A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on how to prepare your body for Camel Pose (Ustrasana). Camel Pose is a challenging backbend. It stretches the entire front body, especially the quadriceps, abdomen, chest and shoulders. In the post, I outlined a sequence you can practice in order to stretch and mobilize these vital areas of the pose. In today’s post, I’ll describe how you can practice Camel Pose with Yoga Blocks to make the pose more accessible and comfortable.

A common concern in practicing Camel Pose is that straining to reach your heels with your hands restricts breathing. Practicing Camel Pose with Yoga Blocks raises your hands and decreases the strain on your chest, which can help ease your breathing.

Not everyone’s spinal structure supports easy backbending. As you can see from the above photo, the lion’s share of the backbend occurs in the lumbar spine. (The thoracic spine is not really designed for more than minimal backbending.) Some people’s lumbar spinous processes are large and thick, meaning that they will “hit” each other much sooner than shorter, thinner spinous process do. This restricts range of motion in spinal extension.

In addition, some practitioners have a more pronounced thoracic kyphosis (convex curve). This also restricts range of motion in backbending. So even though the thoracic spine’s range of motion in backbending is limited, even a small amount of extension makes the pose easier, whereas a curvier thoracic spine will restrict movement. All this is to say that practicing Camel Pose with Yoga Blocks can make the pose accessible to almost everyone.

How to Practice Camel Pose with Yoga Blocks

You can practice Camel Pose with Yoga Blocks three ways. Yoga Blocks have three different height options: tall, medium and short. (The above photo shows blocks at their medium height.) Here’s how to practice Camel Pose with Yoga Blocks.

1. Gather your props: a Yoga Mat and two Yoga Blocks. You may also place a folded Yoga Blanket under your knees for extra padding if you like. If you’re using a blanket, fold it so that it is narrower than your mat, and place it in the center of the mat.
2. Come to a kneeling position on your mat and/or folded blanket.
3. Place blocks at their highest level on the outsides of your feet. If you’re kneeling on a blanket, make sure your blocks are on your mat or on the floor rather than on your blanket to give them a stable base. (This applies to solid flooring such as wood or concrete. I wouldn’t recommend using blocks on plush carpeting.)
4. Place your hands on your pelvic rim and press down, releasing your tailbone toward your knees.
5. Lift your chest and lengthen your spine as you begin to bend backward, reaching for your blocks.
6. Take a few breaths with the blocks at their highest height. Is your breathing free and unrestricted? If not, stay here for a few more breaths to see if it becomes easier.
7. If your breathing is easy, feel free to turn the blocks on their sides, to medium height. Check in again with your breathing. If your breathing is free and easy, take a few breaths here. Then if you want, you can lower the blocks to their lowest level. Again, check your breathing.
8. Free, unrestricted breathing is way more important than getting your hands to your heels or to the lowest height of your yoga block. So keep checking your breathing to make sure it feels relaxed.
9. Take 5 to 8 deep breaths, wherever you are in the pose. Then return to kneeling and either sit on your heels or sit on one of your Yoga Blocks as your knees allow.

One More Suggestion

Yoga Blocks can certainly make Camel Pose more comfortable, but it’s equally important to make sure that we prepare the body to the fullest extent possible before we embark on Ustrasana. I highly recommend that you read the post I wrote a few weeks ago about how to prepare your body for Camel Pose, and how to cool down afterward to rebalance your body. Your breath—and a couple Yoga Blocks—can guide you into a Camel Pose that’s both exhilarating and relaxed.

Prasarita Padottanasana (Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend Pose) is one of yoga’s more relaxing standing poses. Its symmetrical shape keeps your pelvis, sacroiliac joint and spine neutral, while the active rooting of your feet and legs allows your upper body to be soft and receptive. These benefits are available to pretty much everyone—with a little help from a Yoga Block.

Why Practice Prasarita Padottanasana?

Practicing Prasarita Padottanasana confers many benefits. It strengthens and stretches the inner legs, hamstrings and spine; tones the abdominal organs; and calms the brain. It’s said to relieve some headaches and reduce fatigue.

