Regarding Shoulders

The word yoga means “to come together, to unite.” This refers to tying the mind, body and breath together.  When we do our yoga poses we strive to do them intelligently; to put our mind in our bodies.  For example; to know how rolling the heads of the arm bones back lifts the chest.  The practice of yoga helps our bodies learn to feel these things.  We endeavor to make our whole selves shiny (with an inner radiance), bright and alert.  When our mind is not in our bodies, that part of our body becomes dull and lifeless.  This intelligence is what differentiates yoga from merely stretching.  And it is this inner inquiry that helps us to make progress on the path of yoga.  If we are not aware of what we are or are not doing, we can stay stuck.  Awareness always proceeds change.

There are a lot of things we could be focusing on in any yoga pose, but today I want to shine a light on the shoulders.  I noticed things shifted in my yoga practice when I began to look at my shoulders and realize that I was slumping.  My teachers would say things like "Take the heads of your arm bones back. What does that mean? In my Anusara training the concept used was called “Shoulder Loop”.  The cueing went like this:  “Side body long and the heads of the arm bones back.”

What does that mean to make the side body long?  And why should we do this?

When we do yoga we not only exercise the muscles, which pull on and affect the bones, but the poses also affect our nervous systems and our internal organs.  In everyday life we tend to slump.  Some of that is because we work at keyboards (as I am doing right now) Or, it can be a form of protection of the heart because life is hard and we don’t want to be vulnerable.  Slumping compresses our lungs and heart making it harder to take a full breath and making it harder for the heart to pump blood.  When the chest is caved in, it indirectly puts pressure on the abdominal organs, making it harder for them to function as well.  The decrease in oxygen intake and compression of the organs makes our brain dull and we feel sluggish.

How do you make the side body long?  Lengthen your side waist from your hips to your armpits by lifting the heads of your arm bones up towards your ears.  Then roll the heads of the arm bones backward allowing your scapula, or shoulder blades, to settle on your back close to the spine.  Release the scapula down towards your waist without letting them slide apart again.  This releases your shoulders away from your ears and allows them to settle into a more natural position.  Make sure you don't let the shoulders roll forward again.  The next time you find yourself slumped over your computer keyboard and you are starting to feel sluggish and sleepy, take one minute to sit up straight and try this.  Remain in this upright position and breathe; notice how it feels.  This is how long it takes for your blood to circulate through your body. In just one minute, with full, deep breathing you can 100% oxygenate your blood. Notice the effect this has on your body and your mind.

I wanted to clearly illustrate what it looks like with my shoulder blades rounding forward and with them rolled back so I took the pictures while lying on the floor so you could see the difference more clearly.  Can you see the difference?  What do your shoulders look like?  Now can you do this while standing up?

Shoulders rounding forward

Shoulders back and down

This is the beginning of being able to open the upper chest and move the upper thoracic spine into the body.  This starts in Tadasana, but is especially important in back bends.  Next week I will continue this exploration into Bridge Pose.

Vinyasa Pose of the Month for January – Planks

Yoga is a balance of strength and flexibility.  We need to be strong but not rigid.  Being strong gives us a firm foundation and clear boundaries.  Being rigid keeps us stuck, frozen in one place.  In being flexible, we need to be resilient, able to change and go with the flow, but not so flexible that we can be pushed over.  This is as true in our yoga postures as it is in life.

We will begin this year by developing our strength by working our core in the various forms of Plank Pose.  Our core connects our upper body and lower body together, protecting our spine and integrating our postures. Think of Plank Pose as Tadasana in alternate relationships to gravity using different arm positions.   Tadasana is the first version of Plank.  Use this posture to check your alignment for each of the other versions.  Each version of Plank should still look like Tadasana.

There is Plank pose with the arms held straight out in front of the body.  You can do Plank pose on your hands or on your forearms.  The forearm version is not just for people who have wrist issues.  When practicing Forearm Plank, make sure that you keep your forearms parallel.  In either version of Plank, make sure your hips are in line with your body, not high like a tent and not low like a hammock.  There is also a moving version of Plank called “walking plank”.  This is where you transition back and forth from Plank on your hands to Plank on your forearms, one arm at a time.

Caturanga Dandasana, or Low Plank is a harder version of Plank and relies more on upper body strength than just core.  Make sure that your elbows are stacked over your wrists and your shoulders are kept in line with your elbows as you hold this pose.

The next version of Plank Pose is with the arms straight out from the shoulders in the side plane.  This is Side Plank or Vasisthasana. It works your oblique muscles, or the abdominal muscles that wrap around the side of your body.  Even though the body is tipped over sideways, it should still look like you are holding Tadasana.  Don’t sag or arch!

You may have never thought of Handstand as a version of Plank, but it is Plank with the arms overhead.  Again the body should look the same way it does in Tadasana.  It should not look like a banana.  If the ribs flare out you have lost your core.  Of course, there is a Scorpion version of Handstand that is more difficult.

Reverse Plank is the last version, with the arms in the back plane of the body.  This works the muscles in the back plane of the body including your hamstrings and glutes.  People often think of core as just abs, but the posterior chain muscles are just as important to keeping our spine stabilized, supported and our posture well integrated.

Working our core in these versions of Plank Pose will set us up for a great beginning to a New Year!

I’ll see you in class!

Karin