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.
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.
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.
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.
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