Featured Pose Reclined Cobblers Pose Restorative Version

by Baxter and Nina

One of our favorite restorative poses, the supported version of Reclined Cobbler’s pose is a deeply relaxing pose for both body and mind. Because your head is higher than your heart in this pose, for most of you, the pose allows you to relax without falling asleep, thereby reaping the benefits of conscious relaxation (see Conscious Relaxation vs. Sleep for information about the benefits). The rest and relaxation the pose provides restores your energy as it rejuvenates your mind.

Reclined Cobbler's pose an excellent alternative to seated meditation, as you can do pranayama or any mediation practice while reclining. Because the pose is so comfortable, your mind is free to concentrate on a particular mental focus, such as your breath or any object of meditation. As your body relaxes, your mind quiets.

Reclined Cobbler’s pose is a gentle, supported backbend, which doesn’t require muscular effort. So it’s a perfect antidote for people who spend hours in forward bending positions, including cyclists as well as desk-bound people. Because backbends are typically uplifting, the supported backbend can even promote positive mood states.

Having your arms are out to the sides broadens your chest, bringing openness to your pectoral muscles. The leg position stretches and lengthens your hip and leg muscles, especially the inner surfaces of your thighs, so the pose is beneficial for people who have tight hips or inner thighs, and helps prepare you for seated postures.

With correct propping Reclined Cobbler’s pose is accessible to most people, so almost everyone can do it. And it is so gentle that it makes a great transition into regular practice from illness or injury

Baxter prescribes this pose for:

• digestive problems
• tight hips
• tight spine
• stress in general
• fatigue
• convalescence from illness
• insomnia
• cooling after overheating
• menstrual and PMS practices

Instructions: Start by assembling your props. You will need two blankets, a bolster, and a block, as shown below. Roll one of the blankets into a long, thin roll. Fold the second blanket into a square and set it aside. And place the block under the bolster so the bolster is at an angle. If you don’t have a block to put under the bolster, you can use a thick book, a piece of wood, or whatever. If you don’t have a bolster, you can make a thick roll of two blankets or perhaps use a couch cushion. Be creative!

After you have set up your props as shown above, sit down in front of your bolster (but not on it!). Now bring the bottoms of your feet together into Cobbler’s pose, with your knees dropping out to the side.

Next, take the rolled blanket and place it on top of your feet and then pull the ends around and underneath your ankles. Check to make sure your legs can rest comfortably on the blankets. If your hips are very tight, you may need additional support, such as blocks or a thicker blanket roll.

To come into the pose, place your hands on the floor by your hips and slowly lower yourself so your back is resting on the bolster. Now take your folded blanket and slip it underneath your head and neck (but not under your shoulders), making sure your head is tipped so your chin is pointing toward your chest. Rest your forearms and the backs of your hands rest on the floor out to your sides. If your elbows don’t make it down to the floor or if you arms are strained, try uses extra blankets or towels to support your arms.

While you are in the pose, to help you quiet your mind (and trigger the Relaxation Reponse), choose a focus for your mind. You can practice breath awareness or focus on the gradual relaxation of your body, or you can practice pranayama or any form of mediation that you prefer. Stay in the pose 10 to 20 minutes, setting a timer to make sure you don’t fall asleep.

To come out of the pose, bring your hands to your outer legs to use your hands to bring your knees back together. When your feet are flat on the floor, roll slowly onto your side, rest there for a couple of breaths, and slowly come up to sitting.

Cautions: If you have active low back pain, try reducing the arch in your back in this pose by putting a folded blanket under your hips or by moving your hips forward an inch. If you have shoulder injuries, having your arms out to the side could cause pain, so add support, such as folded blankets or towels, under your arms. If you have neck stiffness or arthritis of the neck, you may need an additional blanket under your head.

If you have arthritis of the hip or a hip replacement, make sure that dropping your knees out to the sides is not painful. Try adding more support under your legs (blocks or a thicker blanket roll), but if you can’t get comfortable, come out of the pose. The combination of a backbend with your legs out the side in this pose can compress your sacroiliac joints. Adding more support under your legs might help, but you may want to avoid this pose if you are currently having SI problems.

