#35: Gomukhasana / Cow Face Pose 🐮 BKS Iyengar Light on Yoga Asana Explained by a Yoga Teacher 🐮

Transcript

hi welcome back to bksi angar's light on yoga step-by-step pose by pose with a yoga teacher who's not an ayanga yoga teacher i am rereading this book right alongside with you so i am reading not for the first time because i read this book years ago when i first ever did my yoga teacher training but i'm rereading it again after many years with you for the first time today we're talking about gomukasana this is what it looks like which i have to say it looks different in the legs than i would expect based on what i've learned over the years and how i practice anger says it's two stars out of 60 difficulty level so pretty easy which per usual i kind of disagree with him i think it'd be more difficult for many people with their hips and their knees to get into this position and for their shoulders perhaps it's different now that we're at the computer and at the desk so long every day so gomukasana go means a cow muka means face gomuka means one whose face resemble resembles a cow and in english we call it cow face pose it also means a kind of musical instrument narrow at one end and brought it the other like the face of a cow never heard that before technique sit on the floor with the legs stretched straight in front place the palms on the floor and raise the seat oh this is an interesting way to get into it which i have never really heard before and wouldn't have taught place the pawns on the floor and raise the seat that's pretty hard already to get your bum fully off the ground bend the left knee back and sit on the left foot so i'm sitting right on my left foot one of my my right sit bone is kind of right in the inner arch of my left foot remove the hands from the floor raise the right leg and place the right thigh over the left one raise the buttocks and with the help of the hands bring the ankles and the back of the heels together till they touch each other oh wow i've never heard this before in my life mine can't quite touch my they're close but they just they kind of can't touch because of the length of my legs in this position it kind of lands me trying to get my feet together kind of lands me upright a little bit more and balancing on that bottom leg let's see what he says to do next rest the ankles keeping the toes pointing back raise the left arm overhead bend it at the elbow and place the left palm beneath below the nape of the neck between the shoulders lower the right arm bend it at the elbow and raise the right forearm up behind the back until the right hand is level with and between the shoulder blades clasp the hands behind the back between the shoulders hold this position from 30 to 60 seconds breathing normally keep the neck and head erect and look straight ahead unclasp the hands straighten the legs and repeat the pose on the other side for the same length of time by inserting left for right and vice versa then unclasp the hands at the back straighten the legs and relax all right let's talk about how i would have taught this class or taught this pose in my yoga class based on what i've learned and how i practice it in my body so we could still start from sitting i probably wouldn't tell people to lift their bum off the floor and get their legs under them that way i'm going to do the other side to even out here as we talk about it i would probably just say to bend your knee until it's facing the front and hug your heel in behind you and then i would say to step your opposite foot outside that knee like this for many people this is already a big stretch for their outer hip so i would say stay here if you need to and you can also sit on something for extra room which is why i have the blanket here to show you that that's an option and this gives you a little bit more space to play around with in your hips if you do have more room and you want to go a little further into the pose excuse me oliver i would say to pull your ankle back and see if you can lean forward and get your knees one on top of the other your heels hugging in and then sit back with your bum evenly on the floor so this is sort of like the next step i would say and then i would say if you actually have more room you can open your heels a little bit wider to get a deeper outer hip stretch but you just want to make sure that your heels are kind of evenly distant from each side of your hips you want to keep your knees one on top of the other so those are sort of three stages that i would offer in a yoga class i think i just did the same side over again let's switch out the sides and to switch i would say to do that with your legs or i would say you can come forward onto your hands and knees and just step one knee over the other sit back down adjust your heels so that wherever they are they're about equidistant from the hips sitting evenly knees stacked if they can be all right and then from here what he doesn't say explicitly but what you need to know is that one arm will be internally rotating one shoulder and arm and the other will be externally rotating so this right here is internal rotation in towards the body and this is external rotation external away from the body so internal and external kind of exaggerating there to show you so the bottom arm my my left arm for this side will be internally rotating and my right arm will be externally rotating like this you can kind of practice it doing both sides it feels a little strange at first to do the separate opposite rotation with one arm versus the other i'm going to internally rotate the bottom arm externally rotate the top arm bending my elbows and then just reaching my hands back behind me to clasp my fingers he also doesn't say this in the book but if you can't quite reach your fingers you can just grab a hold of the back of your clothing or you can use a strap or towel something that will allow you to hold your hands in these positions even if you can't quite touch your fingers together and that's about it i would also tell people to gently press the back of their head into the upper arm just make sure you're not really hunching forward don't need to do it too much so that's cow face pose let's see what ienger says the effects of the pose are the pose cures cramps in the legs and makes the leg muscles elastic the chest is well expanded and the back becomes erect the shoulder joints move freely and the latimus dorsi are fully extended yeah this is a really good one to do especially if you do sit at a desk all day i try to do this with my arms at least once a day if i can remember i don't do it as much with my hips so you can just do a half so if you don't want to do that with your legs if it doesn't feel good for your hips for any reason you can just do the arms and if this is a little bit too much to do the bottom arm with the internal rotation you can just use your hand up here at the top this is sort of like step one if you're just starting out so thank you for watching let me know what you think if you've tried the pose if you like it oliver and i appreciate your view if you haven't yet and i'll talk to you again soon