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Kapotasana
(Pigeon Pose)

How to perform Pigeon Pose

Starting in a kneeling position with your back to the wall, walk your hands down the wall towards your feet. Bend to capacity. If you can, grab your ankles and place your head on the soles of your feet.

What is Kapotasana?

Kapotasana is the third of the “basic backbends”. Basic here is not to be confused with ‘easy.’ Essentially, it means that Kapotasana is the foundation for many other backbend variations. It is a compact backbend, where the hands and the head join the feet, representing humility, but in a back arch.

When and how to do Kapotasana?

Here we use the wall to allow the practitioner to go to their capacity and to have the possibility of going deeper into the pose with the help of the wall for the hands to walk down. This assists us in staying more to the front of the shins and in keeping the hips high and forward, thereby extending the spine still further as the practitioner arches backwards.

Kapotasana brings a stable exhilaration: exhilarating in its full chest opening and lift, and stabilising as it has a bound, cyclical aspect that creates quietness.