Wheel Pose: Opening to Fear & Freedom – A Yoga Journal Guide
Published 01:37PM
Wheel Pose, also known as Upward-Facing Bow Pose (Urdhva Dhanurasana), is a challenging backbend that extends beyond the physical. Achieving this pose requires confronting deeply held fears and tension within the nervous system, ultimately revealing the true limitations to openness.
The process of opening oneself to pain, denial, and repression is directly linked to releasing tension deep within the nervous system. At the core of the body, in the solar plexus, lies what Geeta Iyengar describes as the “center of the fear complex.” This manifests physically as a knotting sensation in the stomach and intestines during times of anxiety and fear.
Wheel Pose and Opening Up
As we attempt to physically open this area, we must also confront the underlying sources of our fear. This kind of opening, essential for achieving full freedom in Wheel Pose, is an ongoing process that extends into all aspects of life. The practice of the asana uniquely contributes to this process by honoring the wisdom of the physical body and allowing a tangible connection to the unfolding of consciousness as it manifests within the nervous system. Specifically, this unfolding must occur within the fear complex and along the center of the spine.
How To Practice Wheel
Wheel Pose is considered an intermediate-level pose and is not generally recommended for beginners. Developing the necessary openness and awareness in the shoulders and upper body can be achieved through consistent practice of Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana). Hip and groin openness can be cultivated through standing poses and simple groin openers, while lengthening the spine is best learned in Mountain Pose (Tadasana), inversions, and beginning backbends like Upward-Facing Dog (Urdhva Mukha Svanasana).
Once sufficient strength and flexibility in the armpits and groins have been attained, the pose can be attempted. Begin by lying on your back with knees bent and feet placed hip-width apart, or slightly turned inwards. Place your hands on the floor just below your shoulders, fingers pointing towards your feet, with elbows shoulder-width apart. Individuals with limited flexibility should widen the distance between their hands and feet to lessen the intensity of the arch.
Activate the pelvis and legs, extending the buttocks and coccyx towards the heels, and lift the pelvis off the floor. Stabilize the hands and elbows, and use the shoulder blades to lift the chest until the top of the head rests on the floor. Pause for a breath or two.
Then, pressing strongly and evenly into the legs and arms, lift the pelvis, rib cage, and spine into the completed position. The leg muscles should be actively engaged to lift the pelvis, rather than pushing the weight onto the arms. To reduce compression in the lower back, lift the heels, widen the sacrum, and lift the outer pelvis. Maintain this height and width as you lower the heels.
To come down, slowly relax the muscles to release the body to the floor, keeping the lumbar and cervical spine lengthening. Rest for several breaths and repeat five to ten times. Initially, hold the pose for only one or two breaths, gradually increasing the duration as the body warms up. Discontinue if pain occurs and cannot be alleviated through adjustments.
Many individuals experience restricted mobility, making the full expression of the pose painful or impossible. To address shoulder tightness, elevate the hands onto blocks. For tightness in the groins and pelvis, elevate the feet on a chair. Elevating the feet also reduces strain in the lumbar region, allowing for proper engagement of the coccyx, buttocks, and groins.
To lighten the load on the arms, keep the pelvis close to the chair when pressing up from the floor. As you lift, move the pelvis, coccyx, and torso toward the chair, lifting the weight vertically with the legs and buttocks. Avoid pushing the pelvis away from the chair, as this shifts the weight onto the arms.
Tight groins can limit the opening of the anterior spine. To correct this, place a block between the thighs to keep the adductors engaged and rolled towards the floor, maintaining extension of the anterior spine and grounding action of the buttocks, coccyx, and heels.
In the completed position, the arms and legs should gradually move towards vertical, with maximal extension in the armpits and groins. The center spine can only begin to open when the arms feel connected to the lower torso and the legs to the upper torso. A rounded, dome-like shape should begin to appear as the diaphragm releases.
Refining and Deepening Wheel Pose
In backbends, there is a tendency to overwork the areas of the spine naturally curved inward (lumbar and cervical) while avoiding opening the areas with natural outward curves (thoracic and sacrococcygeal). One area to examine in Wheel Pose is the sacrolumbar spine, where the lower back meets the sacrum.
The postural prana should flow up the front of the spine and down the back. However, weakness in the gluteus maximus and hamstrings often prevents the posterior sacrum and coccyx from maintaining a downward movement. Simultaneously, tight front groins and iliopsoas muscles restrict the upward release of the anterior spine. This results in a tight and closed pelvic spine, overarched lumbar spine, hardened back muscles, and pain rather than openness.
To address this, the gluteus maximus, hamstrings, and legs must work strongly to widen and elongate the posterior sacral-coccyx region, extending it towards the heel bones. The groin and anterior spinal muscles must release and lengthen upwards, allowing for even distribution of the back-bending curve along the vertebrae.
Another challenging area is the cervical-thoracic junction, where the neck meets the upper back. The cervical spine tends to overarch while the thoracic spine remains tight. To correct this, the shoulder girdle and arms must contribute to the correct action. In Wheel Pose, full extension of the arms begins from the shoulder girdle (collarbones and shoulder blades). The inner shoulder blades must release away from the neck and stabilize by pressing firmly into the back ribs. The collarbones should widen away from the sternum, and the arms should extend into the ground from the achromioclavicular joint.
When the arms are stable and grounded, the rib cage can lift away from the shoulders, allowing the upper vertebrae to release and extend, safely opening the cervical region.
Building the Dome
The thoracolumbar junction, located in the center spine and fear complex, is particularly difficult to access. The diaphragm, attaching at the center spine, carries psychological baggage in the form of physical tension.
To open this region and build the dome, several simultaneous actions must occur. The posterior erector muscles in the mid-spine must continue the downward action, receiving movement from the shoulder blades and upper body and feeding it into the coccyx and heels. The upward release of the psoas on the anterior vertebrae must continue from the inner groins and pelvis, through the upper lumbar and lower thoracic spine, and into the arms. The diaphragm must move downward towards the pelvis with each inhalation, and the pelvic floor must breathe in synchrony with it.
Releasing the diaphragm from its tension allows the vertebrae in the lumbar-thoracic junction to release and breathe, soothing the nerves emerging from them and awakening deeper areas. As this happens, deeply held fear and tension will inevitably be released. Supported abdominal opening positions, such as Reclining Bound Angle Pose (Supta Baddha Konasana) or Reclining Hero Pose (Supta Virasana), can provide support and allow these deeper fears to surface more slowly.
The energy released in the asana can be used to further examine one’s own consciousness. It is important to integrate this practice with self-awareness and self-analysis to transform blockages into constructive growth.