Ustrasana (Camel Pose)

Welcome back. I'm here again with my friend Lori. We're going to take a look at Ustrasana or camel pose. For the sake of this demonstration, we're not moving into the deepest, full expression of the posture where you're reaching back for your heels. I'm sure most of you know that. You're welcome to take it, of course. I don't tend to offer a hands-on adjustment for that variation, so we're simply going to show the more modified pose so that we can play with the hands-on adjustment. First, the alignment, and then we'll move into hands as you're ready. Come on up. We see her tailbone descending, her deep belly rising, her hips slightly moving forward, and her heart lifting towards the sky. Her head is dropping back but not necessarily all the way. That's very personal. You can find your own sweet spot with a neck. Just do what feels good in that area of the body. As you're ready, you can gently just sit back for a moment. In that variation of the pose, a slight lift from the back of the heart can encourage the opening through the chest and the heart center and more release through the shoulders. We'll play with that now. As you're ready, come on back up. Again, she's taking a drop through the tailbone, a lift from the center, hips forward, heart rising. I just come right behind her. Depending on how far down she is, I can stay standing or take a slight squat, and then take just a few fingers of my right hand to the back of her heart and encourage a lift there. While doing that, I can say verbally, lift your heart towards the sky. There's a relationship between the physical and the verbal cue. Then just gently I release it. Good Lord, you can come out of it when you're ready. There's not a lot of force there at all. It's more just sort of a palpable reminder of where the lift is in the pose for your student, and remember to get a nice sturdy base for yourself so that you can support them peacefully. Thank you.