LOCUST POSE
Salabhasana
(sha-la-Bahs-anna)
Salabha = Grasshopper, Locust
Steps:
- For this pose, you might want to pad the floor below your pelvis and ribs with a folded blanket. Lie on your belly with your arms along the sides of your torso, palms up, forehead resting on the floor. Turn your big toes toward each other to inwardly rotate your thighs, and firm your buttocks so your coccyx presses toward your pubis.
- Exhale and lift your head, upper torso, arms, and legs away from the floor. You’ll be resting on your lower ribs, belly, and front pelvis. Firm your buttocks and reach strongly through your legs, first through the heels to lengthen the back legs, then through the bases of the big toes. Keep the big toes turned toward each other.
- Raise your arms parallel to the floor and stretch back actively through your fingertips. Imagine there’s a weight pressing down on the backs of the upper arms, and push up toward the ceiling against this resistance. Press your scapula’s firmly into your back.
- Gaze forward or slightly upward, being careful not to jut your chin forward and crunch the back of your neck. Keep the base of the skull lifted and the back of the neck long.
- Stay for 30 seconds to 1 minute, then release with an exhalation. Take a few breaths and repeat 1 or 2 times more if you like.
Modifications and props:
Beginners may need to support the area around the lower sternum with a rolled-up blanket to help maintain the lift of the upper torso. Similarly, the front of the thighs can be supported with a blanket roll to help support the lift of the legs.
Variations:
Arms can be placed in different positions: out to the sides, overhead, or hands behind the neck with elbows bowing out to the sides. Legs could also be lifted one at a time and with arms reaching out front lifting one at a time opposite the leg that is lifting.
Benefits:
Strengthens the muscles of the spine, buttocks, and backs of the arms and legs; Stretches the shoulders, chest belly, and thighs; Improves posture; Stimulates abdominal organs; Helps relieve stress
Contraindications:
Headache; Serious back injury; Students with neck injuries should keep head in a neutral position by looking down at the floor; they might also support the forehead on a thickly folded blanket.