The Camel Pose (Ustrasana) is an excellent addition to your yoga, fitness or stretch routine.
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The camel pose is a deep backbend that offers an increase in strength and a number of other health benefits. The pose involves a back end that stretches the whole front of the body, and is preformed on the knees to build ultimate spinal mobility and flexibility.
Camel Pose Benefits
Theres lots of benefits for including the Camel Pose in your daily or weekly exercise routine:
- Helps improve posture
- May relieve back pain or strain from prolonged sitting
- Strengthens your back, glutes and thigh muscles
- Improves flexibility
- Stretches your chest, core and shoulders
- Great for adding to your warm down routine
- Helps stretch out your hip flexors, reducing the risk of injury
How to guide
Here’s a really simple step by step guide to help you master the camel pose.
- Lay a yoga mat out on the floor, and pop some soothing music on.
- Using your diffuser, start by taking some deep breaths in and out.
- Slowly make your way to the floor, placing both of your knees on the yoga mat, with your legs hip-width apart.
- Keep your hips over your knees and slightly tense your glutes.
- Keep your posture upright with your spine long and shoulders slightly back.
- Inhale, engage your core, and feel your chest inhale.
- On another inhalation, Keeping your chest raised, your core engage drop your shoulders back as your hands lower, place them on your heels, depending on flexibility.
- You can use yoga blocks if you prefer or your flexibility doesn’t allow.
- Stay in this pose for 30 to 60 seconds.
- And release, try this move 3 times in total for maximum results.
Camel pose variation
There are lots of ways you can mix up the camel pose for beginners or to challenge your flexibility. Here are some good variations below:
Camel Pose with blocks
Place blocks at any height (or stacked) next to your ankles as support for your hands.
Camel Pose with hands on sacrum
Start on your yoga mat, both knees on the floor, hip width apart. Place both hands on your lower back, just above the glutes. Hands should be facing downwards and your elbows pointing back. Apply slight pressure to open up your chest and shoulder muscles.
Inhaling to extend and exhaling to release tension.
Camel pose with fingertips on sacrum
If your flexibility doesn’t allow for your palms to sit on your lower back, you can simply use your finger tips, they should be pointed down and then squeeze your elbows towards each other.
Camel Pose in a chair
Drape a blanket over the back of a chair. Sit with your feet hip-distance apart and reach your arms back and loosely grasp the back legs of the chair. Lift your sternum as you slowly slide your hands down the back of the chair and lean your upper shoulder blades against the back of the chair to create an arch in your back. Tuck your chin slightly toward your chest.
Need more of a challenge?
if you are more flexible, try taking hold of your opposite ankles or hold one ankle and reach your other arm to the ceiling.
Combine this move with other moves such as the bow pose and lizard pose.