5 Tips For a Better Wheel Pose

Wheel is the quintessential back bend of yoga. It’s invigorating and keeps the spine strong and supple. As the very beginning of the advanced back bends, Urdhva Dhanurasana is a gateway pose. These tips will help you understand it, go deeper and pave the way forward.

1. Claw The Floor With Your Hands

Press down all your fingertips, but keep your palms flat. This will support your wrists and give you more power to roll your shoulders back and open your chest.

2. Look At Your Hands

Curl your head back — as if pressing it into a headrest — to activate the back of your neck. Doing this gives you access to the muscles in your upper back, making the work more balanced, not just in your low back.

3. Hug The Midline

Act as if you could slide your hands into one another underneath your head. The tremendous power gathered by doing this stabilizes your shoulder girdle. If you do the same with your legs, your hips, knees and low back will be in safer alignment too.

4. Roll Your Inner Thighs Down

Drop your inner, upper legs toward the earth to broaden across your low back. This not only keeps your legs parallel, it also realigns the deep muscles in your pelvis.

5. Drive With Your Limbs

Pull on the floor with your hands to press your chest through your arms. At the same time, dig in with your feet and use your legs to pull your hips away from your head. This gives great length and freedom to your spine.