Anatomical Breakdown of Kapotasana, The Ashtanga Version Of Pigeon Pose

Some of the poses that are most intriguing and motivating for practitioners are those that are the most challenging. Ashtanga vinyasa yoga has many opportunities for those seeking a challenge. The very first Ashtanga sequence, the primary series, presents challenges in learning half-bound lotus and full-lotus postures. Additionally, primary series includes the first leg-behind-head pose that you find in Ashtanga. As we move into the intermediate Ashtanga sequence, the challenges only increase. Many consider the Ashtanga intermediate series to have two “peak” postures. The first of those is kapotasana, a deep, full-body backbend. It can be a roadblock for students who are uncertain of how to approach this challenging pose. In this article, I’ll break down the anatomy of kapotasana, as well as discuss some strategies for approaching this pose in a safe way.

Aspects of kapotasana

Like all postures in the backbending category, we could say the primary aspect of this posture is cultivating length along the front of the body. But, in Ashtanga, I’d suggest that most postures are more than they initially appear. And, even the postures that require a greater than average level of openness in tissues, also require us to connect to a sense of groundedness. In kapotasana, if we’re going to do this posture in a healthy and sustainable way, we need to find a balance between groundedness and openness. Being able to maintain both a sense of stability and flexibility comes up many times in the second series of Ashtanga. I consider it a theme throughout the more challenging postures in the Ashtanga intermediate series.

Anatomy of kapotasana

Kapotasana definitely is a backbend. That’s probably clear even if you’ve just seen images of kapotasana and aren’t working on it in your own practice yet. But, anatomically, what does that mean? One of the anatomical pieces that I emphasize over and over again is the importance of considering backbending as actually being about front-opening, rather than just trying to make the back bend more. I think this is even more important, the deeper the backbend is. We might get away with doing a less intense backbend by squeezing our back body and trying to force more bend into our spine. But, especially in deeper backbends, that intention will likely get in our way. And, at worst, squeezing our back rather than taking time to create length along the front of our body could even be a recipe for injury.

What makes kapotasana a particularly deep and intense backbend is the removal of overall length and a couple of important segments relative to a “regular” backbend (like urdhva dhanurasana). If we start backbending on our knees, this means that we lose the length of the foreleg and the functionality of the ankle and foot. On the other end of the body, in the full expression of kapotasana, you also lose the length of the forearm and some of the functionality of the hand and wrist, or at least, it works differently. When you put those two elements together, you create a more focused (anatomically) and intense backbend.

The hip flexors

So, if we think of backbending as really front opening, what tissues need to be lengthened to do kapotasana? The short answer is everything on the front of our body. However, there are tissues that are the most likely to be short and prevent access in this pose. The first group of muscles that I ask students to focus on lengthening to prepare for kapotasana are the hip flexors.

Rectus femoris

I start by focusing on lengthening the most superficial hip flexors, mainly rectus femoris. It’s the only one of our quadriceps that also crosses the hip joint. Tension or shortness in rectus femoris can make it much harder to allow the amount of posterior tilt that we need in the pelvis to do kapotasana. Another way of looking at this is that the tighter the hip flexors are, the harder it will be for your pelvis to move or stay forward relative to your foreleg beneath.

Other hip flexors

Certainly, our other hip flexors need to be open as well. For kapotasana, we need length in our deep hip flexors, iliacus and psoas major. We even need length in the smaller sets of fibers in muscles whose main job is not hip flexion, but who can still offer some resistance to posteriorly tilting the pelvis if they’re tight. Those muscles include tensor fascia latae, the anterior fibers of gluteus medius and minimus, and even the short adductors like pectineus.

The shoulder girdle

The other area of our body that has to be sufficiently open to work with kapotasana is our shoulder girdle. Let’s think of the shoulder girdle more like we just thought about the hip flexors. That is, when we reach our arms over our head, bend our elbows, and use our hands on the floor, our shoulder extensors are now in a position to function just like our hip flexors.

Latissimus dorsi

There are two important muscles to pay attention to here, the latissimus dorsi and the triceps brachii. The latissimus dorsi is important because it is a shoulder joint extensor and internal rotator. This means that a tight latissimus can restrict two things. It can restrict our ability to reach our arms above our head and behind us from the shoulder joint, and it can restrict our ability to externally rotate our shoulder joints. This is the main reason we often see the elbows wanting to point out in kapotasana.

Triceps brachii

This is also where the second muscle, triceps brachii becomes important and impactful. Triceps is a mirror (in its position in kapotasana) to the rectus femoris. (You can learn more about muscles mirroring each other in my book Functional Anatomy of Yoga.) The triceps, like rectus femoris, crosses two joints. One is the ball and socket above (the shoulder joint) and the other is the hinge joint below (the elbow joint). This is important because the position of one of these joints can have an impact on how much tension is at the other.

