Anatomy of Tittibhasana (Firefly Pose)
Benefits of Firefly Pose or Tittibhasana:
• Tones the belly
• Stretches the groins and torso
• Gives strength to the arms and shoulders
• Overall balance is increased
• Mental balance is gained
1. flex the spine and strongly flex the hip joints
2. broaden the scapulae while strongly engaging the serratus anterior.
3. The shoulder joint (or gleno-humeral joint for you fact-checkers out there) is at approximately 90 degrees of flexion.
4. Stretch your hamstrings.
5. Stretch and contract your adductor muscles. Tittibhasana requires you to stretch the adductors since the legs open at a slight angle when you straighten the knees in this pose. At the same time, the pose requires you to engage your adductors so that your legs don’t slide down your arms. It stretches your inner groins and the connective tissues behind your knees.
6. Engage your core (even more), most significantly the transverse abdominus, the rectus abdominus, and the illio-psoas. If your hamstrings and adductors are the least bit tight, they will pull the weight of your body down as soon as you start straightening your legs. To counteract this downward pull, you have to fire up your core and create even greater lift than you do in Bakasana. Strengthens your abdominals, so it will help tone your tummy. In addition, the massage of the abdominal area helps balance the metabolism and helps with your digestion.
7. Engage your quads: Engaging your quads straightens your knees in Tittibhasana (Firefly Pose). Your quads also work with your core to flex your hips and support the weight of your pelvis.
8. Increases your focus and balance – make sure you pick a drishti point!
Steps:
1)
– Engage your humeri and draw your forearms perpendicular to the floor; Spread (abduct) your shoulder blades. These actions result from firmly engaging your pectoralis major, teres major, latissimus dorsi, long head of your triceps (see Step-2), and coracobrachialis muscles.
– If you press your hand into the wall and try to pull your arm across your body, you can feel these muscles being activated with the other hand.
– Together with your pectoralis major and minor, your serratus anterior protrudes the shoulder blades and draws them away from the midline.
2)
– Engage your pronator teres and quadratus by pressing your hands into the mat.
– Spread the weight evenly over your palms, using your flexors carpi radialis and ulnaris to flex your wrists.
– Raise your arms by engaging your triceps to extend your elbows and stabilize your shoulders.
– Press your body upward by activating your anterior and lateral deltoids.
– Finally, rotate your shoulders outward. Remember that your deltoids are divided into three segments.
– Use your anterior section to raise your torso, and use your lateral section to press the arms out against your knees.
– Contract your infraspinatus and teres minor muscles to externally rotate your upper arms; This stabilizes your elbows and prevents them from rotating outwards.
– To aid in this action, contract the posterior third of your deltoids eccentrically.
3)
– Engage your psoas to flex your hips at the pelvis and lift your legs into the air from your pelvic core. To coordinate this action, contract your pectineus and adductors longus and brevis and squeeze your legs into the arms. Activate your abdominals to pull your pubic symphysis upward; It feels like pulling in from your lower abdomen, below the navel. Engagement of your abdominals reciprocally inhibits your erector spinae and other back muscles, allowing them to lengthen in the stretch.
4)
– Contract your adductor group of muscles to press your thighs into the upper arms. Because your adductor magnus is also a hip extensor, many of its fibers will stretch in Firefly Pose (Tittibhasana).
5)
– Straighten your knees by engaging your quadriceps. This creates a reciprocal inhibition of your hamstrings, allowing them to relax in the stretch. Your rectus femoris crosses your hip joint (it is polyarticular) and thus coordinates your psoas muscle to flex your hips. Your gluteus minimus and tensor fascia lata muscles also flex and internally rotate your femur in this position, counteracting the tendency of the stretching gluteus maximus to externally rotate your thighs.
Cautions of Tittibhasana, the Firefly Pose:
Please avoid this posture if you have:
– any wrist, shoulder, elbow, or lower back injuries.
– during Pregnancy or post-surgery.
– People with low blood pressure.
– This pose is difficult to balance, so there is a possibility of being out of posture. So, use props or supports and find an open space to practice Firefly Pose where you don’t get hurt even if you fall.
Source: https://www.fitzabout.com/yoga/tittibhasana-firefly-pose/#step-by-step-anatomy-engaging-techniques
