Hot Yoga Pose Forums > Ustrasana: It's Camel TIme!
I feel very powerful and open after this pose... I have been in other classes where teachers have done this pose face horizontal to the mirror. It's nice to take a quick look to see my alignment. Now I know I always want to push my hips forward and yes, avoid hurting my lower back. Is there anyway to deepen this pose? Also, what chakras does this guy work?
AlexandriaS
Lifting from the lower back is a big help to our friendly Camel pose: it keeps you from crunching the lower spine and allows this pose to feel completely open. The biggie chakra that Camel affects: the heart, of course. How to deepen the pose: keep lifting the chest which, by the way, pushing the hips more forward creates space for you to do.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
It's the sling shot effect kind of no...? I forget who said it but if I'm really getting into this pose I imagine my torso slinging shotting forward if I were to let go of my heels. Camel looks magnificent too.
AlexandriaS
For the longest time, fear kept me out of this pose. I don't like the feeling of dizziness and light-headedness. But now I'm back to doing the pose. I realize that by taking myself out, I was gaining nothing. And that by not doing the pose, the fear wouldn't go away. Now, I look forward to camel!
KristinaS
So glad you didn't let the dizziness take you out of Camel time, Kristina. As for "lightheadedness," consider the word itself: who wouldn't prefer to lighten their head of heavy thoughts? Perhaps Camel is the quick route to enlightenment ...
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
Not the torso , Alex, but the hips: it's you hips that would jackknife forward and break the mirrors if you let go. Your torso and back become the slingshot
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
I had my first emotional reaction in this pose about two months ago...quite disturbing, but I never felt so alive and vulnerable while lying and telling myself to just breathe during savasana. It was beautiful.
Laura
Laura, you are describing a real letting go in the heart; scarey at first but once you look behind the fear - of being hurt which is why the heart closes- you feel the beauty of an open heart and you never want to close down again. Alas, you might: but now you know a method for opening up.
Rhonda Uretzky
Camel offers an immediate catharsis...I like imagining it like blackened tar (negativity, anxiety, bad memories, insecurity,) that is evaporating out of my body, my heart, my open chest. I look forward to the release...
How does one progress to the next extension, with hands on the floor? In the MasterClass book it says that to enter into the next extension your hips will no longer be more forward than the knees...when do you know it's time? How would you suggest going in?
Melina
I've come to love camel! I never thought I'd say that, but I do. The release the comes afterwards is so healing. I do think that sometimes I reach for my heals when I shouldn't. There is never any pain, but sometimes there is a bit of awkwardness when I reach back. Is that ok?
Mallory Maier
I love The Camel, too, Aimee; sometimes in a music class I take a double set while everyone else is instructed to Savasana (which you should do between sets!) You never want to "lean back" to find your heels- that will crunch your lower back. Keep lifting your chest as you reach back for the heels and you'll have the lifted lower back along with the tight grip on the heels. This grip will help you to push, pull and drop back even deeper.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
Its true, Melina: in the full extension, your hips will be directly above your knees. When you feel ready to go deeper in Camel, start by spreading the knees 8 to 10 inches apart keeping the feet at 6 inches apart and place your palms on the insides of your thighs. Drop your head, lift your chest. push your hips. When this becomes comfortable for you, ask your teacher to "spot" you in full extension/hands on the mat behind you
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
I love camel, however feel stuck where I am at. I can grab my heels with ease however my arms just kind of hang now. I have to remember the next modification spreading the knees and holding the inside of the thighs.
GabbyL
Ooooh Camel, my arch nemesis! I have only a few times gotten back to grab my heels not out of fear of dizziness or lightheaded feelings but just only feeling I could reach one and not the other. My back just wouldn't go. I like the idea of lifting the chest up and back to round over that maybe that would give me a better feeling in this pose.
HeatherS
It took me a long time to finally reach back, only to be told 'not yet' by an attentive teacher. My back was not rounding. Now I am there! I reach back 98% of the time and love the second set where I get more stretch with more comfort than the first/
KimA
More stretch with more comfort is definitely promised in second set!
