Nikki Juen of All That Matters demonstrates and explains Eka Pada Bhekasana.
What it is:
Eka Pada Bhekasana [or Ardha Bhekasana] is also known as one-legged frog pose.
What it does:
As a backbend this pose strengthens the muscles of the back while opening the entire front of the body including ankles, thighs and groin, abdomen, chest and throat. This pose improves posture and stimulates the organs of the abdomen.
How to do it:
As you create more complex poses like this one, keep an awareness on building in smaller increments while maintaining the overall form. Yoga is a practice and as such each small attentive movement deepens potential for connection to the self and encourages deeper opening in the body.
Lie on your belly with your forehead on the floor, legs parallel and arms by your sides, palms facing up. Take a few deep breaths here allowing the body and mind to soften to the many benefits this pose offers.
Maintaining even deep breaths keep an expansive quality in your chest as you slide both forearms and palms forward on the ground until your elbows are directly below your shoulders. On an inhale, make both legs strong and work towards bringing all ten toenails to the ground, feeling an expansion across your low back and buttocks. Tone the low belly towards the spine supporting the joints of the low-back. On an exhale, broaden the front of the chest and ease the shoulder blades down the upper-back towards your waistline.
Keeping this breadth, length and strength in the body, bend your right knee and reach the right hand back for the inner arch of the foot. [Place a belt around the top of the arch if you are unable to reach your foot.] Keep the knees parallel and the left palm energized with fingers wide and grounded. Soften the jaw and lips lengthening the back of the neck.
Encourage the right foot towards the right outer hip as you draw the top of the right thighbone towards the foot creating a energetic connection where the foot and hip move towards one another equally. In your full expression of the pose, take five to ten deep breaths and after your last exhale, slowly release the right leg and repeat on the other side.
Nikki Juen
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