Prasarita can be contraindicated for people with tight hamstrings. When your hamstrings are taut, your pelvis can’t tilt forward along with the spine. This can put pressure on the discs in the lower back, which could lead to disc problems. Also, curling the torso forward in order to reach the floor contracts your abdominal muscles, restricting free breathing.

Using a Yoga Block in Prasarita Padottanasana can help people of all levels of flexibility practice safely and comfortably. Anyone can benefit from using a Yoga Block in this pose. My hips and hamstrings are quite flexible, but I still enjoy using a block in this pose for the feeling of continuity it creates in my torso. Several of my most bendy students enjoy using a block as well.

Yoga Blocks are available in cork, 3-inch or 4-inch foam, marbled foam, recycled foam or wood. Hugger Mugger’s Big Block is extra large for extra stability and comfort.

How to Practice Prasarita Padottanasana with a Yoga Block

1. Begin by standing on a nonskid Yoga Mat with your feet hips-width apart.
2. Jump or step your feet out to a wide stance, about a leg-length apart.
3. Plant your feet into the ground, feeling the footprint you are making on your mat. Are the inner and outer heels and balls of your feet planted evenly? If not, chances are you may feel the weight sagging into your inner feet. Allow the muscles and skin of your outer legs to stream down along your bones from your hips to your outer feet to help you root the feet more evenly.
4. Place your hands on your hips. Bending from your hip joints, let your torso come forward as far as it will go without losing contact with deep breathing.
5. Place your hands on the floor and take a few breaths. Now place your hands on a Yoga Block and check in to see how that changes your breathing. A Big Blue Block or two 4-inch Yoga Blocks work best, but you can also use a single 4-inch Yoga Block. Each block has three dimensions: tall, medium and flat. Try each one to see which feels best.
6. Stay for 5 or 10 deep breaths.
7. To come up, place your hands on your hips and lift back up to an upright position. Place your palms together in front of your heart, bend your knees slightly and allow the weight of your pelvis to release into your legs. Relax your abdomen and breathe deeply, resting.

Supta Baddhakonasana (Reclining Bound Angle Pose) is most often practiced as a Restorative pose. In the ultimate restorative version, we use all the good stuff—Yoga Blocks, a Standard Yoga Bolster and a Yoga Blanket or two. But we can also practice Supta Baddhakonasana in a more simplified way. A Yoga Mat and a couple Yoga Blocks just might be enough for you to enjoy an easeful respite in the pose.

As a very bendy person, I historically resisted using support under my thighs in Supta Baddhakonasana. Blocks under the thighs were for stiffer folks, I thought. But recently I’ve noticed my sacroiliac (SI) joints feeling achy after practicing it. As I thought about what might be the cause, I realized that it might be the extreme angle of my thighs.

My thighs fall easily to the floor in the pose. As a result, I can feel that my glutes actually compress my SI joint. If I stay more than a minute—and I always want to stay more than a minute—my SI joint suffers. Placing a Yoga Block under each thigh still confers the pose’s many benefits, but without the drawbacks. I’ve begun suggesting that all my students—especially the bendy ones—support their legs in the pose.

Supta Baddhakonasana Benefits

Supta Baddhakonasana is one of only a small handful of yoga poses that are appropriate to practice after eating. By expanding the abdomen, it facilitates the flow of energy and food matter into the lower quadrants of the abdomen, where the small and large intestines live. In my experience, the spaciousness this pose creates helps stimulate movement to assist the let-go process.

Supta Baddhakonasana relieves the contracted or heavy sensation we often feel after over-eating, and can relieve menstrual cramps. Because this pose is very relaxing, it helps move us into the rest-and-digest (parasympathetic) side of our autonomic nervous system, which stimulates digestion and helps relieve stress.

