SERPENT POSE
sarpāsana
sarpa = creeping, crawling, stealing along; a female snake
Serpent Pose is a variation on Locust (shalabhasana, see Light on Yoga, #25)
1. Lie on your belly, and lay your arms alongside your torso, palms up. Turn your thighs so your little toes are on the floor. When you do this, your tail bone (coccyx) will pop up toward the ceiling.
2. Inhale, swing your arms behind your torso and interlock your fingers, lay your thumbs on your sacrum. Then with another inhale, stretch your arms straight back and slide your thumbs along the coccyx, pressing it down toward the floor and back toward your heels.
3. Keep the little toes on the floor and the coccyx lengthened toward the heels. With an inhale, raise your arms a few inches away from your back torso and lift your head and upper torso off the floor. Keep your legs on the floor for the first time through.
4. To begin, continue to look down at the floor, keeping the back of the neck long. Hold for 30 seconds to a minute, release with an exhale. Rest for a few breaths.
5. For the second time, inhale, stretch and lift the clasped hands, lift the torso and head, and raise the legs off the floor. In the 17th century Gheranda Samhita (Gheranda’s Compendium), for the instructions on Locust (2.39), we’re told to lift the feet “one vitasti,” which is the measure of the span between the outstretched tips of the thumb and little finger, or the distance from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger, about 9 inches. Hold again for 30 seconds to a minute, then release with an exhale.
6. Repeat with the hands in the reversed clasp. Then push back into Child’s Pose (bālāsana). Sit on your heels and stretch your arms forward. Rest for 30 seconds to a minute.
RICHARD ROSEN'S ASANA BREAKDOWN: sarpāsana