Mat Matters, Episode 66: Using Blocks to Come Into Wheel Pose (Urdhva Dhanurasana)

Wheel. When I started practicing yoga, I loved it. It was fairly easy to get into; My shoulders were open, I could move past my lower back issues by deepening the backbend in my upper back, and it felt amazing.

Fast forward to a few years later, and my relationship with this pose had totally changed. My shoulders had tightened considerably due to CrossFit + some serious neck and jaw issues, and therefore, to get into wheel, I had to move a lot more of the backbend into my lower back, which felt really bad and scary. 

So, I stopped practicing wheel. Just stopped. I decided it wasn't safe for me and I didn't like it anymore. Take that, stupid wheel!

Then, late last year, I decided that I couldn't keep ignoring this pose--I needed to start playing with it again. This time around, however, I almost always came into it with blocks underneath my hands or feet (or on my tiptoes, as I show briefly at the end of this video). Using these props, I can protect my lower back, open my shoulders, and work on deepening this backbend without causing pain. It's fabulous.

Thus, today's video shows you how to do just that: Work with wheel while protecting your tight shoulders and/or tweaky lower back. As usual, be very mindful and listen to your body as you play with this, but also, have fun and notice how much more spacious this propped-up version can be!

As you'll see in the vid, my wheel isn't pretty, but it feels great [and we all know that it's not how the pose looks, it's how it feels!!!].

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