bustyness preventing head from touching the knee!

Wish I could help you AndiP, since I also am well endowed. I don’t seem to have too much of a problem with this move. Just a little suffocation once in a while depending on what I’m wearing. Are you reaching out and then over towards your knee, or just bending at the waist? I keep both legs straight, reach out while bending over, then bend the front knee as much as necessary to reach my forehead. I also seem to have the weight in my back leg, while trying to bring the hip up on the bent leg. I’m sure Gabrielle can explain it better than me.

In the end, it probably just comes down to anatomy!

What I would like to know is how you do with Eagle Pose? There is no way in creation that my elbows are going to come down to my waist. They just have a too tough of a time getting past “the girls” 🙂 .

Good luck

Barb

Hello Andip and Barb

Thanks for the vote of confidence Barb… I will do my best to explain!

Andip, usually when people enter this pose, the hips move out of alignment making it quite difficult to accomplish all the necessary elements. It actually can make it more difficult to balance, and get head to knee contact.

When you twist your body to face the side wall bring your hips around. Bring them square to the wall that you face. It is your job now to try to keep your hips square ALL THE WAY down into, in and then moving out of the pose again. This will make your pose immediately better and your benefits improve too. I am a firm believer that you set up correctly and in doing so, your whole class is better. Too many people (and it is usually as a result of teaching styles) only pay attention to the end pose and not what happens on the way in and out. You spend half your time going in and out of poses so make the most of your yoga.

Once your body is facing the side wall, tuck the chin, keep the head sandwiched by the arms and then curl down keeping your hips square until you reach the ground with your hands. Obviously you will have to move your hands to the floor at some stage. It is at this time you bend the front leg. If your hips are even then it will feel more balanced. Your feet will feel evenly weighted. Make sure your back leg is fully locked out.

The choked throat feeling is something you get used to and manage quite quickly. In fact I am sure you will meet many people who have no issue with that at all and find it quite comfortable and easy now.

Please get back to me and tell me how you are going. Or indeed if you need finer detail. Happy to answer Eagle pose questions. Care to post them under Eagle? Pretty please? :cheese:

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

That’s it exactly! Do you see how part of why it’s right is that she’s able to get her torso close to her thighs so that her arms can reach down, instead of down and around, like I’m doing? I’m more like an upside down checkmark than anything else, and it’s frustrating because I really can’t flatten my boobs out anymore. When I took other yoga classes that weren’t bikram, my teacher had me do a modified version where my legs were a bit further apart so my boobs fit between them, but my present bikram teacher says modifications aren’t allowed in bikram yoga.

OK here’s the answer 😆

You really have no choice but to separate your feet. Is hip distance apart enough? Basically you want just enough space to have the opportunity to straighten and lengthen your spine. Whether that’s with bent or straight legs doesn’t matter. You MUST have bent arms and fingers that hold underneath the heels (ideally from behind and at worst from a small angle from behind and to the outside). Elbows bend so that you can activate your biceps muscles and not engage your shoulders!

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

PS “no choice” means that you will have to have the fortitude to do it correctly despite what your teacher is telling you. I know that can be hard and bring up some stuff for not just you but your teacher, but you are really at risk of involving muscles that should not be used when doing it with your legs together, and at risk of some muscular strain in your back and shoulders etc. Any questions, please feel free to ask them.