Step by step
- Start in Adho Mukha Svanasana / Downward Facing Dog.
- As you exhale, step your right foot forward, between your hands. Lower your left knee to the floor, sliding the foot back until you feel a nice stretch in the left hip and thigh.
- Keep the hips low and level with each other.
- As you inhale, engage your lower belly and lift your chest away from the thigh, sweeping the arms up alongside your ears.
- Look straight ahead or come into a gentle backbend with your gaze to your thumbs.
- As you exhale, lower your hands back down and step back to Downward Facing Dog.
Beginners’ tips
- Warm your hips up with preparatory poses such as cradling the leg in the arm to open up the hips.
- Start by working on Easy pose, Cow Face pose and other hip openers.
- Always make sure you are rotating from the hip and not the knee.
- Practise with awareness and patience – Lotus pose is not suitable for all people’s bodies. Your bone structure may mean another seated pose is a better option for you. For more about this read Tension versus compression in yoga.
Benefits
- Increases flexibility in the hips.
- Used for Pranayama practice.
Watch out for
- Both beginners and experienced students need to take extra care of the knees in this pose. Flex the foot and push out through the ball of the foot to help protect the knees
- As we talked about in beginners’ tips above, Lotus pose is not suitable for certain people’s skeletons and so another variation or pose should be used such as Cross-legged Pose / Sukhasana which can provide the same benefits.
- Substitute with another seated pose if you have any problems with your knees or ankles.
Variations
- Push down through the arms and lift your body off the floor into Scales Pose / Tolasana.
- Reach the arms around the back to to clasp the opposite foot or forearms. Fold forward into Bound Lotus Pose / Baddha Padmasana.
