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Backbending Asana
Guruji 1988
This will be the last but one of the articles taken from the teachings of Guruji on the Pune Intensive 1988.This two-part
article will concentrate on back bending asana. Read the asana instructions carefully.To make the work easier to follow
‘bullet points’ have been used. Remember these are Guruji’s words and his instructions always work! He
asks us to ‘feel’, to ‘observe’ and to ‘penetrate’ in our practice.

Start your practice with the following sequence taken from the Back Bending Intensive 1991:
Adho Mukha Virasana, Adho Mukha Svanasana, Uttanasana: Utthita Trikonasana, Utthita Parsvakonasana,
Virabhadrasana 1,Virabhadrasana 2.Then:

ADHO MUKHA SVANASANA CHATURANGA DANDASANA

• Palms active, arms active, biceps turn out. Legs • Dig head and base of shins in and extend body
working evenly. forwards.
• Breathing should not disturb the asana. • Keep legs where they are and raise up.
• Shins back. Inner knee chips back. • Observe the nature of the lower legs, the bottom
• Which hand holds the mat, which does not. inner calves.
• Without disturbing the diaphragm, concave • Press palms firmly.
the spine. • Observe outer thighs are level with one another.
• Lengthen intercostal muscles (in Urdhva
Dhanurasana the same has to happen).

• Inner calf muscles up and lengthened.

URDHVA MUKHA • Move nearer the chest by digging tailbone in and
SVANASANA draw it forwards.
• Lift chest at the rim of the pelvis to raise up, more
and more.
• Feel the grip of the upper chest by work of the legs.
• Observe that the inner and outer knees and outer
thighs are level.
Iyengar Yoga News No. 20 - Spring 2012

Guruji demonstrated both poses

showing how he charged his legs
in just the same way in Urdhva
Mukha Svanasana and Chatu-
ranga Dandasana: Adho Mukha
Svanasana, Urdhva Mukha Svanasana and Chaturanga Dandasana
should be interchanged several times to learn the various details.

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URDHVA MUKHA SVANASANA

With a brick between
the feet. The diameter
of the ankles to touch
the brick evenly
Some teachers shown in the photo-
graphs were not able to manage with
a lengthways brick, so did with a
widthways brick, still gripping with the
ankles/heels.

CHATURANGA DANDASANA
With a brick between the ankles
Move the inner legs in the same way as when doing Urdhva Mukha
Svanasana, inner and outer heels as alert as the two eyes.

PLEASE NOTE – In the class where the photographs were taken,

all Guruji’s work was taught in his words to the teachers. Some older
teachers or those with problems, used bricks for hands in Urdhva
Mukha Svanasana and in Chaturanga Dadasana a horizontal brick
under the frontal pubic/pelvic area and a lengthways brick under the
breastbone. Chairs were used later because some could not lift up
into Urdhva Dhanurasana from the floor. However, they all worked
their way through this programme and gained a great deal from it!
So we are all are able to take this work into our practice.

URDHVA MUKHA SVANASANA Iyengar Yoga News No. 20 - Spring 2012

With a brick between the knees

Raise the inner knees up and ‘hold’ the outer ankles to
turn the inner calves outwards making the shins face the
ground.

Do the same in Chaturanga Dandasana

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ADHO MUKHA VRKSASANA

• Extend outer edge of index fingers – first knuckles of ring fingers
pressed down.
• Look at the shape of the knuckles when standing up, then
keeping that shape place the hands on the floor and when doing
Adho Mukha Vrksasana retain the same space between the
knuckles.
• Second time, again observe whether the middle fingers are
straight or not – the inner middle knuckles in to take the ankles in
– lengthen the inner calf muscles.

URDHVA DANURASANA
Over chairs
Using the back of a chair
• Bent knees to a wall.
• Arms over head.
• Top knee-caps touching the wall.
• Use knee-caps as a brake.

Over the seat of a chair

• Feet to a wall, hold back of the
chair, then move the inner arms
towards the wrists, then the outer
arms.This makes the ‘driest’ part of
the chest ‘wet’.The sternum becomes
alive.
• The centre groin, top and bottom
parallel.
• Observe the bottom frontal ankles,
move them away from the head first,
then back and down.
• Feet together so that you know
whether the ankles are going forward
or backwards.
• Big toes, both sides, moving evenly and upwards.This
Iyengar Yoga News No. 20 - Spring 2012

makes the head of the tailbone circular.

• Bottom of the calf muscles to heels – upper calf muscles
move to the ceiling.

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EKAPADA DWI VIPARITA DANDASANA

Over chairs
• Do pose over a chair with right leg bent up.
• Keep the mind on stretching inner thigh of lifted leg.
• Outer buttock going down.
• Sternum alert.
• Observe shape of both buttocks.
• Bring quadriceps muscles of bent leg towards the head
and stretch the leg up by moving the lower calf muscles.
• Repeat with
right leg again.
Keep right leg
bent over the
top of the back
bar of the
chair.

Question yourselves, where are the buttock bones on the right side,
are they parallel with the back of the seat?
• Grip the chair and take outer buttocks down.
• Raise the right heel up and place it on the back of the chair.
• Adjust the buttock bone.
• Middle knee straight without forgetting the stretch of the fibres of
the thigh – roll the fibres out, then stretch the leg up.
• Without losing that grip, think of the downward leg – root of the big
toe pressing the wall.
• Change the legs, keep the outer bent knee rolling in – bring the
outer right buttock away from the anal mouth.
• Heel on the back of the chair, move the outer and inner foot
forwards, hold the chair firmly and raise the leg up – foot nearer the
eye, fibres nearer the bone.

