Kurmasana & Supta Kurmasana
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Yoga Techniques and Fitness
Overview
In this lesson, we introduce Kurmasana and Supta Kurmasana, poses that link the arms and legs to create an intense stretch of the lower back and hips.
Objective
Understand how straightening the knees while the thighs press onto the upper arms deepens the trunk flexion and stretches hard-to-access muscles.
What You'll Get
What You'll Get: This is a deep dive into hip and spinal flexibility. The pose uses the legs pressing against the arms to lever the torso forward, accessing the lower back and gluteals in a way that few other poses can. You'll learn to protect the elbows by engaging the biceps while simultaneously using the arms to draw the torso deeper. For personal practice, it's a powerful stretch that opens the back body and teaches you to breathe through intensity. For teachers and therapists, it's a diagnostic tool for assessing hip and spinal mobility. You'll also learn how to sequence preparatory poses and how to modify for students who can't yet access the full form.
The ancient yogis created an ingenious solution to stretching hard-to-access mus- cles—Kur-masana. In this pose we connect the arms and legs to stretch the lower back and hips.
| KŪRMĀSANA / SUPTA KŪRMĀSANA (14 MOVEMENTS) | ||
| 7 | SAPTA | Inhale, jump back, Kurmasana |
| 8 | ASTAU | Exhale, take arms back |
| 9 | NAVA | Cross feet |
| 10 | DASA | Inhale, lift up with both legs behind the head and look up |
| Exhale, Bakasand | ||
| 11 | EKĀDASA | Inhale, lift up |
| 12 | DUADASA | Exhale, jump back, Chaturanga |
| 13 | TRAYODASA | Inhale, Upward-Facing Dog |
| 14 | CATURDASA | Exhale, Downward-Facing Dog |
Anatomy
The ancient yogis created an ingenious solution to stretching hard-to-access mus- cles—Kur-masana. In this pose we connect the arms and legs to stretch the lower back and hips. The main story here is the trunk flexing forward. Linking the elbows behind the knees creates a subplot to this story. You can see that straightening the knees presses down on the backs of the arms and flexes the trunk deeper. Contract the biceps and brachialis muscles to bend the elbows and protect them from hy- perextending. When the thighs press onto the upper arms, attempting to bend the elbows with the palms fixed on the floor draws the torso deeper into the pose, giving that extra inch or two of stretch where yoga really happens.
BASIC JOINT POSITIONS
- The hips flex and abduct.
- The knees extend.
- The ankles plantar flex.
- The feet evert.
- The trunk flexes.
- The shoulders extend, abduct, and externally rotate.
- The elbows extend.
- The forearms pronate
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