Asana Column: Vamadevasana II (Pose Dedicated to the Sage Vamadeva II)

Experience a joyful lift and expansion in this challenging twist.

By Aadil Palkhivala

However, if you find this position extremely painful in your hips, or if your pelvis and lower spine are collapsing back, making you feel hunched, you should modify the pose. Try sitting with your back near a wall; slowly wiggle your buttocks back, bringing your sitting bones as close to the wall as possible. Pressing your back against the wall to increase the leverage of your right arm, use the arm to rotate the right thigh externally and to push it away from the hip. If you are still rounding your lower back and experiencing intense hip pain in this variation, straighten your left leg and place your right outer ankle on your left thigh one inch above your left knee.

Whichever version of the posture you choose, drop your shoulder blades and spread them apart. Breathe deeply and visualize your right thighbone rotating externally inside the right hip socket. Open your heart center, allowing your lungs to expand. Stay here for nine or more breaths.

Release by slowly lifting your right knee, pulling the thigh up with your right hand if necessary. Then repeat the pose with your left leg on top of your right. After doing both sides, straighten both legs into Dandasana and squeeze them together firmly. This will prevent your hips from becoming unstable after such an intense stretch.

Internal Hip Rotation

Although Vamadevasana II requires a strong external rotation in one leg, it requires an equally strong internal rotation in the other. Hence, our second preparatory pose works on creating this internal rotation in the hip joint. This movement powerfully stretches the longest muscle in the human body, the sartorius, which originates on the jutting hip point at the front of the pelvis, reaches down across the thigh, and attaches on the upper inner edge of the shinbone.

If you've ever injured your inner-knee ligaments, your sartorius may have had to take over the work of stabilizing the knee. This compensation may still be needed to keep your knee stable, so you should approach this pose slowly and very mindfully. Concentrate on your inner knee at every step; if you feel any pain in the knee, immediately take the precautions described below.

Lie on your back with your legs bent, the soles of your feet on the floor, and the inner edges of your feet touching; your heels should be about a foot away from your buttocks. Throughout this pose, do not let your left thigh swing out to the left or in to the right. If you move the left leg, you subtly alter the position of the pelvis and avoid some of the internal rotation work in the right hip.

Now step your right foot one shin length to the right. This is the exact length necessary for your right knee to touch your left heel when you move fully into internal rotation of the right thigh. As you exhale, slowly begin to bring your right knee toward your left heel. As you bring your knee down, lift the outer edge of your right foot so that the sole of the foot remains perpendicular to the shinbone and the relative positions of your foot and ankle remain as if they were in Tadasana (Mountain Pose).

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