Bridge Pose: Setu Bandha Sarvangasana

I’ve been writing for Hugger Mugger’s weblog for 14 years—exhausting to consider. And it’s equally exhausting to consider that in all these years, spanning greater than 900 posts, I’ve by no means written a fundamental weblog on the right way to follow Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana). In my protection, I’ve written two articles about working towards Bridge on a Normal Yoga Bolster, right here and right here. I’ve additionally written about working towards Setu Bandha with a Yoga Block. However for some purpose, Setu Bandha Sarvangasana sans props escaped my thoughts.

Bridge Pose Advantages

Bridge Pose is a star amongst yoga poses, and it’s been a staple in my lessons for many years. Not solely is it a necessary yoga pose, nevertheless it’s additionally an necessary pose in power coaching routines. Bridge Pose confers so many advantages. Listed here are just a few:

• Stretches hip flexors, a obligatory motion for countering the unwell results of an excessive amount of sitting
• Strengthens again muscle mass, glutes and hamstrings
• Can relieve again pressure
• Promotes improved posture
• Stretches the chest, neck and shoulders
• Calms the nervous system
• Could support digestion (so long as you follow two hours after a meal)

Cautions and Contraindications

Like all yoga poses, Bridge Pose may be contraindicated in sure circumstances. In case you are presently experiencing a neck and/or shoulder damage, it is perhaps finest to keep away from Setu Bandha Sarvangasana till you might be healed. In a future put up, I’ll share a variation of Bridge Pose that is perhaps okay to follow with a neck subject.

You may also wish to strategy Bridge Pose with warning if you’re within the early, heavy days of your menstrual interval. Many ladies expertise no unwanted effects from working towards Bridge Pose on their interval. However there are some ladies who expertise an interruption of their regular stream. This may result in cramping and subsequent “flooding.” (I used to be in a position to follow Setu Bandha on my interval for years. Then sooner or later, I skilled these signs, and it was extremely disagreeable!)

Methods to Put together to Follow Bridge Pose

Earlier than working towards Setu Bandha, it may be useful to heat up the areas of the physique that shall be doing a lot of the stretching and strengthening work. These embody: glutes, hip flexors, quadriceps, chest, shoulders, abdominals and neck.

Listed here are just a few recommendations for potential warm-up poses. In fact, a pair rounds of Surya Namaskar (Solar Salutations) might work as nicely:

Methods to Follow Setu Bandha Sarvangasana

1. Lie in your again on a nonskid Yoga Mat.
2. Bend your knees and place the soles of your toes on the ground.
3. Draw your arms shut in to your sides, then bend your elbows in order that your forearms are vertical.
4. Press your higher arms into the ground, and concurrently arch your low again away from the ground.
5. Prolong your arms alongside your physique.
6. Prolong your knees outward, away out of your pelvis with a purpose to start to carry your again off the ground. Maintain extending your knees outward away out of your pelvis as your pelvis lifts into Bridge Pose. Preserve this outward extension isometrically as you maintain the pose.
7. I favor extending outward by means of my legs to carry into the pose, quite than merely pushing up with my glutes. I’ve discovered that after I push up with my glutes, I overextend my hip joints, which might, over time, put on down the cartilage and labrum. The opposite factor that occurs is that my knees are likely to splay out to the perimeters after I merely push up with my glutes. This doesn’t occur after I isometrically prolong my knees outward from my pelvis. You in all probability gained’t carry as excessive as you’d by pushing into your hip joints, however lifting excessive isn’t the purpose! Practising sustainably is much extra necessary.
8. Rock aspect to aspect onto the tops of your shoulders and clasp your fingers beneath you. In case your elbows bend whenever you clasp your fingers, follow along with your arms parallel on the ground. You may also maintain a Yoga Strap between your fingers to create a stronger grounding in your arms.
9. Take 5 to 10 deep breaths, stress-free your neck, throat, jaw and facial muscle mass.
10. To depart the pose, prolong your arms out overhead, alongside the ground and slowly decrease your backbone down onto the ground, lengthening as you go. Repeat in case you like.

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and started instructing in 1986. Charlotte is the writer of Aware Yoga, Aware Life: A Information for On a regular basis Follow and Yoga for Meditators, each printed 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 folks sextet Pink Rock Rondo, whose DVD gained two Emmy awards in 2010.