Getting into the Wheel Pose (Chakrasana)
Urdhva Dhanurasana or Upward facing bow pose, also called Chakrasana or Wheel pose, is a challenging pose for many, many yoga practitioners!
Use the power in Your Legs to get into Wheel (Upward-Facing Bow Pose). One of the reasons people have so much trouble getting up in this pose is because they think it is all about the arms when it is not. If you focus on getting into the pose using your LEGS rather than your arms (although the arms certainly come into play) and lifting your pelvis up first using your legs (which are stronger than your arms), you can lift yourself up in a circular motion which is way less effortful than just by trying to push yourself up with your arms.
Do not merely push your chest forward to create that arch in the torso. Lift from both the sides of the chest up towards the ceiling.
1. Press your feet into the floor to initiate the lift of the your pelvis and let your knees move over in the direction of the toes a bit
2. As you begin to lift and shift the hips, your arms can more easily press into floor and begin to lift the chest up, too.
3. Lift under the pelvis but NOT the rest of the torso to help you start with this action of lifting the pelvis before the shoulders.
Preparation for the getting into the pose: Typically tight places that have to be lengthened in preparation for Upward-Facing Bow pose include:
the muscles at the front of your upper legs and anterior hip joints
the front line of your torso and belly
the action known as flexion of your shoulder joints, where your arms come up along side your head
- For the hips and front thigh area, practice the Dropped-Knee Lunges (Anjaneyasana) .
- For the front body, practice the Bridge pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana). This also addresses your legs, and stretches the abdominals as well. If you can work your way up to the highest height of the block in Supported Bridge pose, you can more passively allow the front body and thighs to open. Take one or both legs straight out from the block with your heels on the floor, and your legs are getting even closer to Upward-Facing Bow pose openness!
- Practicing Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) pose and the version where you have your forearms on the floor are also great ways to work on the shoulder opening required for Wheel pose.
There are certainly many more ways you could both open and strengthen your body for the Wheel (Chakrasana) or Upward-Facing Bow pose (Urdhva Dhanurasana) , but the suggestions here will get you started. And there are also a lot of modified ways of doing the full pose. But for simplicity’s sake, it's kept pretty straightforward for you today!
Remember to approach the Wheel pose respectfully, listen to your body, and don’t rush to perfect it too quickly.