Looks Are Deceiving
Upavistha Konasana is a quieting and deeply introspective pose, for some. For others, it's pure torture.
By Julie Gudmestad
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Picture yourself in the perfect Upavistha Konasana (Wide-Angle Seated Forward Bend) —sitting comfortably on the floor with your legs spread wide, torso stretched out long between the legs, forehead supported by the floor, neck and jaw muscles completely soft, abdominal muscles released, breath gentle and steady. Sounds restful, doesn't it? And so it is, for some. But for those who are only dreaming, Upavistha Konasana can be quite a struggle. Instead of relaxing, the pose can be exhausting as you try to tilt the pelvis forward rather than let it roll backward. The head and torso are nowhere near touching the floor, and lower back pain sets in from being slumped over.
The responsibility for these two vastly different scenarios lies with the flexibility —or lack thereof —of certain hip and thigh muscles. The muscles whose flexibility is so important to success in Upavistha Konasana are the hamstrings on the back of the thighs and the hip adductors on the inner thighs. All three hamstrings —biceps femoris, semitendinosis, and semimembranosis —originate on the ischial tuberosities, or sitting bones, on the bottom of the pelvis. The five adductors —adductor longus, adductor brevis, adductor magnus, pectineus, and gracilis —also originate on the ischial tuberosities and the adjacent pubic bone. The hamstrings and gracilis run down the thigh and attach below the knee on the tibia and fibula, the lower leg bones. The four other adductors attach along the posterior femur. The pectineus and adductor brevis are quite short and sit deep in the groin; the adductor longus attaches about halfway down the femur; and the large adductor magnus fills most of the inner thigh.
The hamstrings are hip extensors, meaning they help pull the femurs in line with the torso as they pull down on the sitting bones —like when you rise from sitting (hip flexion) to standing (hip extension) —and they are knee flexors. The adductors, obviously, adduct the hips, or pull the thighs together. Attached to the pelvis and running down the femurs, the hamstrings and adductors are integral to moving, positioning, and stabilizing the hips. They are very strong and potentially tight muscles because they are active when you stand, walk, or run. These two muscle groups tend to pull the joints in ways that work against what's needed in Upavistha Konasana —wide legs, straight knees, and deeply flexed hips.
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