The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › The Hot Yoga Poses › Pada Hastasana › Hands Won’t Go Under Heels
The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › The Hot Yoga Poses › Pada Hastasana › Hands Won’t Go Under Heels
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Hello. Happy Thanksgiving. I have been practicing about 18 months and recently found this site. Love it! I have read the other posts and suffer a similar challenge. I can only get my hands to the sides of my feet, not scooping them up under my ankles. I do one set with my hands behind me, knees bent. I cannot yet touch my heels but my hands hit the back of my ankles most days. Elbows still not behind me as much as to the sides of legs. It seems physically impossible for my elbows to move behind me and thus they stay to the side of me, not behind my calves. It feels like I cannot bend enough or have the flexibility to grab my feet. I tried separating my legs a bit and this did not help at all, since as I mentioned, my elbow stay to the sides of my, not behind my calves. I can grab the sides of my feet comfortably, but I know that’s not the pose. If it helps provide more context, I am very short (4’10”), could lose about 20 lbs and have problems grabbing my leg in standing head to knee pose (can grab my legs but not clasp my hands under). I am able to clasp my hands in the seated head to knee pose. One of my teachers thinks it may just be an anatomical issue. Many thanks!
Hello Rina
Thank you for your detailed post and welcome to the forum!
I just need to ask for some specifics so that I make no assumptions.
May I please ask you how far apart you have placed your feet?
Did you keep them parallel?
Did you make absolutely sure that your body stayed squished on your legs?
Where else can you feel the tension, in this or in any other pose?When you are in seated head to knee pose, you say your hands are clasped. Are they under the ball of your foot or at the toes or at the arch?
Is your head on your knee?
What is your leg doing? Is it straight or is it bent?
What is your foot doing? Pointing which direction?
Are your arms straight? Or?OK, that’ll keep you busy for some time!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Thank you Gabrielle!
I placed my feet about 6″ apart, then 12″ apart. I did find the pose easier that way, although my hands were not under my ankles… they may have been a bit closer however. I will try this again.
My legs were parallel
I did to make sure I was squished together
I’m not sure I understand the question about tension? I feel stretching in the back of my legs if that’s what you mean?In seated head to knee pose, my hands are under the ball of my foot. My forehead is at my knee. My leg is bent a little on the right and bent a bit more on the left. My shoulders are definitely not even though when the teacher says roll in, I’m clearly more dominant on the outside, not the roll in side. I try to keep my feet flexed and straight. They may turn a little out.
Does this help paint a more clear picture?Hi Rina
Yes the picture is clearer!
Don’t be worried at all that your legs are wide apart. You may actually have a sense of which of those (6 or 12 inch) positions seemed to give you more ease. Please come back and tell me!
Also it’s absolutely fine to have just your fingertips under the heels. You really do not have to have the entire fingers there. Experiment with the distance apart. This pose actually is a complex one in terms of the body’s response. There are some amazing reflexes that occur here (that go beyond the classic one we know of: reciprocal inhibition) that make the instructions create the magic.
Regarding tension: Often people feel or even create tension in their shoulders and neck in most if not all the poses. In this case, the effort of the arms in this pose often causes people to have tight shoulders, tight neck, chin dropping in towards the body or with the head held at an odd angle with tension. You may find you need to do the pose now or in class to really check in to what’s going on in class. It’s extremely common to see half to most students with shoulders taut with tension which, in this case means moving down toward the floor, and towards the ears.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Gabrielle, Just an update. I have been experimenting with doing the posture with my legs wider and so far I am only able to (still) grab the sides of my feet, not behind my ankles. Should I continue trying on this front or do you suggest any modifications.
Many thanks.
Rina
Hello Rina
Just wondering if you have a big bust. That can make it difficult to be in this particular semi-inverted position.
And, as for a modification, try this: Don’t grab the sides of the feet, that definitely sets up the wrong mechanism in your shoulders, arms and back. Place your palms on the back of your ankles (and lower calves) with thumbs to the outside (naturally) and pull upwards against your lower legs in the same way you would if you had your fingertips under your heels. Aim to get your elbows to touch together behind your legs. Even though they won’t touch it will help you remove the tension in your shoulders. They’ll be moving away from the floor and your ears, and upwards toward the ceiling.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Thanks Gabrielle. I am busty and very tight shoulders and hips. I will try to (for now) grab the back of my ankles as you suggested and not spreading my legs and grabbing my ankles. I am trying to be ego-less as it’s very humbling not to be able to this after 18 months. Thank you for your suggestions and time!
Hi Rina
As you are very busty and have tight shoulders and hips I would recommend you separate your legs to at least hip width. You will feel more grounded and balanced and more able to pull. In that position you need to feel the elbows and shoulders moving away from the floor as you ‘pull’ on the backs of your ankles/calves (aka upward pressure of the palms against the legs).
If one does not have a large bust then one would have their chest closer to the legs and then the geometry of the arms would make it easier to reach the elbows around the back of the legs… and so on and so forth. So it’s not about you have anything anatomical per se. And it’s worth saying that this is not just a gravity stretch by leaning over and hoping you can pull your body down with the strength of the arms. It’s far more sophisticated than that in terms of what the body’s doing. So please make sure you feel that mechanism in your arms as described. Done correctly you’ll start to free up your hips and legs in a way that gravity stretching (ie in this case just bending down and leaning on the floor or grabbing the sides of the feet) will never do.
