URDHVA DHANURASANA
oord-vuh dhun-your-AHS-annuh
sometimes popularly called the “Wheel,” though by the shape of the completed pose, it would probably be more accurate to call it the “Half Wheel,” or maybe the “Dome” or “Yoga Rainbow”)
urdhva = rising or tending upwards, raised, elevated, erected, upright, high, above
dhanus = a bow (in Sanskrit when a vowel follows a consonant the two letters join into a single letter (usually) other than the two originals, it’s called a “junction” (sandhi); so when the word “āsana” (“seat”), which begins with that long a, follows a word ending in s, the two words are joined and by the rules of sandhi, the s becomes an r, as we have dhanurāsana).
Upward Bow (hereafter UB) isn’t one of our modern inventions, but neither is it greybeard old. The earliest version of it that’s been found in a text (and there could well be earlier undiscovered versions) was published in 1899, written in Marathi. UB is categorized as a “backbend,” but this word is, to be nit-pickingly precise, somewhat misleading, as it is for all related poses. It would be better to think of this pose as a “back extension” rather than a “bend.” The latter word suggests, to me anyway, that the pose is concentrated in the area of the spine, the lower back (lumbar), where the bend is easiest to create. Ths puts enormous pressure on that area, not a particularly good idea. The giveaway for this is the shape of the front torso, which shows a sharp break at the lower ribs, and a flat, taut belly. Extension, on the other hand, suggests the pose is distributed evenly along the length of the spine, each section–lumbar, thoracic, and cervical–sharing equally in the pose. If you have a copy of Light on Yoga, have a look at plate 487 (in my edition). Mr. Iyengar’s front torso, in contrast to the bend, displays a smooth curve as if drawn by a compass.
So what’s the secret of the difference? Believe it or not, it involves the openness of the armpits and front groins. I’ll never forget, many, many years ago I was being photographed for an article in Yoga Journal (when it was still printed on actual paper and sold in actual stores). In those far off days, when cameras still needed film, the poser was always assisted by an outside observer, a spotter, who would verbally suggest needed corrections to your āsana before the photo was taken. For some reason I don’t recall, my spotter that day was Ramanand Patel, one of the premier teachers in the Iyengar world. Had I been wearing boots, I would’ve been shaking in them. One of my scheduled poses was UB, and back then as a spring chicken yogi, that pose for me was graded maybe a B+, though I might be overly generous. Wanting to show Ramanand how much I knew about yoga, I attributed my shortcomings in UB to “tight shoulders.” Expecting a warm smile and nod of approval, instead he said, “But it’s not your shoulders, it’s your armpits.” Oh.
To open the front groins, you might try Reclining Half Hero(ine) (supta ardha virāsana), in two related ways, one passive, one active. The former requires what’s usually called a “sand bag,” a remnant of the distant time when bags were actually filled with sand and came in handy during flooding. To do this one, lay your torso on a support, a thickly folded blanket or bolster, even if you can recline easily on the floor. Do the same with the virāsana knee, that is, support it on a folded blanket so that it’s a few inches off the floor (keep the off leg knee bent, foot on the floor). As a result, yhe groin (and the head of the thigh bone or femur) will be at the bottom of a “valley” between the pelvis and the thigh. Then lay the bag right across the groin, and allow the groin to sink under the weight of the bag. Stay for at least three minutes. One indication that the exercise is working will be the feeling that your breath is penetrating deep into your pelvis. Repeat with the left leg back for the same length of time.
Then remove the knee support (keep the back support if needed), and press from your tail bone along the back of the thigh out through your knee. Remember to maintain the feeling that the groin (femur head) is sinking floorward. As you do this, lay your hands on your lower ribs, press down, and lift your pubis toward your navel. It’s a popular notion that in back extensions we need to stretch the belly, but actually it’s just the opposite: to some extent we should firm the belly (rectus abdominis) and shorten the distance from the pubis to the lower ribs to help lengthen the lower back. Stay for an equal length of time on both sides.
