Urdhva Dhanurasana

Pronunciation: (ERD-vuh don-your-AHS-uhna)

Translation: "Urdhva" means upward in Sanskrit. "Dhanu" means to bow. Asana means yoga pose or posture.

Urdhva Dhanurasana is called The Upward Bow Pose, Backbend, or The Wheel. This pose also has two Sanskrit names: Chakrasana (prounounced chak-ra-sa-na) and Urdhva Dhanurasana. This is a challenging pose. Your spine must already be supple to do this pose, but it will also keep your spine supple.

To do backbends requires many things including a flexible back, arm strength, stretched out quadriceps and stretched shoulders. Note that it takes strength to go slowly into back bending poses and your impulse may be to hurry. Going slowly and with awareness in this pose can only improve your form when you finally accomplish this pose.

Technique:

Prepare for the pose by lying on your back with your feet flat on the floor and heels close to your buttocks. Bend your arms with your hands flat on the ground by your ears, fingertips facing your shoulders. Aim to have forearms relatively perpendicular to the floor. Your feet should as wide apart as your hips and you should feel grounded. When you exhale and begin to raise your hips, make sure you keep your thighs parallel to the floor. This will prevent strain to your back.

Next, raise the pelvis up to form a “Bridge” with your hands still on the floor by your shoulders. Keep your upper legs parallel.  The knees should feel as if they are moving forward away from the pelvis.  There is often a temptation to separate the knees. This causes the upper legs to no longer be parallel. Try to avoid this tendency.  The coccyx should be thrust up through the legs.  This movement of the coccyx as well as the forward movement of the knees away from the pelvis helps create space between your lumbar vertebrae in the lower spine and avoid squeezing the inter-vertebral cartilage which over the long run can be dangerous to the spine.

Now lift yourself on your toes and elevate your upper body so that the crown of your head touches the floor. Raise your pubic bone higher than your hips. Keep your inner feet active as you push up and exhale your breath as you do rise up into an arch.
Just it is important to avoid the separation of the knees as you use the legs to raise the pelvis from the floor, so also it is important to avoid spreading the elbows apart as you use the arms to raise the upper body off the floor. 
If you have difficulty in stopping the spreading of the arms or the legs apart as you come into Urdhva Dhanurasana, then putting a belt that will stop the elbows from becoming wider than the shoulders and/or a belt that will stop the knees from becoming further apart than the hips will help.  These belts also often ease the muscular work involved in pushing up into the pose and make the posture accessible to those who cannot otherwise assume it. Practice each stage of this pose. Go onto the next stage when you feel that your body has mastered the previous stage. Push yourself up and straighten the arms fully. When the arms are extended, strive to have straight, vertical arms with your armpits over your wrists.  Your shins should be parallel with one another and perpendicular to the floor. Still on your toes, walk your feet toward your hands. With your pelvis high, you can now lower your heels to the floor.   As the heels lower, try to keep the coccyx rising in order to protect your lower back.

Spread your toes and feel grounded with the earth. It helps to breathe continuously in a relaxed way which helps conquer fear you may have in this pose. Make your arch round and even like a wheel. That means that you should have equal extension in the full length of your spine.  Observe the height of your chest and you’re the height of your pelvis.  If the chest is lower, work on opening the upper spine and sternum to bring the chest up to the height of the pelvis.  If the chest is higher, use the legs working from the inner feet and avoiding any spreading of the knees to bring the pelvis up to the level of the upper body. 

Imagine the bend behind your heart, and focus on expanding there. Aim the heart up and way out. You can also think of the front body stretching evenly when you're in the backbend, putting the awareness up front instead of just bending. Reverse your steps to come out of the pose, gently lowering your body to the floor.

Tips for Beginners:

1. It helps to breathe continuously in a relaxed way which helps conquer fear you may have in this pose.

2. Dristi, or focusing on a point with your eyes, will also help you do the backbend.

3. Try to keep your feet parallel. Having your toes go out means that your back is more vulnerable in the pose.  When the heels move towards each other, so do the buttocks.  This can impede the movement of the coccyx through the leg and may promote a “crunching” of the lower spine.

4. Yoga students sometimes squeeze their buttocks together rather than extending their gluteus muscles moving their inner thighs and knees away from their pelvises. To remind you to keep the legs pressing towards each other, some teachers suggest holding a block between the upper thighs during the pose. If it starts to slip, you will know you are losing the correct work in keeping your legs together. The block keeps your buttocks separated and allows the coccyx to move through.

Tips for working in the pose:

1. Make sure your sternum is open.

2. Check that your hands are parallel.

3. Make sure neck is not overarched.

4. Work the inner feet more than the outer feet.

5. Notice which part of the arch is lower-the hips or the sternum. Bring the lowest part higher so that both are of equal height and your arch is rounder.

6. Use blocks, flat on the floor with a mat on top to keep from slipping, under each hand.

7. Make sure your knees are not splaying out.

Variation:

Once you are reasonably comfortable doing the basic pose experiment with Eka pada Urdhva Dhanurasana.  It is assumed by first going into Urdhava dhanurasana and then raising the one leg off the floor bending the leg at the knee to bring the upper thigh towards the chest.  Straighten the leg to a totally vertical position.  After holding the pose for a short time come back to Urdhva Dhaurasana by bending the knee bringing the upper leg towards the chest and then lowering the foot down to the floor.  This variation should be practiced on by both sides by first raising and lowering the right leg and then the left leg.

Benefits:

This backbending pose strengthens abs and hips tremendously, stretches and opens the front of the hips and works inner thighs and pelvic floor. Because it creates space throughout the spine it gives you space in the chest for the heart and lungs. It also opens your larynx. You will find a positive effect on your joints and endocrine glands such as your thyroid and pituitary glands.

All your charkas are stimulated as your abdomen and back are strengthened.  Wrists, arms, legs, buttocks, abdomen, and spine are all strengthened. If you are able to do a Wheel properly it means you have achieved a great level of flexibility and strength throughout your whole body. It's one of Yoga's most exhilarating and rewarding poses. Backbends increase energy and counteracts depression. This pose is considered to be therapeutic for asthma, back pain, infertility, and osteoporosis.

Caution:

There are certain people who shouldn’t try this pose. Pregnant women, those with a degenerative disc disease, heart trouble, or history of strokes; the extremely elderly and infirm. Those with high blood pressure should only practice deep backbends under the close guidance of an instructor. The rest of you can, and should, work towards doing Wheel. There's no way you can understand how energizing and healing this pose is unless you've done it yourself.

The most important quality in learning is patience. You may be tempted to rush into this pose, and it is not advisable. Approach this pose gradually, in stages. You start off with the simpler, less taxing backbends first. Asanas like Camel Pose (Ustrasana) and Bridge (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana) are good as preparation and to try before attempting the wheel. Remember the advice about mastering one stage at a time in the pose and listen to your body as you learn the pose.  Go no further than your body is ready for you to go. Only deepen a backbend when you feel comfortable and confident in the version you are currently doing. If these poses are too difficult then start off even easier. Practice gentle backbends by lying over folded blankets and/or a bolster.

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