The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › The Hot Yoga Poses › Suptavajrasana › Where is your butt?
The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › The Hot Yoga Poses › Suptavajrasana › Where is your butt?
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It the bridge they talk about supposed to be from your butt to your shoulders? Or how I have been doing it for a while now: from my knees to my shoulders with my my butt in the air as a result of pushing my stomach and chest as high as possible.
-Chris
Butt on the ground……. ALWAYS!!!!!!
The arch should be from the butt to the shoulders. Your butt should never leave the ground. If you can’t keep your butt down, don’t even put your shoulders to the ground. Plus, the bottom of your knees should always stay on the ground.
I’m sure Gabrielle can give greater details, but that’s the gist of it.
Barb
Wow thanks! I’ll go try it the correct way now.
Hi Barb and Chris
By your response Chris it seems as though you don’t need any more help! I guess I am assuming that your bottom is on the floor. Is that right? There are lots of techniques and tips in the Suptravajrasana postings. Let me know if I can help you with anything else.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂After two years, I went to another studio (was on vacation at the time) where the instructor saw my attempt at fixed firm with my shoulders back on the floor(which I had been doing for about a year) and said exactly what you have advised Chris: to wit, since my butt was not touching the floor, I should not even try to go back on my shoulders. This guy (the instructor) said I could go back on my shoulders for 40 years and my butt will never touch the floor, ergo, I will never be in the correct posture. He said instead, keep your spine upright until the butt touches the floor, then try to go back. He said it may take a few years, but any other way is just kidding yourself. I’ve only practiced a few times since but I can really feel the difference (pain — arrrggghhh — and soreness the days after) in my hips from trying to get my butt to the floor while sitting with my spine straight up and down. This particular instructor also said to put your knees and legs as they need to be while trying to get your butt to the floor — that once your butt is on the floor, you can then work on bringing your knees and legs closer together — but first things first — get the butt to the floor!!!
Hi Madison
Your instructor is right on the money! Can you please tell me more about the pain? Is it at all in the knees, toes, ankles, shins, quadriceps? Does the floor feel really hard or does what is in contact with the floor feel totally fine? Or is it just in the hips that you feel the pain? How far apart are your knees?
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Gabrielle:
Sorry for the delay in responding. When I used to do the posture incorrectly, I would feel some pain in my quadriceps and the dorsal surface of my feet would be very hard on the floor — actually to the point where I bled from my left foot and would then reopen the sore in succeeding classes (I finally started putting my t-shirt under my left foot as a cushion). Now that I have stopped going back and instead am trying to first get my butt on the floor, the only place I feel pain is in my hips. My knees are probably about 15″ apart; the aforementioned instructor had told me to go wider, but I don’t think I can (that causes pain too!). My feet are probably about 2 feet apart. I do feel quite a bit of pain in my hips, but it is not unmanageable, nor is it surprising, as I believe that I have relatively tight hips to begin with.
Hi Madison
Better late than never, as they say! 😉
OK, I am officially intrigued by your measurements! You mention that your feet are 24 inches apart and your knees are 15 inches apart. Are the insides of your feet lining up and TOUCHING alongside your hips and the tops of your feet on the floor?
Perhaps you have miscalculated the actual measurements. But if your knees are apart they are generally wider apart than your hips, which are touching heels…. So are your legs in a “V” shape fanning outward?
Usually when you bring your knees further apart the heels can settle in more snugly with the hips. Just check this out and tell me how it goes for you. At what point when you bring your knees apart do your hips start to hurt? And are your heels touching hips with no space between them? Continue to sit up without going back onto elbows until I get the picture straight! (please!)
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Gabrielle:
Yes, my knees/feet [strong][em]are[/em][/strong] in a “V” like position, with the feet fanning out. I thought that the instructor had told me to get my knees and feet as far apart as I could get them and that this would facilitate getting my butt to the floor. The fact is, though, that the fanning out of my legs hurts my hips. My sense is that if I do what you are saying, i.e., knees wide apart, but feet snug against the side of my hips, that I will not only eliminate a lot of the pain, but my butt will get lower as well. Can’t wait to try it.
Hi Madison
It sounds as though your legs have been in a “W” position. That’s definitely a no-no! Can’t wait to hear what happens. I hope you find some ease in the pose (even if you’re not in so-called ideal position!).
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Gabrielle:
OK, so I spread my knees as far as I comfortably could, but I made sure that my feet were only so wide apart that when I lowered my butt, my hips brushed against my feet. I don’t think I got down any lower this way(my butt is still about an inch off the floor), but there was no hip pain to speak of. There is some discomfort in my quadriceps, but only about what you’d expect from a deep stretch in an area that is not that flexible (for me anyway). Thanks for your help.
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