7/8/2020 Prep Poses for Frog - Yoga Journal

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4 Yoga Poses to Prep for Frog (Bhekasana)

BERYL BENDER BIRCH · UPDATED: APR 13, 2017 · ORIGINAL: AUG 28, 2007

Try these posture to prepare and work your way to Frog Pose.

There is a whimsical tale I rst read more than 10 years ago in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, by Sogyal
Rinpoche. The story tells of an old frog who had spent his whole life in a tiny well. One day, a frog from the ocean
came to visit him.

"Hello there," said the frog from the ocean.

"Hello there, brother," said the frog from the well. "Welcome to my well. And where, may I ask, are you from?"

"From the Great Ocean," answered the ocean frog.

"I've never heard of that place," said the frog from the well. "But I'm sure you must be thrilled to see my
magni cent home. Is your ocean even a quarter this big?"

"Oh, it's bigger than that," said the ocean frog.

"Half as big, then?" asked the well frog.

"No, bigger still."

The well frog could barely believe his ears. "Is it," he continued skeptically, "as big as my well?"

"Your well would not even be a drop in the Great Ocean," answered the visiting frog.

"That's impossible!" cried the frog from the well. "I'll just have to go back with you and see how big this ocean
really is."

After a long journey, they nally arrived. And when the frog from the well saw the immensity of the ocean, he
simply couldn't take it in. He was so shocked that his head exploded.

Most of us tend to think much like the frog from the well. Trapped inside the box of our own belief system, we
think we know exactly what's happening. We act as if the view from our well is the only valid one, as if our tribe,
our club, our state, our political party—whatever group we happen to be a part of—is the best. As long as
something is ours, it's cool, it's legitimate, it's bloody righteous! We're sure that all the other views out there in the
world are the ones that are so screwed up, uncool, and evil.

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So we blissfully go along in our little world. Meanwhile, the universe nudges us, trying to get us to open our eyes,
expand our view, and notice what's really happening. But we keep our eyes tightly shut, not wanting to look past
the boundaries of our secure, known world. When we don't take the hint, when we don't consciously choose to
open our eyes, the universe nudges a little harder. One day, if we keep ignoring all the hints, something happens
that blows our mind. Just like that, whoosh: The bottom drops out. Maybe it's the bottom of our family structure,
or of our church or corporate community, or of a treasured relationship, project, or belief. Something we thought
was absolutely indestructible suddenly falls to pieces. How could this have happened, we wonder? We were on
such solid ground!

Many times, there is nothing really sudden about the catastrophe—or solid about the ground we were standing
on. Like a house being eaten by termites, the structure had been degenerating for years, but we didn't notice.
When the house nally collapses, it's a huge shock. We stagger. We fall down. We retreat. We grieve. But then,
slowly, we begin to recover. And the shock, although painful, moves us forward into a new and broader way of
seeing.

Taking on yoga as a discipline is a way of consciously agreeing to open our eyes and ourselves, of knocking down
the walls of a tenuous shelter before it collapses in on us. Our practice forces us to acknowledge our restrictions
and our limited perspective, and teaches us how to expand the boundaries of our world so that the rst time we
stick our nose out the door, our mind doesn't explode into a million pieces.

Prep Sequence for Frog

Practicing di cult poses like Bhekasana (Frog Pose) certainly widens the boundaries of everyday experience. For
me, as for many people, Bhekasana can be a real challenge; it's a very powerful stretch for the front of the body
and requires quite a strong backbend. Even though I've been doing the pose for nearly 25 years, it is a little
di erent every time I practice, and so it's always something of an adventure. Doing it is like walking to the edge of
a marshy country pond and watching all the little pollywogs scamper away into deep water: You never know what
the pond's frog energy will be like on a given day. You never even know exactly where the edge of the pond will
be; that depends on how recently it has rained. In the same way, depending on how much time I've recently spent
sitting, hiking, gardening, biking, or whatever, Bhekasana may be easy or di cult or somewhere in between.

Since I never know just what I'll nd when I arrive in the pose, practicing it opens up my frame of reference and
helps me see a range of possibilities. In Native American traditions, the frog often symbolizes cleansing and
rebirth. It sings the song that calls the rain, which in turn replenishes the earth. When I practice Bhekasana, I often
feel that I am purifying and creating new life.

In the second series of Ashtanga Yoga, one of the forms I practice and teach, we always do at least 10 Surya
Namaskars (Sun Salutations), a long series of standing asanas, and a couple more poses before we come to
Bhekasana. I'm always grateful for all of this warm-up. And because I like to be as pliable as possible when I
practice the pose, I try to pay special attention to Ujjayi Pranayama (Victorious Breath), Mula Bandha (Root Lock),
and Uddiyana Bandha (Upward Abdominal Lock) to create heat in my body and focus my attention. If you are
familiar with Ujjayi Pranayama, I recommend that you use it throughout your practice. This style of breathing—
keeping the mouth closed and creating an audible aspiration at the back of the throat—is a powerful way to warm
the body from the inside out. The sound created by this conscious form of breathing also provides the mind with
a present-time point of focus throughout the practice.

