Locust Pose

Grouped among the so-called baby backbendswhich includes Dhanurasana (Bow Pose) and Sea Monster Pose (described in the Variations section below)Salabhasana (Locust Pose) is an unassuming posture that is more interesting and challenging than it appears at first glance.

Salabhasana takes some back and abdominal strengthplus mental fortitude to hold the pose. Focus on lengthening your spine and distributing the backbend evenly through your uppermiddleand lower back. No crunching that lumbar area! Engaging all of your back muscles instead of just those in your lower back will help open your chest and shoulders. Building up strength and stretching your chest not only feel good to those of us that spend most of our days hunched over our computersbut will also result in better posture.

Sanskrit

Salabhasana (sha-la-BAHS-anna)

salabha = locust

How to

1. Begin on your belly with your feet together and your hands reaching backpalms down.
2. Extend your big toes straight back and press down with all ten toenails to activate your quadriceps.
3. Rotate your inner thighs to the ceiling to broaden your lower back.
4. Keeping your hands lightly on the matraise your head and chest and your legsleading with your inner thighs.
5. Roll your shoulders back and up away from the floor. Keep the back of your neck long and emphasize lifting your sternum instead of lifting your chin. Don’t grip your glutes.
6. To come out of the poseslowly release.

Variations

Half Locust Poseupper body

Try just lifting your upper body to prepare and focus on your upper back muscles. You can bring your hands behind you and optionally interlace them. Alternativelyyou can simply reach your hands back without interlacing.

Half Locust Poseboth legs

Lift only your lower body to prepare and isolate your lower backbuttocksand thigh muscles.

Tuck your arms and hands close to and slightly under your body. You can put your chin or forehead on the floor or stack your hands under your forehead. Lift both legs. Hold for several breaths; lower slowly.

Half Locust Poseone leg lifted

Lifting one leg at a time isolates your lower backbuttocksand thigh muscles.

Tuck your arms and hands close to and slightly under your body. Put your chin or forehead on the floor or stack your hands under your forehead. Lift one leg at a time. Hold for several breaths on each side; lower slowly. Repeat approximately 10 times or as many as you can do comfortably.

Locust Pose Basics

Pose type: Backbend

Target area: Upper Body

Benefits: Locust Pose improves posture and counteracts the effects of prolonged sitting. It may help relieve lower back pain and can counteract slouching and kyphosis (abnormal curvature of the spine).

Other Locust Pose perks:

• Strengthens your back musclesespecially the muscles supporting your spine and also strengthens your buttocks (glutes) and backs of thighs (hamstrings)
• Slightly strengthens around your shoulders and upper back

Beginner tip

• Beginners sometimes have difficulty sustaining the lift of the torso and legs in this pose. Begin the pose with your hands resting on the floora little bit back from the shoulderscloser to your waist. Inhale and gently push your hands against the floor to help lift the upper torso. Thenkeep the hands in place as you do the poseor after a few breathsonce you’ve established the lift of the chestswing them back into the position described above in step 3.

Explore the pose

You can do this pose with the legs lifted alternately off the floor. For exampleif you want to hold the pose for a total of 1 minutefirst lift the right leg off the floor for 30 secondsthen the left leg for 30 seconds.

Be mindful!

Avoid or modify this pose if you have a headache or back injury. If you have a neck injurykeep your head in a neutral position by looking down at the floor or by supporting your forehead on a thickly folded blanket.

Deepen the pose

• Advanced students can challenge themselves with a variation of Salabhasana. Instead of stretching the legs straight back from the pelvisbend the knees and position the shins perpendicular to the floor. As you lift the upper torsohead and armslift the knees as far away from the floor as possible.

Why we love this pose

“l treasure my rotator cuffsand this pose always presented a challenge for me until I used Chaturanga Dandasana as a base,” says Sarah LaVigneYoga Journal‘s contributing photo editor. “Locust always comes closer to the end my practiceso setting up in a familiar pose helps. I no longer look like a pretzel while getting into the poseand my shoulders thank me!”

Teacher tips

These tips will help protect your students from injury and help them have the best experience of the pose:

• If you focus your attention on how high you goyou may feel strain in your lower back. Insteadyou want to distribute the backbend throughout your uppermiddleand lower backwhich requires you to open the chest.
• Don’t bend your knees. This will compromise the action of your legs and add pressure to your lower back by distributing too much weight to your lower vertebrae.

Preparatory and counter poses

Locust Pose isn’t as intense a backbend as some other posesbut it can still be quite challenging given the demand it places on the body. Prepare yourself with stretches for the low backhip flexorsand quadriceps.

Preparatory poses

Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose)

Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward-Facing Dog Pose)

Virabhadrasana I (Warrior I Pose)

Gomukhasana (Cow Face Pose)

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge Pose)

Supta Virasana (Reclining Hero Pose)

Virasana (Hero Pose)

Counter poses

Balasana (Child’s Pose)

Anatomy

At first glanceSalabhasana appears to be an easy pose. But it’s not. It requires significant flexibility and muscular effort to performexplains Ray LongMDa board-certified orthopedic surgeon and yoga instructor.

Salabhasana strengthens the muscles that arch the backincluding the erector spinae along the length of the spinethe quadratus lumborum in the lower backthe lower trapezius spanning the upper backthe gluteus maximusand the hamstrings.

In the drawings belowpink muscles are stretching and blue muscles are contracting. The shade of the color represents the force of the stretch and the force of contraction. Darker = stronger.

Contract the gluteus maximus to extend the hipslifting the femurs. At the same timeengage the hamstrings; a cue for this is to bend your knees about 10 degrees while lifting your thighs off the floor. Maintain the lift of your thighs and activate your quadriceps to straighten your knees. Tilt the pelvis back and down.

Extend your back and open your chest by contracting the erector spinae and quadratus lumborum muscles.

Flex your ankles to point your feet so that the soles face upward.

Excerpted with permission from The Key Poses of Yoga and Anatomy for Backbends and Twists by Ray Long.

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About our contributors

Teacher and model Natasha Rizopoulos is a senior teacher at Down Under Yoga in Bostonwhere she offers classes and leads 200- and 300-hour teacher trainings. A dedicated Ashtanga practitioner for many yearsshe became equally as captivated by the precision of the Iyengar system. These two traditions inform her teaching and her dynamicanatomy-based vinyasa system Align Your Flow. For more informationvisit natasharizopoulos.com.

Ray Long is an orthopedic surgeon and the founder of Bandha Yogaa popular series of yoga anatomy booksand the Daily Bandhawhich provides tips and techniques for teaching and practicing safe alignment. Ray graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School and pursued post-graduate training at Cornell UniversityMcGill Universitythe University of Montrealand the Florida Orthopedic Institute. He has studied hatha yoga for over 20 yearstraining extensively with B.K.S. Iyengar and other leading yoga mastersand teaches anatomy workshops at yoga studios around the country.