Half Moon with a belt

Bound Triangle - Part 2: Your shoulders are part of your back, not your neck

“Perfection in an asana is achieved when the effort to perform it becomes effortless and the infinite being within is reached.”Just when you thought your Triangle Pose was looking pretty good here comes Bound Triangle; which is Triangle on steroids.  As one of my philosophy teachers used to say:  “In an ever expanding universe, there is always more.”Four Stages to Bound Triangle

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  1. Elongating the Torso

  2. Shoulders are part of you back, not part of your neck.

  3. Lengthening the Hamstrings

  4. Binding – When the Effort becomes Effortless

Remember that Tadasana is the blueprint for every posture.  So, in every pose, lengthen through your spine, lift the collar bones and draw your shoulder blades towards the spine and down towards your waist.  If you are used to standing with your shoulders rounded forward, this may feel a little like you are doing a Standing Bridge Pose.We can feel this by using a belt as a shoulder harness to stretch the shoulders back.  It looks like this:We will use some variations of Triangle, Side Angle and Half Moon with the top arm behind the back holding on to a belt that help to turn the chest up. The belt helps us to feel what it is like to get the shoulders in the same vertical plane with the chest facing sideways rather than the floor.

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