Fitness Friday - Eagle Yoga Pose

My fitness focus has been on adding more workouts to my weekly gym routine and I have found that I have a lot more work to do in the leg and core strengths areas.  One of the best ways for me to grow strength in certain areas is by adding new yoga moves to my practice and then adapting them into my gym workouts.  One of my least favorite yoga poses is Eagle pose, a pose that I have struggled in my before due to lacking strength in the above-mentioned areas.  

When I first started working lunges into my leg day routine, one of the first things that this exercise reminded me of was Eagle pose.  In both the pose and exercise, core strength is needed for stability and leg strength is also needed.  I will be forcing myself to work this yoga move into each and every one of my upcoming Vinyasa sessions in the hopes that I can grow my strength in both of these areas.

The steps for a proper Eagle pose...

- Stand in Tadasana.  Bend your knees slightly, lift your left foot up and, balancing on your right foot, cross your left thigh over the right.  Point your left toes toward the floor, press the foot back, and then hook the top of the foot behind the lower right calf.  Balance on the right foot.

- Stretch your arms straight forward, parallel to the floor, and spread your scapulas wide across the back of your torso  Cross the arms in front of your torso so that the right arm is above the left, then bend your elbows.  Snug the right elbow into the crook of the left, and raise the forearms perpendicular to the floor.  The backs of your hands should be facing the floor.

- Press the right hand to the right and the left hand to the left,  so that the palms are now facing each other.  The thumb of the right hand should pass in front of the little finger of the left.  Now pass the palms together (as much as is possible for you), lift your elbows up, and stretch the fingers toward the ceiling.

- Stay for 15 to 30 seconds, then unwind the legs and arms and stand in Tadasana again.  Repeat for the same length of time with the arms and legs reversed.

I have seen my yoga teachers do squats in this position but that is definitely a goal for once I have conquered this pose.  I will start by working Eagle into my Vinyasa routines and continue to add more reps to my lunges with leg day!

photo courtesy of Yoga Journal