There's something of a Catch-22 quality to Bhekasana. Once you're in it, the pose develops your exibility and
strength in a variety of places. But it often also seems as if you have to possess the same kinds of exibility and
strength in order to do the posture in the rst place! For example, Bhekasana develops exibility in the
quadriceps and the fronts of the hips as well as in the chest muscles,YJbut
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I suppose this Catch-22 holds true for most postures, but it seems especially so for Bhekasana, perhaps because
everything in the posture is so strongly interrelated. To do any action the pose requires, it sometimes seems as if
you must be able to do every other action the pose requires. The whole posture ts together like a jigsaw puzzle.
For example, to get your hands into position to press down on your feet and stretch the fronts of your thighs, you
need not only exible quadriceps but also openness in your shoulders and chest, exibility in your wrists, and
strength in your arms and back.

To help develop some of the strength and exibility needed for Bhekasana, we will work with four preliminary
postures: Supta Virasana (Reclining Hero Pose), Ustrasana (Camel Pose), Dhanurasana (Bow Pose), and Eka Pada
Bhekasana (One-Legged Frog Pose).

Reclining Hero Pose (Supta Virasana)

Bhekasana is a great quadriceps stretch, but these muscles already need to be fairly exible for you to get into
the pose. Supta Virasana is a really e ective posture for helping you gain this exibility. To come into it, kneel on
your mat with your feet just far enough apart to leave space for your buttocks. Then sit back, bringing your sitting
bones to the oor between your feet. You may nd it useful, especially if you have large calves, to use your hands
to drag the calf esh away from the knee joint and slightly out to the side. This action will create the room
necessary for the deep bend at the knees. Even more important, it will help you keep your feet exactly parallel,
with the heels pointing straight up. This alignment is crucial for protecting the ligaments and tendons in the sides
of the knees from being overstretched or injured.

Once you come into Virasana, place your hands on the oor behind you. On an exhalation, slowly lean back. Move
evenly, rather than lowering rst on one side and then on the other. As your quads and groins open, come onto
your elbows and forearms. Pause here, lifting your pelvis and tucking your tailbone and buttocks esh toward
your knees to lengthen your lower back. If you can move deeper without strain, bring your back all the way to the
oor and rest your arms alongside your torso. If your lower back dramatically overarches, your knees pop up o
the oor, or your neck arches (rather than remaining neutral, with the back of the skull on the oor), come back
up to your elbows; eventually, your front body will open enough to let you lie down with your spine in its normal
curves.

Wherever you are in the pose, continue to gently tuck the tailbone and press down on the knees. Let your gaze be
straight up toward the ceiling. Focus on your breath, release your lower ribs toward the oor, and try to relax into
the stretch in the quads. Take anywhere between ve and 50 breaths, then lift up to sitting again, leading with
your breastbone and using your arms to help you come up evenly.

Camel Pose (Ustrasana)

The next posture, Ustrasana, can also be a big stretch for the front of the body and especially the thighs, and it is
more active than Supta Virasana, initiating the backbend work you'll need later on in Bhekasana. Ustrasana also
shifts you out of your everyday frame of reference, asking you to look at the world both upside down and
backward.

Begin by kneeling with your knees about hip width apart, the toes pointing straight back, and the tops of the feet
at on the oor so the heels point straight up. Place your palms on your buttocks. On an exhalation, tuck the
tailbone and buttocks as in Supta Virasana, supporting the action with your hands, and press the tops of the
thighs forward; at the same time, lift your ribs and slowly arch up and back. Pause here to inhale again. Then, as
you exhale, continue to arch up through the whole spine, including the neck. Lift your sternum and look straight
back over the top of your head. Reach your hands to your feet, placing the palms on the heels or the soles; either
way, the thumbs shouldYJ goEDITORS
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It is very important to protect the lower back from compression when you are practicing Ustrasana. A good way
to do this is by vigilantly holding Mula Bandha and Uddiyana Bandha. If you're not accustomed to those practices,
you can protect your back by tucking your tailbone and lengthening your lower back in the opposite direction, so
the lower part of your abdomen draws slightly back toward your spine.

With your spine and neck arching back and the abdominal area stretched like a drumhead, you may nd your
breathing a bit restricted, but try to relax and breathe as deeply as possible. Hold the posture for ve to 10
breaths. Then simultaneously inhale, lift your sternum, and push o with your hands to rise back to your starting
position.

Bow Pose (Dhanurasana)

In many ways, Dhanurasana, our next posture, is very similar to Ustrasana, but it approaches the backbending
action from a very di erent perspective. Like Ustrasana, Dhanurasana is a backward bend that asks you to bend
your knees and reach behind you to hold your feet. But in the Dhanurasana position, you can use the leverage of
the arms and legs to more e ectively increase the opening in the shoulders and the back.

