Eka Pada Rajakapotasana

This pose has always been a goal of mine. I have been doing more yoga lately, and I have decided to work on this pose every day. At the end of the week, I'll post another photo to see if I have made any progress. I always practiced pigeon forward folding over the bent leg. Now I need to practice sitting up. I have noticed that my low back is very stiff. I am going to have to practice back bends to try and loosen that area up. My other major problem area in this pose is my shoulders. I can reach back and grab my foot, but I can't flip my arm over so that my elbow is pointing upward. Maybe I can stretch out my shoulders using a yoga strap.
So you can see my first, very sad attempt here. Not pictured is that I can actually get my rear leg to a 90 degree angle. My rear seems to be a little high--that is because my hips are tight. My left hand is down because I have to press myself back into a backbend and keep myself from falling over. Look how far my hand is from my foot! I definitely need to work on the backbending and shoulder flexibility.
Here is a pigeon pose variation. This is okay I guess. I could press my left hip toward the floor and work the front foot away from my groin. I don't like how my left hand looks, but I'm just being picky. I'll also work on this variation this week.