Dhanurasana (Bow Pose)

Dhanurasana, Bow Pose, is a prone backbend. Dhanu means a bow, the archer's kind, and the image is exact: the body is the bent bow and the arms are the string. You lie face down, bend the knees, take hold of both ankles, and then kick the shins backwards so the thighs and the chest both lift off the floor.

It is not a deeper Bhujangasana. In Cobra the legs stay down and the lift comes from the back and the arms pressing the floor. In the bow the legs do the lifting and the chest comes up as a consequence. That difference is the whole technique, and it is why a student who has understood Cobra does not automatically understand this.

It is also not a pose made with the arms. The commonest way it goes wrong is that somebody pulls the feet towards the head, which folds the lower back sharply and does almost nothing for the chest. The legs push, the arms only hold. Say that to yourself once before each round and the pose becomes a different experience.

Where it sits is straightforward: in the prone group on the floor, alongside Bhujangasana and Salabhasana, after the standing poses and before the finishing sequence. It is a stimulating pose, so it belongs in a morning practice rather than in the bedtime sequence. In a held practice of the sort described on the hatha yoga page it is taken two or three times for twenty seconds, with a real rest in between, which is a very different thing from flowing through it.

Think of the shape as two levers meeting at the pelvis.

When you kick the shins back into your hands, the thighs lift and the front of the hips lengthens. The pull travels through the straight arms to the shoulders, which roll back, and the chest rises. The pelvis stays pressed down. That is a bow: long at the front, lifted at both ends, with the arch spread over the whole spine.

When you instead pull the feet towards your head, the pelvis tips, the lower back folds at one or two joints, and the chest barely moves. That is not a bow, it is a hinge, and it is the version that leaves people with a sore lower back and a story about how backbends are bad for them.

• Set the pelvis first. Press the front of the pelvis and the lower belly into the mat before anything lifts. Keep pressing throughout.
• Knees at hip width. Narrow knees close the back of the pelvis and the pinch goes straight to the sacrum.
• Straight arms. If the elbows bend, you have started pulling. Straighten them and kick harder with the legs instead.
• Neck long. Look forward. The head is carried by the chest and has no work of its own.

If the hands do not reach the ankles, use a strap. It is not a compromise: with a strap you can keep the arms straight and the shoulders open, which is more than most people manage while straining to reach. The habit of using props for exactly this reason is the tradition described on the Iyengar yoga page.

The abdomen is pressed into the floor and the front of the chest is stretched open, so the breath has nowhere obvious to go. Most students hold it without noticing. Then the hold ends, they gasp, and they conclude the pose is very difficult. What it is, is short.

Take small even breaths into the sides and the back of the ribs, count them, and treat the count as the timer. Six breaths is a good hold. If you cannot manage three, the pose is too deep today and the half bow is the answer.

The claim that backbends improve breathing is one of the few in this area with reasonable evidence behind it, and it is worth stating carefully. A sixteen week randomised controlled trial of forty eight men working in an industrial area used a yoga module that included Dhanurasana, Shalabhasana, Ushtrasana, Bhujangasana, Ardhamatsyendrasana, Gomukhasana and Paschimottanasana, practised six days a week. In the yoga group forced vital capacity rose by 22.53 percent and forced expiratory volume in one second by 27.08 percent, while in the control group both measures fell. That is a result for the whole module including its breathing practices, not for this pose alone, and it is honest to say so. What it does support is the idea that a practice built partly on chest opening postures changes what the lungs can do.

If breathing is your reason for practising, pair this pose with an actual breathing practice rather than relying on the asana. Anulom Vilom after the backbends, sitting up, is the combination I use, and the fuller argument for that order is on the Ujjayi page.

Short holds and real rests. This pose is stimulating and it restricts the breath, so an ambitious hold buys nothing except a wobbly finish.

Three or four mornings a week is enough. It is not a pose for the evening: it stimulates, and students who do it late tell me they lie awake, which is exactly what Yoga Nidra is for at that end of the day instead.

Warm up first. A cold spine should not be asked for a deep backbend, and the warm up that suits this pose best is Marjariasana for the spine and a few rounds of Surya Namaskar for everything else. Then work through the prone poses in order of demand: Bhujangasana, Salabhasana, and Dhanurasana last.

Afterwards, undo it. Balasana for forty seconds is the counter pose and it returns the lower back to neutral. A gentle twist lying on the back is a good second step, and a seated forward bend such as Paschimottanasana completes the undoing if your back is happy with forward bends.

Then finish properly. Any strong backbend wants a few minutes of Savasana at the end of the practice, both because the nervous system has been stirred up and because the front of the body needs a moment to settle back to its usual length.

Do not put this pose immediately before sitting for a long breathing practice. The abdomen has just been squeezed and the chest opened, and the first few minutes of sitting will be restless. Give it a forward bend and a rest first, and the seated practice afterwards is much better.

This is one of the more demanding poses on the site and the list of people who should change it is long.

• Blood pressure and heart. A strong backbend with a restricted breath is not the place to be with uncontrolled pressure. The high blood pressure page keeps the standing poses and rules out the inversions, and I would put a full bow in the same category as an inversion for anybody whose pressure is not yet settled. Bhujangasana instead.
• Abdomen. A hernia, an ulcer or recent abdominal surgery rules it out. The whole pose rests on the belly.
• Neck. Keep the chin level. Cervical spondylosis is common and throwing the head back is how a good practice produces a bad week. The same rule runs through yoga for neck and shoulder pain.
• Lower back. If there is pain today, leave it out. When you come back, use the half bow. The Cochrane review of twenty one trials in chronic low back pain found small benefits from yoga and also found increased back pain to be the most commonly reported harm, with no serious side effects reported, and a deep uncontrolled backbend is the obvious candidate for that kind of harm.
• Shoulders. Use a strap, or practise Salabhasana instead.

If you are over forty and returning to movement, read yoga for beginners over 40 and give this pose a few months rather than a few days. Better still, be watched: come to a class and let somebody tell you whether you are kicking or pulling. You can start at a first class.