseverance. It could take months, or even years for very challenging postures. But what else are you going to do with your time but work on self development?
You need to keep your intelligence switched on throughout the process. If you experience pain then there’s no point trying to practice through it. That’s likely to make it worse. Talk to the Yogafurie team – we might be able to help you find different approaches. Also, all joints have a certain range of movement and that’s different for everyone. There are genuine limits to how far joints can move, and no two people have the same limit. Some postures require extremes of movement: some will be genuinely impossible. The thing is, you won’t know until you try – and if you try, you must proceed with caution.
Entry-level bhujipidasana
Bhujipidasana (shoulder pressing pose) is a fun but challenging arm balance. Here’s a sample program you could practice. Let us know how you get on!
Bhujipidasana is a relatively challenging posture, but with some work, most people can do it. The picture above shows a modified version with hands on bricks. The bricks help a lot by creating extra height (less core strength and hip rotation required to lift the legs) and often make it a little kinder to the wrists.
Let’s analyse the entry-level posture:
- Bent arms support the whole structure – the thighs sit on the upper arms.
- The knees have to separate sufficiently to site astride the arms, but also must grip onto the arms – otherwise you’ll fall backwards.
- The hips must flex forward enough for the ribs to approach the space between the thighs. This requires length in the lower back
- The feet float off of the floor. This means that the hip muscles have to life the weight of the legs in their bent and open position. This in turn requires the cost to really support the hips – otherwise, again, you’ll fall backwards.
Let’s put together a sequence to work on all of these elements. The sequence below is just one of many possible approaches – why don’t you think of one for yourself after trying this?
Start with a warm up
Head to the Yogafurie YouTube channel to see some Yoga practice sequences. Any of the shorter ones would make an excellent warm up for you. Or, run through some sun salutes for yourself. Make sure you feel adequately warmed up before you proceed!
Malasana – Yogi squat
Note: you can support malasana by sitting on a couple of Yoga bricks. If your heels don’t reach the ground, add a Yoga block or a rolled towel under each.
Use this position to practice:
• Separating the knees – let the elbows rest on the inner leg and gently press them outwards. Keep the knees tracking the toes.
• Strengthening the inner thigh muscles – when you’ve reached your open position, squeeze the knees against the arms.
Be careful! Don’t do this is there’s knee or back pain – or if there’s anything else happening that you don’t think is right
Wide leg forward fold – 1
You can support this position by placing your hands on bricks or blocks, and you can take the strain out of it by bending your knees.
Keep your back straight: there’s no need to try to dive your chest into the space between the legs at this stage.
Don’t hurt yourself! Back or knee pain mean that you need to chat to the Yogafurie team or see a healthcare professional. And if you feel dizzy when you come up out of this pose, then make a mental not to life yourself up slowly next time.
Wide-legged squat
You want to hold this posture for a minute or even two if you can. Keep your knees tracking your toes, your back straight and rest all your upper bodyweight through your arms. It bears immediately into the inner thigh area and it can feel intense, so only do what you comfortably can and don’t do it if you experience pain of any kind.
Wide-legged forward fold – 2
You can support this position by placing your hands on bricks or blocks, and you can take the strain out of it by bending your knees.
Aim to keep your back straight as you draw your hands closer to the space between your feet. Your hands can still be on bricks or blocks of course. Prioritise keeping your back straight – only move the hands as far as you can stay straight in your back. You’ll need to fold your belly muscles inwards – especially the lower belly!
Have your fingertips pointing forwards. When you’ve reached your hand position, squeeze the elbows in towards the middle of the space between them and reach back through the elbows – without lifting your hands.
Lizard pose and modified asymmetrical forward fold
You can support this posture by dropping the back knee and/or placing hands on bricks or blocks.
This posture teaches the body that the inner thigh and the ribs can be in close relationship with each other. It’s important to have a felt sense of what this means.
Try to not just sag the hips in this position. Keep the pelvis buoyant, and focus on tilting the sit bones upwards.
Now, we ask for a little more from the muscles that flex the upper body forward (hip flexors). A relationship was established between ribs and inner thigh in lizard: maintain that positioning as you lengthen the front leg.
- Don’t force this one. Don’t do it if you have knee or back pain, or if it causes you any concern.
- Keep at least a small bend in the back of the front knee.
- Support the pose by placing hands on bricks if that helps.