Keep in mind that this pose is not for everyone. So if it doesn’t work for you, try some other restorative poses instead, either those that we’ll be presenting in the coming weeks or ones your teacher recommends.

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Cultivating Healthy Posture with a Simple Restorative Pose

by Timothy

Poor posture is a common problem that people of any age can have but it is one that tends to worsen over time. Particularly common is the rounding of the upper back into a C-shaped curve, aka Slumpasana. People often hold their heads several inches forward of the body’s plumb line, which can lead to neck and upper back discomfort, among other problems. I’m just back from teaching workshops on therapeutic yoga at Kripalu and the Himalayan Institute and several of the people I worked with—some despite years of yoga practice—still had this postural habit. So I thought today I’d share with you a simple technique that in a number of cases has proved helpful for improving posture.

You might not think poor posture would be a factor is serious health problems, and we certainly weren’t taught much about it in medical school. But if you read medical textbooks and search out relevant studies, you will see that poor posture can contribute such problems as carpal tunnel syndrome, osteoporotic fractures, and even heart disease and depression. From a yogic perspective, this combination of slumping posture and the less-than-ideal breathing that accompanies it is also believed to contribute to anxiety, insomnia, digestive difficulties, etc.

When your back rounds, your lower ribs compress the top of the abdomen so it’s not possible to fully move your diaphragm, the major muscle of breathing, and take a full breath. As a result, people take shallow breaths, primarily bringing air into the upper parts of the lungs. Such a breathing pattern is not as efficient in bringing oxygen into the body, and more importantly for many health concerns, is agitating to the nervous system. I won’t go into the physiology here, but suffice it to say that I have repeatedly seen that improving your posture in a way that allows you to take slower, deeper breaths can lead to an improvement in overall health and well-being.

When you’ve had a long-term habit of slouching, however, it may not just be as simple as remembering to sit up straight or to pull you shoulders back when standing. Long-term slouching leads to shortening of muscles in the front of the upper body, as well as of the fascia, the connective tissue that surrounds and interpenetrates the muscles, and which can limit movement. It’s said that longer holds of poses are necessary to help lengthen the fascia, and while people differ on what the ideal holding time is, I believe staying in a pose for a few minutes may be ideal. That’s hard to do in most regular asana, particularly the backbends, which open up the back. The pose described below is a supported backbend, which like a regular backbend helps correct the postural problem, but because it’s restorative, it’s easy to stay long enough to have the desired effect on the fascia.

To do the pose, you’ll need one blanket and something to place under your head. Take a standard folded yoga blanket and unfold it once, so that you’ve got a long rectangle. Roll the blanket from the longer edge into a thin cylinder. Place the cylinder sideways on your mat a couple of feet from the head of the mat, sit in front of the blanket, and lie back so that rounded edge comes to your mid-thoracic spine.

Thoracic Spine, the portion of your spine to which your ribs attach—
between your cervical spine (neck) and lumbar spine

You can play with the placement, maybe a little higher or lower to get the region of your upper back that seems the most stubborn. Most people, particularly those who tend to slouch, need a pillow or folded blanket under the back of their heads, so that the chin can be more or less at the level of the forehead or slightly lower.

Once you’ve got your props in place, come to a supine Mountain pose with your back on the blanket roll, your head on the head support, and the tops of your shoulders on floor between the head support and the blanket roll. Now, take your arms out to your sides in a T-position, externally rotating your upper arms so your palms face the ceiling, which will help counteract the tendency of most slouchers to internally rotate them. Engage your leg muscles and lightly flex your feet. After  you’ve established your alignment, let go of all effort and lie back into this restorative backbend and let the blanket do all the work. Your only job is to remain mindful, trying to breathe slowly and deeply for the next several minutes. Titrate the time you stay to your comfort levels and schedule. For most people, I’d recommend starting with a minute or so then working up to 5-15 minutes a day. The longer you hold it (as long as you remain comfortable), and the more regularly you do it, the better the results!

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