How to Practice Reclining Bound Angle Pose with Yoga Blocks

1. Gather your props: Yoga Mat, two Yoga Blocks and a Yoga Blanket (optional). I like to place a folded blanket under my head and neck for a bit of extra support and comfort.
2. Sit in Dandasana (Staff Pose) on your mat. Place the soles of your feet together and bend your knees out to the sides. Place a block under each thigh. Make sure that the blocks are far enough under your thighs that they are supporting them.
3. Place your hands behind you and lean back. Then bend your elbows so that you’re resting on your forearms with your fingers pointing toward your glutes.
4. Now push your fingers into your glutes to encourage your tailbone to point toward your heels.
5. Lie back onto the floor, placing a folded blanket under your head and neck if you like.
6. Relax here and breathe for 2 to 10 minutes.
7. To leave the pose, place your hands under your thighs. Use your hands to support your legs as you move them toward your chest. Then place your feet on the floor, hips-width apart, with your knees upright, in Constructive Rest Position. Relax here as long as you like.

We have two sides to the nervous system: the sympathetic and the parasympathetic. The sympathetic is responsible for altering us when there is danger and the parasympathetic is responsible for calming us down. Both are needed for homeostasis within the body and mind, but when the sympathetic is in overdrive, it can take over, leaving us overwhelmed. If we aren’t able to tap back into the parasympathetic then mental, emotional and physical illnesses could be on the horizon. 

So, how do you incorporate mindfulness throughout your yoga practice? The answer is allowing yourself to be focused on the breath, listening to the subtle cues within your body and allowing your five senses to be immersed in the present moment. Doing that throughout your yoga practice trains the brain to remember that physical feeling of homeostasis and when trouble arises so you can tap back into that release. 

If you’re between yoga practices and want to incorporate some of this mindfulness at home for maintenance, here are three poses you can try. 

The first is a reclining butterfly pose with a bolster. Bring the bolster behind the sitting bones, then lay back, allowing the arms to fall to the sides, bring the bottoms of feet together and let the knees to fall to each side. In this posture, take a breath in through the nose for four counts, then release for about five counts. Notice how the air feels as it enters and leaves the nose on each breath. 

The second is a child’s pose with a block. Bring the knees to the edges of the matt, bottoms of feet towards each other and sit bones down towards the feet. Bring a block underneath the forehead and with each breath, allow for peace to enter and with each exhale, allow the muscles to relax. Notice how the air feels on the skin and the block on the forehead. 

The third is a waterfall with a block or bolster. Laying on your back, raise both feet off the floor towards the ceiling or against a wall. Slide a bolster or block under the hips to allow for additional elevation. With each breath, allow for presence and clarity. Notice how the heart feels within the chest as it beats. 

Spend as much time in each pose as you need to so you can soak in all the goodness this ancient healing practice has to offer and remember to connect your breath with each pose. 

It’s early January. The festive lights have dimmed, the last of the holiday treats are gone, and life is settling back into a familiar pace. While the holiday season may leave you with beautiful memories, it can also bring a sense of imbalance. Your body might feel stiff from long car rides, heavy meals, or late nights, and your mind may still be humming with holiday buzz.

Now is the perfect time for a gentle yoga recovery process: a slow, intentional way to reawaken your practice and restore harmony in body and mind. Think of this period not as something to “fix,” but as an invitation to nurture yourself. Below, we’ll explore how to ease tension, rebuild energy, and pave the way for a steady start to the new year. We’ll also touch on how to transition mindfully back into more dynamic styles like Vinyasa or Ashtanga when you’re ready.

1. Start small with gentle movement for your yoga recovery

After weeks of indulgences and irregular schedules, jumping straight into intense flows can feel jarring. Instead, begin with simple, soothing poses that help your muscles gently unwind. A yoga recovery approach highlights comforting postures that release tension, especially in areas that tend to tighten during busy times—shoulders, neck, hips, and lower back.

Suggested Poses:

• Child’s Pose (Balasana): Enhance the relaxation factor by placing a yoga bolster beneath your torso. Letting go in this posture can ease tension from your spine and hips.
• Supported Bridge (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana): Using a foam yoga block under your sacrum allows a gentle backbend that opens the chest and realigns the spine.
• Neck Stretches: Slow head rolls and side bends release the neck and shoulders, helping to melt away holiday stress.

2. Rediscover your breath

To truly reset, look to your breath. Deep, mindful breathing can soften the edges of post-holiday tension, shifting your state from scattered to serene. By paying attention to each inhale and exhale, you create mental space to refocus on yourself.

