Hot Yoga Pose Forums > Chapter: Dandayamana Biphatkapada Janushirasana
No questions! When I heard you use this imagery for the first time, it clicked - dive down, not out. By diving down I know I'm compressing all the right things, and looking for my belly button only deepens the pose for me. Almost like a standing rabbit.
KristinaS
Yes, it is like a standing Rabbit pose!
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
That's a really good way of thinking of it. Almost like you are inverting into yourself.
AlexandriaS
I also enjoy that imagery - and for me, the first time my hips were adjusted in the pose was monumental. Something about being upside down like that completely skews your perception of what's straight and square. So that adjustment initially felt completely off-balance, but now I just wiggle my hips, moving my weight between my front and back feet until I feel that classic awkward stance, then I know my hips are square!
Melina
Yes, Melina, squaring the hips when you're upside down can be tricky which is why its a good idea to get a visual cue by looking at yourself in the mirror behind you when you're upside down and square the hips visually. Once hips are square you can go deeper into the pose - the straight leg/ balance on the blades of the pinky fingers are next up
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
I have lots of difficulty keeping both legs locked in this pose. I have also have to come up extremely slowly to keep my arms locked and chin tucked. I fall behind the teacher’s commands and get back to center or savasana well after everyone else. I’m trying to maintain the posture. Should I keep working slowly or should I speed up and sacrifice the posture?
Mallory Maier
I'm already repeating in my head "back hip forward, back hip forward"! I love that mantra and plan on using that in my next practice and see if it helps me keep that back hip forward.
HeatherS
Mallory (Aimee): you must balance both. Taking "too long" in a posture will throw your energy out of whack with the collective energy of the class which can be a fantastic support for you. So you maintain the posture to the best of your ability in the timeframe the cues are presented...and eventually your heart will catch up with your body
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
Heather: one of my teachers noted that we dont have a "back hip," or back leg - we are not horses, she said LOL! But yes, the hip behind you moving forward is a good mantra as is this one: shift your weight into the front leg (go horsey!) to keep the hips square. And eyes open: glancing in the mirror behind you can give you the visual you need to know just what to correct.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
For some reason I can never see myself in the back mirror but from years of dancing know pretty well what squared hips should feel like. I like the idea of this being a standing rabbit. For me this one is all about sucking in the stomach and diving inward and remembering that this pose is about the pinch in the throat and forehead on knee. I need to keep the roundness in my back and not try to be straight back with forehead below the knee and chest to thigh. (damn you dance training)
Gabby
Ah, but think of the training in grace, balance and focus that dance gave you...and you can apply the best of it to yoga now.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
I like the mantra of shifting the weight on the front leg, thats seems to begin my hips to be square rather than trying to force the other hip forward. Rembering that this is a forward compression of the forehead and throat helps my focus and keeps me from pushing over my egde as far as trying to straighten that leg! Coming up with control is a challenge and it feels good to note the gradual gain in strength and balance over time.
KimA
Beautiful pose! It worked so well for me in the class tonight. In the first set, I was warming up and trying to get the feeling where my body was today. The second set was a totally different story. The leg just went straight on its own, forehead to the knee, and I was able to connect my palms together. It was perfect :).
Alfia
The advice to push into the floor with hands and feet did miracles for me today when I tried it for the first time! Pushing into my back foot, i lift the some of the weight out of the back leg and into the front leg, effectively squaring both hips and distributing the weight evenly between both legs. This makes the pose so much more amazing. Keeping forehead to knee contact with eyes searching for the throat the whole time also makes all the difference.
I understand now that hands in prayer position beyond toes is for when you have achieved square hips and locked out legs - which eases my practice because I am not there yet, and my attempts to place my hands in prayer position too early were knocking me off balance!
Grace
Rhonda has talked about the yin-yang of many asanas. For me the yin-yang in this asana is between squaring the hips in the back mirror and keeping the forehead to the knee. As soon as i square the hips the spot between my eyebrows likes to pop away from the knee. I re-adjust by quickly looking in the back mirror for square hips, then forehead to knee, then working really hard to keep forehead to knee, while hips are square. I kinda go back and forth between the two.
I know in order to benefit from the pituitary massage and balance the hormones, I have to keep contact with forehead to knee, so my hip tends to drop just a bit in order to do this. I am aware of this and every class it gets better!!
