Dragon Pose (Yin shape)

Pronunciation and meaning

Yin shape: Said just as it is written in English. Dragon is a Yin yoga name and has no classical Sanskrit name of its own.

Dragon is the name Yin yoga gives to a long-held low lunge. It looks like the Low Lunge of a Vinyasa class, but you stay for minutes with the legs soft, letting the hips sink rather than holding yourself up.

How to do Dragon Pose

1. Come to hands and knees with a folded blanket under your knees and a block beside each hand.
2. Step your right foot forward between your hands, with the heel roughly under the right knee.
3. Slide your left knee back until you feel a stretch at the front of the left hip, then untuck the back toes so the top of the foot rests on the mat.
4. Rest your hands on the blocks or on the front thigh, and let your hips sink toward the floor as far as is comfortable.
5. Stay for two to four minutes with the legs and belly relaxed. If the stretch grows too strong, lift the hips a little.
6. To come out, bring your hands to the floor, step back to hands and knees, and pause before the second side.

Make it easier

• Double the blanket under the back knee if the kneecap is sensitive.
• If the back knee cannot take any weight, stand in a short lunge with the back heel lifted and your hands on a chair, and hold for less time.

Pregnancy and after birth

Pregnancy. Adapt. Keep the stretch mild, because the joints can feel looser in pregnancy and it is easy to go further than you mean to. Take the front foot out toward the edge of the mat so the belly has room, keep the hands on high blocks and the chest upright, and leave it out if you feel pain at the front of the pelvis. Check with your OB or midwife before you start.

After birth. Adapt. Wait until your OB or midwife has cleared you to exercise. Begin with a short hold and a higher lunge, and leave the pose out if you have pain at the pubic bone or the stretch pulls on a caesarean scar.

Prenatal and postpartum guides live on joahnnalee.com.

Common mistakes

• Letting the front knee travel far past the ankle. Walk the front foot farther forward until the shin is roughly upright.
• Gripping the thighs and belly to hold the lunge up. In a Yin hold the muscles rest; if they cannot, come higher.
• Staying through sharp or electric sensation in the knee or groin. A strong stretch is fine; pain in a joint means come out.

Dragon is one of the most familiar shapes in a Yin yoga practice. It is a patient pose: long, quiet, and more about staying than about going deeper.

In Yin yoga the hold is shaped around your hips and knees, with a blanket and blocks ready before you settle in. Outside Yin, the same lunge is the base of gentler hip flexor stretches for desk days, and it is one of the two shapes in an eight-week plan towards the splits.

In a Vinyasa class the same shape is held with working legs as Low Lunge, Anjaneyasana, for a few breaths rather than minutes.

The active cousin with the foot stepped outside the hand is Lizard Pose, Utthan Pristhasana. Another long Yin hold, for the fronts of the thighs, is Saddle Pose, a reclined kneeling backbend.