Accepting Reclined Leg Stretch

by Nina

An excellent time to combine acceptance with active engagement (as Baxter discussed in his post yesterday) is when you are doing yoga poses. By far, the healthiest and most effective way to do yoga poses is to cultivate an awareness of your body’s current state while at the same time actively working toward making changes to it, such as stretching or strengthening. This is one of the best ways to protect yourself from injury. And it also helps you reap the most benefits from your poses.

When I was trying to think of a pose that epitomized this need for both acceptance and active engagement, Reclined Leg Stretch pose (Supta Padangusthasana) sprang to mind. To be honest, that’s because every time I've taught the pose, I’ve seen people “cheat” (yes, I’m talking about you with the bent leg over there), a sure sign that the “acceptance” side of the equation is lacking.

Reclined Leg Stretch (Supta Padangusthasana) is a very beneficial pose because it revitalizes your legs while it eases tension in your lower back. It stretches your hamstring muscles and your hip joints, which is important for maintaining physical health if you sit at a desk or walk a lot. It is also helpful for lower back pain and maintaining a healthy back. And it’s a great way to begin a yoga practice or even to do as a “single pose practice.” Plus, you get to do it lying down! 

Baxter prescribes it for: 

• leg fatigue or weakness 
• lower back conditions 
• arthritis 
• knee pain 
• swelling of feet and ankles 
• maintaining flexibility of the legs and hip joints as you age

However, most people are too tight in their hamstrings to do the pose like their teachers or the pictures they’ve seen, so some (not naming any names here) cheat by bending the knee of their top leg or by lifting their pelvis off the floor in order to bring their toe closer to their head.

Can you do it like this? (From "Moving Toward Balance," Rodney Yee with Nina Zolotow)

But while cheating may make you feel more flexible, bending your top knee means that you won’t be getting the full hamstring stretch that’s so beneficial. So the next time you do this pose (and it’s a great one to practice at home), use a strap or belt around the arch your foot and hold the right side of the strap in your right hand, the left in your left hand. Now be honest with yourself. Is your upper leg truly straight? And is your pelvis resting evenly on the ground? If not, let your leg go until your knee is straight, your pelvis is even, and your leg reaches its natural angle (90 degrees or less, even much less).

Using a strap. (From "Moving Toward Balance," Rodney Yee with Nina Zolotow)

That’s the acceptance part. The active engagement part is to stay in the pose for 45 to 90 seconds and to practice regularly. Although we can’t promise it, there’s a very good chance that over time this pose will increase your flexibility, making many other poses more comfortable and enhancing your physical health.

Some helpful variations:

• If your head and shoulders aren’t resting comfortably on the floor, use a folded blanket under your head. 
• If you are so tight that it’s hard to hold your leg with a strap, do the pose with the bottom leg extending through a doorway and your top foot resting on the wall next to the doorway. 
• If you want to strengthen your bottom leg as your stretch the top one, you can practice with your bottom foot pressing against a wall.

Cautions: If you have lower back issues, you may need to keep your bottom leg bent. If you have wrist issues, you may need to change the way you hold the strap.

Subscribe to Yoga for Healthy Aging by Email ° Follow Yoga for Healthy Aging on Facebook ° Join this site with Google Friend Connect

Accepting Your Body

by Anna Guest-Jelley

Round Dance by Niki de Saint Phalle

Do you ever wish you had a more accepting relationship with your body? If so, I’m right there with you.

I had an almost entirely negative relationship with my body for much of my life. So when I finally realized that continuing to force my body to try and become something it isn’t was futile, I turned to body acceptance.

But I had no idea how to get started.

Even though I read books and went to therapy, it still never felt like anything was shifting much. That is, until I noticed that the tools I’d been learning on my yoga mat over the years, particularly trying to listen to my body and find an answer when teachers would ask me things like “What does your baby toe feel like in this pose?,” might just be a big help.