If this doesn’t appeal to you, alternatively you could do a simple bent knee lunge, with your torso upright, maybe facing a wall and pressing it with your hands. You might also wedge a block between the knee and the wall, and as you press the knee against the block, slide the back knee farther back. Again, pubis and lower ribs draw together as the tail bone lengthens downward.
Now for the armpits, which “don’t get no respect” because of their armpitty reputation. This exercise is best done with a metal folding chair, the kind found in many yoga schools. If you don’t have one, you might try a household chair or move on to the chair-less exercise following. Lie prone on the floor facing your chair, the front edge of the chair seat facing you. With your arms fully extended press the creases of your wrists just at the front edge of the seat, palms off the seat and facing toward the chair back (rest your forehead on a block if needed). Very slowly descend the palms to press against the seat, and as you do, imagine the heads of the upper arm bones (humerus) moving in the opposite direction, away from the floor, deepening into shoulder sockets. In addition to this action, press the chair away from you and your armpits will ideally lengthen and narrow, stretching the pectoralis major (front armpit) and latisimus dorsi (back armpit). Remain here for what at first may be several really unpleasant minutes, then release, and shake out your arms.
If you’re chair-less (or the chair exercise is unappealing), lay your shoulder blades on a block set at its lowest height (on its faces), and a second block under your head at its middle height (on its sides). You can have your knees bent, feet on the floor, or straighten out your legs on the floor, keeping them firm by pressing through your heels. Now with an inhale, reach your arms upward toward the ceiling, open the space between your shoulder blades, cross your forearms, hold the elbows, and with an inhale swing the arms overhead to rest on the head block’s projection. You could try to bring your forearms to the floor, but be careful not to push up on the front ribs. Doing that doesn’t open the armpits, it just scrunches the lower back. Stay for at least three minutes (you might change the cross of the forearms midway through), then roll over to the side with a moderate groan.
Now, at last, on to the pose ...
Lie on your back with your palms on the floor beside your head (elbows bent, of course), fingers pointing toward your shoulders, arms parallel. Have your knees bent with your feet pigeon toed on the floor, heels tucked up close to your sit bones. Often when we push up into the first stage of the pose (halfway up, back torso off the floor, crown on the floor) the feet turn out, Charlie Chaplin style, the knees splay wide, the outer hips harden, and the lower back suffers accordingly.To counter these tendencies, put a block at its widest width between the big toe mounds of your pigeon toed feet, and another block at its narrowest width between your thighs, midway between the pelvis and knees.
Now when you lift to stage 1 (with an inhale), squeeze the block between your toes and roll the block between your thighs down toward the floor (you may have to squeeze the block too). This is done because back bends–I mean extensions–require, we might even say demand, internal rotation of the thighs. Don’t lift from the inner thighs and groins; rather, lift from the outer hips and coccyx as the inner thighs roll down.
So here you are at stage 1, positively champing at the bit to move on to stage 2. This is where our second big mistake often occurs: as we straighten the arms, we push with our legs toward the torso, which inevitably leads to a back bend and a heart-rending appeal for mercy from the lumbar. To avoid this, we have to push the legs away from the torso to maintain the length of the lumbar. There’s a way to learn this which isn’t exactly easy, but it is effective, if you can figure it out. So go to a wall and press your pigeon toed big toes against it. Lift to stage 1, and as you do, press your knees against the wall. Then straighten your arms without letting your knees come away from the wall. If you do find this to be difficult, try supporting your feet on blocks at their lowest height, this may help.
To move into stage 2 then we must then straighten the arms. Here’s another great stumbling block, the inability to straighten your arms because, as you reasonably surmise, “I’m not strong enough.” Lack of arm strength may, to a greater or lesser degree, be a factor in your inability to lift up, but there’s also the possibility that tightness your groins and armpits are holding you back. After stretching them for a time, you may find lifting to full UB is somewhat easier.
