Yoga bolsters aren’t just for beginners! Here are 3 unique ways to use a yoga bolster to enhance your yoga practice…
Yoga blocks and straps are probably the most common yoga props (besides a yoga mat, of course), but a bolster can also come in handy. You may have seen a yoga bolster used (or even used one yourself) in class to support your legs during Savasana, but what else can you do with a yoga bolster?
Yoga bolsters are often used as support for restorative poses, but they can also provide some interesting ways to challenge your body and mind and add something new to your yoga practice. For example, you can use a bolster to challenge your core strength, or improve coordination and balance, as demonstrated in the suggestions below.
Here are 3 interesting ways to use a yoga bolster to further your practice:
Set your bolster up parallel to the long edge of your yoga mat and lie down with it under your spine. Make sure you are supported from your sacrum to the back of your head; if your torso is longer than your bolster, find a yoga block or cushion to support your head.
Engage the muscles around your core, visualizing movement in two directions: drawing in around your waist and lengthening from your crown to your tail. Make sure you aren’t gripping or clenching your abdominals; you should still be able to feel your breath moving freely in your ribcage.
Keep that gentle core support and float your arms above your shoulders, as if reaching for the ceiling. Then, lift one foot off the floor to stack your bent knee above your hip. Keep firming in around your waist to steady yourself on your bolster and lift your opposite foot, stacking both knees above your hips in a supine tabletop position with your knees bent and shins parallel to the floor.
Take a smooth breath in. On your exhalation, slowly extend your left leg out straight, lowering it down toward hip height, and simultaneously reach your right arm overhead, lowering it toward shoulder height. Then, use the length of your inhalation to return to supine tabletop. As you exhale, extend your right leg and and left arm, and on an inhalation, return to your starting position. Continue to move from side to side with the steady pace of your breathing, keeping your face and neck relaxed.
Notice the coordination between your upper and lower body, and between your left and right sides, feeling how that allows you to compensate for the lack of stability in your base.After 10 rounds on each side, return to supine tabletop position. Keep drawing in around your waist for support as you set your feet back down onto the floor. Slowly roll off your bolster, lying on one side for a moment or two before pressing up to stand.
If we set aside the difficulty of balancing on one foot, the key challenge of Warrior III is the proprioception required to square your hips to the floor and create a long, straight line through your torso. So in this variation, rather than balancing on your bolster as you’ve done previously, you’ll use its tactile feedback to help you fine-tune your position.
Come to stand on your mat, holding your bolster. Swing your bolster behind you so that it runs down your spine from your upper back to your sacrum. For now, hold your bolster in place with one or both hands.
Then, shift your weight into your left foot, spreading your toes, lifting your arch, and engaging your ankle… Slide your right foot behind you and tilt your torso forward, finding a strong, straight line from your head to your right toes. Retain that plumb line as you slowly hinge from your left hip, keeping your hips level.
As your torso lowers toward parallel with your mat, you’ll find a point where you’re able to release your bolster and bring your arms down by your sides. If your hips tilt, you’ll feel your bolster start to roll away from the midline of your spine; if you lose the straight line from your crown to your sacrum, you’ll feel the bolster’s center of balance shift from one end toward the other. Maintain a balanced and centered position for the bolster, using its unfamiliar weight to heighten the sensations in your back body so that you can maintain straight lines from crown to toes, and across the back of your pelvis.
Hold this pose for 8 or more breaths before reaching back to catch hold of your bolster. Then, return to your starting position to repeat on the other side.
Kneeling on your bolster not only makes your balancing surface less steady, it also increases the difficulty of the pose by providing a much narrower base for your support hand and knee. This kneeling balance is more challenging than it looks…
Set your bolster up parallel to the long edge of your mat and come to all fours on top of it. Your wrists might feel more comfortable if you turn your hands out slightly, allowing your fingers to curl toward the sloping sides of your bolster.
Take a moment to accustom yourself to the soft, narrow base of the bolster, then find the now-familiar sensation of drawing in around your waist to lengthen your midline. Keep that sensation as you press down into your hands and knees, finding a corresponding lift in your torso.
Extend your left leg back behind you, reaching all the way back to your toes and keeping your hips steady as you just practiced in Warrior III. Slowly reach your right arm forward so that your bicep is by your ear. Feel yourself poised in the center of opposing energies: cinching your waist as you lengthen from your fingertips to toes, rooting down through your support hand and knee to create buoyancy in your hips and ribcage. Soften the sides of your neck and steady your breathing, using the challenge of maintaining your balance to heighten your awareness of your entire body.
After 5 or more slow and steady breaths, slowly release your right hand and left knee back down to your bolster. Pause for a breath before moving to the second side.
