If 98% of practitioners can’t keep their supporting thigh touching the floor while in this pose (and I include myself here!) why is it wrong to allow it to “float” if the hips, buttocks, and shoulders are correctly grounded and aligned? Is it not true that each individual’s body is different? I find my instructor’s answer very dissatisfying…which was: I’ve seen instructors who’ve worked for years on this and eventually “get” it. Umm…so?! My back hurts when I force my thigh bone down with my hand or keep my leg at a 45 degree angle up without taking the leg out at all since that’s where my thigh lifts away from the floor. I have extremely open hips, flexible hamstrings, and very satisfactory joint mobility. I have practiced this yoga for 11 years…so, it’s not like I’m a “newbie.” Any advice or information would be greatly appreciated.
It would be far easier to flesh this out (for me) if I had some additional information.[I]Are you doing the pose by catching the big toe of the raised leg or are you using a belt?[/I]
[I] Where are you getting your data in terms of the number of practitioners who can do the pose? [/I]
[I] What do you mean by “float”. Are you referencing “lifting” or “abducting” or something entirely different?[/I]
It is not a matter of “wrong”. It is a matter of a) not being maximally effective b) not reaching that efficacy with a maximum of safety, and c) not expressing the full pose. The pose is the pose. I see this all the time with students taught to do Tadasana with their legs apart. That is an appropriate ANATOMICAL position but it is NOT Tadasana.
The down leg in Supta Padangusthasana is not pressed or forced down. Nothing should ever be forced in asana, period. Instead that leg is rooted to begin with and the depth of the pose is explored from there - not by swinging the leg to the ground overhead at the expense of the integrity of the posture.
Additionally, the aforementioned pose is preparation for Hasta Padangusthasana (in fact it’s the same pose tipped 90?). And obviously, in the standing pose, the actions of the supporting leg must be absolutely “so” in order to protect the hip and knee joints respectively.
Of course we all have different bodies and poses are and should be modified based on some of those structural issues. However we, as human beings, are always finding something to hide behind. So students must also use care to explore the knots or obstacles to find out exactly how real, authentic, and dissoluble they may be.
Whatever the issue in the back body, that should be addressed by the teacher (and student, of course) so that it is either released or ameliorated. How it relates to the pose is another matter.
Hi InnerAthlete!
I’ll respond to your three queries in order.
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I can do supta padangusthasana with or without a belt. During the seminar I participated in last weekend with George Purvis, we were asked to use a belt at the front of the heel rather than at the ball of the foot.
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The stats I am quoting were from that same seminar…perhaps GP was being funny referring to the OccupyMovement. In the 11 years I’ve practiced Iyengar yoga, however, I’ve only met 3 people who could keep the thigh of the “support” leg to the ground. When I asked my own teacher this question, I was given an unsatisfying answer: I’ve known many instructors who have worked on this for years before being able to keep their thigh down. That sounds like a non-answer to moi!
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I mean that the thigh muscles of the support leg engage and move to the bone such that my thigh is no longer touching the floor. My hips and buttocks remain in contact and are level. My shoulders are both in contact evenly with the floor. The supporting leg remains in tadasana while the raised leg is lifted up and extended to the side. But my thigh muscles engage and simply can’t remain in contact with the darned floor!!!
I’ll admit I am a perfectionist…but realized years ago that it is twisted and sick to try and live that way. It is not ego whispering in my ear that I am failing. I have a Master’s in Oriental Medicine…and know that each person’s body is very different. Heck, what I can do with my own body varies from day to day…and from the left to the right and the front to the back on a daily basis. I simply find it a bit absurd to think that the only way to efficaciously 100% be in supta padangusthasana is with the supporting leg’s thigh to the floor when so many people can’t comfortably do that! That, to me, seems like an M.D. saying that the best way to treat a cold is to take 7 Tylenol, eat 20 oz. of chicken soup, and stay in bed 12.47 hours.
I would love to be the 4th. person I know to keep my thigh to the ground in this pose! But even more importantly, I want to continue feeling as great as I already do practicing the pose! I guess what the real question here is this: Why is the assumption that everyone can eventually keep their thigh to the floor if they work long enough to do so? Why can’t the dogma instead be that not everyone will do any pose exactly as another person?
And on that note, I appreciate your advice, your position, and your questions. Thank you…and Namaste.
In reverse order…
There should be no dogma at all. And perhaps that is really your point. If so it is both well received, embraced, and put forth.
In asana we are constantly moving toward the full expression of the pose. The pose is never perfected, otherwise Iyengar would have stopped practicing 30 years ago.
From what I gather it is your hamstrings in the down leg that are not touching the floor. Big deal. Not so important to “do”. However very important to have the action of rooting that leg otherwise the pose becomes completely sloppy. Int he down leg only the quadriceps should be contracted. That is what releases the hamstrings - in unison with an intention and your breath, of course.
Perhaps think of the down leg action as more of a “reaching for” rather than a “doing of”. You may absolutely one day get that hamstring on the floor in the pose. Or you you may not get the leg on the floor in several lifetimes.
As I told my class last night “don’t sweat the small stuff, and it’s all the small stuff, says the alignment-based yoga teacher.” 
WOW! I will now chant: Release the hammies & engage the quads! to myself in moving through the pose…as well as maintaining the other facets of supta padangusthasana! For me, the joy of yoga has been, & will remain, in the journey rather than in the destination! Thanks again…for voicing what I knew, but couldn’t "hear!"
Namaste!