There’s an exercise that helps us get a feel for the work with the arms, but unfortunately you’ll need a metal folding chair or a close equivalent. Brace its back against a wall and sit on the floor with your back touching the front edge of the seat, knees bent. Inhale, lift your buttocks off the floor and lay the upper portion of your back torso on the seat. Now reach back for the chair legs on either side of the chair back. If you’re just starting out, take hold high up on the legs, on either side of the chair back. For a greater stretch (and more challenge) hold lower on the legs, all the way down to the seat if possible. Inhale, pigeon toe your feet, internally rotate your thighs, push your knees away from the chair and straighten your arms to lift your torso off the seat. Does this help getting the arms straight? I hope so.
Another way to go about this is to brace two blocks at their lowest height and about shoulder width (make sure when you lie down there’s enough space between them to accommodate your head) against a wall. Get into the ready position with your hands on the blocks (if you feel this is awkward, you can angle the blocks against the wall, but have a sticky mat underneath their bottom edges so they don’t slip). Lift to stage 1, try to keep your arms parallel, and push against the blocks and lift. Rotate your upper arms outwardly (laterally), as you do in Downward Facing Dog (adho mukha svanasana) to create space between the shoulder blades, and maintain the pressure, again as in Dog, on the bases of the index fingers. Always move into any back extension with an inhale, release with an exhale.
How long you stay in the pose is entirely up to you and gravity. At first 10 seconds will seem like 10 minutes, but as you progress, a full minute would not be outside the bounds of the possible.
IF YOU HAVE A YOGA CHAIR....
What’s a “yoga chair”? In the old days, and here I’m referring to my old days the early 1980s, the folding metal chair was found in all Iyengar schools. It was used in many creative and sometimes torturous ways, in particular as a prop to support a back be...extension. We sat on the chair opposite the usual way, that is, facing the chair back with our legs between the seat and the piece of metal that served as the back. This worked well if you were about 5'4" and weighed maybe 110 pounds. Otherwise it was often difficult for anyone larger to fit in the space between the seat and the back.
Then someone, and I don’t know who, had the brilliant idea which changed the course of Western civilization: they took a hammer and whacked out the chair back opening up a space that a small elephant had no trouble slipping through. This is what I’m calling a yoga chair. You can probably make one yourself if you have the right tools (YouTubers will demonstrate how), or you can buy one ready made, though they often cost way more than their pristine predecessors. If you don’t play linebacker for the 49ers a regular intact chair might work OK.
Anyway, get your chair and slide your legs between the seat and the bar that’s now the back. Slide through until you can hook your tail bone over the back edge of the seat, knees bent, feet on the floor. If you’re not an Iyengar type and would rather avoid excruciating pain, you might pad the seat with a blanket. Inhale, and lie back on the chair seat, ideally the front edge will cross your back somewhere in the vicinity of the lower shoulder blades. Have a block off to the side of your dominant hand, and use it to support the back of your head (for various reasons you may need more than one block to support your head, and don’t try to pre-position the block, it’s difficult to find when lying over the chair).
There are at least three ways to arrange your legs. You can keep the knees bent, feet on the floor, that’s the easiest way to go. You can sit near a wall with a block or two pressed against the base of that wall. Then position yourself so that when you extend your legs, you can rest your heels on the block(s). This is sort of midway between the bent knees and what’s next, which is of course to extend the legs with the heels on the floor. In the latter two possibilities, be sure to keep the legs active during your stay. There are also at least three things you can do with your arms. You can do what you did when lying on the block, cross your forearms and swing them overhead. You can also stretch the arms straight back. To get a better chest opener, insert your arms under the chair seat between the legs and hold the back rung or legs. Be sure to pacify your ribs in all three positions.
Stay for at least three minutes, be sure to breathe the whole time. To come up, grab onto the chair back and, leading with your sternum, exhale and pull your torso up, head trailing. Then hang your torso over the chair back to relieve your back.
VARIATION
UB has a one-leg-raised variation called eka pada urdhva dhanurasana (pronounced ache-uh pod-uh = one foot). First go into UB. Then shift your weight onto your left foot and, with an exhale, bent your right knee and draw your thigh to your torso. Then inhale and extend your right leg straight up, more or less (depending on your flexibility) perpendicular to the floor. Press actively through the raised heel for 5 to 10 seconds at first, then exhale, bend the knee and return your foot to the floor. Repeat with your left leg for the same length of time.