Various schools of yoga teach several variations of this posture. To come into the version I teach, lie facedown on
the mat and bring the inner edges of your thighs, knees, and feet together. As you inhale, bend your knees and
reach your hands back to grasp the outer side of each ankle. As you exhale, draw your tailbone toward the oor;
this action will help lengthen your spine, protecting your lower back from overarching. Still keeping your knees,
thighs, and feet together, lift your feet, head, and chest up toward the ceiling, creating a strong backbend. Rather
than rocking back onto your pelvis and thighbones or forward onto your ribs, try to balance directly on your belly.
Press your legs back into your hands and, in opposition, pull the hands forward; these actions will draw you into a
deeper backbend, just like a bow drawn by an archer. Keep your gaze directed out past the end of your nose.

As in Ustrasana, it is very important to maintain correct alignment of the spine, and you can use exactly the same
techniques as you did in that pose: Hold Mula Bandha and Uddiyana Bandha to the best of your ability or, if those
two practices aren't familiar to you, tuck the tailbone and draw the lower abdomen slightly back toward your
spine. Hold the pose for ve to 10 breaths. Then, on an exhalation, slowly lower back down to the ground. Take a
breath or two to recover and then repeat the pose. If you feel any compression in your lower back afterward, you
can usually relieve it by lying on your back and gently bringing your knees to your chest.

One-Legged Frog Pose (Eka Pada Bhekasana)

One way to ease into Bhekasana is to practice the one-legged variation, Eka Pada Bhekasana. This lets you focus
on and open one side of your body at a time, which makes things easier when you tackle the complete posture.

To come into Eka Pada Bhekasana, lie facedown on your mat and prop yourself up with your left forearm parallel
to your waistline. Separate your knees and thighs slightly. Then bend your right knee, reach back with your right
hand, and place your palm on top of your instep, with your ngers pointing in the opposite direction from your
toes. The classic version of Bhekasana uses a more demanding hand position that eventually provides you with
better leverage and more opening; for now, though, this preliminary hand position will be just ne.

As you exhale, slowly push down on the foot, moving it alongside the outer edge of the right thigh. It is imperative
that you keep the top of the foot precisely square to the ceiling and the heel pointing straight down toward the
oor. Although you're now on your belly rather than on your back, the alignment of the feet and legs should be
essentially the same as in Supta Virasana.

As you work to draw the foot down, make sure you don't roll to one side or the other, bringing more weight onto
either your straight-leg hip or your bent-leg hip. (The more commonYJ
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Use the strength of your arm and shoulder muscles to draw the foot down. At the same time, lift your chest as
high as you can. Let your gaze extend softly out past your nose. As in the previous backbends, use the bandhas or
the tuck of the tailbone and engagement of the abdomen to protect your lower back from overarching. Take ve
to 10 breaths, then repeat the pose on the other side.

Frog (Bhekasana)

To come into full Bhekasana, lie on your belly. Then inhale, separate the legs slightly, bend the knees, and reach
back and grab the tops of both feet with the hands, just as you did with one leg and hand in Eka Pada Bhekasana.
Then, if possible, pivot on the palms of your hands so your wrists point back and your ngers point forward, in
the same direction as your toes. (If you can't manage this hand position, just repeat the position you used in the
previous pose.)

As in Supta Virasana and Eka Pada Bhekasana, make absolutely sure your feet are correctly aligned before
proceeding further. Then, on an exhalation, rmly push down on the tops of the feet to bring the toes and heels
close to the ground alongside the hips; at the same time, lift your chest, head, and shoulders into a backbend.
Take ve to 10 breaths in this position, then come out of the posture on an exhalation, slowly releasing down to
the oor.

After taking a few breaths to recover, repeat Bhekasana. To bring your spine back to neutral afterward, move
through a gentle Surya Namaskar before lying down on your back, bringing your knees to your chest, and giving
them a hug. Then rest for a few minutes in Savasana (Corpse Pose).

In Bhekasana, the full weight of the body is pressing into the belly even as you stretch exactly the same area. The
e ect of this combination is to direct quite a bit of prana (vital energy) to the second and third chakras, just below
and above the navel, respectively. Consequently, you may notice that the pose has a powerful stimulating and
cleansing e ect on the digestive, reproductive, and eliminative systems of the body.

As you become able to lift more deeply into Bhekasana, it's likely that you will also notice that the strength of your
arms helps improve the stretch in your legs. The harder you can push down with your arms, the more opening
you'll achieve in the fronts of the thighs.

As you develop strength through yoga, you'll naturally become more exible and open. Your strength will help
you push against the walls of your limitations, expand your horizons, and test new waters. Like the frog from the
well, your view of the world will become larger. But the change in your perspective won't surprise you or make
your head explode into a million pieces, because—unlike the frog from the well—you have chosen to make your
way to the shores of the Great Ocean consciously and methodically, awake every step of the way.

See alsoChallenge Pose: Flying Pigeon (Eka Pada Galavasana)

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