Pigeon – kapota – कपोत
Take time to become stable. Alignment of hips is the same as Pyramid. Both hands are firmly on the floor. Front foot is stable and on the opposite side of the centerline. Front knee is on the floor. These are the four bases for this pose and you can lift and drop by pushing on these four points and engaging the pelvic floor muscles. Move in the pose.
I like stepping into it from Head Down Dog pose. It’s the same hip alignment as Warrior 1 and is an enormous help for hip flexibility.
Two main variations are sitting up to get a nice backbend as shown above and lie forward along your front thigh to stretch deeply into the hip joint (below).
I was taught this as an advanced backbend but now I use it in all my classes.
