Hot Yoga Pose Forums > Chapter: Tuladandasana
Thats correct Tina (aka Tuna): it is easier and more satisfying to put your hips in alignment and try to keep them there as you move into the pose than to correct from within the pose - but sometimes shit happens.
I'd like to see you exit this pose energized rather than depleted. Here's how that happens:
When you give your all, your 100% to Tuladandasana - aka anything in your life - you are emptying your "battery." Though you feel spent, you dont feel exhausted because once that battery is empty, it will begin filling fast - nature abhors a vacuum! So I would say, watch your breathing in this pose (holding your breath holds back your energy) and while you're in this pose tell yourself, Touch the Mirror! Touch the back wall! Stretch it! Reach it! Come on a little more touch it!" Its only 10 seconds and if you break the mirrors, I forgive you
And Grace _- I suspect that you can do ANYTHING for WAY MORE than 10 seconds...but 10 seconds is an encouraging start!
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
This use to be one of those poses that after i finished i would need to take a lil break, now I love to see how far i can stretch. I also heard Bikram's wife say that this pose will burn up to 300 calories. Is this true?
Becky
I don't know about the calorie burn but Rajashree is a very practiced yogi so if what she says feels good to you, I would trust it and well, that's just more incentive to Look forward to Tuladandasana. I'm sure she means the pose done correctly will offer that unique benefit, as with the benefits in every Asana: correct alignmeny means the difference between enjoyment and injury. Stretching feels amazing in this pose and the aerobic heart squeeze here is unmatched by any other asana in the series (tho many others do tone the heart muscle including Garudasana, Trikonasana and danurasana). Fatigue in a pose is often due to incorrect breathing too.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
I love this pose. It gets my heart racing, so I could see how hit could burn a significant number of calories. The set up of this pose is so important. Starting with my hips square, arms locked, back leg lifted slightly off the mat, and chest up, I am able to pull myself into the traction idea that Raiz mentions. It is this pulling that stabilizes me to make adjustments to my hips in this pose. If I am not locking into traction, any movement throws me off. I really dislike falling out of this pose because it is so short, so the set up in my mind is key to success.
I love spending the time in this pose, so I want to maximize it. I have found that to square my hips, it helps to pull hard from finger tips to toe and then slightly level my shoulders and my hips follow the realignment. Then I can pull hard again to lengthen my spine and become a human letter T.
Brittany Yard
I love this asana too Brittany - it is like being a tree limb that the wind has carried and has settled in perfect balance on a tree trunk.
Traction - or locking - it indeed the key to feeling lighter than air in this pose.
Squaring the hips is a way of creating a grounding element for increasing the traction from fingertips to toes.
One day Im going to touch that mirror....!
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
I wish I agreed with everyone on this, but my heart rate does nothing in this pose. I think it's too short. Dandayamana Danurasana is the real heart pounder for me. I wish the time on the two poses were reversed.
Dani
Glad you found your heart-throb pose, Dani! But theres no reason to change the order - the full body parabolic stretch of Dandayamana Danurasana is complemented perfectly by the extreme end to end body traction of Tuladanasana - and ending this series with lengthening into the next forward bend pose is perfect as well!
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
This pose makes my heart throb, sometimes less, sometimes more; it varies from class to class. The simultaneous pulling forward with the arms and locking and stretching the back leg increase the intensity once coming out of the pose for me. You think this pose is going to be an easy pose, which I feel it is, to get into, although once you come up straight again, it surprises you.
Lisa O'Rourke
Yes! Hearth throbbing, but it is a surprise, since it's so short. For me, this pose clicked for me when I really listened to the cues to pull my arms forwards and pull my leg back. I think of it as a tug of war and it really helps me feel locked solid.
Chrissy Graziano
Exactly - stretching the limbs outwards away from heart combined with the balance on one leg really "tugs at the heartstrings" and turns you into a heartthrob (dont you love all the expressions we have for feelings from the heart!)
This can be an emotional pose but most people feel it is an empowering one. From a physical point of view, squeezing the heart muscle this hard for just 10 seconds (more might be too taxing) is enough to make it beat faster, harder, working this little muscle into a whole new place of strong!
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
This pose can always pick up my heart rate too Rhonda but I saw a lot of posts earlier about hyperflexing and I used to have this issue often, what made this pose tick for me was being conscience to tuck my hip down when I hinge. If I’m focused on tucking my hip under my mind is focusing on the hip alignment which helps me keep my legs of straight rather than extending too far up. There are even times where I catch myself and have to extend more.
Stephanie
No banana pose for you, Stephanie! Yes, when you are as hyper flexible as you, the body can tend to hyper-extend at the joints and become overstretched in the flexors.
Your Tuladandasana will stay strong as you pull straight forward/pull straight back and create maximum, heart-squeezing traction
And expansion is exhilarating....!
