In Bikram Yoga, Camel and Rabbit Pose occur toward the end of the class when your body is really warmed up and stretched out. You can’t really see yourself in the mirror when doing these postures though, so sometimes you wonder, hey, am I even doing this right? These two postures can give your spine such amazing range of motion and are really powerful postures, so I wanted put together this YouTube video to explain them in a bit more depth.
One of the things in Camel Pose about which you’ll want to be mindful is not letting your thighs go beyond perpendicular to the floor. Say whaaat?! Take a look at the picture below. If I were to keep pushing my hips forward, my thighs would no longer be making that right angle with the floor.
As a beginner yogi or someone without a lot of flexibility this won’t be an issue. But as your flexibility increases, sometimes there is a point where you don’t need to push anymore, and you can enjoy the posture you have created.
If you take a look at rabbit pose below, it almost looks like Camel Pose but flipped upside down! The grip is the same, the thighs are parallel to the floor, and the spine is extending to it’s maximum, only this time, the area of the spine that’s stretching is the backside whereas in Camel Pose it’s the front.
Another thing to keep in mind that’s helpful is that these two postures improve one another. So when Camel improves, Rabbit does as well. If you have trouble with the Rabbit Pose grip, make sure you’ve got it in Camel. Let your head fall back all the way in Camel Pose and then practice that range of motion in Rabbit Pose in the other direction by completely tucking your chin to your chest.
If you check out the video, let me know what you think! I just used my iPhone, but I have some videos that I’m in the process of editing that I shot with my nicer camera.
Have a great day!
