Supta Ardha Padmasana: A Lotus for Each Physique

In 2001, I co-taught a instructor coaching with Donna Farhi in Vancouver, BC. The 50 attendees have been skilled yoga lecturers and physique employees from all around the world. Throughout the coaching we inspired trainees to query educating methodologies that shoehorn college students right into a one-size-fits-all mannequin.

One false impression we talked about was the perceived necessity of practising what might be yoga’s most emblematic pose: Padmasana (Lotus Pose). That day we spent two hours practising the poses Donna practices to prep her physique for Lotus. After we tried Padmasana towards the top of the category, I seen that regardless of the depth and expertise of attendees, solely three out of fifty individuals may truly do it safely.

This was very stunning to me. Beforehand, I’d been beneath the impression that anybody who tried arduous sufficient and practiced proper may finally do Lotus. This can be true for some individuals—Donna informed us it took her 10 years of cautious, affected person apply to ease her hip joints into Padmasana.

But it surely’s not true that anybody can kind their legs into Lotus place, irrespective of how dedicated their apply. Because of a workshop I took with Paul Grilley on anatomy for yoga, I came upon that tightness in smooth tissue isn’t the most typical cause individuals can’t do Padmasana. In accordance with Grilley, it’s all within the bones.

Why Lotus Pose Would possibly Be Out of Attain

Some our bodies won’t ever be capable of do full Lotus. This isn’t as a result of the homeowners of those our bodies are inferior yogis or that they’re not attempting arduous sufficient. It might be as a result of their hip joints are shaped in such a approach that they don’t permit the quantity of exterior rotation required to sit down in Lotus.

There are various components—all inside the realm of regular—that affect the quantity of exterior rotation in your joints. The depth, placement and orientation of your hip sockets can affect whether or not your thighs are inclined to rotate inward or outward extra simply. The form and rotation of the heads and necks of the femurs additionally have an effect on the rotation, as does the form and rotation of your shaft of the femur bones. You’ll be able to see some bone samples that exhibit a number of the doable variations that affect mobility on Grilley’s web site.

Supta Ardha Padmasana—A Lotus Pose for Each Physique

Luckily, there’s no pose in yoga—together with Padmasana—you’ll want to do so as to be a “good” yogi. Yoga has by no means been about what your physique can or can’t do.

All that stated, I’ve discovered that most individuals are able to and may profit from practising Supta Ardha Padmasana, Supine Half Lotus (SHL). Amongst different advantages, SHL stretches the piriformis muscular tissues, exterior rotators that cross the sacroiliac (SI) joint. When the piriformis is tense, it could actually press on the sciatic nerve, probably inflicting sciatica, and may contribute to sacroiliac dysfunction. Training Supta Ardha Padmasana can generally alleviate sciatic ache and may relieve extreme torque in your SI joint.

Half Lotus is historically practiced in a seated place. Nonetheless, I prefer to apply it mendacity down for a number of causes. First, mendacity in your again removes the restriction of the ground beneath your legs. It permits your high leg to cross your backside leg extra simply. Second, mendacity in your again offers you suggestions as as to whether your again is in a wholesome place. Many individuals spherical their spines once they attempt to kind Half Lotus from a sitting place. It’s a lot simpler to take care of a impartial backbone when you’re mendacity down. Lastly, having each side of your SI joint on the ground retains the joints in a impartial place.

Tips on how to Follow Ardha Padmasana

1. Start by mendacity on the ground on a Yoga Mat or Blanket. Bend each knees and place the soles of your ft on the ground.
2. Cross your proper ankle all the best way throughout your left thigh in order that your ankle, not your foot, is resting on the thigh. Many individuals favor to put their proper ankle a number of inches from the knee, whereas others (like me) favor to put the ankle nearer to the left hip joint. Strive it each methods, or at factors in between, to see what feels finest for you.
3. Thread your proper arm by way of the opening behind your proper knee and seize the again of your left leg. Wrap your left hand across the again of your left leg and interlace the fingers of each palms. In case your palms don’t join you possibly can join them with a belt or a yoga strap.
4. That is necessary: Flex your proper ankle and maintain it flexed the complete time. This retains each your knee and ankle secure.
5. Draw each legs in towards your torso, stress-free your shoulders and arms. Take deep stomach breaths, creating house on the inhalations, and settling into that house in your exhalations.
6. Take 5 to 10 deep breaths earlier than releasing your legs and letting each ft relaxation on the ground. Take a number of breaths merely mendacity in your again to really feel what modified. How are the 2 sides of the pelvis resting on the ground? Does one facet of your physique really feel longer than the opposite? While you really feel prepared, transfer to your second facet.
7. If at any level throughout SHL you are feeling even the tiniest discomfort in both knee, please let go of the pose. There is no such thing as a such factor as a “good” knee ache. Lotus will be arduous on knees—much less so when you’re mendacity down and practising just one leg at a time—however please do be cautious.

The Most Widespread Misalignment

Many individuals apply Padmasana with their ft, relatively than their ankles, atop reverse thighs. If the soles of your ft are going through upward, you might be practising this misalignment. It is a recipe for overstretched ligaments in your ankles and doable knee destabilization. One particular person I do know sat this manner for an hour and ended up having bilateral knee surgical procedures in consequence.

That’s the reason so many skilled practitioners have been unable to do Padmasana in Donna’s instructor coaching. We made positive that folks have been practising wholesome alignment ideas once they lastly positioned their legs in Lotus. Training Padmasana with wholesome alignment, along with your ankles flexed and sitting on high of your thighs, is simply doable for individuals whose hip joints externally rotate very simply. Many individuals can do the misaligned model of Lotus, however not that many individuals have the acute vary of movement required to do it with the ankles—not the ft—on high of their thighs.

There’s Greater than One Method to Follow Lotus Pose

Whereas Instagram images of individuals doing Lotus Pose in bikinis on sunset-lit seashores could conjure romantic concepts about its significance within the canon of yoga poses, please do not forget that it’s not for everybody. Whether or not or not your physique can do Padmasana—or some other pose—isn’t a measure of both your character or value as a yoga practitioner.

Supta Ardha Padmasana, although, generally is a wholesome staple in your repertoire of asanas. It confers most of the advantages of Padmasana, however few of its potential dangers. What issues isn’t whether or not you have been born with a skeleton that may transfer in a selected approach. What issues is the care, respect and mindfulness you deliver to no matter pose you might be practising in a given second.

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and commenced educating in 1986. Charlotte is the creator of Conscious Yoga, Conscious Life: A Information for On a regular basis Follow and Yoga for Meditators, each printed 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.