I like asking questions and I like to know things. I am by nature a curious person which stands me in good stead as a school teacher and a yoga teacher. During asana practice I frequently come back to one pose that makes me really curious every time I do it. The pose is Pigeon Pose. Once during a yin yoga class, where you hold poses for several minutes, I really struggled and in hindsight, should have come out of the pose earlier than the teacher cued. It took all my strength not to leap up from my mat and shout f**k really, really loudly! Obviously my brain starts whirling into action as soon as something piques my interest and this reaction felt at odds with how I usually feel during a yoga practice. Why did I suddenly feel so angry? This of course led me to some research and these are some interesting facts about pigeon pose according to anecdotal evidence and research (I can’t comment on the reliability and credibility of the sources because to be honest, this is just a blog and not an academic piece of research!) and I have included my own observations after hours of reflection!!!
10 amazing facts about pigeon pose
Pigeon pose is called Kapotasana in Sanskrit
It provides a deep stretch to the hips supporting flexibility and mobility
It’s considered to be quite an advanced pose
There are variations: classic, resting, king and an eye watering double pigeon pose
Warm up before doing it!
Be careful if you have hip, knee or lower back issues
Can support digestion (?)
Can alleviate stress or worry
It’s great for people who spend a lot of time sitting on chairs, runners and cyclists
It seems to help my painful knees!
But I still didn’t have an answer as to why I got so angry (and still do sometimes). One explanation is that we can hold a lot of tension in our hips. We are often aware of tension in our necks and shoulders but might not realise how much tension we carry around in our hips.
According to Ana Forrest, who developed an interesting yoga style called 'Forrest yoga", yoga can aid emotional breakthroughs and I think Pigeon pokes me emotionally for some reason. I find it a very intense pose and I still don’t have any answers (yet) for why I have such a powerful reaction to it. I do it quite a lot and every time I am curious about its effect on me. I think that’s why I keep going back to it; to get an answer. I have a love/hate relationship with it and all yoga philosophy of ‘doing no harm’ is thrown out of the window as I challenge myself to stay in it for as long as possible; breathing, wondering, sweating! But this is one of the reasons yoga is so great - it calms us but also challenges us. The balance between effort and ease. The balance between mind and body.
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