Here is Tula taking you through Camel pose step-by-step…
Posture Focus: Camel Pose
1. Stand up on your knees, with your feet and knees hip widths distance apart.
2. Place your hands on the small of your back with fingers pointing down.
3. Push your hips and thighs forward, lift your chest and gently drop your head back. Keep your neck relaxed and you should feel a stretch across the front of your throat.
4. Lift your chest up and over, look across the ceiling towards the wall behind you and take your time. As you lift up and move back, keep pressing your hips and thighs forward.
5. If you’re ready, reach down with your right hand to grab your right heel – hips don’t move, only your arm. Use your other hand to support your spine. Reach back with your left hand to grab your left heel, and again hips don’t move. If you’re not ready, or hips start to drop back, keep your hands on your spine, breath evenly and hold.
6. If you are grabbing heels. palms are flat against your heels, without leaning back. Keep lifting up and pressing your thighs and your hips forward. Look across the ceiling, down the wall behind you and keep your breath smooth and even.
7. When you release, come up one hand at a time, head up last.
Modification
>If you have a neck injury, use your gaze to look up until your head is ready to drop back. If its very painful, interlace your fingers and support your neck with your hands. If you a have a back injury, don’t be in a rush to grab your heels. Support your spine with your hands and learn to lift up. This will take the pressure off your lower spine. If you get dizzy, do less and focus on your breathing.
Take it further
To work on a deeper backbend, practice holding the posture for longer. Keep the form of the posture, but lift up even more, look further down the wall behind you, and then look for your toes!
Why is this pose good for you?
Backbends are incredibly therapeutic for your spine. We forward bend a lot in our day to day living, sometimes collapsing into our hips and lower spine. Lifting up in a backbend helps to open up your middle and upper spine, and bend evenly. Camel pose will help strengthen the muscles that support your spine, and improve the flexibility of your spine.
