Cow Face Pose (Yoga), Shoulder Flexibility, Many People Can't Join Hands
Bull Knees can fully open the back, improving our shoulder flexibility. The action of joining hands involves multiple aspects such as extension, retraction, external rotation and internal rotation. If any of these functions are deficient, it will limit our ability to complete the action. Therefore, the action of Bull Knees is a comprehensive assessment of our shoulder health and flexibility.
The leg action is relatively not difficult, but some people still can't do it. This requires strengthening the lateral muscles of the hips. You can improve it through Kingfish pose. Or, when completing Bull Knees, only allow one leg to be bent and the other leg to remain straight, which can reduce the difficulty.
Let's first look at the foot action of Bull Knees:
- Staff pose, with legs straight, the spine extends upward
- Bend your right knee and left knee, leaning towards the left and right edges of your hip, with your knees stacked together
- Placing a block or blanket under your butt can reduce the difficulty
- Stretch the thigh and outer hip muscles, feeling the inner rotation of the hip
This is the standard Bull Knees sitting posture. If you want to train your shoulders, the sitting posture can be a Diamond Sitting pose, Hero Pose, or simply sit on a chair to practice the arm movements.
Let's look at the arm exercises:
- Inhale, extend your right arm upward and bend your right arm, placing your palms on your back;
- Exhale, extend your left arm backward and press your back with your palms
- Try to bring your palms together
- If you are a beginner or have stiff shoulders, you can use a towel to hold behind your back
If you find the arm exercise difficult, you can also improve it through the following two actions. First, remember the extent to which your arms can approach the torso, then practice the following two actions, and you will find your progress.
This is the hand action of Hawk Pose, which trains our shoulder extension ability. If you find it difficult, you can just cross your hands and don't need to wrap them. Crossing your hands can further enhance the stretching sensation of shoulder extension.
- Kneel on the mat, with your hands side by side and raised
- Right arm down, hands entwined
- Big arm parallel to the mat, hold for 5-8 breaths, switch sides
This is the correct entry mode for arm exercises in Bull Knees. First, extend, then rotate forward and retract. In this way, you will find that your arms can approach the torso more closely and extend more upwards.
- Kneel on the mat, extending your right arm as far as possible
- Then, inner rotate your elbow to your shoulder blade
- Dynamic repeat 5-8 times, switch sides
Here’s my personal experience: many people’s shoulders are not the same flexibility. When my right arm is down and my left arm is up, my hands can join; when my right arm is down and my left arm is up, my hands can join
At this time, we can think about which side we can do, feel how the muscles work, and what limits the other side. Many yoga postures require us to do two sides to achieve balance between the two sides. If one side is more flexible or has more strength, it can better complete the posture, then it is our weaker side. Our body is our best teacher, feeling our body is the key to mastering yoga.
