Setu Banda Sarvangasana aka: Bridge
(SET-too BAHN-dah)
setu = dam, dike, or bridge
bandha = lock
Exercise: Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet hip-width apart and parallel. Exhale and draw up your abdomen, buttocks and pelvis towards the ceiling. Lift your hips off the floor Press your feet actively into the floor while keeping your thighs and feet parallel Keep your knees directly over your heals.
Physical Benefit: Stretches the chest, neck and spine.
Mental Benefit: Calms the brain and helps reduce mild depression.
Bridge Pose
Bridge Pose, or Setu Bandha Sarvangasana, is a restorative backbend that is accessible to beginners but offers much to more experienced practitioners.
Advantages
Setu Bandha Sarvangasana breaks out this way: "setu" is bridge or dam; and "bandha" is lock.
This asana, a great stretch for the back, chest and legs, has many other benefits, including:
* Reduced stress
* Stimulation of the thyroid, lungs, and abdominals
* Improved digestion
Do not perform Bridge Pose if you have severe shoulder or neck problems.
Step Into the Pose
To Perform Bridge Pose
1. Begin in Corpse or Relaxation Pose. Use a rolled blanket or pillow behind your neck, if necessary.
2. On an exhale, push your tailbone up with your feet and inner thighs. Tighten the buttocks.
3. Check to make sure your knees are over the heels as you extend upward. You should not feel pressure on your neck.
4. Following the breath, roll your shoulders under, chin against the sternum, head flat on the floor.
5. Leave your arms at your sides, clasp them under your back without putting pressure on the neck, or reach for your ankles.
6. Hold the pose for 30 seconds or more, then release. You can also achieve the pose, release after 30 seconds, then move into the pose two more times on that cycle.
Beginner Tips
Don't feel pressure to push up higher than is comfortable. Move your arms under you as you build experience.
Advanced Tips
Lift your heels and move them closer to the tailbone.
Anatomical Focus
* Uterus
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Therapeutic Applications
* Stress
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Benefits
* Stretches the chest, neck, and spine
* Calms the brain and helps alleviate stress and mild depression
* Stimulates abdominal organs, lungs, and thyroid
* Rejuvenates tired legs
* Improves digestion
* Helps relieve the symptoms of menopause
* Relieves menstrual discomfort when done supported
* Reduces anxiety, fatigue, backache, headache, and insomnia
* Therapeutic for asthma, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, and sinusitis
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Contraindications and Cautions
Neck injury: avoid this pose unless you are practicing under the supervision of an experienced teacher.
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Beginner's Tip
Once the shoulders are rolled under, be sure not to pull them forcefully away from your ears, which tends to overstretch the neck. Lift the tops of the shoulders slightly toward the ears and push the inner shoulder blades away from the spine.
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Variations
Eka Pada Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (pronounced ACHE-ah PAH-dah, eka = one, pada = foot or leg)
On an exhalation, lift the right knee into your torso, then inhale and extend the leg perpendicular to the floor. Hold for 30 seconds, then release the foot to the floor again with an exhalation. Secure the foot again and repeat with the left leg for the same length of time.
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Modifications and Props
If you have difficulty supporting the lift of the pelvis in this pose after taking it away from the floor, slide a block or bolster under your sacrum and rest the pelvis on this support.
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Partnering
A partner can help you learn about the correct action of the top thighs in a backbend. Perform the pose, then have the partner straddle your legs and clasp your top thighs. He/she can brace your outer thighs with his/her inner legs. Next the partner should strongly turn the thighs inward and encourage the inner thighs down toward the floor (as you resist the tailbone toward the pubis). Recreate this action in all backbends.
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Preparatory Poses
* Bhujangasana
* Urdhva Mukha Svanasana
* Virasana
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Follow-Up Poses
* Bhujangasana
* Salamba Sarvangasana
* Urdhva Mukha Svanasana
* Urdhva Dhanurasana
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Deepen The Pose
Once in the pose, lift your heels off the floor and push your tailbone up, a little closer to the pubis. Then from the lift of the tail, stretch the heels back to the floor again.
* Uterus
► ▼
Therapeutic Applications
* Stress
► ▼
Benefits
* Stretches the chest, neck, and spine
* Calms the brain and helps alleviate stress and mild depression
* Stimulates abdominal organs, lungs, and thyroid
* Rejuvenates tired legs
* Improves digestion
* Helps relieve the symptoms of menopause
* Relieves menstrual discomfort when done supported
* Reduces anxiety, fatigue, backache, headache, and insomnia
* Therapeutic for asthma, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, and sinusitis
► ▼
Contraindications and Cautions
Neck injury: avoid this pose unless you are practicing under the supervision of an experienced teacher.
► ▼
Beginner's Tip
Once the shoulders are rolled under, be sure not to pull them forcefully away from your ears, which tends to overstretch the neck. Lift the tops of the shoulders slightly toward the ears and push the inner shoulder blades away from the spine.
► ▼
Variations
Eka Pada Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (pronounced ACHE-ah PAH-dah, eka = one, pada = foot or leg)
On an exhalation, lift the right knee into your torso, then inhale and extend the leg perpendicular to the floor. Hold for 30 seconds, then release the foot to the floor again with an exhalation. Secure the foot again and repeat with the left leg for the same length of time.
► ▼
Modifications and Props
If you have difficulty supporting the lift of the pelvis in this pose after taking it away from the floor, slide a block or bolster under your sacrum and rest the pelvis on this support.
► ▼
Partnering
A partner can help you learn about the correct action of the top thighs in a backbend. Perform the pose, then have the partner straddle your legs and clasp your top thighs. He/she can brace your outer thighs with his/her inner legs. Next the partner should strongly turn the thighs inward and encourage the inner thighs down toward the floor (as you resist the tailbone toward the pubis). Recreate this action in all backbends.
► ▼
Preparatory Poses
* Bhujangasana
* Urdhva Mukha Svanasana
* Virasana
► ▼
Follow-Up Poses
* Bhujangasana
* Salamba Sarvangasana
* Urdhva Mukha Svanasana
* Urdhva Dhanurasana
► ▼
Deepen The Pose
Once in the pose, lift your heels off the floor and push your tailbone up, a little closer to the pubis. Then from the lift of the tail, stretch the heels back to the floor again.
