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Are you looking to spice up your home practice? Do you want a challenge to keep you motivated for the next few months? Do you need to counteract the effects of a sedentary life? Working towards Wheel Pose may be the answer.
Wheel Pose is an intermediate/advanced backbend. Known as Chakrasana (chakra: wheel) or Urdhva Dhanurasana (urdhva: upwards, dhanura: bow), this is one of those poses that requires commitment, consistency and patience.
Backbends are essential poses in yoga and Wheel Pose combines most of the benefits of this posture family. Physically, it helps mobilize the spine, opens the chest and upper back, and stretches the shoulders. It also requires quite a bit of strength in the upper back, shoulder and legs.
Energetically, this pose is associated with the heart chakra. By opening the front of the body, we tear down the defenses that block us from experiencing love and which constrict our breath. This alleviates heaviness in the chest and restores our energy.
Think of it as a pose that needs nurturing because unresolved emotions and bad posture may be restricting your body more than you know. As you work towards this pose, remember to be gentle with yourself and breathe.
Open your back and shoulders
Work on your backbends
Increase your strength
Ease into full Wheel Pose with the following variations:
Wheel Pose with a stability ball or yoga wheel
This variation is perfect for beginners who want to experience a backbend safely. It’s also one of my favorite ways to open my back after long hours in front of the computer.
1. Sit on the ball and place your hands next to your hips.
2. Keep your chin tucked to protect your neck.
3. Slowly walk your feet forward, let your entire back arch over the ball and stretch your arms back.
4. Play around in this pose to explore how deep you can go. You may also try doing a variation of this with a yoga wheel.
Wheel Pose against a wall
1. Stand with your back against a wall and place your hands next to your head.
2. Slowly push against the wall as you walk away from it.
3. Slide your hands down as far as you can.
4. Don’t worry if you don’t reach the floor.
Wheel Pose with blocks
1. Prop your blocks against the wall at a 45-degree angle - this gives you extra height.
2. Enter Wheel Pose by placing your hands on the blocks and lifting up.
As you explore the physical and emotional benefits of Wheel Pose, embrace the transformative effects of cultivating your inner strength and resilience through the process.
By Aimeé Durán Triujeque; All Rights Reserved @2023
By Aimeé Durán Triujeque; All Rights Reserved @2023
Pain or discomfort is usually the first sign that your hips are holding on to tension. The first place most people notice the consequences of having tight hips is in their groin area. However, this can also manifest as lower back pain, so it’s not always obvious that tight hips are the culprit.
As we get older, it’s easier to forget to stand and sit with integrity in the body. In all the weird ways we lean and slump and hunch, the body is out of alignment, gravity is in charge instead of our muscles, and all the upper body weight dumps into the lower back, giving us pain.
