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Eagle Pose (Garudasana)
Garudasana is a very good pose for improving your balance. It is also a very good pose for stretching your upper back, shoulders and outer thighs.
This pose can also strengthen your legs, knees and ankles with regular practice.
The main things to focus on in this pose are keeping your spine straight and your hips and shoulders facing forward.
The easiest way to help improve your balance in this pose is to focus on a fixed point 4 or 5 feet away and breathing evenly.
A resource for you that is very helpful and I highly recommend is Scientific Keys Vol 1 - The Key Muscles of Hatha Yoga, It is an excellent book that details the muscle and bone alignments for the eagle pose as well as many other postures. It has brought my training to a whole new level. (The ability to visualize what is happening inside the body can really make a lot of the more difficult poses easier to do). They have a free first chapter on the site, I encourage you to check it out.
How to do this pose .
1. Begin in Mountain Pose or Tadasana. To see a description of this pose it is the first one in the Sun Salutation
2. Inhale as you raise your arms to the sides to Shoulder height with your palms facing up. Arms and shoulders should be relaxed.
3. Cross your left arm over your right so your elbows are on top of each other.
4. Bend your elbows and wrap your forearms around each other until your palms are touching. Fingers should be pointed to the ceiling
5. Bend your knees a little and then shift your weight to the left leg.
6. Cross your right leg over your left leg just above the left knee.
7. Now move you right foot behind your left leg and hook your foot over your left calf muscle.
8. Point the crown of your head towards the ceiling and look straight ahead with your eyes and face relaxed
9. Hold for 30 seconds to 3 minutes then return to mountain pose.
10. Repeat for the other side.
This pose is good to help stretch the shoulders and upper back. Also is good to help strengthen the knees, I have a big problem with my left knee (dislocated 2times and 1 major surgery) so this is a good pose for me....
If you have weak knees or problems with your knees take this pose slowly and concentrate on good form. If for any reason you have ANY pain in you knee from the pose back off and adjust and continue (slowly until there is no pain)...do not force anything with your knees. I wish you all the best and do not forget to sign up for our RSS feed to the left to be notified of new pages as they come.
