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April 15, 2015 | by Masumi Goldman
The Secret to Overhand Grip Poses (That You Aren’t Considering)

It’s no secret that flexibility across the chest and shoulders is a requirement if you want to master the overhand grip that you see in the full expression of King Dancer Pose, Bow Pose or One-Legged King Pigeon Pose. Heart openers and shoulder openers will certainly open the door to the possibility of overhand grip poses, and we highly encourage you to incorporate these amazing stretches into your daily practice.OverhandGripSecret

What you might not realize, however, is that the chest and shoulders are not the only body parts that need love and attention in order to progress and ultimately grab your foot with an overhand grip.

I practiced chest and shoulder openers for quite a while without any noticeable change in my quest for the overhand grip. My foot felt miles away, and I couldn’t imagine how I would ever be able to reach it. It wasn’t until I saw a photo of myself in Pigeon Pose a couple of years ago that it all clicked.

My shoulder/chest flexibility was just fine—I had been practicing heart openers diligently for months.  That wasn’t the problem at all. It was my tight psoas muscles (the primary connectors between the torso and the leg) that were preventing me from grabbing my foot. Once I had a reasonable amount of chest and shoulder flexibility, the secret to being able to grab my foot with an overhand grip was in the psoas muscles.

Let me illustrate my point. Photo A represents what my form looked like a couple of years ago in pigeon pose. You’ll notice that my torso is angled forward, even though this is my best attempt at sitting upright. Photo B represents my form in pigeon pose today. Can you see the difference? In photo B, my torso is nearly perpendicular to the mat. I was unable to sit with my torso upright like this a couple of years ago because my psoas muscles were so tight.PigeonPrep

Just by stretching my psoas muscles each day, my hand inched closer and closer to my foot over time. Take a look at the two photos below. In the top photo, I am illustrating a pigeon pose variation with tight psoas muscles. I am reaching back with an overhand grip, but my foot is quite a distance away because I am angled forward. In the bottom photo, my torso is upright because my psoas muscles are nice and loose. Not only am I sitting upright, but I am able to draw my foot in toward my body so that my shin is perpendicular to the mat. This was not possible with my very tight hip flexors.TightvsLoosePsoas

The secret to my progress in this pose had everything to do with the muscle group that I was NOT considering. I was focused solely on creating space in my chest and shoulders and never thought about my hip flexors. If you have reached a standstill in your overhand grip journey, maybe it’s time to show your psoas muscles some love!

In addition to sitting upright in pigeon pose, here are 4 other stretches that will help you loosen up these stubborn hip flexor muscles.

IntenseStretch
Anjaneyasana
Camel

HighLunge

20 Comments
  • Thank you! The very useful article for my practice!

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  • This is extremely helpful as I have weak knees and didn’t realise how much focus I was also directing to the incorrect muscle group.
    Keep up th great Advice.

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    • I’m sure you’re not focusing on an incorrect muscle group! If you’ve been focusing on chest and shoulders, you’re doing just fine! The hip flexors just happen to be the poor set of muscles that get ignored. Give them a little love, and you’ll see progress.

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  • This is so good!!! Thank you so much!!!

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  • Than you! This slowed me down and brought me back to remembering my body as a whole.

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  • Fabulous! Thank you so much!!

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  • GREAT suggestions! It totally makes sense now :)

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  • Thank you for the article and the pics! Now I am going to search your blog for some shoulder opening to help me get this grip! My hip is good, but my shoulders need help. Thanks for the inspiration.

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    • Check out the link in the first paragraph of this article! I link directly to some great chest/shoulder openers. Thanks for reading.

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  • Colleen Sullivan

    Thank you for the insight! You have inspired me to take pictures of the poses that I am having trouble with to see what I might learn that way. :-)

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  • Thanks so much for the tips – I’ve been on the quest for a flipped grip for a while! Can’t wait to add your suggestions to my practice and see some progress!!

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  • Thank you!! This article is so helpful to me and my very tight hips and psoas
    namaste

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  • Thank you so much for the breakdown and clearly showing the differences in half pigeon photos. It’s so inspirational to learn you were able to improve things you struggled with (and helps us know you are human!) This was very helpful :) Namaste

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  • My psoas has been tight and painful for a while, so I have been working on them. This was a good reminder, though, how important they are in most backbends:-)
    I love to follow you in Instagram, how you share your strengths and vulnerabilities. Love to you and your family:)

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  • Thank- you so much for sharing this insight Masumi, it is the first article I have been able to find on the subject and is a real “lightbulb” moment for me.

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  • Such great information, I am excited to add some focus to these muscles and see how it helps me!! Thank you!

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