Supta Ardha Padmasana: A Lotus for Each Physique

Half Lotus is historically practiced in a seated place. Nonetheless, 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 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 take care of 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.

In 2001, I co-taught a trainer coaching with Donna Farhi in Vancouver, BC. The 50 attendees have been skilled yoga lecturers and physique staff from all around the world. Through 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 working towards what might be yoga’s most emblematic pose: Padmasana (Lotus Pose). That day we spent two hours working towards the poses Donna practices to prep her physique for Lotus. After we tried Padmasana towards the top of the category, I seen that regardless of the depth and expertise of attendees, solely three out of fifty individuals may truly do it safely.

This was very stunning to me. Beforehand, I’d been beneath the impression that anybody who tried onerous 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 follow to ease her hip joints into Padmasana.

Nevertheless it’s not true that anybody can type their legs into Lotus place, irrespective of how dedicated their follow. Due to a workshop I took with Paul Grilley on anatomy for yoga, I discovered that tightness in tender tissue will not be the commonest purpose individuals can’t do Padmasana. In accordance with Grilley, it’s all within the bones.

Why Lotus Pose Would possibly 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 onerous sufficient. It could be as a result of their hip joints are fashioned in such a approach that they don’t enable the quantity of exterior rotation required to sit down in Lotus.

There are a lot of elements—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 inclined 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 possibly can see some bone samples that display a few of the potential 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—it’s good to do with a purpose 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 might profit from working towards Supta Ardha Padmasana, Supine Half Lotus (SHL). Amongst different advantages, SHL stretches the piriformis muscle mass, exterior rotators that cross the sacroiliac (SI) joint. When the piriformis is tense, it may well press on the sciatic nerve, probably inflicting sciatica, and can even contribute to sacroiliac dysfunction. Working towards Supta Ardha Padmasana can generally alleviate sciatic ache and might relieve extreme torque in your SI joint.

Half Lotus is historically practiced in a seated place. Nonetheless, 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 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 take care of 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.

Methods to 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 favor to put their proper ankle a number of inches from the knee, whereas others (like me) favor to put the ankle nearer to the left hip joint. Strive 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 may join them with a belt or a yoga strap.
4. That is necessary: Flex your proper ankle and hold it flexed all the time. This retains each your knee and ankle secure.
5. Draw each legs in towards your torso, stress-free your shoulders and arms. Take deep belly 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 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’re feeling even the tiniest discomfort in both knee, please let go of the pose. There is no such thing as a such factor as a “good” knee ache. Lotus could be onerous on knees—much less so if you end up mendacity down and working towards just one leg at a time—however please do be cautious.

The Most Widespread Misalignment

Many individuals follow Padmasana with their ft, fairly than their ankles, atop reverse thighs. If the soles of their ft are dealing with upward, you might be working towards this misalignment. It is a recipe for overstretched ligaments in your ankles and potential knee destabilization. One particular person I do know sat this fashion for an hour and ended up having bilateral knee surgical procedures consequently.

That’s the reason so many skilled practitioners have been unable to do Padmasana in Donna’s trainer coaching. We made positive that folks have been working towards wholesome alignment rules once they lastly positioned their legs in Lotus. Working towards Padmasana with wholesome alignment, together with your ankles flexed and sitting on high of your thighs, is simply potential 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 ft—on high of their thighs.

There’s Greater than One Approach to Apply Lotus Pose

Whereas Instagram pictures 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 another pose—will not be a measure of both your character or value as a yoga practitioner.

Supta Ardha Padmasana, although, could be a wholesome staple in your repertoire of asanas. It confers lots of the advantages of Padmasana, however few of its potential dangers. What issues will not be whether or not you have been born with a skeleton that may transfer in a selected approach. What issues is the care, respect and mindfulness you deliver to no matter pose you might be working towards in a given second.

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and commenced instructing in 1986. Charlotte is the creator of Aware Yoga, Aware Life: A Information for On a regular basis Apply and Yoga for Meditators, each revealed by Rodmell Press. Her third guide 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 gained two Emmy awards in 2010.