The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › The Hot Yoga Poses › Dandayamana Dhanurasana › Techniques for fine-tuning a well-developed bow – hip alignment
The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › The Hot Yoga Poses › Dandayamana Dhanurasana › Techniques for fine-tuning a well-developed bow – hip alignment
-
AuthorPosts
-
Hi Gabrielle,
I am hoping you can provide me with some tips on how to fine-tune this posture safely and efficiently. I’ll give you a picture of where I am at with the posture and my body for the diagnosis:
1) POSTURE-SPECIFIC INFO
How I am currently expressing the posture:
* Two feet are in one line
* both knees are locked
* chin is on arm
* front arm stretched out, reaching forward
* body is parallel to floorEssentially, have reached the “full expression”, from a dialogue perspective, but have questions about the best way to progress further.
*My hips are still twisting slightly – NOT parallel to the floor.
In terms of where my body openness is at, I have a high degree of flexibility in the hips. Overall my body is very open. The parts where I lack that same degree of flexibility are in my upper back, shoulders/lats/rotator cuffs and biceps. These are the areas I am working on opening now.
As I aim to bring my hips into parallel alignment with the floor, I find that it’s a bit like trying to close a tight tupperwear lid. I move one end, and the other end slips. In specific, the flexibility in my hip compensates for the tightness in my shoulder/bicep (where my arm connects to my chest). So I have a perfectly parallel locked knee and when I try to use my hip strength to bring that hips back down (tilted only slightly) my arm screams.
My question is, do I continue with the posture as I have been, knowing that it will slowly morph into alignment as my chest and back continue to open? OR, should I actively bring my hip down as a way to work on the chest _in the posture_? (Or something else entirely?)
Thanks in advance!
Namaste,
MeganHi Megan
Thanks for the post. You are very aware of what’s going on. I liked your analogy of the tupperware lid! 😆
OK, so I have to say yes, you’re doing it right. I was a bit alarmed by the ‘arm screaming’ phrase. I would like to know if you are experiencing pain there. Perhaps you could let me know.
When you get the leg up high and you press the leg back then the shoulder gets pulled back and then when you push the hip down the are reseats a little into the shoulder socket. And then voila, you have to go through the process again. It really doesn’t stop. There is no real end point.
Here’s what I would like you to try: Stop holding onto your ankle or shin. Start holding onto your foot around the arch area. I am positive you are going to find more strength and opening when you do that. You will find a new challenge and I just know you’ll find that you have more ability to get that hip into the position you’re after. I always do the pose this way now. It gives me a lot more.
Try it and get back to me. The idea of getting into the standing splits is just aesthetic. You can do more than that. The satisfaction you’ll get back by holding at the foot will really be great. Oh, there may be a few moments where you wonder if it’s the same pose! Ha. Let me know how you go
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Thanks Gabrielle. I’ll give that a shot and let you know how it goes.
To address the arm pain. I think it’s just that when I try to get the hips parallel, it creates more of stretch in the chest and arms – well, specifically in my bicep, actually. To use the tupperware metaphor again (glad you liked that :)) it would be as if I forced the back side closed to lock it in place, but without the total flexibility needed to close it fully all around, it would be way to much of an opening on the other side. I think you get that part – The pain itself, though … feels like that nerve/tendon that wraps in and around the bicep and in the groin of my arm pit (don’t know much anatomy, sorry) get’s over stretched and says “hey — slow down here, WAY too much stretch going on – OUCH!”. I feel this in floor bow, too, when working on getting my shoulders to rotate outwards. The bicep and arm pit areas feel tender and sore. Maybe it’s just the normal stretching/pain sensation, though.
I’ll try the different grip and get back to you. Any additional insight you have about the arm pain would be great. Thanks so much for your time and energy!
Hi Megan
Let me ask you to confirm that it is not muscular pain in the arm then! 😉
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂OK, right–NOT muscular pain! Thanks Gabriele 🙂
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.