Yoga for Detoxification: Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge Pose)

If you are looking for a yoga pose for detoxification, then Setu Bandha Sarvangasana is a great place to start. Also known as “Bridge Pose,” Setu Bandha has many benefits. It soaks the lymph glands in the neck and throat with blood.  It also suppresses your autonomic nervous system’s “fight or flight” (sympathetic) side, restoring energy and supporting healing.

When your head is below your heart and your neck is flexed, the “baro reflex” is activated. This sets off a chain of events that facilitates a parasympathetic response.

Bridge Pose and Purification & Detoxification in the Yogic Tradition

Purification is central to the yogic path. The second chapter of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras begins with this aphorism (translated by Alistair Shearer):  “Purification, refinement, surrender. These are the practical steps on the path of yoga.” Over the millennia, Hatha Yoga has developed many purification tools, including breathing practices and neti nasal washing.

While studying in India with Geeta and B.K.S. Iyengar, I learned how and why Bridge Pose is one of yoga’s most powerful purifying poses. When any in our group of yogis succumbed to the almost inevitable intestinal upsets or suffered respiratory distress from breathing noxious air (there were no air-quality standards in Pune), we were assigned Setu Bandha Sarvangasana.

When to Do Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvagasana)

Setu Bandha can be practiced either actively or passively.

Active Bridge Pose: The active version of Bridge Pose has the benefit of generating energy through spinal extension.

Passive Bridge Pose: The passive version restores energy by allowing the practitioner to receive the benefits of back bending without spending energy.

Both versions of Bridge Pose expand the front body, helping dispel the effects of daily forward bending over computers, counters, and steering wheels. They also stretch the back of your neck and strengthen your legs and hips. (Note:  Because your hips are the highest point in the body in Setu Bandha, it is best not to practice this pose when you’re on your menstrual period. It can reverse the natural flow and might interrupt your period.)

How to Practice Setu Bandha Sarvangasana

1. Begin by lying on your back on a nonskid yoga mat with your knees bent and the soles of your feet resting on the floor. Lengthen your arms alongside your torso and turn your palms up. Take time to let your body and breath settle.
2. Feel the contact points between your back body and the floor softening and expanding as you breathe. Feel the breath moving your ribcage, abdomen and pelvis. Relax here for several breaths, enjoying the support of the floor beneath you.
3. When you feel completely relaxed, bend your elbows to 90 degrees and press the elbows and upper arms into the floor, arching your ribcage up off the floor. Then, straighten your arms out alongside your body.
4. Press the soles of your feet into the floor and then extend your knees out from the pelvis, away from the body, to begin lifting your back body off the floor. Clasp your hands underneath you and rock side to side on your shoulders until you come to rest on the tops of your shoulders.
5. Keep extending your knees out away from the pelvis and avoid the tendency to push up through your hip joints. Simultaneously, lengthen your throat to move the chin away from your chest.
6. Be aware of how the weight is distributed across your feet, making sure that the weight is equal on these four points: inside and outside balls of your feet, and insides and outsides of your heels.
7. Ground your arms and feet, letting the rest of the body rise up. Take 5 to 10 deep breaths.
8. When you are ready to let the pose go, release the clasp of your hands and extend your arms out overhead along the floor. Stretch through your arms as you lower your spine slowly to the floor, one vertebra at a time, lengthening your spine as you lower it.
9. Return your arms to your sides or allow them to continue extending overhead, whichever is most comfortable.
10. Relax and check in with your body/mind. What has changed since you first lay down on the floor?
11. Repeat the entire process at least two more times. It’s helpful to practice backbends more than one time to allow your body to acclimate to them.

Weave Setu Bandha Sarvangasana into your regular yoga practice or practice it on its own. You can use it for purification, energy restoration, or just because it feels good.