14-Mar-2010

Training Wheel

Ease into Elevation

This dynamic back bend brings an enormous sense of exhilaration that evokes the freedom we experienced as kids. On a physical level, Wheel is a yoga super-pose! It stimulates the nervous, digestive, respiratory, cardiovascular, glandular and hormonal systems, and opens all seven chakras. Emotionally, it opens old blockages and accesses that part of us that helps us deal with change.

1. Lie on your back with your feet hip width apart, close to your buttocks. Have your big toes slightly turned in. Place your hands close to your ears, palms down, and your fingertips under your shoulders. Inhale.
2. Exhale, squeeze your elbows in towards each other. Inhale.
3. Exhale, lift your hips off the ground. Press your big toes into the ground and lift through your thighs. Inhale, come back down.
4. Exhale, this time lifting through your chest and rolling onto the top of your head. Inhale, come back down.
5. Exhale roll up onto the top of your head again, inhale and exhale as you straighten your arms to come up into the full pose. Walk your feet toward your hands, come up onto your toes, look down at the floor and push your chest forward. Stay here for five breaths (or as long as you can), gently breathing in and out through your nose.
6. Inhale, tuck your chin towards your chest and gently roll down. Lie on your back in the rest pose, close your eyes and enjoy the rush of energy through the front of your body.
7. After you have rested, hug your knees to your chest, lift your head. Hold for five breaths and release.

Beginners note: This pose will often take practice and an ability to let go of many of your fears before you can come into the full pose. Practice the pose in stages and only go to the level you are comfortable with. For example, you can stay in Bridge Pose, keeping the arms on the floor beside the body and lifting up as in Steps 1-3. As you begin to include the arms, going for full bridge, focus on lifting through your thighs and your chest instead of focusing on your arm strength. Persist, because after you have done it for the first time, you’ll be able to do it again and again!

Video to help you along: Getting Round: Wheel Pose demonstrated by Esther Ekhart

Kris McIntyre
KrisMcintyre.com
Host of Australia’s YOGA TV
One of may favorite books ever is Yoga and the Quest for the True Self