Ustrasana - the camel

It's been a little while since I've looked at ustrasana (camel pose) in my practice and when I have practiced it I have been keeping my arms overhead to shift the focus away from trying to reach the heels and to keep space in the body.

Today as I practiced it dawned on me that maybe, rather like the sage pointing his finger to the moon, the yogis were bringing their hands to their feet to draw attention to the foot and it's importance to the action (the fool only sees the finger or in this case the hands on the heels!).

Using the feet as in the standing poses and bringing the back of the head back brought me into a very happy camel (although the toenails were not so happy at finding themselves pressed so strongly into the floor) and the hands found the feet effortlessly.

Ustrasana - The Camel

When I wrote about dvipada pitham on 30th July I kind of expected that it would be followed shortly by something about Sarvangasana (shoulderstand) and how each has helped the other. But no! Instead here's something about how dvipada pitham has informed ustrasana (camel).

These days I tend to teach and practise camel with the arms raised overhead so that the focus is on the backbend and the movement of the spine rather than on trying to reaching the heels with the associated tendency to compress the lumbar spine.

I realised ages ago that camel and two foot support are the same shape and that ustrasana is just dvipada pitham turned on its end. This evening as I practised camel a little voice in my head said 'so do it like dvipada pitham'. I used the feet, sent the spine forward and up and drew the shoulders towards the hips. The result was amazing. It felt like the feet were really switched on; the hips were wide; the groin open; the shoulders and hips moving towards each other... and an interesting burning sensation in the quads. I felt no lumbar compression.

Photographic evidence will have to wait a week or so as the resident photographer has gone walk about.