Try This:

• Three Part Breath (Dirga Pranayama): Inhale slowly, filling your belly, ribs, and chest, then exhale just as steadily. This simple technique clears mental clutter and reconnects you with the present moment.

Pro Tip: Enhance this quiet time by draping a blanket over your legs. The comforting weight reminds you to slow down, settle in, and embrace your yoga recovery journey.

3. Embrace restorative yoga for deep reset

Restorative yoga is a powerful method for yoga recovery, encouraging profound rest and balance. With bolsters, blocks, and blankets, these postures require minimal muscular effort, letting you linger in each pose and gently reset your nervous system.

Restorative favorites:

• Reclined Bound Angle (Supta Baddha Konasana): Lie back on a bolster placed lengthwise along your spine, allowing the chest to open. Support your knees with blocks or folded blankets. This heart opening pose can lift holiday heaviness and welcome in fresh, compassionate energy.
• Legs Up the Wall (Viparita Karani): Resting your legs against a wall soothes weary legs and fosters calm. Drape a soft blanket over your belly for warmth as you let gravity and time do the work of relaxation.

4. Releasing the need to “Make Up” for the holidays

Your yoga recovery period isn’t about punishment or burning off those extra holiday cookies. It’s about healing and honoring your body’s current needs. Swap out any guilt driven thoughts for a mindset focused on replenishment and kindness. Yoga should always be a space of self respect and compassion, not a chore.

Gentle Flow ideas:

• A few rounds of Cat Cow to awaken your spine.
• Low lunges to stretch hips tight from sitting.
• Gentle twists to aid digestion and help you feel lighter.

By listening closely to your body, you create a space where yoga becomes truly nourishing rather than another stressful item on your to-do list.

5. Returning to your vinyasa or Ashtanga practices

Once you’ve spent time nurturing yourself with gentle and restorative yoga, you may feel ready to reintroduce more dynamic styles into your routine. Vinyasa and Ashtanga practices, known for their flowing sequences and building internal heat, can eventually help restore your strength, flexibility, and stamina.

Tips for transitioning back:

• Shorter Sessions: Start with a shorter Vinyasa flow or a Half Primary Ashtanga sequence. Just 20–30 minutes of focused movement can rekindle muscle memory without overtaxing your body.
• Extra Props: Even in a more dynamic practice, props are friends, not crutches. Use blocks for stability and modify postures if you feel any lingering tightness.
• Pace Yourself: Don’t rush back into advanced variations. Focus on foundational poses first. Sun Salutations, standing sequences, and gentle backbends. Only adding more complex asanas as your body regains strength and fluidity.

Remember that yoga recovery isn’t a separate world from your regular practice. It’s a stepping stone, a gentle bridge that leads you back into the rhythmic flow of Vinyasa and the disciplined structure of Ashtanga, but without risking burnout or injury.

6. Set intentions for the new year

As you navigate this yoga recovery period, consider what you’d like your practice—and your life—to feel like in the coming year. Maybe you want more patience, steadiness, or joy. Your mat can be a sacred space to set these intentions, allowing them to guide both your slower sessions and your stronger flows.

Try Journaling:

After each practice, note how you feel. Over time, these reflections become a guiding compass, helping you identify when it feels right to step up intensity, or when to continue gently nurturing yourself.

7. Consistency is key in all phases of your practice

Whether you’re easing into a gentle flow or gradually reigniting your Vinyasa or Ashtanga routine, consistency helps solidify positive habits. Start small, a few minutes each day, and trust that time will bring clarity and comfort.

Consistency Tips:

• Short Sessions: Begin with short practices to rebuild trust and stability in your body.
• Identify your best time: Mornings can gently wake you up, while evenings help release the day’s tensions.
• Visual cues: Keep your props visible and accessible. Seeing them is often all it takes to remind you of your intention to practice.

Conclusion: A compassionate path forward

The holidays may have left you feeling scattered or fatigued, but embracing a period of yoga recovery allows you to move back into harmony with yourself. By starting gently and focusing on nurturing postures, you can gradually reintroduce more dynamic practices like Vinyasa or Ashtanga as your body and mind become ready.

