Rabbit Pose

Sasangasana

Rabbit Pose is the most radical forward-bending and spinal compression in the sequence.  The object of the pose is to stretch out the spine slowly, as though all the vertebrae were a pearl necklace on an elastic string.  In the stretch we nourish and align everything on that string, and then, when the tension is slowly released, all the pearls come back together and the integrity of the spine is restored.  You may feel afterward that your spine is literally longer than when you began.  Such is the power of this posture that you may actually be right.

TO BEGIN:  Sit down on your heels Japanese-style, with your knees and feet together.  Reach back behind you and grab your heels with either hand, palms down, with the thumbs on the outside of the feet, fingers to the inside. (You can improve your grip around the heels by wrapping the edges of your towel over the heels, and grasping both together). Now you’re cupping your heels in your palms, gripping them tightly.

Look at your stomach, lower your chin to your chest, and, on an exhale, curl your torso forward slowly until your forehead is touching your knees and the top of your head is touching the floor.  Once the top of your head is touching the floor, lift your hips into the air.  Pulling on your heels with all your strength, straighten your arms completely.  As your body rolls forward, your thighs will move also, until they are perpendicular to the floor.  You want the tension between your arms and heels to hold up most of your weight, instead of resting that weight on your head and neck.  A maximum of 25 percent of your weight should be on your head.  Because of the tucked chin, you may feel a little choked in your throat.  Ignore that—welcome it, even.  You’re massaging your thyroid and compressing the throat, which also massages the lymph nodes. 

Stay here for 20 seconds, with your eyes on your stomach.  Keep the stomach sucked in to provide compression.  Still holding your heels, reverse the forward curl and slowly come back to the kneeling position.  Relax on your back in Savasana for 20 seconds. Do a sit-up, then kneel.

SECOND SET: Repeat Rabbit Pose for 20 seconds. Follow it with another 20 seconds of Savasana.

BIKRAM’S KEY: The secret here is in the arms: you must pull with all your strength on the heels of both feet to perform the posture fully and to keep your weight where it belongs.  If you can’t touch the forehead to the knees, walk the knees up, one-by-one, to the forehead.  Don’t relax the grip or your arms.  Note: Never move your head while in the completed posture, to prevent injury to your cervical spine and neck.

BENEFITS: Maximum extension of the spine increases its mobility and elasticity, and does the same fore the back muscles.  Spinal stretching also expedites the feeding of the nervous system with fresh blood and oxygen.  Rabbit Pose relieves tension in the neck, shoulders and back.  It helps alleviate colds, sinus problems, chronic tonsillitis and rejuvenates the thyroid and parathyroid glands.  Rabbit Pose can also be therapeutic for insomnia, diabetes and depression.