After doing an On Demand Yin yoga class (03.31.25 | Thunder) this morning, one of my students texted:
” … I found the Saddle posture painful for my right leg, which has recently been giving me problems. Are you supposed to be in a sitting position as you bend backward, or are your legs supposed to flair out beside you? “
Specific right leg condition aside, I thought a general approach to the posture itself was a good starting point.
I texted back:
” … as for Saddle, ideally you’ll sit on your heels.
The idea is to elevate the pelvis, providing for a ‘stretch’ of the hip joints and lumbar spine. That is known, in this case, as hip and spinal hyper-extension, and is addressed by the Hatha posture, Supta Vajrasana. (Note the pictured yogi, and the one in the link, are sitting on their heels.)
Sitting inside the shins with glutes on the mat, Supta Virasana, reduces or eliminates both hip and spinal extension. (Note the yogi in the link is sitting between the shins.)
As well, the latter demands that the yogi has sufficient hip internal rotation, and knee mobility (to accommodate the attendant articulation of the bent knee, or tibial torsion). For some yogis such rotations are easy and comfortable enough. Others, not so much.
I might add that tibial torsion might be a pathology, but is always the condition of the ability to rotate the shin / foot beneath a bent knee. To a greater or lesser degree, it’s a natural and normal aspect of knee function.
But, in any event, the purpose of Saddle is to hyper-extend the hips and the lumbar spine, and not as much to rotate the hips and the knees. So, the ‘correct’ position is accomplished by sitting on the heels, and (typically) spreading the knees apart. Not sitting inside the shins.
All that said, if the Saddle posture is meaningfully uncomfortable, as in painful, then using one, two, maybe even three bolsters under your upper body can provide a reduced level of intensity. Over time you can eliminate a bolster, and after more time eliminate another, until, at some point, you’re in need of no props, since your body has adapted.
I usually place a block under my shoulder blades — as pictured above — not to make the posture more easily accessible, but to ensure a bit of neck hyper-extension, too.
THAT said, there may be postures where further depth is prevented by skeletal structure. This bony limitation is not to be ‘worked through,’ though it is an objective. It’s a hard boundary, and once there, the posture is complete. However deep or shallow. However it looks.
Saddle can also, by the way, be modified by placing a folded blanket under your shins, just in front of the ankle joints. This way, ankle plantar flexion is reduced, making the posture much more comfortable for some. Ballet dancers, elite swimmers tend toward an easy and deep level of plantar flexion (pointing of the toes), while others may or may not have such range.
If you are dealing with a soft tissue limitation those tissues will release fairly quickly, after a short-ish period of discomfort. If it’s a bony limitation the range doesn’t improve, so a recognition of the difference is important. That is just part of yoga. Awareness. Exploration.
All that to say, the Supported Back Extension posture does just as much for the hips and low back as does Saddle. The hips and low back are the primary focus of Yin yoga, anyway, so there is no detriment in leaving Saddle out of the mix. Of course, the strong knee and ankle stimulation are lost, but that’s the trade-off.
With such modifications and substitutions it’s necessary to weigh the elements of each option and determine what suits your purposes within context of your capabilities. Physical expectations may need to be tempered, but again, that’s yoga.
Personally, I love both postures, though Saddle is rather uncomfortable at the start, and sometimes throughout. But I know I can do it, and have done it for 15 minutes at a time. (I’m not necessarily recommending such duration, but Saddle — being especially Yin — is well-suited to it.)
So, to sum up: modify or substitute as needed with physical objectives in mind.
Finally, you might find my book, A Righteous Stretch, spells out such things pretty well. It’s a quick read and provides immediately useful perspective.”
She replied,
“Thank you, Christopher. You’re a gem.”
… and downloaded the book.