This new year, let your yoga journey be guided by kindness, patience, and a steady, supportive foundation, no matter which style you return to. As you step onto your mat, remember that you’re always allowed to pause, adjust, and honor the place you find yourself in today.

Ready to build a supportive environment for your yoga recovery and beyond? Explore Hugger Mugger’s mats,bolsters, blocks, and blankets to create a cozy, welcoming space that nurtures your body and spirit at every stage of your practice.

Supta Baddhakonasana (Reclining Bound Angle Pose) is most often practiced as a Restorative pose. In the ultimate restorative version, we use all the good stuff—Yoga Blocks, a Standard Yoga Bolster and a Yoga Blanket or two. But we can also practice Supta Baddhakonasana in a more simplified way. A Yoga Mat and a couple Yoga Blocks just might be enough for you to enjoy an easeful respite in the pose.

As a very bendy person, I historically resisted using support under my thighs in Supta Baddhakonasana. Blocks under the thighs were for stiffer folks, I thought. But recently I’ve noticed my sacroiliac (SI) joints feeling achy after practicing it. As I thought about what might be the cause, I realized that it might be the extreme angle of my thighs.

My thighs fall easily to the floor in the pose. As a result, I can feel that my glutes actually compress my SI joint. If I stay more than a minute—and I always want to stay more than a minute—my SI joint suffers. Placing a Yoga Block under each thigh still confers the pose’s many benefits, but without the drawbacks. I’ve begun suggesting that all my students—especially the bendy ones—support their legs in the pose.

Supta Baddhakonasana Benefits

Supta Baddhakonasana is one of only a small handful of yoga poses that are appropriate to practice after eating. By expanding the abdomen, it facilitates the flow of energy and food matter into the lower quadrants of the abdomen, where the small and large intestines live. In my experience, the spaciousness this pose creates helps stimulate movement to assist the let-go process.

Supta Baddhakonasana relieves the contracted or heavy sensation we often feel after over-eating, and can relieve menstrual cramps. Because this pose is very relaxing, it helps move us into the rest-and-digest (parasympathetic) side of our autonomic nervous system, which stimulates digestion and helps relieve stress.

How to Practice Reclining Bound Angle Pose with Yoga Blocks

1. Gather your props: Yoga Mat, two Yoga Blocks and a Yoga Blanket (optional). I like to place a folded blanket under my head and neck for a bit of extra support and comfort.
2. Sit in Dandasana (Staff Pose) on your mat. Place the soles of your feet together and bend your knees out to the sides. Place a block under each thigh. Make sure that the blocks are far enough under your thighs that they are supporting them.
3. Place your hands behind you and lean back. Then bend your elbows so that you’re resting on your forearms with your fingers pointing toward your glutes.
4. Now push your fingers into your glutes to encourage your tailbone to point toward your heels.
5. Lie back onto the floor, placing a folded blanket under your head and neck if you like.
6. Relax here and breathe for 2 to 10 minutes.
7. To leave the pose, place your hands under your thighs. Use your hands to support your legs as you move them toward your chest. Then place your feet on the floor, hips-width apart, with your knees upright, in Constructive Rest Position. Relax here as long as you like.

Do you knees splay out to the sides in Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)? This is something I’ve observed a lot, both in myself in the earlier years of practice, and in many yoga students. Is it a problem? Over time, I’m guessing it could be, in particular, for your knees and sacroiliac (SI) joint. There are several ways to remedy it. The one I’ll discuss today involves placing a Yoga Block between your knees in Bridge Pose to strengthen your adductors.

What Are the Adductors?

The adductors are the muscles of the inner thighs. They include:

• Pectineus
• Adductor longus
• Adductor brevis
• Gracilis
• Adductor magnus (the largest muscle in the group)

The adductors draw the leg toward the center line (adduction) and internally rotate the thigh at the hip joint. This muscle group stabilizes the pelvis, helping to balance the pelvic position during walking. They also support “explosive” movements, such as jumping and running. Whether we know it or not, the adductors support nearly all our daily activities.

