Hello All,
I am an ardent fan of the Fire series exp. Fire 60. I always find it difficult to do the Rabbit pose. I dont know how to really use the towel and how to correctly get into the pose.
Please help.
Thanks
KK

I always wonder what to do with my arms in this posture. They never straighten and I feel my weight distribution is off.

I agree with Lindsey; I feel unable to relieve the pressure from my head and neck in this pose!

Start by focusing on your spine. We're trying to stretch it.

We wrap the towel around the feet so you end up with a dry grip. But don't worry about it too much in the beginning.

Sit up straight. Suck in your stomach and round forward, placing your forehead on top of your knees, top of your head flat on the floor.

Then reach your hand behind you and grab the soles of your feet (which are covered by the towel). Staying rounded, forehead to knees, lift your hips. Eventually your arms will straighten and your hips will be stacked on top of your knees.

You might also try this slight adjustment to get more rounding out of your spine: as you suck in your stomach, round as much as possible in your lower spine before you begin to round down. This might result in a slightly higher position of your head in relation to the floor. Careful not to rest it on the floor. With enough rounding of your spine, beginning with the lower spine, your head will be tucked in close to your knees.

Keeping the core engaged, as Brookes stated, will assist in taking pressure off the head and neck (think no WWF wrestling move here. Actively press the tops of your feet and the shins into the mat to assist with anchoring the body and balancing the weight distribution. Keep the chin tucked into the throat and that will help w/ getting the top of head flat to floor not the forehead/face to floor (which I think I did for a good year before I finally got it right It's such a great posture and once you get it down you will love it

Go to a Wood90 class and stay for the posture lab and ask the teacher to help guide you through the pose. Wood90's are an awesome chance to get some additional assistance Metal workshops are coming up and rabbit pose is in that series! Look into attending, they are a ton of fun!

Peace and Yoga,
Allie

Once you have entered the posture, focus less on lifting the hips initially and more on rounding the upper back by drawing in the stomach while holding the forehead to the knees. When you are experiencing pressure on the top of the head the first thing you should do is (keeping your tight grip) try and gently lift the shoulders away from your ears (toward the ceiling). This should relieve some of the pressure. Once you have lifted the hips try working the grip deeper into the heels (feet) and when the arms do begin to straighten try to squeeze them into the sides of the thighs.

Find your instructor after you practice, have them look at your posture after class and ask if they see any obvious adjustments that might help you.

Hope that helps!

Stephanie

I just want to add that there should NOT be any weight in your head. the chin is tucked and the eye gaze is up at the abdomen. If you are rolling forward, press the tops of your feet in to the floor to stabilize. The arms are active in this pose. Try it at home until you feel the stretch along your spine. If you still are not sure about this pose, please ask a Sunstone teacher before or after class. We all LOVE to talk about yoga.

You can't go wrong if you lightly press your feet into the floor, tuck the chin tighter, suck the stomach in more, bring the forehead closer to the knees. Then pull the shoulders away from the ears and pull on the heels. Repeat process =)

Press feet
Tuck chin
Suck belly
Forehead to knees
Pull on heels
Strong shoulders

it's taken me quite a long time, but now i LOVE rabbit!

when i first came back to yoga after a long period away, i had no muscle tone at all, no strength, nothing happening in the abdomen at all and i weighed 220 lbs....
as big as i was, it took some time for me to be able to reach back there! and then to be able to really pull
about 6 months later i began to think i was getting closer to what the posture was supposed to be/ feel
now a year later i find myself really looking forward to it, it's the PERFECT pose to follow camel

thank goodness for yoga, brought me back to healthy eating and body strength--- and down from size 22 to size 12!