Supta Ardha Padmasana: A Lotus for Each Physique

In 2001, I co-taught a instructor coaching with Donna Farhi in Vancouver, BC. The 50 attendees had been skilled yoga academics and physique staff from everywhere in the world. In the course of the coaching we inspired trainees to query instructing methodologies that shoehorn college students right into a one-size-fits-all mannequin.

One false impression we talked about was the perceived necessity of practising what might be yoga’s most emblematic pose: Padmasana (Lotus Pose). That day we spent two hours practising the poses Donna practices to prep her physique for Lotus. After we tried Padmasana towards the tip of the category, I seen that regardless of the depth and expertise of attendees, solely three out of fifty individuals might truly do it safely.

This was very stunning to me. Beforehand, I’d been beneath the impression that anybody who tried exhausting sufficient and practiced proper might finally do Lotus. This can be true for some individuals—Donna instructed us it took her 10 years of cautious, affected person follow to ease her hip joints into Padmasana.

However it’s not true that anybody can type their legs into Lotus place, regardless of how dedicated their follow. Due to a workshop I took with Paul Grilley on anatomy for yoga, I discovered that tightness in gentle tissue shouldn’t be the commonest motive individuals can’t do Padmasana. Based on Grilley, it’s all within the bones.

Why Lotus Pose Would possibly Be Out of Attain

Some our bodies won’t ever be capable of do full Lotus. This isn’t as a result of the homeowners of those our bodies are inferior yogis or that they’re not attempting exhausting sufficient. It might be as a result of their hip joints are shaped in such a means that they don’t permit the quantity of exterior rotation required to take a seat in Lotus.

There are lots of components—all throughout the realm of regular—that affect the quantity of exterior rotation in your joints. The depth, placement and orientation of your hip sockets can affect whether or not your thighs are likely to rotate inward or outward extra simply. The form and rotation of the heads and necks of the femurs additionally have an effect on the rotation, as does the form and rotation of your shaft of the femur bones. You may see some bone samples that reveal a few of the doable variations that affect mobility on Grilley’s web site.

Supta Ardha Padmasana—A Lotus Pose for Each Physique

Thankfully, there’s no pose in yoga—together with Padmasana—you have to do so as to be a “good” yogi. Yoga has by no means been about what your physique can or can’t do.

All that stated, I’ve discovered that most individuals are able to and may profit from practising Supta Ardha Padmasana, Supine Half Lotus (SHL). Amongst different advantages, SHL stretches the piriformis muscle groups, exterior rotators that cross the sacroiliac (SI) joint. When the piriformis is tense, it may well press on the sciatic nerve, presumably inflicting sciatica, and can even contribute to sacroiliac dysfunction. Working towards Supta Ardha Padmasana can typically alleviate sciatic ache and may relieve extreme torque in your SI joint.

Half Lotus is historically practiced in a seated place. Nevertheless, I wish to follow it mendacity down for a number of causes. First, mendacity in your again removes the restriction of the ground beneath your legs. It permits your high leg to cross your backside leg extra simply. Second, mendacity in your again offers you suggestions as as to whether your again is in a wholesome place. Many individuals spherical their spines after they attempt to type Half Lotus from a sitting place. It’s a lot simpler to take care of a impartial backbone if you find yourself mendacity down. Lastly, having either side of your SI joint on the ground retains the joints in a impartial place.

The right way to Observe Ardha Padmasana

1. Start by mendacity on the ground on a Yoga Mat or Blanket. Bend each knees and place the soles of your toes on the ground.
2. Cross your proper ankle all the best way throughout your left thigh in order that your ankle, not your foot, is resting on the thigh. Many individuals favor to position their proper ankle a number of inches from the knee, whereas others (like me) favor to position the ankle nearer to the left hip joint. Attempt it each methods, or at factors in between, to see what feels greatest for you.
3. Thread your proper arm by means of the opening behind your proper knee and seize the again of your left leg. Wrap your left hand across the again of your left leg and interlace the fingers of each arms. In case your arms don’t join you’ll be able to join them with a belt or a yoga strap.
4. That is essential: Flex your proper ankle and preserve it flexed your complete time. This retains each your knee and ankle steady.
5. Draw each legs in towards your torso, stress-free your shoulders and arms. Take deep belly breaths, creating house on the inhalations, and settling into that house in your exhalations.
6. Take 5 to 10 deep breaths earlier than releasing your legs and letting each toes relaxation on the ground. Take a number of breaths merely mendacity in your again to really feel what modified. How are the 2 sides of the pelvis resting on the ground? Does one aspect of your physique really feel longer than the opposite? Once you really feel prepared, transfer to your second aspect.
7. If at any level throughout SHL you are feeling even the tiniest discomfort in both knee, please let go of the pose. There isn’t any such factor as a “good” knee ache. Lotus will be exhausting on knees—much less so if you find yourself mendacity down and practising just one leg at a time—however please do be cautious.

The Most Widespread Misalignment

Many individuals follow Padmasana with their toes, relatively than their ankles, atop reverse thighs. If the soles of your toes are going through upward, you might be practising this misalignment. It is a recipe for overstretched ligaments in your ankles and doable knee destabilization. One individual I do know sat this fashion for an hour and ended up having bilateral knee surgical procedures in consequence.

That’s the reason so many skilled practitioners had been unable to do Padmasana in Donna’s instructor coaching. We made certain that individuals had been practising wholesome alignment rules after they lastly positioned their legs in Lotus. Working towards Padmasana with wholesome alignment, along with your ankles flexed and sitting on high of your thighs, is barely doable for individuals whose hip joints externally rotate very simply. Many individuals can do the misaligned model of Lotus, however not that many individuals have the intense vary of movement required to do it with the ankles—not the toes—on high of their thighs.

There’s Greater than One Technique to Observe Lotus Pose

Whereas Instagram photographs of individuals doing Lotus Pose in bikinis on sunset-lit seashores could conjure romantic concepts about its significance within the canon of yoga poses, please do not forget that it’s not for everybody. Whether or not or not your physique can do Padmasana—or some other pose—shouldn’t be a measure of both your character or value as a yoga practitioner.

Supta Ardha Padmasana, although, is usually a wholesome staple in your repertoire of asanas. It confers most of the advantages of Padmasana, however few of its potential dangers. What issues shouldn’t be whether or not you had been born with a skeleton that may transfer in a specific means. What issues is the care, respect and mindfulness you carry to no matter pose you might be practising in a given second.

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and commenced instructing in 1986. Charlotte is the creator of Conscious Yoga, Conscious Life: A Information for On a regular basis Observe and Yoga for Meditators, each revealed by Rodmell Press. Her third e book is titled Hip-Wholesome Asana: The Yoga Practitioner’s Information to Defending the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Ache (Shambhala Publications). She writes a month-to-month column for CATALYST Journal and serves as editor for Yoga U On-line. Charlotte is a founding board member for GreenTREE Yoga, a non-profit that brings yoga to underserved populations. A lifelong musician, Charlotte performs oboe and English horn within the Salt Lake Symphony and folks sextet Purple Rock Rondo, whose DVD received two Emmy awards.