When we spend a lot of time sitting, both the adductors and abductors (outer thigh and hip muscles that move the leg away from the center line) can weaken. Over time, this can destabilize the knees, leading to knee pain and dysfunction. In my own informal “study” of adductor strength and weakness, I’ve found that strengthening the abductors has helped keep my SI joint more stable.

How Can You Strengthen Your Adductors in Yoga Practice?

How can you tell if your adductors are weak? Try this simple inquiry: with your feet a little wider than hips-width apart and parallel, bend your knees about 90 degrees into a standing squat. Do your knees want to splay out to the sides? If so, your adductors are not pulling their weight. However, even if your thighs easily stay parallel, it’s still a good idea to strengthen your adductors, especially if you sit a lot during the day.

In yoga, there are lots of poses that stretch the adductors—think Trikonasana (Triangle Pose), Upavista Konasana (Wide-Legged Seated Forward Bend), Baddha Konasana (Bound Angle Pose)—but not a lot of poses that strengthen your adductors. Squeezing a Yoga Block between your thighs in Bridge Pose is one way to protect your knees and SI joint while you’re in the pose. Practicing with a block will also strengthen the adductors, which will help stabilize your knees and SI joints in the long run.

Pressing your thighs into a Yoga Block in Bridge Pose also helps protect your hip joints. When we practice Bridge, it’s common to push up with the glutes in order to get as much height as possible. This can cause us to push into hip joints, which can cause the femur heads to push against the edges of the hip sockets. When we do this repeatedly over time, the joint’s cartilage and labrum can wear down. In the instructions below, I’ll suggest a different way of moving into Bridge Pose to help you avoid doing this. The Yoga Block between the thighs will give additional support to hip joints as well.

How to Strengthen Your Adductors with a Yoga Block

1. Lie on your back on a Yoga Mat. Have a 4-inch Yoga Block close by.
2. Bend your knees and place the soles of your feet on the floor. Draw your knees in toward your chest and place the Yoga Block between your thighs, just above your knees. Place your feet back onto the floor.
3. Draw your arms in close to your sides. Bend your elbows so that your forearms are vertical. Press your elbows into the floor and simultaneously arch your back away from the floor. Then extend your arms alongside your body.
4. Now press your feet into the floor while pressing your thighs into the Yoga Block.
5. Extend your knees outward, away from your pelvis, to initiate the lift into Bridge Pose. Then continue that action as you lift your back all the way into the pose. Throughout the duration of the pose, maintain this extension of the thighs. This will help prevent you from pushing into your hip joints. It also helps keep your legs parallel rather than splaying out to the sides.
6. Keep pressing your legs into the Yoga Block and extend your knees out away from your pelvis.
7. Hold for 5 to 10 deep breaths.
8. Extend your arms out along the floor, overhead. Stretch out through your arms and lengthen your spine as you slowly lower your back down onto the floor.
9. Repeat two or more times if you like.

Upward-Facing Dog Pose (Urdhva Mukha Svanasana) is one of the key elements in Sun Salutations (Surya Namaskara). It’s often paired with its littermate Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog Pose), but it’s a worthy pose in its own right. Downward-Facing Dog Pose may be the better known of the two, but in this post we’ll let its less-famous sibling have its day.

Upward-Facing Dog Pose provides many benefits. Here are a few:

• Strengthens shoulders, arms, hands and wrists
• Counteracts the effects of too much sitting and bending forward
• Can relieve lower back pain
• Energizes the body and mind

Upward-Facing Dog Pose is named for a loyal dog that appears in the Mahabarata. If you’d like to know about the story behind the pose, check out Zo Newell’s article in Yoga International.

Challenges and Solutions for Practicing Upward-Facing Dog Pose

Urdhva Mukha Svanasana is a challenging pose. It strengthens the shoulders, arms, hands and wrists because it challenges them. There’s a tendency to collapse into the shoulders, hands and wrists in the pose. In order to avoid relying too much on these structures, it’s important to engage the rest of the body in the pose as well. The whole body needs to contribute to the lift in the pose. A Standard Yoga Bolster plus a couple Yoga Blocks can be extremely helpful in shifting the work in the pose to the lower body. This relieves pressure on your hands and wrists. I’ll explain how to use these props in the instructions below.

