How to Prep for Hanumanasana, Monkey Pose or Splits
You don’t have to be incredibly flexible in order to practice hanumanasana or monkey pose. Like most yoga postures, Hanumanasa should be approached from a space of active mobility, using isometric engagements to protect the longevity of your joints. This means you need a healthy balance of strength and flexibility. The following postures will help you prepare your body and mind for hanumanasana, commonly known as “the splits.”
Hanumanasana Prep
When warming up for hanumanasana or splits, you want to target your hips, hamstrings, and quadriceps. Specifically, placing focus on your psoas muscles. The psoas is a key muscle in your hip flexor group and needs to be mobile in order to enter deep postures such as splits. Here are five yoga postures that target these spaces, and mimic the engagements needed to move into the splits.
Anjaneyasana + Side Bend
Anjaneyasana is a perfect preparatory pose that targets the front of your hip and quadriceps. Adding a side bend to this pose provides a deeper stretch of your psoas muscles.
How To
From standing, step back into a lunge with your left leg. Lower your left knee, and shift forward off your kneecap. Lift your arms towards the sky aligning your shoulders and ribs over your hips. Grab your left wrist and side bend over to the right. Repeat on your left side when you’re done.
Half Hanumanasana
Half splits is the perfect preparation for a full hanumanasana. Not only does it target your hamstrings, but it’s also a great pose to work on alignment.
How To
From your low lunge (anjaneyasana), plant your palms on either side of your front foot, walk your hands back and straighten your front leg. Stay active in your front foot and quadriceps, make sure your foot and ankle are straight. Maintain a neutral engagement in your front hip by keeping your toes flexed straight up towards the sky. Having your toes flexed towards the sky will help you activate your quadriceps to support the opening in your hamstrings. Keep your hips square and shoulders relaxed.
Dragon Pose + Twist
Dragon pose is a yin style posture which is perfect for finding softness and ease.
How To
From your low lunge, heel-toe your front foot towards the outer edge of your mat. Bring your heel in and toes out. Your toes and knee should be facing the same direction. You can stay lifted on your palms, or you can lower down to forearms or blocks. To twist, take your inside hand to your knee and gently press open. If it’s comfortable, you can bend your back knee and grab your foot to help open your quadriceps.
Pigeon pose
Pigeon pose works your hips and glute muscles. If you are tight in our outer hips, it can make finding a neutral rotation in splits very challenging. Practicing pigeon will help with your alignment in splits and soften your psoas.
How to
From downward face dog, bring your right leg into your chest. Then, lower your right knee behind your right wrist as you rest your front leg on your mat. If you’re seeking more of a challenge, you can take your shin parallel to the top of your mat. With your shin parallel, it’s important to flex your foot in order to protect your knee joint.
Wide-legged forward fold
A seated wide-legged forward fold is the perfect prep for splits. When you take this seated, you can focus on activating your quadriceps to maintain a neutral position in your hip joint. A seated wide-legged forward fold also opens your hamstrings and low back for an easier transition into splits.
How to
From a seat, take your legs out wide. Don’t overdo it here, you should still be able to sit up comfortably. Stay active in your feet and quadriceps, as you walk yourself forward and down. Maintain length through your side body to ensure you’re not rounding your spine. As you fold take note of your feet. Do your best to keep your toes drawing straight up to the sky. This will help build the muscle memory needed to keep a neutral engagement in your splits.
Hanumanasana or Splits
once you’re fully warmed up, you’re ready to move into hanumanasana or the splits! The easiest way to enter hanumanasana is to start in a half split position. From half splits, curl your back toes under, lift your knee and move it back an inch or two. Then, slowly start to inch your front foot forward. Continue these adjustments until you’ve found your edge, or the end range of your active mobility. If you start to lose the engagement in your quadriceps, back out of the pose and readjust. Focus on using your strength to access your mobility. You place blocks under your hands to make the transition easier. Work slowly, taking a few rounds of breath with every adjustment, only move forward if you feel ready to do so.
Keep in mind as you work on your splits that postures, such as hanumanasana don’t come overnight. Hips and hamstrings are tricky spaces to work. Both spaces can become very tight if you sit at a desk all day, or if you’re a runner or cyclist. Never push or force anything, instead, try to cultivate a sense of ease as you progress.
