3 Strategies to Use Props for Natarajasana

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There are few poses I’ve clear reminiscences of doing for the first time. I don’t keep in mind my very first Downward-Coping with Canine (do you?), nevertheless for some motive, I can recite every ingredient of my first attempt at Natarajasana (Lord of the Dance Pose).

It was 20 years up to now, and I was in my sophomore yr of school (positive, do the arithmetic). I keep in mind seeing the teacher on the VHS tape do it and saying to myself, “Whoa, I am going to on no account be succesful to do this.” They hadn’t even carried out the variation with every palms grabbing the foot overhead.

My first few tries had been faraway from modern. I gripped the sting of any furnishings I could dangle onto, leaving fingernail marks on the ground, as I shakingly kicked my foot into my hand. Over time, the pose turned less complicated. Finally, my relationship with Natarajasana modified from being a pose I hoped to “grasp” (irrespective of which suggests) to turning right into a kind that was easy for me to hold out in entrance of the room, with out even warming up.

Nonetheless then—as these of you who’ve been working in direction of for a really very long time know is to be anticipated—my relationship to the pose modified as quickly as as soon as extra.

After some pretty excessive accidents, along with my shoulder, I totally modified the way in which through which I approached my observe. I started shifting far more mindfully and considerably than letting my ego drive me to do every single pose to the nth diploma, I started to tug once more. I obtained so much a lot much less fascinated about what I was doing and in its place started specializing in how I was doing it.

Natarjasana is a residing, respiratory metaphor of the choice we get to make every day: Will we keep from a spot of ego and exterior present or will we embrace our human limitations and cope with our far more vital (however invisible) intentions?

See moreover: Step-By-Step Instructions for Natarajasana

Props keep us humble

Natarajasana is a pose that one can choose to “perform” or do with curiosity. Most conventional variations of Lord of the Dance Pose comprise using your hand(s) or a strap to raise the once more leg. This can tempt you to backbend deeper than is appropriate and even protected, each by tipping the pelvis forward or using your hand to raise your leg elevated than it must go.

My relationship to the pose modified as soon as I started shifting my goal from backbending as deeply as attainable to observing the place and the way in which I was shifting my physique. Among the finest methods to observe these actions was with props.

Many school college students poo-poo props as making the poses too easy or contemplating of them as one factor now we have to work away from in time, nevertheless props keep us honest and humble. I sometimes joke that, identical to the rings of a tree, you actually can inform how prolonged anyone has been working in direction of by all the props they seize sooner than class.

The place we as quickly as might have measured our observe by our bodily functionality, over time we be taught that we’re really advancing as soon as we choose to not do one factor or do one factor additional rigorously.

Moreover from Sarah Ezrin: Want to Fly in Eka Pada Koundinyasana II? Try This Wise Prop Apply

A prop observe for Natarajasana

Strap spherical foot with larger arms at wall

Usually in Natarajasana we get the illusion of backbending deeper as soon as we are literally merely tipping over inside the standing leg hip (which is technically a forward bend!). Partitions help us backbend in truth. It might be humbling at first to be taught what the physique is certainly doing after we’ve received that type of strategies. This variation teaches us protect the movement of decreasing the doorway ribs, which helps us be taught to backbend from the upper thoracic. The wall moreover helps us see how so much extension we even have in our hip on the lifted leg, since we’re unable to tip forward.

Loop a strap spherical your left foot and keep the tail in your left hand. Stand immediately in opposition to the wall and bend your left heel in direction of your bum. Take every arms overhead. Bend your elbows, so your larger arms are pressing into the wall and stroll your palms down your strap. Actively elevate your left inside thigh, partaking your hamstrings, nevertheless whereas sustaining your pelvis on the wall. Launch your entrance ribs down as you elevate your sternum up. Shut your eyes, if that’s comfortable, or let your eyes soften. Preserve for eight breaths.

Come out sluggish, loosening the grip on the strap and decreasing the left leg. Confirm when you would possibly need to step away from the wall for just some breaths sooner than switching the strap to the other facet.

Inclined with abdomen on bolster and reverse hand forward and on block

One different truth-teller inside the prop world is the bottom. It is identical to the wall in that it supplies our entrance physique strategies, nevertheless because of we’re inclined (on our tummy), the pose could be held for for for much longer, allowing us to really entry positive actions. Having a bolster beneath your pelvis is beneficial for utilizing one different key movement in backbends, which is lengthening your tailbone in direction of your knees. That’s moreover an excellent variation for freshmen, though nothing about it is easy!

For this variation you may want a bolster (or rolled blankets) and a block. Set your bolster up in the middle of your mat and place a block in direction of the doorway. Lay onto your bolster, so that your hip bones are supported by it and place your left hand in your block a few foot in entrance of your shoulder. Bend your correct knee and attain once more, holding the floor of your foot. Press into your left hand, as you launch your left shoulder away out of your ear. Preserve your neck prolonged by wanting straight forward. Preserve for 10–15 breaths.

To launch, let your correct leg go slowly and place every palms on the bottom sooner than shifting your block to your correct and taking your totally different facet.

Energetic fluctuate of motion practice with blanket and chair

One different gratifying variation of Lord of the Dance entails us from YogaWorks teacher coach, Jennie Cohen. Cohen is assumed for her ingenious sequencing and, as she says, “movement explorations are my considered an excellent time.” Cohen encourages forgoing the strap and hand assist and in its place finding out elevate your once more leg by energetic fluctuate of motion. That’s as soon as we switch the physique solely with our muscular tissues. It differs from passive fluctuate of motion, which is when an out of doors energy, corresponding to your hand or a prop, strikes your physique.

Natarajasana classically makes use of passive fluctuate as we traditionally keep the once more foot.  Though it is doable you may not bodily get as “far” on this mannequin, the benefit of shifting your physique on this technique is that you just uncover methods to work together the proper muscular tissues needed to create the movement. You could be moreover safer from the temptation to “manhandle your self into an extreme kind,” as Cohen calls it.

I could be honest: This is not primarily essentially the most elegant variation to get into, nevertheless as quickly as you could be in, the strategies is outstanding. Stand behind a chair (or one thing you need to make the most of for steadiness). Bend your correct knee, hugging your correct heel to your bum and drape a blanket in between your thigh and calf. Preserve it tight collectively along with your leg. Tip forward at your hips barely, placing your palms on the chair ledge, and begin to elevate your left thigh up, whereas attempting to steadiness the blanket. The blanket helps to just remember to’re lifting your leg up with out letting the hip rotate open. Try lifting the blanket up even elevated. Preserve for eight full breaths.

For a gratifying sport, try holding the blanket as you lower your leg once more down. Prepare in your second facet.

Watch this prop observe in movement

Want to be taught additional? Sarah Ezrin walks us by the use of the three methods to take advantage of props to in Natarajasana.

See moreover:

An Accessible Yoga Sequence for Coaching Lord of the Dance Pose

Give Me My Props (And Make Them Pretty)

Yoga Props 101 + a Sequence to Enhance Your Apply