MOVING THE PRACTICE OUT OF STRUGGLE
One of the things I look for most in my students' practices is the presence of struggle during their poses. It became clear to me a while ago, through teaching and my own practice, that if a student is struggling through a pose it has ceased to be productive for them. This of course doesn't mean they shouldn't be trying or applying effort, but struggle is different. Struggle gets in the way. Struggle is a sign we are adding stress to the effort, and this is just going to freeze you up.
By seeking out where we struggle, we find where we are getting in our own way. Usually, we are simply trying to push through something without real understanding of how to do it. It's kind of like trying to drive a monster truck through a lake. You'll only get so far, no matter how much power you apply. To really make the journey, we need to change the approach.
One of the most obvious places where I see struggle, suffering, and stalling out in my classes is Bow pose. For a while I just figured people weren't kicking hard enough, and simply told them to kick harder. That didn't really work. I'm embarrassed to admit that I tried it for years - literally - to no avail. We live and we learn.
It turns out that the missing element wasn't effort, it was understanding. People were kicking, but they didn't really know why they were kicking. They understood, "kick up" but there wasn't much explanation beyond that. They just kicked and hoped. And struggled.
KICK FOR A SHOULDER STRETCH
Somewhere along the idea got out there that if you kick harder in Bow you go higher. But that's not really the case for many people. Most people with cell phones have locked up shoulders and will never get up higher in the pose without opening them up a bit.
See, the kick stretches the shoulders. Unfortunately there's no mention of this in the dialogue, so it doesn't get a lot of attention, but a simple look at the shape of the pose makes it obvious. The grip, behind the back, directly mirrors a standard shoulder stretch. The front of the deltoid, as well as the biceps, get a nice opening. Then in time the pectoralis major and minor open up. It's a lovely feeling.
But we need to practice the pose with this in mind in order to get the benefit.
HOW TO:
The most effective method I've found so far is a three step entry. After you've bent the legs and established the grip, do the following:
1) Melt the heart down into the floor and lift up the shoulders. (Rolling them onto the back can be helpful here.)
2) Tone the core. Without kicking, inhale and lift the thighs and chest. Use only the muscles of the torso.
3) Release extra neck and shoulder tension. When you feel comfortable, begin to slowly kick. Let the shoulders draw back and turn upward as the kick pulls the grip back and up. You should feel a deep, comfortable stretch across the chest.
Keep the breath even and the deep abdominals active the whole time. Don't push your belly button down into the floor, it will collapse the pose into the low spine. Make looking up to the ceiling the last thing you do to enter the pose.
Check it out and let me know what you think! If you've got better methods for getting into the shoulder stretch, have comments or questions, hit the comment section below. Much love, my friends. Be well!