I find that when my knees are slightly more open than 6" while my feet remain more narrow at 6", I am much more comfortable bending back and pushing my hips forward. I used to push my hips forward and feel a deep pain in my left knee when my knees were exactly hips' width apart. But when they are open just a tad more, I feel no pain and find the exact same challenge. I have heard this instruction in Bikram classes - to open your knees wider than your feet when ready…but I have not heard it in Hot Yoga. Any opinions?
Grace
Definitely, the second set is also more flexible and deeper for me as well Grace. I have not heard about the knees to be wider. I think it is important to hold them your hip width distance. Sometimes, at Riverflow I heard to have your feet in a slight V if you want to go into more advanced pose. Camel is so powerful. It makes such a difference when my chest is higher It opens the pose so much more and I feel a very nice warm sensation all over my chest. It is nice to go to a full extension when my body is ready. This pose is a powerhouse.
Alfia
Grace & Alfia, Rhonda mentions above when you feel ready to go deeper in Camel, start by spreading the knees 8 to 10 inches apart keeping the feet at 6 inches apart and place your palms on the insides of your thighs. Drop your head, lift your chest.
My Camel is a work in progress. When I'm really concentrating on my breath with the movement, lifting from the lower back, lifting the chest up and not crunching my lower spine I can comfortably reach back so much further.
I contribute this pose to releasing all the old scar tissue I had in the front of my neck from a surgery i had 25 yrs ago. By extending my head back and stretching all the tissue, over time, it broke up the adhesions I had in that area. That area now feels so much better, looser and i can even swallow better! Go Camel!!
TinaA
i like that you have found the positive side of this pose tina... how it has healed you. right now im having a hard time finding the positive side to this pose. for the last 2 months its been nausea and dizziness every time put my head back :( we once has a camel contest to see who could hold it the longest and I won! hopefully ill get back to that soon!
danielle bumber
A Camel Contest - thats funny Danielle! What's the prize?
Yes, Grace, you have started now in class opening the knees 8-10 inches and placing your palms on your inner thighs rather than on the lower back...what has that experience been like for you/
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
i really enjoy the feeling of my chest opening, I always feel like my stress just falls off at this point.. anything that was bothering me gone.
Becky
Nice Becky. Note that your students may have the opposite reaction in Camel: opening the heart in such a big way can bring on panic, dizziness (a way of taking yourself out) nausea as feeling well up from the gut. These feelings are a sign of releasing resistance. Your feeling of being open and free are signs that resistance is gone.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
When I first started yoga, this pose made me nauseous with the constriction that it put on my throat. My lower back also ached. As I have done more yoga these issues have subsided, but I think it is more related to lifting my chest higher as a drop my head back. In the cues it says head back and then chest up, but I do these two things more simultaneously, I bet a better result with less constriction on my throat. I also think that it is so important to remind students to lift up from their lower backs; the beach ball visual helps me so much. This was what helped me to escape the lower back pain.
Like Tina in her post above, this pose has really helped me with breathing. I suffered from really severe exercise induced asthma as a kid. The same choking feeling came back when I first started doing this pose, and I realized my inhaler would not do the trick: deeper, controlled breaths did the trick. It is rather ironic; because I really wonder how much of that exercised induced asthma was just incorrect breathing? Since starting yoga, I feel that my asthma has pretty much gone away.
Brittany Yard
It amazes me how much my heart pumps once in Savasana after this pose and I do not reach back for my heels. I keep my hands on my lower back and only drop my head back and lift my chest. I'm just not ready to reach back but I do love the intense feeling once in Savasana.
Lisa O'Rourke
Once you get over the fear of the dizzy, lighteaded, even nausea potential of this pose, you can appreciate how completely it puts your nervous system back in alignment. One major key is to keep lifting your chest as you push your hips forward - that way you avoid crunching your lower back and the pose always feels uplifting in your body and your soul.