The Buttafly in bridge pose

Bridge pose – using a yoga prop to develop your bridge pose

You’re preparing for bridge pose Setu Bandhasana and know that you benefit from using a block to stop your knees drifting apart… Problem is a regular yoga block is either too narrow or too wide depending on which way you use it. Either way, the knees and hips come out of alignment and so the action is compromised.

The Buttafly offers way more flexibility due to its shape, some parts more narrow, some wider.

Come into position without any prop first:

1. Imagine your legs in parallel tracks, keep your feet in line with your knees and hips, toes pointing forwards.
2. Feel into your body and keep the knees where they are as you slot the Buttafly in place.
3. You want to position the block so that it more or less holds itself – your touch so light that if it were an egg it wouldn’t break.
4. If you are gripping the block you will be over-working the adductor muscles on the inside of the groin – since these muscles are often tight and they don’t need to work in this position, it’s something to avoid.
5. Come up into bridge, letting you attention flit back and forth between the action in the trunk and hips and groin to ensure that any unnecessary gripping doesn’t take hold.