{"id":24746,"date":"2024-01-26T15:52:59","date_gmt":"2024-01-26T15:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yogajournal.com\/?p=116660"},"modified":"2024-01-26T15:52:59","modified_gmt":"2024-01-26T15:52:59","slug":"a-new-hack-for-the-yoga-pose-you-loathe-most","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/26\/a-new-hack-for-the-yoga-pose-you-loathe-most\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Hack for the Yoga Pose You Loathe Most"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Let\u2019s be clear about one thing: Chair Pose isn\u2019t easy for any of us.<\/p>\n

Not for students held at the mercy of someone else\u2019s whim. Certainly not for teachers, who are witness to all manner of drama the moment we even hint at what pose we\u2019re about to cue. Sighs, glares, pouts, complaints, exits for bathroom breaks, and threats of bodily harm typically ensue. The silent screams are loud in this pose.<\/p>\n

So sometimes teachers, whether out of empathy or exhaustion, toss in distractions to make the time spent in stillness pass less excruciatingly. We ask you to try a prayer hand twist or a figure four or come onto your tiptoes. Or we engage your curiosity by cueing you through the transition that follows, whether Eagle<\/a> or Warrior 3<\/a> or Revolved Lunge. Or we talk. (May you never take class with someone who launches into a personal story when you\u2019re already three breaths into Chair.)<\/p>\n

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Or maybe, rather than ask students to suffer in stillness, we could incorporate a dynamic movement that distracts you both physically and intellectually, corrects a common misalignment, and actually reminds you to breathe.<\/p>\n

We recently happened upon a move that does exactly that. The rendition of Chair Pose (Utkatasana)<\/a> basically asks you to interlace your fingers behind your head and, while keeping your knees bent, find the familiar arching and rounding in your upper back commonly known as Cat-Cow. And it\u2019s sorta brilliant.<\/p>\n

To be clear, the Chair Pose hack doesn\u2019t make the posture easier. But it can make it more tolerable, more strengthening, and even more aggressively truth-telling in terms of reminding you, in case you aren\u2019t already exquisitely aware, of exactly how you tend to show up to challenging situations in life.<\/p>\n

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How This Chair Pose Hack Makes It More Tolerable<\/h2>\n

Sometimes the most brilliant things are the simplest of things. Here\u2019s what makes the merging of Cat-Cow with Chair so inspired.<\/p>\n

1. It Distracts You<\/h3>\n

Yes, Chair Pose is challenging. Yet we\u2019re guessing much of the the challenge inherent in Chair Pose is exacerbated by you telling yourself that it\u2019s a challenge each millisecond you\u2019re in the posture.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something to be said for sitting in stillness with discomfort and breathing through it and somehow managing to get yourself to the other side of it. But when that feels truly intolerable, bringing some movement to the challenge, quite simply, draws your attention someplace else. Someplace more pleasant, if only in your thoughts. Your quads are still screaming. You\u2019re simply choosing to place your attention elsewhere.<\/p>\n

2. It Corrects Your Alignment<\/h3>\n

One of the most common misalignments in Chair Pose is a pronounced and exaggerated arching in your lower back from lifting your arms alongside your head. Teachers tend to try to correct the tendency by cueing \u201cengage your core\u201d or \u201cdraw your navel toward your spine.\u201d But keeping that same engagement and alignment as you lift your arms alongside your head is easier said than done.<\/p>\n

If your teacher explains the outward appearance they want in your pose, you may turn to try and catch a glimpse in the mirror along one wall, but it\u2019s difficult to see exactly what\u2019s happening when you\u2019re rotating your upper body. Instead, you need to develop trust your felt sense.<\/p>\n

By taking your body into a full backbend followed by its opposite, Cat-Cow reminds you what the extremes of back extension and flexion feel like. As you transition from one to the other, you experience a neutral space in between the two. That\u2019s the feeling you want in Chair Pose. The movement allows for discernment and muscle memory.<\/p>\n

3. It Forces You to Breathe<\/h3>\n

When we experience tension of any sort, including intense yoga poses with our arms lifted, we tend to hold our breath. The brain registers holding the breath as a sorta dire situation, and in an instant, it incites a cascade of neurophysiological responses that exacerbate the physical tension as well as the psychological drama. This makes the teacher\u2019s well-intended cues to \u201cbreathe\u201d or \u201crelax\u201d seem laughable at best, warranting retribution at worst.<\/p>\n

Taking yourself into the familiar pattern of Cat-Cow during a more intense posture allows you to default into a well-established breathing rhythm. One that\u2019s slow and steady and calming. One that\u2019s probably second nature to you. Inhale as you arch your back. Exhale as you round your back.<\/p>\n

By defaulting into that breathing pattern, you create a different narrative for your body, one that literally makes it less physiologically likely to be in a state of nervous system overwhelm. You also train yourself to find ease within the intensity. More on that in a moment.<\/p>\n

4. It Challenges You to Distinguish Effort and Ease<\/h3>\n

If you\u2019re thinking, \u201cCat Cow is simple, so it\u2019ll be a cinch to do Cat Cow in Chair Pose,\u201d try it before drawing that conclusion.<\/p>\n

If anything, the movement makes the pose even more challenging. It asks you to fall into this seemingly effortless movement and breathing pattern you\u2019ve done hundreds, if not thousands, of times before in your upper body. And yet your quads and the rest of your lower body need to remain intensely engaged. The contrast is a little like patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time.<\/p>\n

Understanding where to maintain intensity and where you can ease up is one of the traditional teachings of yoga. It\u2019s referred to as sthira<\/em> and sukhum,<\/em><\/a> and it becomes easier with practice. Once you become aware of this interplay of ease and effort on your mat, chances are you\u2019ll start to become aware of it elsewhere in your life. (Spoiler alert: How you do yoga is how you do life.)<\/p>\n

Chair Pose With Cat-Cow<\/h2>\n
\"Two
Start in Chair Pose as usual. (Photo: Thomas Barwick | Getty )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Start to come into Chair Pose by bending your knees and sinking your hips back. Bring your arms alongside your ears in traditional Chair Pose. Stare forward and keep the back of your neck long.<\/p>\n

\"Women
Keep your legs exactly the same as you focus on bringing your hands behind your head. (Photo: Thomas Barwick | Getty )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then bend your elbows and interlace your fingers behind your head. You\u2019ll feel your back arching more but don\u2019t fight it. Pause and breathe. (If you need to steady yourself by resting one hand on a wall or chair, please do and simply place one hand behind your head.)<\/p>\n

\"Woman
This will feel familiar. Inhale as you lift your sternum and arch your back. (Photo: Thomas Barwick | Getty )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Press the back of your head into your hands just a little as you inhale and arch your back even more, lift your gaze, and draw your elbows toward one another behind you. You might not experience a lot of movement here.<\/p>\n

\"Woman
\u2026and exhale as you round your back, release your neck, and sigh it out. (Photo: Thomas Barwick | Getty )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Exhale as you round your back, bring your chin toward your thighs, and release your neck.<\/p>\n

Inhale as you lift yourself into another backbend. Repeat. Notice if you start to straighten your legs and lift yourself out of Chair Pose. Sink your hips a little lower. Keep going.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/figure>\n

It doesn’t exactly make it any easier. Just more tolerable. And it may teach you a thing or two about yourself.<\/p>\n

The post A New Hack for the Yoga Pose You Loathe Most<\/a> appeared first on Yoga Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[37,35,36],"class_list":["post-24746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ayurveda","tag-blogs","tag-yoga","tag-yogacourseware"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}