Yoga Sandbag: Strengthen Your Bridge Pose

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge Pose) is one in every of yoga’s most versatile poses. After I studied with B.Ok.S. Iyengar in India, variations of Bridge Pose had been a go-to. For these of us who by chance ingested parasites, Supported Bridge Pose was therapeutic. Setu Bandha Sarvangasana ready our again, shoulders and quads for Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand) and Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow Pose). By itself, Bridge Pose expands the entrance physique whereas it strengthens again muscle tissue. Working towards with a Yoga Sandbag ups the ante, offering resistance to problem the again muscle tissue even additional.

“Bridging” can also be a staple of core work in energy coaching. As with yoga, there are many variations. You possibly can follow it with ft on the bottom or on an train ball. Or you possibly can follow lifting into Bridge on one leg—on or off an train ball. And you may add barbells or weighted bars. I’ve practiced all these variations, and I favor the steadiness and flexibility of a Yoga Sandbag to conventional weights.

There are a pair causes that Yoga Sandbags work effectively on this capability. First, they mould to your physique, so they have an inclination to remain put in your hip joints. You don’t have to carry them in place such as you do with conventional weights. Second, you possibly can add or subtract sand to search out the proper weight in your follow. As my again has gotten stronger, I now use a 10-pound sandbag on every thigh for a complete of 20 kilos. However I’d suggest beginning through the use of a single sandbag as pictured above.

The right way to Apply Bridge Pose with a Yoga Sandbag

1. Collect your props: Yoga Mat, Yoga Sandbag and a Yoga Strap. It’s possible you’ll or could not need to use a strap, however have one shut by, simply in case.
2. Knees are likely to splay out to the edges in Bridge Pose, so that you may need to follow with a Yoga Strap. Inserting a Yoga Strap round your thighs can assist you retain your thighs parallel.
3. Lie in your again in your mat together with your knees bent and the soles of your ft on the ground.
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 in order that your forearms are vertical.
6. Press your elbows into the ground and arch your lumbar backbone away from the ground.
7. Lengthen your arms alongside your physique.
8. Lengthen your knees out, away out of your pelvis, as if you happen to’re lengthening your quads. This may provoke the raise of your backbone off the ground.
9. Now raise your hips up towards the sky, adjusting the sandbag if essential in order that it stays in your hip joints.
10. Clasp your palms beneath you, or maintain a strap between your palms in order that your arms are parallel.
11. Floor your arms and shoulders to assist broaden your chest, and proceed to stretch the knees out away from the pelvis.
12. Maintain for five to 10 deep breaths.
13. Launch the pose and return to mendacity in your again together with your knees bent. Repeat as many instances as you want.
14. An alternative choice: Be happy to follow repetitions, lifting into Bridge Pose on the exhalation, inhaling within the pose, and exhaling as you decrease down. Apply 10 to twenty repetitions, staying within the pose for only one inhalation.

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and commenced educating in 1986. Charlotte is the creator of Conscious Yoga, Conscious Life: A Information for On a regular basis Apply and Yoga for Meditators, each printed by Rodmell Press. Her third e-book is titled Hip-Wholesome Asana: The Yoga Practitioner’s Information 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 within the Salt Lake Symphony and people sextet Pink Rock Rondo, whose DVD gained two Emmy awards in 2010.