Bikram Standing Bow Floor Exercise

One of my ATF exercises for quickly improving the Bikram Standing Bow posture.  You MUST BE ABLE TO DO THE SPLITS to do this exercise, so if you  need to work on that first…work on that first!  🙂  Alright, most people misunderstand this posture, and end up pulling on their foot in the posture, bringing their upper body down in a straight line like Balancing Stick Pose.  Standing Bow is actually a tremendous backbending posture, with a spine twist!  This exercise helps students understand this very important aspect by taking out the whole “balancing” part, so they can totally focus on the backbending part.  I’ve been doing this for a while, so I know what body-part in the back is getting fired in order to allow the body to twist all the way back.  For a newbie, (well, not a real newbie, as this is a more advanced exercise, but a  newbie to locking out in bow), you will most likely have to use your front hand and arm to both help you balance back, and push back, until you can fire your back muscles on your own.  Your mantra: REACH BACK AND KICK BACK, LIKE YOUR GONNA TOUCH THE BACK OF YOUR SHOULDER TO YOUR BUTT!  Be patient, as this posture takes a looooooooong time for most to understand.  I still do a set of this exercise every day before class starts to prepare myself for the standing version….
This is TOP SECRET STUFF, and I’m giving it to you for free, so TRY IT if you’ve been stuck with your bow for a while but you can do the splits…YES, that back is gonna hurt like hell…it should feel like your kidneys are getting squeezed HARD…this is the tourniquet effect, and it has a profound effect on kidney regulation…Enjoy mes amis! 🙂