It also helps to think of the work with the legs in a different way. Instead of trying to straighten the legs, pull with the arms as described and just lift your hips. Subtle but it works!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂One more question… are there any related stretches you recommend I do to help me with this posture and hasten my fingers grabbing under my ankles?? Thanks Gabrielle!
Hi Rina
The mechanism of this pose is quite an interesting one. Making sure you’re pulling in the right way and not engaging your shoulders and neck and ensuring your body is on your legs (and yes, separate the legs for better engagement of this mechanism) will give you the lengthening you need as well as doing the other poses in the series with best technique.
If you’re not sure about any poses, research them on this forum under pose name, or ask me and I can point you in the right direction.
As I mentioned last post this is not just a gravity stretch and this is why you need to make sure you are grabbing in the right place and pulling in the right way (not from the side, and not using the shoulders and so on…).
Take a look at the proper way to do Paschimottanasana on the forum as done correctly you use a similar mechanism. Standing Sep Leg Stretch is just about the same as Padahastasana except with legs even further apart. Where do you hold your feet for that pose?
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Gabrielle
For Standing Sep Leg Stretch I can hold my feet under my ankles, working on straightening my back instead of rounding and increasing flexibility so I have more leverage to pull… head no where near the floor….yet 🙂
Hi Rina
The purpose of the pose is not to get your head on the floor despite what the dialog says. So just work on having a straight back, even arched to get that delicious stretch. When you say you’re holding under your ankles can you be more specific about exactly what you’re doing? Sounds like you could be doing the right thing. I just don’t want to make any assumptions.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Gabrielle
I can usually get each hand firmly under my ankles (angle seems different that in hands to feet pose). I try to lean forward and move on my toes more, but currently, as mentioned, I’m trying to straighten my back, which seems to like to round. Is this a good exercise/stretch to practice to improve hand to feet pose?
Hi Rina
Are your legs straight or bent?
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂That’s terrific, Rina.
Your ideal position of your fingers in both of these highly similar poses is either directly from behind your heels pointing directly forward, to an angle of 45 degrees, where the fingers or fingertips are still under the heels, pointing inward.
If your back is still rounded, then your aim is to straighten the back and ideally feel an arch in it! So all you need to do is bend the legs, feel the back arch/straighten. Then you simply aim to lift the hips. Play with the distance of the feet apart. Widen a little to see if you can have first and foremost a straight/arched back. If you read my other posts you’ll see that I always teach for peeps to bend the legs, grab the feet properly from behind, straighten the back and then finally if and only if the back is straight should one start to attempt to lift hips to straighten the legs. Oh, I haven’t mentioned here that your elbows must be bent and pointing outwards, arms close to shins, shoulders away from ears.
So, if you’re able to do that particular pose well, then it seems the impediment in Hands to Feet is probably bust size. Widen your stance to get your stability. Work on the fingers in the right place, from as close to parallel as possible. For you at the mo, you have the hands on the calves as described before. Little by little you notice your ability to shift your hands downwards towards your heels. Your priority is chest on legs, feet apart, stability and pull of your hands/arms BEFORE you get your hands under your feet. Again you can play with the distance of feet apart. Over time you may be able to bring them closer together. You are likely to be told by teachers that you should not stand with your feet apart. You will have to ignore that. Otherwise you will be unable to employ the mechanism of this pose and be straining your body instead of opening it up.
Finally, you need to know that there are some women who will always have a little space between the feet to do this pose because of upper body geometry.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Thank you Gabrielle. I am not sure I do the standing separate leg stretch well, but my feet are pigeon toed and I seem to be able to get my hands under-ish my ankles. They do seem a bit angled, but no one has corrected me the way they have (frequently!) in hands to feet, so I think I must be better in that one. I will try the bended knees and keep you posted on my progress in this and hands to feet. I am going to be patient. Do you feel all bodies are capable of all poses? Thank you for all your suggestions. Happy Holidays!
Hello Rina
I look forward to hearing of your experiences. Do you happen to have access to a copy of Hot Yoga MasterClass? It could help you get a visual on what you’re supposed to do. Naturally you can do it all without the manual and it just means you need to check into your body and see if it matches with my instructions above, as your most important reference.
You ask a great question. All bodies may not be able to look as if they are in the ideal end pose (the hallowed position of the agile (=a balance of flexible + strong) but all bodies (with very rare exception) can be in a position to get the pose mechanics right and get the correct benefits of every pose. The instructions in the recited dialog do not deliver that across all the poses. So for example, in Standing Sep Leg Intense Stretch if one is not sufficiently flexible, bent legs and a straight/arched back will deliver the right outcome. However the dialog says (now, anyway) that you must have straight legs, never mind the rounded back and eventually you are supposed to get a stretch everywhere that creates a straight back. This rarely happens. With dialog instructions for this pose one completely misses out on taking advantage of crucial mechanisms and reflexes in the body. I am sure I mentioned before that this is not a gravity stretch and far more sophisticated. So whatever you can do to check in and match my instructions about hand position, pull, lift, shoulders, and so on, with what you feel is happening in your body, will take you a long way!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Gabrielle,
Just to confirm: For those that cannot hook their hands under their heels, that can only get their hands as far down as their Achilles tendon, should we clasp our legs where are hands are at and pull (even if our hands continually slide because of sweat)?
Is pulling, regardless of where are hands are at, as long we are pulling with our biceps and our elbows are facing behind us, the key component? Or do we want to get our hands under our heel first, before we are even able to pull?
Joe
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