In this case, as you bend your elbow with your arm above your head, you are asking both ends of the triceps to lengthen. When your arm is above your head and you begin to bend your elbow, notice that the elbow tends to float forward. This is because of the increase in tension at both ends. So, the closer you want to squeeze your elbows in toward each other, the more openness you need in terms of shoulder flexion from the latissimus and the triceps.

Techniques: Preparing for kapotasana

Prepare with other backbends

So much of our typical day is bending forward, sitting at a desk, sitting to drive a car, sitting on the couch, etc. Every time we sit, we shorten our hip flexors by virtue of the position itself. This inherently means that there is likely to be a low level of contraction in these muscles as we sit, which tightens them. This means that when we begin a yoga practice and start doing backbending, we likely have more tension along the front of our body, especially the hip flexors. So, it’s not a great idea or very effective to dive straight into very deep backbends without some preparation.

In the Ashtanga practice (particularly the second series), we work with a sequence of backbends that gradually work deeper before we arrive at kapotasana in the series. A good indication that you’re ready to begin working on kapotasana is that all of those other backbends in the sequence feel fairly comfortable and your breathing is full, steady, and unrestricted. If you’re not an Ashtanga practitioner, start with gentler backbends and give those postures time to do their work (a lot of time). Be patient.

Understanding how to use the feet and lower legs

The first stage of kapotasana in my mind is understanding how the postures that come before it in the Ashtanga intermediate series help you in this posture. So, before we dive into kapotasana, let’s create some context by taking a look at where this pose lives in relation to other backbends in the Ashtanga intermediate series.

Ustrasana is fairly obvious, but when working with students I add one little tip to make sure that the pattern they’ll need for kapotasana is started here. That tip is to press the tops of your feet into the floor as you reach both hands back together. Then reach your hands toward your heels simultaneously, not one and then the other. Finally, maintain the action of your feet and lower legs pressing into the floor to help keep your pelvis forward. This activates the quadriceps muscles.

This same concept is present in laghu vajrasana. Although it may appear to be a backbend, its name doesn’t imply that. It’s a lightning or thunderbolt. That’s not to say that there aren’t more backbendy versions of it that you could do. But, from the point of view of the strength and technique you need in kapotasana, you are better off NOT treating it like a backbend. The action of the feet and lower legs pressing into the floor is used to lower your head to the floor and then to bring you back up. When you press the feet and lower legs into the floor, one thing you are doing is keeping the pelvis forward while hinging at the knee joint. The strength created by this technique leads us to one of the most critical, but often missing parts, as we move into kapotasana.

Working with the stages of kapotasana

Keeping the pelvis forward

The first stage of kapotasana in my mind, is setting up with the pelvis forward. That means as close to over the knees as possible. Then there is the reach up to lengthen the spine. The more length you start with, the more you have to work with as you bend and try to maintain that space in the spine.

My first suggestion would be to use the wall or a piece of furniture. If you’ve developed the strength I suggested in the previous paragraph, then you should be able to lightly touch the wall while keeping your pelvis forward. In fact, you should be able to use the resistance of pressing into the wall to add even more energy to the idea of keeping your pelvis forward. The advantage of the wall is that you can drop your hands back to the wall, then walk down a little at a time as you get more familiar with the pose, so you can deepen it just the right amount for you. It can help give you a felt sense of the pose while also providing some support so you don’t go too deep too soon.

Why do I keep going on about keeping the pelvis forward? The reason is that the lower the pelvis goes or the further back it goes, it also means (when in a backbend) that your shoulders and, therefore, your arms and hands are moving further away from their intended target, your feet. The further forward you can hold your pelvis, the closer your hands will be to your feet when your hands eventually get to the floor.

Ustrasana with the hips held in a forward position

Using the wall

If you’re able to maintain your breath while keeping your hands lightly on the wall, then press into one of them, and walk the other one a little lower. Then press into the lower hand and walk the other hand lower still. Do all of this while both managing your breath and pressing your feet and lower legs into the floor with the help of just one hand so that you can move the other. When you’re ready to come up, it’s okay to use your hands to help, but lead with your feet and lower legs pressing.

The important part about working with kapotasana on the wall is setting yourself up on the wall and then using it in a way that’s beneficial to the long-term arc of your development in this pose. It’s important not to set yourself up too close to the wall. If you’re too close, that shortens the backbend aspect of the pose and can drive pressure into your lower back. It’s also important that you not completely let go of engaging the legs and the connection of your feet and legs to the floor even though you’ve made a connection to the wall with your hands. When you aren’t using the wall anymore, and you drop your hands back to the floor behind you, you need to have learned how to steer your pelvis and engage your legs in order to be able to get back up out of the pose.

