WHY THIS CAMEL POSE SEQUENCE WORKS
College students who love Ustrasana, Camel Pose, reward the pose for the best way it opens the shoulders, chest and upper-back. And, they’re proper. Camel Pose is difficult to beat in relation to extending the thoracic backbone.
College students who detest Ustrasana invariably complain about discomfort within the neck and decrease again. They’re additionally proper. It may be powerful to do Ustrasana with out creating extreme compression in your decrease again and neck.
As lecturers, we all know two issues about how our college students expertise Ustrasana. Some college students love the pose as a result of it’s working for them; and, some college students don’t love the pose as a result of it’s not working for them. For me, this turns into a puzzle to resolve once I’m sequencing a category. My targets are clear: I need to create a sequence that helps college students maximize the advantages of Ustrasana (Camel Pose) whereas minimizing the challenges of the posture.
MAXIMIZE THE BENEFITS OF CAMEL POSE
To do that, the sequence beneath emphasizes a stream of postures that methodologically prepares your total entrance physique for Ustrasana. When the entrance physique—particularly the hip flexors, quadriceps, abdominals, pectorals and anterior deltoids—are adequately ready, it’s extra doubtless that your college students will be capable of open their shoulders and chest with out crunching their decrease again and neck.
Right here’s a very fast break down of my favourite mini-practice for Ustrasana (Camel Pose).
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POSES 1-3
The primary 3 postures let you settle into your physique. Gentle twisting is a pleasant preparation for yoga backbends. The next posture stream goes to focus virtually completely on lengthening the entrance physique in preparation for backbends, so it’s good to the sequence with just a little complementary work.
POSES 4-6
I actually love this mixture of poses and I exploit it in a whole lot of my sequences. It’s positively a staple in my very own observe. In every of those postures your shoulder is in extension and one hip is in extension. This concurrently lengthens the entrance of your shoulders, chest, hip-flexors and quads. The highest arm is in the identical chest-opening place as Ustrasana. These postures additionally introduce delicate spinal extension. This delicate backbending segues completely into the following mixture of postures.
POSES 7-12
It is a easy development of backbends that goes from much less demanding to extra demanding. One of many causes that I selected these postures is that all of them prolong the shoulder joint, aside from Cobra Pose. This shoulder extension will assist open the entrance of the shoulders and chest in preparation for Ustrasana.
POSE 13
Fortunate quantity 13—Ustrasana! That is nonetheless a tricky posture for many college students, however listed here are 3 fast ideas for working with the posture. 1) Have interaction the underside of your Gluteus Maximus. Sure, interact them. 2) Externally rotate your arms in order that your biceps and elbow creases are turning away from one another. It will assist elevate your chest within the pose. 3) If the pose continues to be uncomfortable in your neck, tuck your chin and look towards your chest. If the pose is uncomfortable in your decrease again, place your arms on the again of your pelvis. Use your thumbs to elongate the again of your pelvis downward. Take your time and do what you should do to be able to befriend the pose.
POSES 14-15
The phrase “good” is nauseatingly overused. However, I’m going so as to add to the issue and write that Supta Padangusthasana is the “good” follow-up to Ustrasana and different backbends. Not like Completely happy Child Pose, which flexes the backbone, Supta Padangusthasana lets you preserve the pure curves of the backbone. It is a delicate transition on your again after all of the extension you created in your backbends. It additionally permits you a number of moments to really feel (and probably savor) the afterglow of your backbends. Viparita Karani is your simply desserts.
AND, if you wish to really feel extra assured and educated about your sequencing expertise, try my on-line course, The Artwork of Yoga Sequencing. It’s nice for yoga lecturers and college students who need to higher perceive how the physique works and learn how to stretch and strengthen successfully.
{illustration by MCKIBILLO}