Open Your Shoulders with a Yoga Strap

Gomukhasana (Cow Face Pose) is a staple in my morning yoga courses. Years in the past, a number of of my college students made up unflattering names for it—Cow Pie, Mad Cow, and so on.—as a result of it was so difficult for them. Now those self same Cow Face naysayers have was Cow Face converts. A few of them even surrender a little bit of their Savasana (Leisure Pose) to do it if I don’t provide it in school. The Cow Face arm place is one other story, nevertheless. It may be fairly a problem, however with a yoga strap, anybody can reap the advantages.

Gomukhasana is kind of advanced. It’s categorised as a hip-opening pose, because it stretches all of the glutes—maximus, medius and minimus—in addition to the piriformis and the tensor fasciae latae. My college students—those who prefer it—discover it very grounding, making it useful a useful pose towards the tip of a apply. (Notice that the photograph that accompanies this weblog exhibits solely the arm place, not the leg place. You’ll find an outline of the leg place within the above “Gomukhasana” hyperlink.)

Cow Face Pose Isn’t Simply Concerning the Hips

Cow Face Pose additionally opens the shoulders. The traditional arm place options one elbow pointing upward and the opposite hand wedged behind your shoulder blades. Stated to appear to be one raised and one lowered ear on a cow’s head, it creates a robust triceps stretch within the higher arm and a robust biceps and deltoid stretch within the decrease one.

Whereas the leg and arm positions are historically practiced collectively, they will also be useful on their very own if you happen to’re considering placing extra consideration into both your hips or shoulders.

Why Use a Yoga Strap?

At present’s weblog will give attention to the shoulders. The standard place requires connecting the palms of your higher and decrease arms within the higher again. However many individuals’s shoulders simply received’t enable this. There are various attainable causes for this, together with the development of the shoulder joints. Some individuals’s shoulders are shaped for stability. They could not be capable of attain their elbow straight up towards the sky as a result of their humerus bones will “hit” the again of the scapula earlier than the arm will get to vertical. This specific shoulder configuration is just not an indication that you simply’re a “poor” yogi! It’s properly inside what’s thought of to be regular vary of movement.

Others will discover that when their dominant arm is the decrease one, that their palms can’t contact, though they could join when the dominant arm is the higher one. This can be as a consequence of elevated energy and stability within the dominant arm’s biceps and deltoids, though there might be different causes.

In any case, a yoga strap might help. It could bridge the hole between your palms, making a connection. Connecting the palms is essential for energizing the arms in Gomukhasana. Whether or not you join the fingers or use a yoga strap to attach your palms, your Gomukhasana shall be extra dynamic if you happen to can join your palms.

Tips on how to Use a Yoga Strap in Gomukhasana

In case your palms don’t join in Gomukhasana, do that:

1. Prolong your left arm out in entrance of you, turning your palm outward, internally rotating your shoulder. Swing your arm round behind your again. Bend your elbow and place the again of your hand in your low again. Now scoot your the again of your hand up your again any quantity—wherever from the decrease ribcage to between the shoulder blades.
2. Maintain a yoga strap in your proper hand. Dangle it over your again. Flip your proper palm to face inward, towards your head. Bend your elbow and discover the yoga strap together with your left hand. Stroll your proper and left palms towards one another. In the event you’d like so as to add some further vitality to your shoulder expertise, “stretch” the strap, pulling upward together with your proper hand and downward together with your left.
3. Keep for 5 to 10 deep breaths. Let go and let your arms loosen up. Take 5 to 10 deep breaths earlier than practising your different facet.

In the event you’d wish to see extra makes use of for Yoga Straps, in addition to methods to use Hugger Mugger’s different premium props, please go to the Yoga Props Information.

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and started educating in 1986. Charlotte is the creator of Aware Yoga, Aware Life: A Information for On a regular basis Follow and Yoga for Meditators, each revealed by Rodmell Press. Her third ebook 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 Pink Rock Rondo, whose DVD received two Emmy awards.