Weekly Challenge: Chaturanga Holds!

Chaturanga Holds!  Don’t hate, appreciate!  Shoulder stability is the key to most arm balances and inversions.  Now we have peaked your interest…

When Chaturanga Dandasana is done right it can be an extremely powerful pose [hence why we are focusing on it this week ]. It promotes total body strength.  When done wrong though there’s potential for a lot of injury.   The key to doing a healthy chaturanga and protecting your shoulders are to stabilize your humerus (the upper arm bone that lies between your shoulder and elbow) and your scapula (shoulder blade).  This means that you must draw the shoulders down your back bringing your humerus’ into the shoulder sockets stabilizing the shoulder joint.   Then, as my teacher Tiffany Cruikshank says, smile across your clavicle which slightly pulls your shoulder blades together.  If you have trouble keeping both of these alignment cues in tact in plank, drop the knees down to the ground and build a solid foundation from there.  It takes a much longer time to reverse bad and potentially harmful habits than backing off a little and building good habits.

Check in with yourself.  What is making you feel the need to take 500 chaturangas every class?  Is it what you want or need?  Ego check every time you step onto your mat.  This will help you gain more from your practice.  After just concluding a 200 hr teacher training where we were practicing yoga 5 hours a days I skipped many chaturangas because my energy is precise and limited.  I rather get to participate in the more meaty part of the practice than take every vinyasa.  Don’t be ashamed.  Trust us, nobody is judging you but yourself.

As a dedicated yoga practitioner it’s important to do some self study.  Take some time to learn some basic human anatomy.   This way when your instructor is giving physical cues you understand them and can make the appropriate adjustments.   Ray Long has a great series of books that talk in depth of what muscles are activating and/or stretching in several yoga poses.  Take responsibility for yourself and your practice.