The other physical challenge in Upward-Facing Dog Pose is the tendency to stress the low back. If you practice the pose with your head thrown back so that you’re looking at the sky, you are probably creating extra stress on your back. Keeping your head in a neutral position in this pose helps to support your low back. This is due to the positioning of a small bone in the top of the throat, the hyoid bone. Here’s a post that explains how to use the hyoid bone to support the core in Chaturanga Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose). You can apply this information to any pose, but for the prone backbends, it’s especially helpful.

Contraindications for Practicing Upward-Facing Dog Pose

Before we dive into practicing the pose, I’d like to share some situations in which it might be best to avoid practicing Urdhva Mukha Svanasana:

• Injuries to your hands, wrists, shoulders or low back
• Second and third trimesters of pregnancy
• Recent abdominal surgery
• If you have a headache, skip practicing this pose.

How to Practice Urdhva Mukha Svanasana with a Yoga Bolster

1. Gather your props: Yoga Mat, two Yoga Blocks, Standard Yoga Bolster.
2. Place your bolster crosswise on your mat about ⅔ of the way toward the “head” end of your mat. Place your blocks, shoulders-width apart, in their lowest setting, directly in front of your bolster.
3. Start in Downward-Facing Dog Pose with your hands on your blocks. You may notice that placing your hands on blocks shifts your weight back into your feet a bit more than usual.
4. Shift your whole body forward and lower your hips onto your bolster. The hipbones should be resting on edge of the bolster.
5. Engage your legs by isometrically lifting them up toward the ceiling. Press your feet down into the floor.
6. Press down into your hands to lift the chest, keeping your elbows bent. Keep your head level, looking straight ahead.
7. Take 5 to 10 deep breaths. Then shift back into Downward-Facing Dog Pose with your hands on your blocks.
8. When you’re ready, release your knees down onto the floor and rest in Balasana (Child’s Pose). You can rest your forearms and forehead on your bolster for extra comfort.

Twists feel so good, but they’re tricky for people with sacroiliac (SI) issues. Given that SI joint issues are the most common yoga-related injuries, it’s important to understand how to keep your SI joint safe in all asanas. Some yoga poses—especially asymmetrical ones—are simply not a good idea when your SI joint is acting up. But there’s no reason you can’t twist—gently—as long as you know how to modify. Today we’ll look at how to practice Jathara Parivrttanasana (Revolved Belly Pose).

Revolved Belly Pose is easier on your SI joint than many of yoga’s twisting poses. This is partly because when you’re lying on the floor, it’s easier to keep your SI joint in a neutral position. The SI joint needs to be angling forward at approximately 30 degrees. This angle allows your spine to form its natural curves, the healthiest position for your spine. Many of us have learned to flatten our backs and tuck our tailbones. This destabilizes the SI joint.

The SI joint locks into place when it’s in its neutral 30-degree angle. When we tuck the tailbone, the back of the joint gaps, and the ligaments that hold it in place can overstretch. Over time, the joint becomes unstable. The vast majority of SI joint issues stem from instability in the joint.

Seated Twists vs. Revolved Belly Pose

In a seated twist, it’s much more difficult to maintain that 30-degree angle. So when the SI joint is in a less stable position to begin with, and then we twist, the joint can displace. In Revolved Belly Pose, we can easily maintain a neutral SI joint position, and therefore maintain a healthy spinal position.

Also, when you’re lying down, the pull of gravity on the spine is completely different from when you’re seated. When your spine is upright, as in sitting or standing, it is more likely to compress a bit. When you’re lying down, your spine is able to lengthen more easily.

Here are some of the benefits of Revolved Belly Pose:

• Strengthens the back and the abdominal muscles particularly the obliques.
• Increases flexibility in the shoulders, chest, hips, lower back and spine.
• Promotes blood circulation throughout the body.
• Stretches the glutes and hip rotators.

Revolved Belly Pose provides a gentle stretch for the piriformis muscle, as well as the other major hip rotators. However, for some people whose SI joints are unstable, stretching those structures can exacerbate their condition. The good news is that there are easy modifications for this. All you need is any one of these props: a Yoga Block, Standard Yoga Bolster or a Yoga Blanket.

