Asana Anatomy - Chaturanga Part 1

The following is from my recent article on www.myyogaonline.com.

You’re finishing up your yoga class, you can almost feel sivasana coming, then the teacher instructs you to perform one last vinyasa. As you step back to plank pose, and begin to lower down into chaturanga or four legged staff pose, your shoulders dip forward from fatigue and your core refuses to co-operate as your belly sags to the floor. Chaturanga is an important, and even enjoyable, part of sun salutations and vinyasa flows. Keeping the integrity of the pose from the start to the end of our yoga practice is important to avoid injury and receive the many benefits chaturanga has to offer.

Let’s dissect this asana.

Preparation
Starting from plank pose, or high push up, our wrists are stacked under our shoulders and our body is parallel to the floor with our toes on the mat.

Upper Body
In plank pose the pectoralis muscles of the chest are keeping us in a push-up position. To avoid sagging into the wrist joints, a common complaint in this pose, we need to recruit the larger muscles of our shoulders for support. Imagine your heart moving closer to the floor, and without bending the elbows allow the shoulder blades to glide closer to each other. This actively engages our rhomboid muscles between the shoulder blades and the spine, and the middle portion of our diamond shaped trapezius muscle.

Core
In plank pose, to avoid sagging into the low back or popping up with our hips, our core muscles must be engaged. Use a gentle contraction of uddiyana bandha, sucking the belly button up and in, flattening the lower belly. This action corresponds to engaging the transversus abdominus, which provides stability to the lower spine. A slight tuck under of the tailbone can aid this action. To distribute the work away from our core and upper body, press back through the heels, sending weight into the legs.

Lower Body
With our heels pressing back like we are pressing into a wall, we are activating the muscles that dorsi flex our ankles, namely tibialis anterior on the front of the shin. Our hamstrings lengthened by the action of the extended knee initiated by our quadriceps muscles in the front of the thighs. To keep our alignment, our thighs are pressing towards each other but not touching, like we are holding a block with the adductor muscles of the groin.

To be continued......

Book Review: Yoga as Medicine

Yoga as Medicine ~ The yogic prescription for health and healing, by Timothy McCall.

From the medical editor of the well known magazine Yoga Journal, comes an extensive collection of the research on yoga to treat disease and increase healing. Dr. McCall reviews the research on a variety of conditions including arthritis, back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, high blood pressure, MS, and irritable bowel syndrome among others. The book begins by introducing the reader to the basic tenets of yoga and yoga therapy and introducing the different styles of yoga. An advanced practitioner might find this a little simplified, but is undoubtedly necessary when someone who is new to yoga stumbles open the book. The majority of the book concentrates on specific conditions. For each chapter Dr.McCall gives an overview of the condition, how yoga fits into the picture, and consults a well respected teacher on their approach to the condition. Teachers such as Judith Lasater, John Friend, Gary Kraftsow, and Rodney Yee were consulted. This final section of the chapter includes well photographed, easy to follow pictures that the Yoga Journal is known for. The reader is given a series of asanas they can add to their routine to work with or prevent their condition. What I found to be of benefit is that the author not only references scientific research from North American and European journals, but also the more difficult articles to find from Indian journals. The notes at the back of the book reference every scientific study he cites, in the event that the reader might want to learn more from the source.

Undoubtedly this book was years in the making and the work paid off. This contemporary collection of yoga therapy research is an invaluable resource to anyone who uses yoga in a therapeutic way.

The Four Basic Keys to Keeping You on the Mat

We all came to yoga for very positive reasons, to calm the mind, improve the physical body, or to heal an injury. Yoga is very good at helping us achieve all of these things. In fact science is now recognizing the use of yoga to treat conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome, high blood pressure and low back pain. But despite our best intentions, sometimes injuries just happen. This article will teach you how to prevent injuries in your yoga practice.

Injuries happen for 3 major reasons: we go past our body’s physiological limits, we succumb to a repetitive strain injury, or our body’s asymmetries get the best of us. We can prevent injury with four key points:

1. Honour our old injuries. Tell your teacher about your injury and respect the limitations your injuries present. Talk to your chiropractor or health professional about what motions to avoid. An injury is an excellent time to practice the yogic tenet of ahimsa or non-violence towards our own bodies by not pushing ourselves too far.

2. Warm up and cool down. Start with slow flowing movements to build heat in the body before progressing to more challenging postures. If necessary come to class 5 minutes early to get in your own warm up. Allow time for a proper sivasana, the final relaxation pose, to slow down the heart rate and decrease the body temperature.

3. Cross train our yoga. Try a different style of yoga every now and then. Not only is it mentally stimulating, but it also challenges our body to move in different patterns. This helps to prevent injuries caused by repeating the same motions over and over.

4. Take our yoga off the mat. We all have habitual activities that undermine our body’s natural balance from left to right or front to back. Try carrying your bag on the opposite side, or talking on the phone with your opposite ear. Our bodies need symmetry to function properly so pay extra attention to areas in your body where this is out of balance.

What if an injury does happen? Stop your practice, take a breath, and tell your teacher. Use aparigraha, non-attachment to finishing the pose or the class. Put ice on the injury as soon as possible to decrease inflammation and consult a health professional who understands yoga injuries to get a diagnosis and appropriate treatment We all hope to have a smooth and successful yoga practice.

Injuries can happen, but if we use mindfulness and follow these four key injury prevention strategies, we can greatly decrease the chance of injury.

Let's make it a revolution!

Yoga Savvy - the blog - is here.

The purpose of this blog is to give you the tools to stay safe, practice with alignment, and above all, feel great in your yoga practice. I will highlight the latest scientific research in the yoga world, great books on yoga anatomy and yoga therapy, and share my insights on injury avoidance and prevention, as well as alignment based on our anatomy.


It's smarter yoga - why would we practice any other way.