Yoga Sandbag: Strengthen Your Bridge Pose

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge Pose) is one amongst yoga’s most versatile poses. After I studied with B.Okay.S. Iyengar in India, variations of Bridge Pose had been a go-to. For these of us who unintentionally ingested parasites, Supported Bridge Pose was therapeutic. Setu Bandha Sarvangasana prepared our once more, shoulders and quads for Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand) and Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow Pose). By itself, Bridge Pose expands the doorway physique whereas it strengthens once more muscle teams. Coaching with a Yoga Sandbag ups the ante, providing resistance to drawback the once more muscle teams even further.

“Bridging” may also be a staple of core work in vitality teaching. As with yoga, there are various variations. You’ll be capable to observe it with toes on the underside or on an prepare ball. Otherwise you’ll be capable to observe lifting into Bridge on one leg—on or off an prepare ball. And you might add barbells or weighted bars. I’ve practiced all these variations, and I want the soundness and adaptability of a Yoga Sandbag to traditional weights.

There are a pair causes that Yoga Sandbags work correctly on this functionality. First, they mildew to your physique, in order that they have an inclination to stay put in your hip joints. You don’t have to hold them in place similar to you do with standard weights. Second, you’ll be capable to add or subtract sand to hunt out the correct weight to your observe. As my once more has gotten stronger, I now use a 10-pound sandbag on each thigh for a whole of 20 kilos. Nonetheless I’d advocate starting by way of using a single sandbag as pictured above.

Discover ways to Apply Bridge Pose with a Yoga Sandbag

1. Gather your props: Yoga Mat, Yoga Sandbag and a Yoga Strap. It’s attainable you’ll or may not want to use a strap, nevertheless have one shut by, merely in case.
2. Knees are inclined to splay out to the edges in Bridge Pose, so that you could be want to observe with a Yoga Strap. Placing a Yoga Strap spherical your thighs would possibly aid you retain your thighs parallel.
3. Lie in your once more in your mat collectively together with your knees bent and the soles of your toes on the bottom.
4. Place the Yoga Sandbag in your hip joints, the crease the place the thighs meet your pelvis.
5. Place your arms shut in to your sides and bend your elbows so that your forearms are vertical.
6. Press your elbows into the bottom and arch your lumbar spine away from the bottom.
7. Delay your arms alongside your physique.
8. Delay your knees out, away out of your pelvis, as within the occasion you’re lengthening your quads. This may increasingly provoke the carry of your spine off the bottom.
9. Now carry your hips up in the direction of the sky, adjusting the sandbag if wanted so that it stays in your hip joints.
10. Clasp your palms beneath you, or keep a strap between your palms so that your arms are parallel.
11. Flooring your arms and shoulders to help develop your chest, and proceed to stretch the knees out away from the pelvis.
12. Keep for 5 to 10 deep breaths.
13. Launch the pose and return to lying in your once more collectively together with your knees bent. Repeat as many cases as you need.
14. One other selection: Be at liberty to observe repetitions, lifting into Bridge Pose on the exhalation, inhaling throughout the pose, and exhaling as you lower down. Apply 10 to twenty repetitions, staying throughout the pose for just one inhalation.

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell discovered yoga in 1982 and commenced educating in 1986. Charlotte is the author of Conscious Yoga, Conscious Life: A Info for Regularly Apply and Yoga for Meditators, every revealed by Rodmell Press. Her third e e-book is titled Hip-Healthful Asana: The Yoga Practitioner’s Info to Defending the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Ache (Shambhala Publications). She writes a month-to-month column for CATALYST Journal and serves as editor for Yoga U On-line. Charlotte is a founding board member for GreenTREE Yoga, a non-profit that brings yoga to underserved populations. A lifelong musician, Charlotte performs oboe and English horn throughout the Salt Lake Symphony and people sextet Crimson Rock Rondo, whose DVD acquired two Emmy awards in 2010.