How to Practice and SI-Joint Friendly Jathara Parivrttanasana

1. Have your Yoga Block, Bolster or Blanket close by so you can reach them easily. If you’re using a blanket, roll it up so that it’s about 5 to 6 inches thick.
2. Lie on your back on a Yoga Mat in Constructive Rest Position (with your knees bent and the soles of your feet on the floor).
3. Feel how your body is resting on the floor. Make sure that your lumbar spine is curving gently away from the floor, to the degree that you can slide your fingers underneath when your palm is flat on the floor.
4. Extend your arms outward from your shoulders, in a “T” position.
5. Gently draw your knees in toward your chest, but only as far as you can draw them in without losing your lumbar curve.
6. Release your knees over to the left side.
7. Place your prop either between your knees, as in the photo above, or under both knees.
8. You can gently rotate your head toward the right, or you can face the ceiling.
9. Take 5 to 10 deep, relaxed breaths, allowing your abdomen to expand on the inhalation and contract on the exhalation.
10. Return to Constructive Rest Position and take a few breaths to feel the effects of the pose. How do the sides of the body differ.
11. Practice your other side.

Ardha Matsyendrasana (Half Lord of the Fishes) is one of yoga’s ancient poses. Named for the sage, Matsyendra, it is one of the relatively few yoga asanas in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. It is said to have been Matsyendra’s favorite yoga asana.

In the article “Heroes, Saints, and Sages” at yogajournal.com, Colleen Morton Busch writes about the pose’s namesake:

“Matsyendra appears to have been an actual historical person, not just a figure of myth. Born in Bengal around the 10th century c.e., he is venerated by Buddhists in Nepal as an incarnation of the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara. As with most Indian myths, there are many versions of the story of Matsyendra’s metamorphosis into a realized adept—and all of them illustrate the radical transformation that yoga makes possible.”

Chief among Ardha Matsyendrasana’s stated benefits is its ability to strengthen and soften the muscles on either side of your spine. It also can stimulate digestion, stimulate spinal nerves and help keep your thoracic spine supple.

The ability to rotate your spine in a healthy way in any seated twist depends on your ability to maintain your spine’s natural curves at the same time. The hand that touches the floor behind you is key in helping you maintain length and congruity in your spine. If your upper arms are short and your torso is long, it can be impossible to reach the floor without hunching over—the opposite of lengthening your spine.

That’s when a Yoga Block can be a really useful tool. A block can make up the distance between your hand and the floor, allowing you to elongate your spine. Even if your arms are not especially short—say your fingers touch the floor, but you can’t really press your hand strongly into the floor—pressing your hand into a block can give you support to lengthen more effectively.

How to Practice Ardha Matsyendrasana

1. Sit on a nonskid Yoga Mat. Fold your right leg underneath you so that your right foot sits next to your left outer thigh. Bend your left knee and step your left foot over the right leg, placing the sole of your left foot on the floor with your left knee upright. If your sit bones are grounding unevenly, or if your right knee feels uncomfortable, straighten your right leg out, continuing to step the left leg over. You can also try elevating your pelvis on a folded Yoga Blanket or a Zafu.
2. Rotate your spine toward your left leg, scooting your left sit bone back a bit as you turn. Hook your right elbow around your left knee and press your right hand into your yoga block to help you lengthen your spine. If you still find yourself hunching your shoulders forward, hold your knee with your hand instead of your elbow. Remember that elongating your spine is more important than hooking your elbow around your knee.
3. Take 5 to 10 deep breaths. Untwist your torso and sit in Dandasana (Staff Pose) for a few breaths. Check in: Compare the two sides of your body. Are there differences? Repeat on side two.

Hugger Mugger has a great selection of Yoga Blocks to choose from: cork, 3-inch or 4-inch foam, marbled foam, recycled foam or wood. Our Big Block is extra large for extra stability and comfort.

If you’d like to see more uses for Yoga Blocks, as well as how to use Hugger Mugger’s other premium props, please visit the Yoga Props Guide.