King Pigeon Pose

Hi everyone. Welcome to Yoga & You. I am Sanjana Prasad. Rajakapotasana or King Pigeon pose is a beautiful posture given to look at. It is so beautiful that it is also quite demanding. It requires great mobility from your shoulder, from the neck, flexibility in the back, open hips, and of course good breath capacity to sustain the posture. So today we're going to be doing a really nice flow that will help to prepare the body for you to attempt Rajakapotasana. Let's get started.

We're going to get started with our Rajakapotasana flow. You will need a couple of blocks so that you have a little bit of support for the practice. So get them ready and let's get on the mat, coming into tabletop position first. Your knees hip width apart, palms shoulder width apart. Spread your fingers nicely so you have a good grip there. We'll start with a simple cat-camel to release the spine. As you inhale, lift the chest up, arch back, exhale and round your back. Inhale and arch the back, exhale and round your back. Inhale and arch, three, three, two, and one. Following exhalation, come to a neutral spine.

Bring your knees a little closer to each other. Next inhale, you're going to lift your right leg up and arch the back. You're not going to tilt the hip to one side. It stays in the center, lift as high as you can. Stay here and breathe. Three, engaging the right glute, two, one. Stay here, bend your right knee. You're going to take your left arm back. We have a tendency to take it straight back this way. Think of making a circle. Open your chest to the left side. Hold on to your ankle. Once you have the ankle, like Dhanurasana, kick the heel away from the butt. Gaze forward, breathe. One, two, three. With control release the leg, slowly bring your knee back down.

Inhale, look forward, arch the back. Tuck the toes, exhale and go to downward facing dog. From your downward dog, inhale, step the left foot forward between the palms. Placing the right knee down on the mat. Point the right toes. Inhale and you're going to lift both your arms up into Anjaneyasana. Don't lift your hip up. Think your hip is going down towards the floor and towards the heel. So send the hip forward. Simultaneously lift your sternum up. Start arching back. Three deep breaths here. You're preparing for the back bend. Opening up your right hip flexor. Two, one.

Exhale, slowly bring the palms down. You're going to bring your left hand inside of the leg. From here, if you're comfortable, bring your forearms down to the floor. If this is not accessible for you right now, bring a block in. Or you can use two. Place your elbows on the blocks. Stay here and breathe. Three, two, and one. Once you're comfortable here, you're going to lift up your back knee. Tuck the right toes. Lift the back knee. Don't round your back. Keep lengthening forward. Stay there. Three, three, two, one.

As you inhale, come back onto your palms. Exhale, drop the right knee down. Now keep pressing the right palm down. Bend the right knee. Again, drawing that circle with your arm, you're going to hold on to the ankle. Bring your heel close to the butt. Now here you can use the block to give yourself some elevation, so reaching for the ankle becomes a little easier. Once this is comfortable, you can always remove the block and place your palm on the floor. Start bringing the heel in. Turn to the front. Square the chest. Breathe. One, two. You can also roll up your mat to support the right knee, three, or use a cushion. You feel a good stretch in the right quad. Four, and five.

Still very comfortable. Lift the chest up. Reach your right palm also towards the ankle. Keep sending the hip down. Heel towards the butt. One, two, full Ujjayi breaths. Three, four, and five. With control, very gently I'm going to release the hands down, put down. From here, tuck your right toes. Step the left foot back into plank position. Drop your knees gently down. Chest, chin down to the mat. Lie down on the belly.

We're going to practice a round of Dhanurasana, which will help with your back bend, also with a little bit of your shoulder mobility. So go ahead, bend the knees. You can keep your knees slightly apart. Take your palms towards the ankles. Point your toes, big toes towards each other. Start lifting your heels away from the butt first. As we inhale, lifting the heels away from your butt, allowing your chest to come up, stay here and breathe. You're not relying only on the arms to lift you up. Engage the glutes and lift up. Three, two, one. Exhale, slowly go back down to the mat. Release the palms. Tuck the toes. Exhale, go into child's pose.

Staying here for a few breaths. As you inhale, roll your spine up. Staying in Vajrasana, we're going to practice a round of Gomukhasana, just the arms, over here, because you require that shoulder mobility to flip your grip in Rajakapotasana. So let's go ahead. Lift the right arm up and you're going to take the right arm behind you. Your left arm is going to come from the side. Work your palms towards each other. Interlock the fingers. Roll the shoulders back, stay there, and breathe. One, two, if this is not accessible for you right now, you can reach for your t-shirt, or you can use a strap between the hands and hold on to the strap and work on getting your palms closer and closer to each other. Three, four, and five. Slowly release the hands.

Coming back into tabletop position. Tuck the toes again. Exhale, go into downward facing dog. This time you're going to step the left knee between the hands. We're working on the same side. Your knee is going to come between the palms. Slide your right knee back as much as you can. Slightly open out the foot and square the hips. Now here, for a lot of us it's hard to balance. You'll almost feel like you're toppling to one side. You can always use a block underneath your hip, or even a cushion or a rolled up towel. This way it centers your hips and you're able to sit comfortably and even lift your fingertips off the mat. Use your fingertips on the mat. Tuck the tailbone under. Your first step is to start arching backwards. Few breaths here. Three, two, one.

Slowly relax. Bring your left palm in front of you. Bend your right knee. Hold on to the right foot from the inside, from the arch. Now as I bring my heel close to my butt, I'm going to lift my elbow towards the ceiling. This is again great for you to get the mobility around your shoulder for the flip grip. So you're going to lift the elbow towards the ceiling. Start getting your heel closer and closer to the hip. Continuing to center the body. You feel a nice good opening in your hip flexor and quad. Three, two, one.

Slowly release the leg. Now see if you can hook your foot at your elbow. If this is comfortable, draw the foot closer to you. Lift your left arm up. You need a lot of the fingers. Take your hand. This is also called mermaid foot. Three, two, one. Slowly release. Bring your hands down.

Now let's go for a deeper opening of the outer hip. So you're going to open out the foot a little bit more, trying to get your shin parallel to the top of your mat. Center your hip again. Make sure you're not tilting to one side. And then fold down to the floor. Still very comfortable. Go all the way down to the mat. One, two. When we're counting here, we're not counting seconds, full Ujjayi breaths. Three, at least five to eight breaths in every posture. Four, five.

Inhale, slowly walk your palms back. Tuck the right toes, exhale, and go back into Vajrasana. Close your eyes in Vajrasana. Stay here for a few seconds. Bring your awareness to your hips. Take a moment to observe any changes or any difference that you feel between the right side, left side, and then slowly open your eyes.

So right now we worked only on the left side of the body. We're going to repeat the entire thing to the right, and then you have a balanced practice that helps you with your Rajakapotasana. Make sure you practice the flow on both sides, and then you can attempt Rajakapotasana. Initially maybe you will require a few props. You need a strap for the flip grip. But with continued practice, you'll be able to find an independent king pigeon pose. I really hope this episode was helpful.