How To Do Pigeon Pose

By: Chris Freytag, CPT

Pigeon Pose is a deep stretch for your hips and inner thighs. Anyone who is familiar with yoga will tell you to learn how to do Pigeon Pose, as it has become a favorite for most yogis. Pigeon Pose is one of the most commonly practiced poses in most yoga classes or workouts. People love to find positions like pigeon that focus on opening up the hips because the hip area is tight on most people whether they are active or inactive.

The depth of your Pigeon Pose will be determined by two things. The first is how far you are able to pull your leg forward. At first you may struggle with this. Many people have to use their hand to pull the foot forward at all! However, over time as your hip loosens up this will come a bit easier. The second thing that determines how deep your Pigeon Pose will be is how much weight you put in your arms. If you feel extremely tight and unable to breathe smoothly, put more weight in your arms to keep it from settling on the hip area. As you get more comfortable you can rest more of your weight onto the hip on which you are sitting.

Finally, if you have had knee injuries or surgery you may want to flip over onto your back and pull your knee and foot toward your chest. This allows for the same hip stretch without putting weight on your knee joint. Pigeon is an awesome pose!

These are the steps to help you learn How to Do Pigeon Pose.

1) Begin in a plank position. Tighten your abdominals and pull your right knee toward your right hand placing your right foot as close to your left hand as you can.

2) Keep your back leg long and keep your hips even as you relax your weight through the middle of your hips.

3) Breathe and hold for 30 seconds. Step back into plank and switch sides.

Try these fun pigeon pose variations to switch things up!

[adthrive-in-post-video-player video-id=”bd2Ug74I” upload-date=”2019-06-12T19:09:53.000Z” name=”Pigeon Pose Sequence” description=”Pigeon Pose is one of the most commonly practiced poses in most yoga classes or workouts. Try this series going through pigeon pose.”]