To beginners, bandhas often look like a secret technique for advanced practitioners. In reality, many people switch on a light version of mula bandha or uddiyana bandha intuitively when they firm up their core in Plank or a balance. The app's text below describes the three main locks.
After it, you'll learn how to find each one, which poses they show up in and why the full versions are learned slowly.
Bandha means “lock”: a gentle muscular engagement that redirects internal pressure and energy. In classical Hatha yoga, the bandhas are considered a bridge between asana and pranayama.
The three main bandhas:
1. Mula Bandha — the root lock. A gentle lift of the pelvic floor muscles. It gives stability in poses, protects the lower back, and gathers energy. Try it in Mountain Pose: lift the pelvic floor with about a third of your strength and notice how your body gathers around its axis.
2. Uddiyana Bandha — the abdominal lock. Drawing the belly up and in after a full exhale. The full version is practiced on its own, on an empty stomach; the light version (tone in the lower belly) accompanies many poses. A related practice is Agnisara Kriya in the Shatkarmas section.
3. Jalandhara Bandha — the throat lock. Lowering the chin toward the collarbones while lengthening the back of the neck. It's used in pranayamas with breath retention.
For beginners, two things are enough: light tone in the pelvic floor and lower belly in strength poses, and attention to the neck in forward folds. Learn the full bandhas with breath retention gradually, once your breathing in the basic pranayamas feels free.
Contraindications for the full bandhas: pregnancy, hypertension, flare-ups of abdominal organ conditions.
How to Find Mula Bandha
Sit in Easy Pose and, on an exhale, gently lift your pelvic floor without squeezing your glutes or holding your breath. Release on the inhale. Repeat several times until the movement feels separate from the work of your glutes and belly.
Then keep a light tone wherever you need stability: in Chair Pose, Tree Pose or Plank Pose. Scale Pose can't be done without the locks at all; the app's description calls it pure bandhas and core.
Uddiyana Bandha: Light and Full Versions
The light version is a gentle tone in your lower belly, below the navel. It helps in Boat Pose and in balances where your torso needs support. The full version is done standing, knees slightly bent and palms braced on your thighs: after a complete exhale, your belly draws up under your ribs.
A position close to the throat lock happens by itself in Shoulder Stand and Plow Pose, where your chest comes toward your chin. In the app these are followed by a counterpose, Fish Pose, which opens the front of your neck.
The holds in the app's pranayamas are short: two seconds in alternate nostril breathing, four in box breathing. They don't call for the full lock; a soft throat is enough.
Maha Bandha
Engaging all three locks at once is called maha bandha, the "great lock." Move on to it only when each bandha comes easily on its own, and ideally under a teacher's eye.
Questions
Can I hold mula bandha throughout my practice? A light tone fits strength poses and balances, but constant clenching doesn't. In resting poses and in Savasana, let the pelvic floor release completely.
What are the benefits and contraindications of uddiyana bandha? Uddiyana teaches you to feel your abdominal muscles and the movement of your diaphragm, which makes it easier to keep a light belly tone during asanas. Beyond the contraindications in the text above, the app lists heart disease, peptic ulcer disease, menstruation and recent surgery for the related agnisara. In those cases, skip the full version of uddiyana too.
Is Bridge Pose related to the bandhas? The name Setu Bandhasana is translated as "bridge building": here "bandha" means "binding" or "fastening," not lock. Still, your chest really does come toward your chin in this pose, as in jalandhara, which is why you don't turn your head in Bridge.
Hatha Yoga