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 employees from all around the world. Through the coaching we inspired trainees to query educating 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. Once 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 may really do it safely.

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

Nevertheless it’s not true that anybody can type their legs into Lotus place, regardless of how dedicated their apply. Because of a workshop I took with Paul Grilley on anatomy for yoga, I discovered that tightness in comfortable tissue isn’t the commonest cause individuals can’t do Padmasana. In response to Grilley, it’s all within the bones.

Why Lotus Pose May Be Out of Attain

Some our bodies won’t ever be capable to do full Lotus. This isn’t as a result of the homeowners of those our bodies are inferior yogis or that they’re not making an attempt laborious sufficient. It might be as a result of their hip joints are shaped in such a method that they don’t permit the quantity of exterior rotation required to sit down in Lotus.

There are a lot 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 show a few of the attainable variations that affect mobility on Grilley’s web site.

Supta Ardha Padmasana—A Lotus Pose for Each Physique

Luckily, there’s no pose in yoga—together with Padmasana—you have to do to be able 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 could possibly press on the sciatic nerve, presumably inflicting sciatica, and can even contribute to sacroiliac dysfunction. Training Supta Ardha Padmasana can generally alleviate sciatic ache and may relieve extreme torque in your SI joint.

Half Lotus is historically practiced in a seated place. Nevertheless, I prefer to apply 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 prime leg to cross your backside leg extra simply. Second, mendacity in your again provides you suggestions as as to if your again is in a wholesome place. Many individuals spherical their spines once they attempt to type Half Lotus from a sitting place. It’s a lot simpler to keep up a impartial backbone if you end up mendacity down. Lastly, having either side of your SI joint on the ground retains the joints in a impartial place.

How one can Apply Ardha Padmasana

1. Start by mendacity on the ground on a Yoga Mat or Blanket. Bend each knees and place the soles of your ft on the ground.
2. Cross your proper ankle all the way in which throughout your left thigh in order that your ankle, not your foot, is resting on the thigh. Many individuals choose to put their proper ankle a couple of inches from the knee, whereas others (like me) choose to put 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 way 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 palms. In case your palms don’t join you possibly can join them with a belt or a yoga strap.
4. That is necessary: Flex your proper ankle and maintain it flexed the whole time. This retains each your knee and ankle steady.
5. Draw each legs in towards your torso, enjoyable your shoulders and arms. Take deep stomach breaths, creating area on the inhalations, and settling into that area in your exhalations.
6. Take 5 to 10 deep breaths earlier than releasing your legs and letting each ft relaxation on the ground. Take a couple 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 facet of your physique really feel longer than the opposite? If you really feel prepared, transfer to your second facet.
7. If at any level throughout SHL you’re feeling even the tiniest discomfort in both knee, please let go of the pose. There isn’t a such factor as a “good” knee ache. Lotus might be laborious on knees—much less so if you end up mendacity down and practising just one leg at a time—however please do be cautious.

The Most Frequent Misalignment

Many individuals apply Padmasana with their ft, reasonably than their ankles, atop reverse thighs. If the soles of your ft are dealing with upward, you might be practising this misalignment. This can be a recipe for overstretched ligaments in your ankles and attainable knee destabilization. One particular person I do know sat this manner for an hour and ended up having bilateral knee surgical procedures because of this.

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 once they lastly positioned their legs in Lotus. Training Padmasana with wholesome alignment, along with your ankles flexed and sitting on prime of your thighs, is barely attainable 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 acute vary of movement required to do it with the ankles—not the ft—on prime of their thighs.

There’s Greater than One Technique to Apply Lotus Pose

Whereas Instagram images of individuals doing Lotus Pose in bikinis on sunset-lit seashores might 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 another pose—isn’t 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 isn’t whether or not you had been born with a skeleton that may transfer in a specific method. What issues is the care, respect and mindfulness you convey to no matter pose you might be practising in a given second.

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and commenced educating in 1986. Charlotte is the writer of Conscious Yoga, Conscious Life: A Information for On a regular basis Apply 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 people sextet Purple Rock Rondo, whose DVD received two Emmy awards.