True to Yourself

When you honor your limits, this challenging pose becomes a vehicle for peace and freedom rather than frustration and injury.

By Chuck Miller and Maty Ezraty

The promise of yoga is freedom from suffering. As the sage Patanjali outlined in the Yoga Sutra, the first step toward this freedom can be found in the practice of the yamas, or restraints. Although restraint and control are often confused with negative concepts like repression or lack of creativity, they guide us to the real goal of yoga: freedom. When you observe restraint in your yoga practice and in your life, you suffer less and cause less suffering for others.

The first two yamas named by Patan-jali are ahimsa (nonviolence) and satya (truthfulness). Employing these in your asana practice means being present with what is happening in your body in each moment and respecting your limitations and boundaries instead of forcing your way into poses. In a pose like Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana (Bound Half-Lotus Forward Bend) this means working smart before you work hard. Not a beginning pose, Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana appears early in the Ashtanga primary series. But it often stops students in their tracks, demanding that they recognize their limitations in a very tangible way. To achieve the illusion of the pose, and to move on in the sequence, students commonly push past their limits and distort the posture. They'll bend the knee of the standing leg, push the shoulder out of alignment to clasp the foot, or twist the knee instead of opening the hip to get into Standing Half-Bound Lotus.

But a posture done with integrity is much more beautiful than one based in ego and illusion. Beyond that, the tendency to push is not useful and can lead to a host of injuries. Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana is a pose worth learning for any student—it challenges the hips, ham-strings, and shoulders, and it requires balance. But a better alternative to forcing the pose is to cultivate the qualities of restraint and intelligence.

As you move through the sequence we've created, strive to understand the actions of the pose and then work them intelligently until you can increase the intensity. Pain in any part of the body should not be confused with an "opening"; it is your body sending you a message. In this case, the joint below will suffer for the joint above, so if your hips are tight and you force your way into Half Lotus, your knees will suffer. Instead, choose to honor ahimsa and satya by staying present with what is happening in your body and then adapting your practice, rather than forging ahead unconsciously.

When you approach yoga practice this way, it becomes a tool for observation. You can use it to reveal your limitations and boundaries, your strengths and weaknesses. Instead of practicing a mechanical series of poses, you'll feel fresh and alive with a spirit of wonder and investigation. When you feel the urge to force yourself into a pose, come back to being present with your own body and mind. Work with restraint and investigative intelligence. These qualities are more relevant to the practice of yoga than accomplishing any of the postures.

If you find Ardha Padmasana difficult, use the modifications and variations we've provided throughout the sequence as tools to help you explore. The word vinyasa means "to place in a special way," and krama means "steps." The expression vinyasa krama reminds us to learn things gradually, in stages. If you feel overwhelmed, simplify the work by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable pieces and working on the areas of your body that need opening. Be patient and let your body evolve gradually.

Sucirandhrasana (Eye-of-the-Needle Pose)

We wouldn't normally teach this as the first pose in your practice, but it is such an excellent way to safely open the hips that we wanted to include it. If you regularly incorporate it into your finishing postures (especially if you have difficulty with Half Lotus), you'll notice a dramatic change in the flexibility of your hips over time.

Center yourself on your mat with your legs up the wall. Bring your sitting bones close to the wall unless your hamstrings are stiff, in which case you may need to move slightly farther away from the wall. If your hamstrings are tight and you're too close to the wall, your buttocks will lift off the floor and your lower back will round. Give yourself enough space that your lower back stays extended in its slight natural curve. Now straighten your legs and reach through the heels.

Glide your shoulder blades toward the wall, then use the mat to anchor them into the ground. Broaden across the collarbones and lift your breastbone away from your navel. Done correctly, this will open your chest and press your sitting bones toward the wall. Place your arms at your sides and rotate the upper arms and hands open. Close your eyes for a few moments and focus on your breath.

Again, observe the position of your sacrum and lower back. Aim for a neutral pelvis by aligning your frontal pelvic bones and your pubic bone on a level plane. This will create a gentle, natural curve to your lumbar spine (the degree of curvature will vary from person to person). If the pelvis is not aligned correctly, the work will not be deep or accurate in the hip.

Take a few breaths, and then bend the right knee, placing the outside of the right ankle below your left knee. As you flex the right foot, extend through the inner and outer heel. Gently move the right knee toward the wall. Do not use your hands to press your knee; find the action from inside. Keep the sitting bones even and the pelvis neutral. Resist rounding the lower back as you work the sitting bones and chest away from each other.

To increase the work, bend your left knee and press the sole of the left foot into the wall. Continue to move the right knee away from your chest. There should be no pressure in the knee and no distortion in the sitting bones or the lower back; the work should come from deep inside the hip socket. Over time the left foot will move down the wall and the right shin will be parallel to the floor, but do not be in a hurry! Stay present and true to the moment and to your Self. Stay for one to five minutes on the right side, bring both legs up the wall, and switch sides.

Now you are ready to begin the full practice. The standing sequence in the Ashtanga series is a wonderful warm-up for Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana. You may also create a sequence using poses that emphasize external rotation in your hips, like Vrksasana (Tree Pose), Parsvakonasana (Side Angle Pose), Trikonasana (Triangle Pose), and Virabhadrasana II (Warrior II). Repeat these poses in addition to Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend) several times, to prepare yourself thoroughly for the poses that follow.

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