There are many myths about body acceptance, but one of the most pervasive is that it means giving up on your body or having a static relationship with it. Of course, as anyone who has practiced yoga for more than one day knows, bodies are anything but static. After all, a Tree pose that feels solid one day may feel anything but the next, and vice versa.

The truth about bodies is that they are always changing. So even if you wanted to have a static relationship with your body, that wouldn’t even be possible because it’s not a thing.

What I’ve found over the years, both in my own practice and with students, is that yoga can help with body acceptance precisely by inviting us into this moment of observation and conversation with our ever-changing bodies.

And while a skillful teacher can offer questions to bring you into this conversation, you can also do it on your own. Here are some of my favorites, along with poses you might apply them to (though you can use them with any pose!).

1. What does my body need in this moment, and how can I meet that need with the resources I have on hand?

I ask myself this one most days, both on and off the yoga mat. I think of it as the question underneath all the other questions. The second half is important because we can so often ask the first part, come up with an answer like “a three month vacation,” then throw our hands up in frustration. The second half of the question invites us into the present moment by reminding us that we can find ways to know and meet our own needs, both of which are so instrumental to creating a more loving relationship with ourselves. After all, it’s hard to form a positive relationship with someone you don’t know well, particularly when that someone is your own body.

One pose to try this question with is Downward-Facing Dog pose with a chair. What I love about using a chair with this pose is how it can shift your focus to this question so beautifully because it lets you drop out of any question about how far down your heels come or how long you can hold yourself in the pose, and invites you to move into what your body is experiencing.

2. What would it be like to let myself receive more support in this moment?

Oh goodness, how often do we let ourselves accept any support at all, much less what we actually need? Yoga can be a powerful place to practice this just through experimenting with the support of props.

You might try this question with Child’s pose. In the version I’m showing here, I’ve taken my knees wide to make space for my belly because it lets me feel more comfortable and supported. I’ve also added a block under my head to avoid feeling strangled and/or suffocated by my chest—which, probably not too surprisingly, isn’t a very supportive feeling. You could also experiment with placing a blanket or bolster behind your knees if your bum doesn’t rest comfortably on your heels.

3. What would kindness do right now?

What I like about this question is how often the answer can surprise you. Our society tends to encourage an either/or relationship with bodies and movement—either you’re pushing yourself as hard as you can at every moment or you’ve thrown in the towel. In that context, kindness is usually construed as doing less, being gentler, etc. And, of course, sometimes that’s precisely what’s needed! But our bodies are not as either/or as our minds like to make them, so sometimes kindness looks like trying something different or holding a pose a moment longer. I believe this question opens up possibility, which is just what we need when having a conversation with our bodies.

An interesting pose to use this question with is Pigeon pose. My answer to this question with this pose is often the version I’m showing here, with a bolster supporting my front leg and bringing my head to a chair seat. Here I’m able to be in the pose with more comfort and to settle in for more time because of it.

You can use these questions with any pose over time in your practice. Similar to what we talked about earlier with Tree pose, the questions yield at least slightly (and often more than slightly!) different answers each time you work with them. As you work with them, you may also discover your own questions that help you meet your body where it is today and show it some love.


Anna Guest-Jelley is the founder of Curvy Yoga, an online yoga studio and teacher training center that helps people of all sizes find true acceptance and freedom, both on and off the mat. Anna is the author of newly released Curvy Yoga: Love Yourself & Your Body a Little More Each Day.  Blending personal stories with practical application of yoga (including curvy pose modifications!), this book is designed to support yoga as a tool for body acceptance, She is also the co-editor of Yoga and Body Image: 25 Personal Stories About Beauty, Bravery & Loving Your Body. To learn more about Curvy Yoga, visit www.CurvyYoga.com.

Subscribe to Yoga for Healthy Aging by Email ° Follow Yoga for Healthy Aging on Facebook ° Join this site with Google Friend Connect