Working with kapotasana B

The next step would be to start with kapotasana B. Kapotasana B is the version of this pose with straight arms and palms pressing into the ground. Kapotasana A is the version practitioners are usually working towards with bent elbows and forearms on the ground. Instead of lightly touching your hands to a wall or piece of furniture, take your hands all the way to the floor but without collapsing. With your feet still pressing, your hands touch and help keep the pelvis forward. Now, just like when you were on the wall, press with one hand and both feet and move the other hand. Then repeat with the other hand while pressing your feet and lower legs into the floor to keep the pelvis up and forward while also maintaining your breath. This is hard work and should be done slowly, especially if you are on your own.

Next steps

I sometimes have students start working with this pose by dropping back to my upper legs instead of the wall. I stand behind them, they reach their arms up, and then I help them find that controlled landing just above my knees. This approach approximates the shape of the pose while not taking it too deeply. Additionally, I can use the placement of my legs by moving them either closer or farther away, to help the student get a feel for what they need to find in the pose.

During this process, I can help direct their hands if needed and also get a feel for how much they are controlling their weight and center of gravity from pressing their feet and lower legs as well as how much they’re activating their thighs. Depending on the individual and what their particular work is in kapotasana, I often have to cue students to actively keep their pelvis forward because it tends to shift back as they drop back. That puts their center of gravity too far behind them to get back up. Typically, I also have to remind them to control their breath, as kapotasana significantly challenges most practitioners’ breathing in the initial stages of learning it. If you’re supporting a student as a teacher with this approach, make sure to bend your knees a little to lower your center of gravity, so you can comfortably support their weight.

Dropping back

In the next phase of learning this pose, I’ll have the student walk down my legs. Simultaneously, I’ll offer verbal cues to help them maintain the integrity of the shape, avoid collapsing (which can result in getting stuck and feeling like they can’t get back out of the pose), and remind them to work with their breath. The work at this stage is about keeping students in their legs and the pelvis forward. It’s also about learning how to properly use their arms and hands to get closer to the final shape.

At this point, once they get down to my ankles, I may start to play with slowly sliding or shifting my feet forward. Another tweak I might make here is guiding their hands as they reach back. I might also adjust my feet further in or out depending on the student and whether or not we are deepening the posture. If the student is doing well here, it’s probably time to work with them from the front of the posture as you more typically see.

Walking in to the heels

Finally, if the student is very comfortable with the pose, I can help them deepen it. I would assist them from the front, possibly using my hands to create space and provide support to their lower back as they lower into the pose. Then, I might help them find the connection of their hands to their feet or heels. This stage really is driven by the individual person and their body. I don’t think every practitioner needs to reach their heels. And students have been injured, either by pushing too hard themselves to reach their heels or by a teacher forcing them into that reach. This is a deep posture, no matter which stage you’re working at, but especially in this full-expression version of the pose.

What feels accessible to a student will likely vary from day to day in this pose. So, if you’re supporting a student in deepening kapotasana, stay in communication with them about what they’re experiencing and respect their call when they don’t feel like they’re up to deepening the posture. Do not impose on the student what you do in kapotasana in your own practice or what you feel the student is capable of. The communication between the two of you is not just verbal but also proprioceptive. Be sensitive to any resistance you feel from the student’s body. And be aware of where any pressure you are adding is going in their body. This is a very vulnerable position and you should proceed with caution.

Don’t forget to breathe

Often the breath gets sacrificed in this pose, because like in other backbends, the diaphragm and intercostals along with other smaller secondary breathing muscles are all lengthened at the same time that you are trying to expand them to breathe into them. This can lead to “guppy breathing,” holding the breath, and other non-ideal breathing patterns. While the breath may get a little messy in the process of learning the pose, I think it’s important to keep the breath central as part of the pose that you’re working on along with whatever lengthening and strengthening need to happen.

Cautions

Kapotasana is a deep pose that requires significant mobility in your hip flexors, spine, and shoulder girdle to do a full expression of this pose. If you don’t take the time to distribute the backbend as evenly throughout the spine as possible, you can put too much pressure into the lumbar spine or even the cervical spine. If you push too hard to grab your ankles when you’re not open enough throughout the whole length of your body to put your shoulders in a good place to do this, you can injure your shoulders trying to do some crazy reach toward your heels that isn’t really accessible.

There is no yoga posture where getting stuck in an overly ambitious achievement mindset is a good thing. But, in kapotasana, that perspective has the potential to result in serious injury. It’s critical to move slowly with your breath, and really listen to your body and its variability from day to day when working on this pose.