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| Hey I hope someone can help me with this question. I can not get my leg to wrap around the standing leg. This is true for both sides. I feel that this may be more that just flexibility. I am woundering if I am just haveing a mental block with it. I have seen photo's where in eagle the person is standing lower with the knee bent more and some with the knee bent less and they apear more upright. Is there an easier way to get that non standing leg wraped around. Also if it is more my physcially and not a mental block. What is likely the issue? Hamstrings, hips or something else?
I can hold the pose for a decent amount of time with the non standing foot in the air depending on my mental state of the day. I feel like I am making progress in balanceing poses other than in this one area. Any thoughts and/or sudgestions would be welcomed. Also do others have trouble with this part of eagle/garudasana
Thanks
Namaste
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| What do you mean exactly by "cannot get my leg to wrap around the standing leg?" Do you mean that you can't wrap it around at all? Or perhaps cross it over without the toes peeking out on the other side of the calf? More details please and maybe we can help you out better. Also, you might want to have an instuctor look at you while you are doing the pose. Maybe he or she can help you figure out what's going on.
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| I've found that f you give the wrapping leg a slight swing out/forward and around into place it helps to get the wrapping let in place better and the foot wrapped around snuggly. But! at the same time remember coordinate the arms to provide the counter balance motion. At first you may have to do a bigger swing if a slight one is not enough. Your standing leg also has to bend (not twist which will wobble the feet) enough to allow the swing and foot leg to settle find its placement. Think of how you move your arm and body when you wrap a shawl or scarf around you. Its basically giving the leg a little momentum and also the swing of one leg and bend of the other are making room between the thighs. Be warmed up in the legs and body..the less stiffness the better. Keep your gaze forward, relaxed, and steady through the arms which should not droop. Remember to use your breath. Last but not least keep the placement of your back with by attention to the use your abdomen/support. If your back is too curved and/or your abdomen is not at least gently active it could thorough you off balance or not provide the anchor you need for best results. Anyways I hope this helps its something I can up with when I found that after a while I was not getting into the pose as easily as I had done before. So now I do garudasana at least once a week during yoga sessions. |
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| There is so much to say about this pose. I don't know if I can get all of it.
First, I would refer you to last month's Yoga Journal. There was a great little article about yoga teachers and their least favorite poses. Baron Baptiste's was Eagle Pose. 
Second, there can be natural physical limitations that may make it impossible. You have lots of body parts pushing against each other and sometimes they reach their limit before you achieve the perfect pose. Sorry. Nothing you can do about that.
If you believe that you can go farther in this pose, then start by lying on your back and double wrapping your legs. Maybe do some situps with your legs like that. Then do some twists by dropping your legs to one side and looking over the opposite shoulder.
That's good to get the hips open.
Here is something more intense: Start with Prasaritta Padotanasana (http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/693_1.cfm) then spin around 180 degrees keeping your feet wide. You should end up facing the opposite direction with your legs crossed like the letter 'X'. Bend over and grab your feet hold for 10 breaths. Turn back around do another padotanasana then spin in the other direction so your legs are crossed with the other leg in front.
Then do a little utkatasana to get the legs strong. Garudasana is a lot like a one legged utkatasana iMHO.
Then go back and try a few eagles and see how they fly. Remember to keep the standing leg bent deep and squeeze your inner thighs together like you are trying to make juice and point the toes of the wrapped leg to the floor.
Good luck.
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| Well, I hate that pose too, so thanks for the useful hints, guys. What gives me even more problems than the legs are the arms. No way do I get them were they are supposed to be. Even when I'm warmed up and stretched, once I put one over the other I just can't lift the lower arm anymore. When I do that, the upper arm is sliding up resulting in hands that are very far away from each other. And when I try to keep the upper (inner) arm in the elbow of the lower one, all I get is a angle of 90 degrees. Are my arms too short or is my breast too wide? Or am I just a stiff grandpa?
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| Nah- its the big manly chest getting in the way, stefan! You need to hold a belt so you can start to bring your hands closer to each other. It is good old shoulder tightness here, I think. I have lots of students who can't do Garudasana arms, Mr. tourist included. |
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| As always, the invite is extended for anybody desiring to see garudasana executed with perfection by a male is invited to San Antonio, Texas, USA to see it done by yours truely. I got that one down--but NOT without months of shoulder and hip pain and at the detriment of slacking off on anything to do with forward bends...standing or sitting. Fool that I am, as I was SO frustrated at garudasana and triangles, that's where I put my focus...every bit I had...
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| Thanks for the replys guys I was gone to Flagstaff and I am back now
The input was great. To answer the first question by itchytummy. My crossing leg goes over the standing leg and the foot touches the outside of my standing leg but I can not get that foot behind the calf of my standing leg. I feel no real stretch anywhere, and that lack of effort makes me wounder if I have a mental block. The pose feel like I just hit a wall and stop. This is very different than any other pose |
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| You don't have to get the swing leg exactly behind the calf itself. It can be that your toes just touch your leg at first or getting below the calf is fine. I don't know if you've used the method I mentioned above nonetheless...If you bend your standing leg too soon then the swinging leg has a harder time getting wrapped. The power (and control) of the swing of the leg will help until you can acutally place the leg without issue. You need not be ridgid with the rest of your body. Allow it to slightly go with the flow; need not over twist. Try laying down, heels to the ceiling and do the swing leg slowly even if you have to exaggerate. Try doing this asana in slow motion with your eyes closed. Just some ideas but the point is to see what happens; what information you get about the asana and your body in the process. |
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| I have this same problem!
I'm otherwise very flexible, my hips are very open, and I'm very strong and 'bendy' in the legs.
One of the most gorgeous things about yoga for me has been the dual realisations of how capable my body is and what its limits are. I've figured out that I can't quite reach full Eagle Pose legs because my legs are very short and carry alot of muscular bulk which impedes my calf from 'winding' around fully. I don't think this will shift (as amazing the transformations that yoga produces, I don't think it can alter body constitution etc...), so I see this is one pose that I may never master. As soon as I had that realisation, along with the one that made me see that my correspondingly short arms may never allow for the perfect Bakasana, going into these poses became more fun than stressful. |
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help with garudasana
