The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › The Hot Yoga Poses › Dandayamana Dhanurasana › Lower your body
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Why do teachers tell you to lower your body in this posture? All the pictures that I see do not have someone with their torso lowered. I am afraid that I will fall forward and I see other students losing their balance when they try to do what the teacher asks them to do “Lower your body”. This makes no sense to me and I think a curved spine is so much more beautiful with the leg up.
That’s a great question…one I’ll be glad to see answered as well, JadeKat! Our teachers usually say that your body should form a goblet shape, which would mean that the upper body remains upright.
I think that the instruction to lower your body is misleading. I see too many people who lower their torsos and arms to a point where they look like they are doing Balancing Stick Pose with their legs up behind them The have been a few times when I have seen people almost touching the floor with their fingers! :bug: I have had a lot of success following Gabrielle’s technique of arching my back as much as I can and then pivoting forward on my hip instead of bending forward.
The chest should be parallel to the floor. In order to keep the balance we are told to stretch the arm forward pointing our hand in our third eye. Your arm shouldn’t be so low.
In order not to fall out and lose your balance, it’s all about the balance of kicking and stretching your leg back and arm forward. Took me a while to understand I had to kick back so hard not to fall out.
I’m up to the point I can do standing splits. If I do not go lower with my body, the back extension becomes really intense and almost painful.
Oh and another quick tip my teacher tells alot. They tell us to kick for the first 3 sec when we start the posture and then start lowering when we feel the need to go down (mostly when I see my foot up my head) This way we’re more focus on kicking 😉
Hi abelanger
I respectfully disagree with you about the chest being parallel to the floor. Actually I worry that if I disagree with you that you may take offense which is not my intention! The whole idea of a standing backbend is to keep the back in a backbend. I would willingly hear more about that pain you are experiencing.
I do invite you to do an online search of all the standing bow pose pictures you can find. Except for small percentage of people where the pose is being badly performed I cannot find one example where the chest is parallel to the floor. I also looked at a few examples of winners of Bikram yoga championships too. 😉
The poorer online examples are ones where the body (and often the arm) comes down too far instead of a good solid kick up and back. In other words the poorer examples do not demonstrate the mechanics of a ‘bow’ at all.
Mostly, if you are even quite inflexible and your kicking leg hip is in alignment (and not flaring out) part of the abdomen ends up being parallel to the floor.
The problem for students comes when they think their chest has to be parallel to the floor. It’s not really a problem for you because you have magnificent flexibility and no doubt a beautiful practice. But a very large proportion of people who come here daily are looking for the key to understanding their poses. I want to make sure that they have their attention on the right things.
For best results work on the kick, try to keep your chest as upright as you can, surrender your back arm to the kick, and resist the front arm coming down. The nuances of an advanced student appear different to a beginner because of the shape you can attain. The beginner will never ‘get there’ if they believe they have to lower their body. Their body may appear to come down but that is not involved in the pose mechanism. The movement is the result of doing the pose!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Ho, I’m totally not offended 🙂
You are right, I meant the abdomen and that’s only when I can see my foot up my head. Before that I don’t even move my torso that much.
The back pain I’ve been experiencing is when I get to the standing splits. I find my back extension is only coming from an L3 instability and that’s when I feel it a lot… I’ve been working a lot on this instability. ( Basically my back extension is pretty much coming only from this vertebra…) I can cheat in postures and go very deep but then I hurt the next day. I’ve been working on it with the physio.
Thank you so much for all the tips.
Given those correct instructions, any guesses on why the teachers (more than one) at the Bikram studios tell you to lower your body during this posture? I am just trying to understand their rationale, which supposedly stems from making you kick higher, but I think the assumption defeats its purpose…Hi Kat
The reason that most Bikram teachers teach it that way is because the dialog is rote-learned and delivering it becomes an autopilot response. It could be a function of not questioning what the words mean, and not checking that the instructions match with the actual result that they want. Anyway I agree with you, it’s not the most effective way.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Incorrect Gabrielle, at least if you are trying to teach Bikram yoga. “Hot yoga”, I’m not so sure…that term can mean so many things.
The chest/abdomen should be parallel to the floor….at least that is how Bikram teaches it. I know you don’t do Bikram yoga in your studio and don’t really know, but people seem to be asking about Bikram yoga, so Bikram teaches it that way. You seem to be disagreeing with Bikram on his own style of yoga simply to be different. Anything for a buck, huh?
Bikram teachers say chest/abdomen parallel to the floor because that is the way the posture is taught, and should be performed. Pretty simple. If they don’t say that, then they are not teaching Bikram yoga. Bikram, parallel to floor. Done.
Theres a lot of misinformation on here. Sucks that someone makes money on misinformation. It’s also a shame that some students of studios come here to ask honest questions because they feel they can’t address their teachers…that is really awful. They should be able to address their teachers, and it sucks that they feel they can’t….But don’t make it worse by giving incorrect advice! That just screws up their yoga practice, confuses the student, and hurts them….that’s not fair!
Hello David Kiser
I will thank you to be polite on this forum. I do not make personal attacks and you won’t find any here. There is no place for rudeness or accusations here or anywhere.
Let me say that if you look at any Bikram yoga champion their chest is actually NOT parallel to the floor. Only their abdomen is. It’s verifiable by all the myriad of photos. I have tried to attach one of a Bikram champion. His chest is most definitely not parallel to the floor. It is only in this way that a person may support a standing backbend with one leg gloriously above their head with foot or ankle in hand! 😉
So rather than attack me personally, or anything I stand for I suggest that there is room in your life for some SPACE for others to believe and say what they believe without fear of retribution or admonishment from others who simply should let people live their own lives.
You seem very angry. That’s not my stuff.
I appreciate any input that people have on this forum. I don’t feel offended by talking about different approaches to yoga if it differs from my opinion. You however do. So if you continue to post on this forum, I request that you do so with respect and a willingness to experience what others have as their BELIEFS AND THEIR EXPERIENCES.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Sorry if I offended Gabrielle, didn’t mean to! And I think we agree on the same posture….there are just 2 ways of expressing this idea that is misunderstood. When I look at the picture you sent, I see chest/abdomen parallel to the floor. Another way to look at it is crotch and armpit are at the same level….same height from the floor. It seems that you are trying to teach the same thing, just saying it differently. All good, just changing the verbage.
I am not sure why you are threatening my account? I simply stated an inconsistency in your teachings versus Bikram’s, and if you want to call it Bikram yoga, then why teach it differently? Not attacking you personally. Is that reason to cancel my account on your site and call me angry? I’m sorry, I don’t understand. 🙁 I was just trying to help since people come on here to get correct information, and it should give correct information. As a bikram teacher, I was correcting the information…only makes sense to me!?
Sorry for upsetting you.
David
Hello David Kiser
I am on my way out the door and can’t continue in detail, but nobody has touched your account, nor cancelled is so I am not sure to what you’re referring.
If you can post, then your account is active.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Thanks, I just got that I idea because your comment “If you are to continue posting on this forum”….after saying that I am angry, I kinda took that as a warning. I’m just trying to help students get correct information…..I don’t really understand why I got this reception, but hey, it’s your website…you’re the boss.
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