Guruji demonstrated and said: All I have taught you, Tadasana,

Uttanasana and Adho Mukha Svanasana, plus Adho Mukha Iyengar Yoga News No. 20 - Spring 2012
Vrksasana, Pincha Mayurasana, Sirsasana and variations, all are
included in one Urdhva Dhanurasana
(For this work refer to previous articles in Iyengar Yoga News Nos. 16, 17, 18, 19)

Notes from1988 from now on:

• Prepare with the hands on the floor.
• When you bend the legs, are your toes and heels parallel to each other?
• Which toe is in, which toe is out? Which heel is in, which heel is out.
• Start by drawing a straight line.
• The tailbone is the pole star of backbends.
• Everything has to be directed towards the pole star. Go up!
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URDHVA DANURASANA
Brick between feet
• Place a brick between the feet, and prepare to go up. Go nearer the brick with the
tailbone. Place the hands, and come onto the head. Grip the brick and come up with
the exhalation. Grip the brick so that the tailbone does not disturb. Move the legs,
the arms towards the tailbone. Compress the brick and stretch.With that pressure
the legs do not move forwards or backwards. Learn like that.
• Outer hip sockets up, outer armpits up and inner elbows squeeze in.
Watch your forearms and your calf muscles.The skin should contract on the fore-
arms when going up. Contract the skin, bend the elbows, go up. ‘Rinse’ the forearms
and in that ‘rinsing’ action – come straight. In ‘rinsing’ alone it should come straight. Now press the palms in the
opposite direction to the little fingers, roll the forearms inwards. In the same way the inner thighs roll out and
then ‘rinse’ the skin.
• Sacral muscles move away from the lumbar – they move nearer the legs, then no back problems.
Keep the crown of the head on the floor, raise your body. Move your hands back a little more, nearer the ears,
outer elbows nearer the inner elbows – ‘rinsing’ the skin. Do not allow the outer elbows to go out, keep the
outer elbows in.
• Now, like Uttanasana, the outer thighs should hit up and the outer shins should hit in, so doing all that come
up. If you don’t get equal weight, your hands or feet can be taken nearer to each other. Don’t go in too much,
thereby losing the weight on the hands. Keep the external part of the sacral muscles hitting the outer buttock
and then stretch.

Hands on bricks/ledges/walls
• Watch your armpit skin, the inner arm should be
strong and long.The distance (between) the inner wrists
and the shoulders should not vary at all, and do not
oscillate your shoulder blades.
• Do not oscillate your sacral muscles; do not oscillate
your shoulder blades backwards, but go straight.
• Outer elbows in then you have to stretch up straight.
The pelvic girdle should move towards the thighs.
• (Still hands on bricks). Go up, walk in.There should be
14 inches between the wrists and the feet, so much you
have to walk in without allowing the armpits to
collapse.The back of the top knees hitting the kidneys
from your heels. Still walk back. Calf muscles facing the
ground. Make your calf muscles face the ground.
• Hands on the bricks.Walk in. Do not straighten the legs
but walk in. Bottom calf muscles should pound down, heels down.
Iyengar Yoga News No. 20 - Spring 2012

Take the wrists nearer the wall. Only the ligaments of the knees
should lengthen.The back corner knee flesh should move towards
the elbows, bottom knee skin should move to the shoulders. Heels
down. Head of the calves should hit the bottom calves. Calf muscles
heavy.
• Elongate the fibres at the top of the back knees and walk in.Watch
the arches of the feet in Urdhva Dhanurasana; they should not vary
at all.They should not move.The arches of the heels should be in the
centre, and then you have to stretch the bottom of the frontal edge
of the arches – the skin touching the ground. Now can you stretch

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your body straight up? How many of you did not move the head of the calf muscles nearer the triceps?
• Take the wrists up onto any height and find out which hand is touching more, which is less. Open the back of
the arms more and lift up. Can you do Adho Mukha Svanasana with the ring of the big toes in this pose?

Guruji demonstrated and said: When walking the feet in see that the
outer chips of the knees do not disturb

Hands on the floor

• Hands to the floor and see if you can do better.
• Watch the buttocks.
• Without moving the calf muscles, move the outer quadriceps muscles in
and up.

Two belts on legs

• Place one belt on the quadriceps
muscles and one belt on the big
toes. Same distance for each belt. •
• Place the hands on the bricks, or
on the floor, and again do Urdhva
Dhanurasana.
• The toes hitting the belt, quadri-
ceps muscles going into the belt.
Letting the belts give a sense of
direction, so that the legs come straight. All learn like that.
• Raise the outer quadriceps muscles back, higher and higher and hit out
the toes.The grip of the quadriceps muscles and the grip of the toes on
the belt should not vary at all. If they vary, you are lost.
• Watch the big toes, the belt should stretch so that your toes are
touching the entire cloth of the belt. Hit out as though tearing the belt.
• Walk back.When raising the buttocks you should know where the feet are.You should know if they are too far
away or not. Hit the belt out.
• Outer quadriceps muscles rolling in. If you are not using the belts you are sinking. Lift the quadriceps muscles
straight up like Tadasana.

Guruji demonstrated on himself and said: Observe the bottom portion

of my thighs at the back. Naturally at first the top thighs near the
Iyengar Yoga News No. 20 - Spring 2012
buttocks ascend, the bottom thighs descend. One must learn to make
them ascend. The belts compress so that you can learn to ascend the
bottom thighs.
Finish your practice with Prone Savasana: Adho Mukha Virasana : Halasana on a bolster : Savasana with a bolster on the
thighs.

All photographs were taken by Tig Whattler in the Friday Teachers’ Class at the Cotswold Iyengar Yoga Centre, in
Cirencester, Gloucestershire.The gems of wisdom were passed on by Judi Sweeting.To be continued in the next issue of
Iyengar Yoga News.

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