just can't hold on

Hello Jacquie

I know the feeling. Most of us have been there at some stage of our practice. There are steps on most people’s journeys that are similar.

You will probably find that at some stage:
@ your grip will slip due to sweat
@ your grip will slip due to learning familiarity with the pose
@ and it may slip due to inadequate finger strength
@ your grip may feel uncomfortable with the inability to find the ‘right spot’.
@ you wipe your sweat off on your pants or top
@ or soak your sweat up by placing a hand towel in between.

You will come out of this. Take a little survey – ask some of your fellow students about their experience. Most are happy to share and no doubt you will discover some inspirational people and stories. You may just find that what seems to be easy for others may be fraught with more challenge than you thought.

During the first few months of my practice I had difficulty with the grip in this pose. As I became more and more flexible my grip would slide up my leg a little. What was worse is that I initially relied on a small hand towel to secure my grip. Please don’t go down that path. Just be prepared to fail a little, maybe fall out, just observe, and then go right back in again. Here is what happened (quoted from another post) when I let go of my hand towel: “For the first few weeks I felt cramping and pain in my fingers. It was hard to hold on. I also felt pain in my shins. It was all short lived. Now there is strength plus ease in the grip and my pose is as good as ever.” Of course, I too believed that the sweat was making it difficult to hold my leg. 😉

The other thing I can say is that the strength in my hands also developed over time and is now completely independent of the amount of sweat on my hands. After a while I didn’t need to wipe my sweat. This means I can have a focused practice and simply stand there without the distraction.

Re: foot or ankle, which do you grip?
The less flexible you are, you grip your foot. The more flexible you are, the higher the grip (the ankle). What you need to do is optimize your grip so that your backbend is the greatest it can be at all times. If you slip your hand to your ankle you run the risk of lessening or flattening out your backbend by dropping your chest closer to the ground. I would firstly create the very best backbend by holding the foot. Kick your foot back and your knee up and try to keep your body as upright as you can as you drive the pose with your kick. When you are satisfied that you have gone as far as you can with the foot hold (there is no pre-determined number of classes that this will happen), then start to move your hand toward the ankle. Make it more about the depth of your backbend.

The best reason to keep the grip at the foot is to develop the strength of the kick and the opening through the ankle. If you hold the mid-foot area your kick creates great traction in your ankles. You can feel them open as you kick your foot against your hand. This is somewhat lost when the grip shifts to the ankle. So create depth first and open your ankles by holding the foot especially if you need that opening for other poses (Awkward, Supta Vajrasana, Half Tortoise, Camel, Eagle, and that is just to name a few!).

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

You are most welcome Jacquie

Have fun, come back and tell us what happens!

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Jacquie

The Bow poses are particularly beautiful to look at and particularly gratifying too. Especially this one because this is the only backbend where you get to watch yourself. 😉

With your (temporary) inflexibility pay attention to the technique where you stay upright as much as you possibly can, while learning how to get the kick right, all while trying to reach your active arm and hand vertically upward. It sounds a bit funny but it takes some time to learn how to kick into this pose. And besides that, you have to practice and build your stamina to do so. Along with the foot going back is the knee going up. The latter, when you ‘get’ it will feel as if your thigh is burning (in a great way! – believe me).

And as it is in most cases – practice is key.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