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
What sticks for me In Tuladandasana , balancing stick is the relationship again with keeping my eyes and chest forward to maintain stability with my standing leg and my outstretched leg. I always still seem to have more room to lower my body down to maintain a locked stretched leg to get the T position. I love this pose because it is short and sweet but a very powerful heart opener and heart muscle builder. The release is also awesome because I totally feel my heart beating and use my deep breathing to stay relaxed and focused.
maria
Lifting arms overhead quickly gets the heart pumping as you move. I also feel lifting the chest gives lots of room to increase the breath. Stretcing from fingertip to toetip feels so good. I like to focus on keeping my hips square to the floor and really stretching my leg back. I also like to focus on putting my weight on inside of my foot and locking my quads. It makes me feel strong and stable.
Jeanne
What I love most about this pose is that it feels extremely intuitive to me. The analogy of being a human letter T makes perfect sense to me and holding that visualization with me for the whole pose makes this feel natural. Not saying it is an easy pose by any means--it is pretty awesome how much these 10 seconds make your heart pound! But, compared to other poses, all the components of getting this pose seem to come into place quicker by getting into that human letter T, and keeping arms and legs locked the whole time. This is one of my faves.
Pamela
I do find the pose very enjoyable, love the intense feeling of stretching the body. I do have to be conscious about keeping the hips square to the floor. I did like the tip from one of the instructors -to rotate lifted foot inward a bit-that does tend to bring the hip down.
Irina
For the most part I am still working on balancing on my other leg during the standing balancing series, but this pose in easier for me because of the shorter length of time. I always have to remember to keep my arms up next to my ears--I have a tendency to allow them to droop. In Dandayamana DhanurasanaI find myself reaching forward at the very end of the pose, which is probably based on my fear of falling forward.
irenem
I love this pose too! It practically defies gravity and the sheer will it takes to hold your body stick straight in mid air is empowering. At first it can feel like you;'re lifting bricks - the arms, the leg, the head between the arms - but the more you pull, the lighter you feel. I gave a student the instruction to feel like a feather being pulled in the wind ...and that seemed to lighten and strengthen the pose for her! Its mostly what I feel like this pose - light and unstoppable
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
Tulandasana, flying like a bird. I love the setup. It looks so graceful. Since I started Guru working on taking it further, chest higher, eyes higher, and leveling out that pesky hip. I notice if I turn my toes ever so slightly in toward the body the kicking hip levels out a lot more easily.
Paula
I love this pose too. My biggest challenge at the moment is getting my supporting leg(s) stronger--right now the supporting leg is sometimes shaking when I Go into the pose. This chapter doesn't address that directly, but I think it is just a matter of time and practice.
irenem
Irene, this is all about locking the thigh muscle, much as you do in any of the standing balancing poses. Shaking is one stage of learning to lock, so keep contracting and lifting up on that thigh muscle and it will stabilize - and DONT go into the pose until you have locked the standing leg! I might shake when you are in the pose - just keep locking - but dont GO IN with a bent standing knee
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
I love this pose and I am able to lock both legs but I tend to fall out when I square my hips, same as in most the standing poses. Is there a secret to this. My locked leg is solid and I'm pressing into the big toe, it seems to be in my alignment.
Erica
I'm with Erica on this, alignment and strength. Balancing on my.right leg and lifting the left has not yet become as simple as when I am balancing on my left. When on the left I'm able to Hinge and experience a beautiful stretch. That definitely raises my heart rate as the 1st one does not yet do that for me. How do I get my body to become equal forces? It is very obvious in this pose where my body differs with strengtg
Lisa N
We are such curious creatures; we tend to fixate on whats going wrong instead of bask in whats going right...and there is SO much more going right. Its not our fault - we were taught to focus on our faults and fix them. Alas, the joke is that the more you focus on whats "wrong", the more wrong you perceive.
How would this look? You might fully look forward to the strength and balance you feel on the left and bask in that. You might notice the right side only as an afterthough, and speak to it as gently as you would speak to your dog, or a horse that you love.
How do you get your body to become equal forces? You allow it to be as it is, with kindness and gentle acceptance and enjoyment for where you are right now, in every asana.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
When i am a "human letter T" in this pose i tighten my body from fingertip to toetip! I am a complete isometric contraction of all my muscles. My muscles are sooooo tight but yet there is no joint movement! My muscles are very fatigued after this pose.
I avoid looking down and attempt to look between the pointer fingers or at my toes in the mirror but i never see them, will i ever see them? Like Dandayamana Dhanurasana, once i roll my hip of the extended leg down (parallel to floor) it changes my center of gravity and throws me off balance. So to avoid this as soon as i hinge forward i immediately roll the hip down and adjust my balance with the hip in the correct position in the first place!