This is a short focus on camel pose that will allow you to go into camel more
completely and more deeply and certainly more comfortably. We want to begin to
activate some areas that often get overlooked,
so we'll start just by looking at the the back. So Becca's gonna turn
around and this area here is really what sometimes gets forgotten in camel pose.
We lift but we don't strengthen and this is the area you want to strengthen right
here there's deep rhomboid muscles here there's muscles along the spine here and
then there's more surface muscles the trapezius that go down across and up. So
if you would bring your hands behind you and have the fingers point towards the
buttocks and the and the thumbs away when we begin to activate right here you
can see she's already activating here. The other thing that gets overlooked is
the arms. A camel has four legs and often when we do camel the arms just get
floppy and we fall into them. If you slide your hands back away they're not
really going to go anywhere but you will activate here and here in the triceps. So
that you don't collapse in your arms when you're doing camel so you've got
this activation you've gotten this activation. Now release and go ahead and
turn sideways so that they can see you from the side. The other place that often
is a problem is your neck. So what we want to do is make sure there's no
collapse on the neck. Two things we have to do is lengthen the back as we
strengthen it and certainly strengthen the front of the throat area. So we'll
start, just bring your hands behind your head, lift your head up as if you were
lifting the skull away from the shoulders so you get this nice length
right through here. Then, with the fingers on the back of your head
press straight back, not lifting the chin, not bowing the chin-
straight back so you have a resistance stretch in the back of your neck,
activating the muscles there and then release. And now take one of your fists
and place it in the middle of your forehead. Keep the neck long and press
your head into the fist so that you can see these muscles right here now are
activated right across the front. You can probably feel it too, and then release. Go
back to the back of your head. Lift up again. Do the resistance stretch. Press
straight back into your fingers. Release and use your other fist and now in the
front of your forehead, the front center of your forehead. Press. Watch these
muscles feel, experience these muscles, engage and strengthen there. And
then release. Take a moment now you've activated all of this area that's really
important for camel pose. Now come up onto your knees and you can put
something underneath your knees to make it a little bit kinder to your knees.
Tuck the toes under and then use your fingers to hook the heels so if you take
your arms over the head. You can do that but you want your index finger and your
middle finger to hook the heels and then slide them back so that you're
lengthening here, but the real thing you're doing is strengthening here,
activating this the muscles behind the heart.And then find the best place for
your head without letting it collapse. So you want to take it up and up, just like
you learned by strengthening around here. and see how beautiful that camel pose is.
So triceps are activated, back of the hearts activated. The neck and the throat
are active but not gripping and then when you're ready release. So practice
this a few times and see if it doesn't help your camel out. Thank you.