I love your instruction, very easy to understand. I have a question. What is your opinion on the name for pigeon pose when it’s not the full expression? I am taking a course, where the instructor says it’s really swan pose or sleeping swan because the sanskrit name Eka Pada Rajakapotansana indicates the full pose and in most classes we will only ever do the pigeon like you describe in the video? Help.
Hi Danalee! Great question. It’s confusing! “Swan” and “sleeping swan” are yin terms that Paul Grilley made up to describe the restin version of this pose. Your teacher is on the right track and I love that she is making a distinction between the more restorative/outer hip stretching version of the pose (“swan”), and the active backbending/hip flexor opening version of the pose “eka pada rajakapotasana”. For what it’s worth, I approve the distinction! We’ve been creating so many new asana over the last 20 years that the names aren’t as written in stone. Just for fun, I went to “Light On Yoga,” which I consider to be the bible of the old school hatha yoga tersm (BKS Iyengar). According to Iyengar, eka pada rajakapotasana 1 would be pigeon sitting upright with the back leg extended; eka pada rajakapotasana 2-4 is when you do variations with a quad stretch in the back leg (still upright). Although he’s got lots of hip openers in there, he doesn’t do a pigeon with a forward fold, so I suspect its a newer invention. Moral of the story? Call them what you want, as long as you’re clear why they are different poses in terms of intent and action 🙂
Thank you Rachel on the depth of your answer and getting back so quickly, wow.
Also wanted to say, love your demonstration of the knee hinge with the blocks in pigeon pose.
4 Comments
I love your instruction, very easy to understand. I have a question. What is your opinion on the name for pigeon pose when it’s not the full expression? I am taking a course, where the instructor says it’s really swan pose or sleeping swan because the sanskrit name Eka Pada Rajakapotansana indicates the full pose and in most classes we will only ever do the pigeon like you describe in the video? Help.
Hi Danalee! Great question. It’s confusing! “Swan” and “sleeping swan” are yin terms that Paul Grilley made up to describe the restin version of this pose. Your teacher is on the right track and I love that she is making a distinction between the more restorative/outer hip stretching version of the pose (“swan”), and the active backbending/hip flexor opening version of the pose “eka pada rajakapotasana”. For what it’s worth, I approve the distinction! We’ve been creating so many new asana over the last 20 years that the names aren’t as written in stone. Just for fun, I went to “Light On Yoga,” which I consider to be the bible of the old school hatha yoga tersm (BKS Iyengar). According to Iyengar, eka pada rajakapotasana 1 would be pigeon sitting upright with the back leg extended; eka pada rajakapotasana 2-4 is when you do variations with a quad stretch in the back leg (still upright). Although he’s got lots of hip openers in there, he doesn’t do a pigeon with a forward fold, so I suspect its a newer invention. Moral of the story? Call them what you want, as long as you’re clear why they are different poses in terms of intent and action 🙂
Thank you Rachel on the depth of your answer and getting back so quickly, wow.
Also wanted to say, love your demonstration of the knee hinge with the blocks in pigeon pose.
🙂