Yoga Binds: How to Do a Yoga Bind & Yoga Bind Benefits

I was talking with a student who’s coming to an upcoming class I’m teaching in June at an Alexandria, VA, arcade. I asked her if she had any requests for moves to include in the class, and she mentioned binds.

This was an interesting request, one that I don’t hear often. She explained that binds are challenging, and indeed, they provide a great opportunity to evolve your practice.

Learn more about what yoga binds are, benefits of yoga binds and ideas for yoga binds in a practice.

What Is a Yoga Bind?

At its most basic definition, “Yoga Journal” explains a yoga bind as any pose that involved interlacing, intertwining or connecting/holding onto two different body parts. In a simple form, a bind can be interlacing your fingers and pushing them out in front of you. A more complex yoga bind would involve getting into the advanced yoga pose Bird of Paradise (Svarga Dvijasana), which involves lifting a leg straight up to the sky while standing, then wrapping the arms around the lifted leg.

The most common yoga bind I cue is from Extended Side Angle (Utthita Parsvakonasana). Another common yoga bind is Cow Face Pose (Gomukhasana). Both of these poses, as well as other binds, can be assisted with and eased into using a yoga strap as a prop.

Benefits of Yoga Binds

Yogi binds require great flexibility, both physically and mentally. As yoga is a practice, moving toward binding in your yoga practice can help you continue to increase your flexibility, improve your balance and stability, build strength and go deeper into your poses.

Remember: always consult a physician before beginning a yoga practice.

Binding will stretch and lengthen the body parts you’re using, such as opening your back, chest and shoulders. Binding can help you improve your overall posture, by encouraging you to open the chest, roll the shoulders back and expand the rib cage.

Another benefit of binds that strengthens the mental aspect of a yoga practice is that binds require focus and precision. By making small adjustments, you can work toward achieving binds that may have once seemed impossible.

Examples of Yoga Binds

If you want to try adding some yoga binds to your practice, the following are some bind ideas that I incorporate regularly in my classes. You can hold a yoga strap between your hands if the hands don’t interlace, using the strap to slowly bring the hands closer toward each other with each practice.

• Extended Side Angle (Utthita Parsvakonasana) into a bind: From Extended Side Angle, move into a Half Wrap, by bringing the back of the top hand to your lower back. Lower the bottom hand toward the ground, then weave it under your leg. Clasp both hands together, and open the top shoulder toward the sky.
• Cow Face Pose (Gomukhasana): In a seated position, start by pointing one elbow up to the sky, and reaching that arm’s hand flat down your back. Bend the opposite elbow downward, then reach that arm’s hand behind you. Interlace the hands, or hold a strap between the hands.
• Yogi Squat (Malasana) into a bind: Also known as Bound Revolved Garland Pose (Baddha Parivrtta Malasana), come into a Yogi Squat. Wrap one arm in front of and around the same side’s leg. Wrap the other arm behind the back, and interlace the hands.

Also, one of my all-time favorite yoga stretches that I often do multiple times a day is to interlace (or bind) my fingers behind my back, open up the chest, then bow down into a forward fold. This is a really good shoulder and upper back stretch.

I also love binding my Locust Pose (Salabhasana) by interlacing the fingers behind the back, and interlacing my fingers while standing in Tadasana (Mountain Pose) to open the chest and shoulders.

I always cue students to simply reach their hands toward each other if full interlacing isn’t an option, but a strap can be a nifty prop to have if you want to work toward yoga binds, too.

How Do You Like to Yoga Bind?

Are yoga binds part of your practice? What are your favorite yoga binds? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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