Teacher Training
If I had to choose one yoga posture I love and hate equally, it would be Camel, Ustrasana. Camel is the deepest backbend in both the Hot Power Fusion and Bikram Yoga sequence. I love how this posture stretches my entire neck and spine, especially my lower back. I hate how it can sometimes make me see stars and feel nauseous. This particular posture can be scary. Most of us don’t bend our spine backwards throughout the day so the physical act of doing so can be uncomfortable. A lot of us (myself included) spend our day hunched over our desks. When doing the Camel posture, you’re forced to open your chest wide and fully expose it as you bend your entire spine backwards. You can’t help but feel a bit vulnerable, unprotected and scared, even when you practice this posture on a regular basis in a yoga class.
When guiding students through a challenging yoga posture like Camel, it’s important to introduce the posture into layers. This will give students plenty of options to modify the posture into what feels comfortable for them. With Camel, I’d start off by reminding my students that by this point in class, their body is fully warmed up and ready for a posture like Camel. This way, they’re more inspired to give the posture a try. Then I’d walk my students through each layer of Camel:
First Layer: Sit on top of your knees, hip-width distance apart.
Second Layer: Take a deep breath in and bring your palms to your lower back and point your fingers down
Third Layer: Exhale as you look up towards the ceiling and press your hips forward
Fourth Layer: Grab your heels with your fingers on the inside and thumbs on the outside. Breathe. *If a student couldn’t reach for their heels or if it were too uncomfortable for them to do so, I’d have them keep their palms on their lower back.
Then to come out Camel, I’d carefully guide my students out of the posture and back to sitting by reversing the way they came into it.
Before moving on to the next posture in the series, I’d have my students sit back on their heels, close their eyes and take a couple extra breaths. Camel is one posture that seems to stir up a lot of uncomfortable feelings for a lot of people, both physically and emotionally. Taking a short break after this posture gives people a chance to catch their breath, slow down their heart rate, collect their thoughts and reflect on how they’re feeling before moving on. For me, I always have to give myself a little mental pep talk after doing this posture so I’d like to give my students they same opportunity.