TinaA
I have really been focusing on getting my leg straight, and this week I have! things have been stretching out nicely! I think in the next week I'll be able to get my hands out in front as well as feel balanced while I do it.
Becky
Nice, Becky - alignment is a beautiful feeling!
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
Alignment is always what I come back to in this pose. I will get both legs straight and think my work is done, but then I know I need to square both hips. I realize my work has just begun. Squaring my hips brings a whole new intense stretch in this pose. I find that I get a sense of relief in my lower back when I do get my hips more square and my legs straight.
This is a pose that gives perpetual relief and benefits depending on what my body needs on and given day. If my hamstrings are loose, I straighten my legs and square my hips. If my hamstrings are tight I focus more on my breathing and tucking my chin to breathe into the stretch. There is always lots to work on.
I will never forget the class that it was brought to my attention that I was not keeping my chin to my throat on the way down, and I was so confused because I thought I was. This must have been resistance to the constricted breathing I was experiencing in the pose. I had to learn to embrace the 80/20 breathing to work through this aspect of the stretch. Now I get such a better stretch in my neck and lower back.
Brittany Yard
All the asanas are a plurk in progress, Brittany. I liken it to what I learned as a painter: changing one aspect of a painting, even a brushstroke or a slight color change in one area, affects the entire painting. Thus you check in everywhere to see what needs adjusting to align with the change. So similar to asana: move one hip or shoulder and the entire being must also adjust to the change. Each adjustment is another subtle move towards feeling good, an expansion of the whole self.
So while it may feel like its the hamstrings allowing the stretch on any give day, it's always so much more...from the inside out, we say in Hot 26
Tucking the chin and looking for the throat is a constant sense of stretch and relief for me too. I love the intense breathing in this pose - I can really feel those Darth Vader good vibrations.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
I wonder something about this pose. Some days I have no problem keeping my hands in prayer and other days I have to keep my hands on the mat. Either way, my forehead is touching my knee with knees straight. Sometimes I can try to focus on that " center line" that some instructors say, but it doesn't always work for me. I'm not upset by it, just wonder why it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.
Dani
Me too, Dani.
The truth is, you are different every day, in every way. The reason things feel different in the same asana on different days, is that they are expressing the changeable being that is you.
The body holds many secrets and tells many truths. It is a mirror of your feelings and it shows you in ways you cannot mistake - pain and discomfort, ease and flow these are all unmistakable.
My lama used to say when you can discover the reason for something, that explains the how...but it doesn't go deep enough to explain the why.
Why do you feel physical sensations some days and not others when the movement itself is the same? Why does your body feel things one way and other body - human just like you - experience the same thing very differently?
The body is many things - it is a vehicle, it is a repository for your energy, it is a universe unto itself where each cell is an intelligent, asking entity interacting in a world that is You. And the body never lies. When we explain things by considering only the physical aspects of tightness, pain, flexibility, toning - we are only scratching the surface of this deeper story of ourselves.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
This pose is interesting for me. At times I am able to reach my forehead to my knee (which is always bent (for now) although I am not able to maintain the contact the whole time yet. I feel so much pull and resistance in my neck that it is painful to keep my forehead touching my knee.
I tuck my chin way in and keep looking to my throat. I only feel resistance in my neck and I keep lowering my shoulders to alleviate the pull. It's a work in progress. I do feel my heart race after coming up in this pose.
Lisa O'Rourke
This pose feels different to me all the time. I love the cue Rhonda uses sometimes to act like you're trying to see your throat. The first time she used that cue, I finally "got" what everyone meant by tucking the chin. Now, the dive down really feels like I'm curling inward. Another instructor one time really made it clear to me that you can separate the hands and reeeeally press the forehead into the knee to help straighten the leg- that was a big aha! moment.
Chrissy Graziano
Yes Lisa it's a plurk in progress! And chrissy I agree: sometimes you get a little cue that makes the biggest AHA moment. There are no small moments... that's why we celebrate whatever feels good not what seems like an achievement .. and hot yoga sure feels good!
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
Another classic tip in this pose came to me while I was teaching: you're that cartoon character diving into a little bucket of water: dive inward not forward and you'll get the forehead to the knee AND you'll hit the ground with the hands in prayer balanced on the blades of the pinkies. Any questions?