Repeat these two postures with the other leg forward.
Hip flexors and core, coordinating through shoulders
You can support this pose in lots of ways:
- Feet remain on the floor.
- Fingertips can rest on the floor or bricks.
- You can hold on to the backs of your thighs with your hands.
- Obviously don’t do it if you have concerns about back strength, or recent abdominal surgery, or if there is no pain-free way to do this.
- There’s going to be bodyweight going through the shoulders, even if you don’t lift your legs, so don’t do this if you have any shoulder injuries or concerns about your shoulders.
- Using bricks under the hands gives you extra height, making it a bit easier to lift your legs.
- There’s no requirement to use lotus pose as shown. You don’t even have to cross your legs.
- You don’t have to lift your legs of off the floor. You could lift just one leg, or even leave the legs on the ground.
- Hold for a breath if you can – more if you feel ok to do so.
Lengthening the back
Here are two postures that will help you lengthen the back line of your body.
Paschimottanasana is a symmetrical forward fold. You can support it by:
- Sitting on a block.
- Placing a rolled blanket under your knees.
- Using a Yoga belt around the balls of the feet, holding the two ends of the belt in your two hands.
The back can be lengthened further in rabbit pose (below). In rabbit pose, we hold the heels and lift the hips while keeping the crown on the floor. A dynamic tension arises between the grip of the arms on the heels and the lift of the hips, and this rounds the back. So, extra care is needed for rabbit pose.
Support the posture by:
- Distancing the head from the knees, and/ or resting the crown on a Yoga block.
- Don’t lift the hips very high and/ or hold the shins instead.
Never force anything with sarsangasana.
Setting up for bhujipidasana
Finally, you could practice kurmasana (tortoise posture). I suggest working in a standing position, because you can later enter bhujipidasana from kurmasana. But for now, we’ll just discuss the tortoise pose.
You can see from the photo below that kurmasana will demand length in the hamstrings and forward mobility in the hips. Please exercise caution if you have injuries or concerns about your back, core muscles or hips. Why not talk to the Yogafurie team, maybe we can help?
Here’s one way to enter the pose:
- Start with feet a little wider than your mat.
- Bend your knees enough to drop your ribs to your inner thighs – ribs and inner thighs feel like they have the same relationship they had in lizard pose.
- Bring the hands to the outer arch of the foot. You can even grip a little if you like.
- CAREFULLY start to lengthen the legs – see what’s possible, pain-free.
- Maintain the same relationships between inner thighs and ribs. Gripping the knees onto the shoulders helps!
The final posture
You’ve practiced all the elements of the final posture. From kurmasana, you can:
- Bend your knees and get the hands steady on the floor or supports. Using bricks will give you good height and reduce the load on the core and back overall.
- Keep gripping the knees in as much as you can.
- Try lifting one foot – and then the other if that works.
- There’s a genuine risk of falling backwards. Be ready to let yourself down quickly by bending your arms, and keep your chin tucked in a little so as not to bang the back of your head.
Is it important to get the final pose?
Not really. All of the body development occurs in the work towards the final posture. It’s the process of working through it that builds strength, mobility, focus and self-reliance. It sort of doesn’t really matter if you never actually do a bhujipidasana.
Weirdly, it’s sort of a sad thing to get a target posture. Once you can do the movement, the fun of that development stream is over. You have to start again with something new.
This blog is about an entry-level version of bhujipidasana. There’s another stage to this posture anyway! The next stage will be covered in a future article.
What if I can’t do any of this?
The point of this article is to demonstrate some of the principles you can use to deconstruct any posture into manageable development chunks. No matter where you are at, you can use a similar method to work on whatever the next step is for you.
Some people can pull almost any posture; some people can hardly pull any. We’re all on that development spectrum somewhere. I guess what I’m trying to say is: if two people are both working at their own edge, then it doesn’t matter what the edge looks like outwardly. The practice level is the same – both are working at their personal edge. That edge might look like a simple forward fold; it might look like bhujipidasana; it might look like a handstand – doesn’t really matter…from this perspective, they are the same.
How can I learn more about this?
Developing ourselves through movement (and breath, and meditation) is at the heart of Yogafurie Academy Teacher Training. Join our 200 or 300 hour programs to learn self-development techniques – and how to share your progress safely with others – in detail.
