Ustrasana

Hi, I'm here with my good friends Ilana and Betsy, and we're going to now demonstrate the camel pose, Ustrasana, but it's not the version that you might be familiar with, the modern version. It's the version that was done in the Garanda Samhita about 350 years ago. So let's get Ilana to put the straps back on her ankles. We'll make these straps into, as we did for the bow pose previously, we make these straps into with small loops and she'll put them over her ankles. So here's this one, go ahead. In the meantime Betsy can lie down on her belly. I remember when you do the more advanced position or the more the more challenging position anyway, you want to be sure that you can grab onto your ankles and not onto the tops of your feet, which puts a lot of stress on the ankles if you do that. This is the reason why we're having Ilana demonstrate the straps so that you get the idea that it's better to have the ankles held than the feet. And I'll ask them both then to draw their heels in toward their buttocks as we did for Dhanurasana, but now I'll ask them to cross the right ankle in front of the left and then reach back again for the ankles. And of course Ilana is using the belts and Betsy's getting hold of the ankles directly. Now let's just go directly into the pose on this one. So if you take an inhalation, always remember that you want to move into a backbend on an inhalation. Both of you can lift the upper torso and head and the thighs a little bit away from the floor. Very nicely done. You want the arms to be long and push the heels away or I should say pull the heels away from the buttocks and lift up. Tailbone sharp, knees not wider than hips before, very good. And this is the way camel was done 350 years ago, Ustrasana. Now there is something a little bit unusual about this exercise that I've tried to find out why they do this. It's very clear in the text that this is being done and I've asked a lot of yoga experts who have no idea exactly what's going on, but for the purposes of completeness what I'll ask the yoginis to do is to draw in on their cheeks a little bit and purse their lips. And I've seen a number of pictures of Ustrasana done in this way. It's very odd but it's very clear in the text this is what's being done. And the only speculation that I heard from this one is that it's some kind of a mudra for the lips. Anyway you can try and see how it goes. And then inhale and on the exhalation release and come down. Nicely done. And you can let go of the belt, actually hold on to the belt, we'll have to cross the ankles to do the second side. So this time let's bring the left ankle in front of the right. Very good. As always you come up with an inhalation. It's when you're doing backbends it's really best to go as quickly as you can into the backbends. Backbends you need to warm up your back to do them. And so if you if you linger in between the poses it makes it a little bit harder to do. And again I wonder if you both could draw in your cheeks a little bit. I'm enjoying this very much and purse your lips. And this is Ustrasana, the camel pose, circa 1650. Nicely done. Thank you both. Exhale, release and come down. And let's push back into child's pose again please. With an exhalation keeping the front of the torso long. And this time what I'd like you to do is to let your hands rest on the floor beside your feet. Back to the hands on the floor, palms turned up. Now you don't often get much instruction in child's pose, Balasana. But you do, this is a very useful pose in one way and that is to learn how to breathe into the back of your torso. So I'll ask both of my helpers to direct their inhalations into the space between the shoulder blades. So the inhalation will create more space across the back and the exhalation then will be used to release the torso more fully down onto the thighs. And you gradually let the torso elongate out along the top of the thighs to create more space as always in the front spine. Balasana, the child's pose. And again if you don't mind would you come up with a long front spine pulling down on the tailbone to lift the torso up. Inhale, nicely done. Sitting up in Vajrasana.

Thank you very much. This is Ustrasana, the camel pose.