If you want to get into Astavakrasana or Eight-Angle Pose you will likely want to prep through lizard lunge. This is being explained from the perspective of a male and all bodies are different but most of the anatomy will make sense to experienced yogis looking to do eight angle pose or even side crow.
We must first understand what body parts are important for lizard lunge. When getting into lizard lunge from downward dog, it is imperative to have one’s alignment correct. If you are someone who struggles getting their leg straight through three legged dog, it would be advisable to master that before getting into shoulder or arm balancing poses. If your alignment is correct and you step your right leg outside your right shoulder you should feel the foot flat on the ground. For me, I had to work very hard to get the outside of my foot to lift up. You may want to feel the outside ball of your right foot lifting up to align the knee.
To align the shins we will work through the knee. For me, I need to work to push through the outside of the back of my right knee to straighten out my shin toward the front of the room or mirror. By pushing through the right side of the back of my right knee I can then feel my glute naturally want to open. As someone that does a lot of restore yoga and holds poses to get the feel, this is a great spot to press up through the right side of the right foot. Press into the right side of the back side of the right knee and allow the glute to press the upper leg open which will feel like the quadricep is opening to the right side of the room.
At this point, those that are truly flexible will be able to swing open their right knee with a rhythmic and fluid motion. Depending on your flexibility, allow the knee to fall wherever is comfortable. W will now want to focus in on the back leg. The shoelace side of the foot should be flat on the mat. If you have your alignment correct, you should be able to press into the shoe lace side of the foot and lift the shin off the mat. By pressing into the shoe lace side of the left foot, pressing/lifting the outside of the right foot up, and pressing the back side of the right knee towards the front of the room, you have now braced yourself to move your upper body however you like.
At this point, it is important to mention that those with tight glutes really need to hold this position to allow the glutes to relax. Tight glutes are going to make it hard to allow the upper body and chest to work their way towards the ground.
With the lower body braced, soften the glutes and lower back. By doing this, the upper body will naturally allow gravity to take it towards the earth. With the strength of the legs braced, the upper body will fall gently to the inside of the right knee. As you get more and more flexible and gain strength in the legs, you will find that you can lower the chest closer to the ground. With the chest below the right knee, you can reach your right arm under the right foot and prepare for Eight-Angle pose.
Something I plan on working on over the next few weeks is more flexibility in my chest and shoulders so I can open my chest wider while my right arm is under my right leg. As I progress deeper into this pose and go through the journey of flexibility and strength I will update this page with the ways you can improve your lizard lunge. I will have a lot to say about runner’s lunge in a future post.
When I put my right shoulder under my right leg I can only get it to the inside of my right knee. I need to focus on the outside of my right foot lifting up. If I reach around and gently place my right hand on top of my right foot, it helps my brain realize that lifting up the outside of the right foot and pressing into the back of the right side of the right knee will open my glute even more. I am going to have to spend several restore sessions focusing on this pose for 3-5 minutes at a time to allow my body to relax so I can get my right shoulder under my right knee. I also noticed that my left glute was super tight. I am going to have to spend some time focusing on the left or back leg to get it to soften as I get deeper into the pose.
Meditation stretch – during my meditations today I used a strap around my right foot while laying flat on the bed. The first time I did it was this morning and it hurt like hell. I started with my right leg and my right hip had so much scar tissue that I have never even felt my right glute. With the 10 minute Daily Calm it was too much. Rarely do I give up on a stretch before the 10 minutes is up, but it was too much. Once I gave in and stopped my lower leg felt so relaxed. Like it never has before. My right glute has never actually supported my right lower leg so it wasn’t able to relax. Boom! I wasn’t able to do it completely during my left leg either.
During my nighttime meditation session I started with the left leg and it was immediately much, much easier. Note that I had gotten back from a slow flow yoga class so that likely loosened things up a bit as well. I was also able to grab the strap with my left hand and pull my leg straight back. Note that pulling down with the outside of the left foot and pressing the outside of the left knee away from the body opens up the glute and allows the swinging motion of the leg to be much more fluid. It actually started to feel really good during my nighttime meditation sessions. I was able to actually feel my left glute open to the left for the first time ever in my life. This is going to be a game changer for so many yoga poses.
UPDATE: January 13th, 2024 – I have remained committed to using my strap while lying flat on the floor. After doing this for a number of meditation sessions I have noticed my glute can no rotate my leg out. There is still some work to be done and some scar tissue to break up but I can definitely feel my glute gaining flexibility and strength. Something else I noticed is that when I rotate my leg with a strap on my foot I am starting to feel my center of gravity actually move. In the past, my center of gravity never moved because I was so tense and tight. Control freaks like me don’t want to let go and allow their center of gravity to move.
I haven’t really practiced lizard lunge or flying lizard that much as I have been focusing on other things in my yoga practice. I am traveling a lot over the next few weeks so my shoulder getting under my leg in lizard lunge will have to wait until the end of January. The time away and not focusing on all the nooks and crannies will be good for my brain and body.
January 7th, 2024 – Today was a full day of yoga and fitness as I started the day with an isolation focused leg workout followed by a restore yoga, then a trip to the golf range followed by another hour of restore yoga. During the second yoga class I really started to feel my glutes finally relax which allowed my hamstrings to stretch. My quads started to open and for the first time ever I could release tension in my upper legs. This was very evident during supported bridge. By pressing up with the outsides of my feet flexed and through the outside of my hamstrings I could really feel my quads stretch out and take over. This is what allowed my glutes to finally relax.
I started the process of working on flying lizard lunge. It is going to take some time to understand the balancing on my tricep. I know my triceps are strong enough, I simply have to contort my body so the weight is on my arm that is braced against the floor. It is a very cool feeling when I can lift the back leg up. I will likely start a new page discussing flying lizard lunge solely.
Meditation stretch – I committed to using my strap on each leg while lying during both the morning and the evening meditation sessions. The evening was fascinating as my left leg really needed stretch work on the outside of my upper hamstrings. It was extremely painful, well, uncomfortable, but after I go through it I could hold my leg straight up without the support of the strap at all. My right leg was much more flexible so I started to work on using the strap to pull my foot toward my armpit while keeping my leg straight. It was really a fascinating day for my flexibility and strength in my legs.
January 6th, 2024 – Somewhat related, working on my fire log pose for so long has allowed me to create tremendous flexibility in my “rubber band knees”. By having flexible knees, I didn’t need flexible hips, glutes or hamstrings to get my knees lower in double pigeon or fire log pose. Now that I am working to successfully get into Eight Angle pose, I have had to do a lot of work on my hamstrings and glutes. The external rotation of my hips was non existent until recently but I am making great progress now.
Meditation stretch – Today, for the first time, I could lay flat on my bed and put one leg straight up in the arm with the other leg lying flat without pain or significant resistance. So much so that I could wrap the strap around the ball of my foot and it would dangle without me holding on to it. Now that I have this new found space, I can externally rotate my hip which gives me the accessibility to open my leg out to the side and down to towards the floor with my glute. My biggest issue was the lack of flexibility in the muscles connecting the front of my foot all the way up to my knee. Those muscles have always internally rotated making my hips super tight and narrow.
During both legs of 10 minute meditation I felt completely comfortable and actually started to play a little bit with the pulling of my foot towards my shoulder with the strap. If I straighten my leg completely, there is still discomfort in the outside of my shin and the outside of the back of my leg. This is because of the past internal rotation I did with all the sprinting, weight lifting and every day life.