OPEN YOUR HEART IN
CAMEL POSE
Layer These Techniques
ustrasana
OPEN YOUR HEART
There’s such a majestic and robust quality when it comes to heart openers in a physical yoga practice. In order to open your heart and gain greater access to a backbend such as Camel Pose, there are specific techniques you can use. Even with their majestic qualities, your experience with heart openers can vary. They can be wonderfully satisfying or extremely difficult. It’s important to be aware of your individual circumstances at the time of moving in and/or out of any posture that calls for extension of the spine. In opening your heart in Camel Pose, there is potential to shift your experience with the posture. The techniques that Matt offers create this possibility to re-pattern what takes place in your body.
ANATOMY OF THE HEART
JUNE 2022 Immersion
- Technique to expand and deepen your backbends
- Foundations and preparatory postures to set you up for success
- Anatomy education to prime the nervous system
- Themes to cultivate the appropriate mindset for heart opening
- 12 Classes: 6 focused on anatomy, 6 themed for the heart
- Unlock a wide range of postures including: Bow Pose, Camel, Full Wheel, King Dancer, King Cobra, King Pigeon, and more
- Lifetime unlimited access to all
- Attend livestream OR practice the replays any time that’s convenient for you
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BOWING THE SPINE
If you’ve practiced with Matt before, then you’re very familiar with the terminology “bowing the spine” when discussing backbends, or heart openers. Bowing the spine provides an immediate visual that most people can resonate with, and it is helpful in developing an awareness of the experience of what a backbend looks and feels like. You can just imagine the ease of flexibility in the spine, all while maintaining a strength and integrity of the spine during execution.
Bowing the spine teaches you to move everything forward first, which leads to opening up.
Matt explains that in a backbend, instead of just leaning back or arching the spine, you want to think about opening the front of the spine. When you learn how to do this accurately, the discs of the spine slide forward, which is really important. If they don’t slide forward, then you’re just pushing the discs down on the back side of the spine, which will put too much pressure on the discs. Adding this pressure can cause many problems, including pain due to the discs bulging and possibly hitting a nerve, which can radiate in multiple directions of the body and cause issues in other areas. Layering on techniques both provides a better awareness of what is actually taking place in your body and promotes safer execution in heart openers.
WATCH THE VIDEO: CAMEL POSE: SHOULDER TECHNIQUE
NEXT TRAINING BEGINS FEBRUARY 2024 ENROLLMENT NOW OPEN!
NEXT TRAINING BEGINS FEBRUARY 2024 ENROLLMENT NOW OPEN!
THE CHROMATIC WAY
Matt’s development of the Chromatic approach in yoga involves not just the layering on of postures in a sequence but indeed the layering on of techniques within each posture in order to maximize benefit and to minimize injury and pain. When you start to approach your yoga practice with this methodical mindset, the body eventually becomes free and aware to create these actions with less thought.
LAYERING POSTURES TO PREPARE
Matt frequently uses postures like Cobra Pose, where he teaches the fundamentals of how to “bow the spine.” You will also find that he uses Chair Pose in this layering process.
Within these postures, we build the pattern in the body of actions such as retracting the shoulder blades while not only taking the chest/heart forward but also lifting the rib cage upwards. Getting comfortable with these actions activates muscles like the rhomboids (during the retraction) and the abdominals (when lifting the rib cage) and also develops the neuromuscular patterning in your body so that these actions feel more natural and become a more automatic response when preparing for and executing backbends.
ANATOMY OF THE HEART
JUNE 2022 Immersion
- Technique to expand and deepen your backbends
- Foundations and preparatory postures to set you up for success
- Anatomy education to prime the nervous system
- Themes to cultivate the appropriate mindset for heart opening
- 12 Classes: 6 focused on anatomy, 6 themed for the heart
- Unlock a wide range of postures including: Bow Pose, Camel, Full Wheel, King Dancer, King Cobra, King Pigeon, and more
- Lifetime unlimited access to all
- Attend livestream OR practice the replays any time that’s convenient for you
$168.00 $148.00
KEY ACTIONS FOR CAMEL POSE ENTRY
Even before considering the traditional execution of Camel Pose, Matt takes you through what he often refers to as “Camel Pose Preparation” or “Half Camel Pose.” When preparing, it’s not just about entry into the pose; the “exiting” of the posture is also extremely important.
In today’s video, Matt provides the key steps and layering process when entering Camel Pose Preparation from the left side:
- Tuck your toes onto your mat with feet wider than your hips, so that when you sit back, you can access your heel with your left hand
- Retract your left shoulder (*Pay close attention here, as you will not just be drawing your left shoulder blade in towards your midline. You first lift your shoulder up, then draw it in towards the midline, and finally, send the bottom tip of your shoulder blade up towards the sky)
- Next in the layering process, after this action of retraction, place your left palm on your heel with the thumb facing out
- Push the right rib cage forward and up
- Place your right hand behind your head. Alternatively, Matt advises using your right hand to pick up your right ribs (*this will encourage an arched position in your low back, which is the desired positioning)
- Layer on a push downward into your left heel with your hand, encouraging that lift of the right side rib cage further up to the sky
- Finally, look down towards your left foot
A SAFE EXIT FROM CAMEL POSE
As I mentioned before, Matt emphasizes the exit just as much as the entrance. It’s important to note that we don’t change anything. We try to maintain the arch in the spine for as long as possible in order the spine time to adjust to the new shape (relengthening once out of the posture).
Here are the steps:
- Your hips slowly go back towards your heels, all while keeping the chest lifted
- As you sit back down onto your feet, you can slowly reduce the arch in your spine until it is in a more lengthened position
- Take the steps to enter into “Camel Pose Preparation” on the other side.
Taking this Chromatic approach keeps you in the physical practice: You are steered more towards awareness of your individual experience within each posture. Exploring Camel Pose Preparation also allows you to experience what is happening on each side of your body. This helps you step closer to what your body actually needs. Do you need to draw more awareness to the retraction? The arch of the spine? Sending your rib cage forward and up? You are simultaneously the student and the teacher within your own body. Matt guides your yoga practice with the layering of actions so that you can be fully within the experience of your own body.
Taking this approach means that you will broaden your knowledge, expand your practice, and most definitely open your heart!
See you on the mat!
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Article by Trish Curling
Video Extracted From: Heart Openers: Yoga Backbends Immersion
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