How to do Boat Pose – Navasana

In my email newsletter yesterday I mentioned that this week I’ve been suffering with insomnia. Honestly, I don’t know why, except each time my brain has brimming with creative ideas. My brain is on overdrive, and sometimes you just have to ride the waves of creativity. In this post I want to share how to do Boat Pose, Navasana.

While my brain is on high gear my hours in the day remain the same. So I’ve been trying to film a video every time I’m in my yoga room for a virtual class, or my own practice. Enjoy this video demonstration on how to do boat pose.

As always you can view here on my website, or on YouTube. If you head to YouTube don’t forget to subscribe to my channel, and leave me a like/comment! As I mentioned, I’m creating lots more content.

How to do Boat Pose – Navasana

While classified as a seated pose, it also has a balance challenge. And, lots of core strength if done in a way to target the abdominals. So, begin in a seated position with the knees bent, feet hip distance apart. I prefer to teach this with the hands under the thighs to begin.

Draw the navel to the spine, allowing a slight tuck of the tailbone. From the hip, lean the torso back lengthening the arms a little. Feel the feet get light. Tip back enough that the feet want to counterbalance the torso and lift away from the floor. Keep the knees bent.

The torso and thighs should form a “V”. This is supposed to represent the bottom of a boat. You have options here to keep the knees bent, or extend the legs for a more challenging variation.

If you extend the legs, the toes should approximately be at eye level. Harder still you can reach the arms forward. Of course there are MANY variations on boat pose but these are the main progressions.

Key Points for navasana

• Sit slightly back on your pelvis, tailbone ever so slightly tucked
• Draw the navel into the spine
• Use padding under your tush if you need to!
• Hold onto thighs, knees bent
• Intermediate – lengthen legs
• Advanced – long legs, and reach arms

Ow, my bum!

The most common thing I hear in this pose is “my bum hurts!”. Well, some of us got more junk in our trunk than others. If you feel you need some cush for the tush, then get a folded blanket!

Honestly, I use a blanket in every yoga practice. While a hard floor is beneficial in balance poses like Warrior 3, it can be a little too firm for the sit bones in Boat Pose.

Should I arch my back?

The second most common question I get is “where should my back be?”. Well, that depends on what you want to work. Want more hip flexor and quad? Arch your back a little. If you want more core/abs then you need that slight tuck of the tailbone and the back to have a bias to flatten/rounding. Think about curling the pubic bone to the chin. This can be shown and experienced more easily in dandasana.

In the images above and below, on the left my back is arched. This causes one half of my boat to bow. Belly comes forward. And it’s harder to balance in boat this way! On the right my spine is still long, but my abdominal muscles are working to stabilize!

One is not right or wrong, they just serve different purposes. There is never a right or wrong, it all depends on what you want to work. And what YOU are working with in your body. However, the bottom line is for the abs to engage fully tuck the public bone up to the navel a little.

Questions

• Do you practice boat pose? Do you like it?
• What variation of boat pose is your favorite?
• Would you like more explanations “behind the pose”