Strike A Pose: Chaturanga Dandasana

This pose focusd post is inspired by my sister Caroline who recently asked me to give her a few pointers on the connective vinyasa that we use in yoga: High Push up to Chaturanga Dandasana (or Low Push up), Upward Facing Dog to Downward Facing Dog.

I believe her exact words were: "Yeah, I need some guidance here, because that whole thing feels like a pile of yoga mush."

"Yoga mush." It could be one of my favorite expressions now ever.

And as it happens, she is not alone. Chaturanga and Downward Facing Dog are probably the two poses that I get the most whining, er, I mean, questions about.

During one of our many pose workshops in Tulum, (otherwise known as after a 2 and half hour morning yoga session, we'd start to practice the postures one at a time. You know. No big.) my trainers explained that Chaturanga is probably one of the most misunderstood postures, and I myself found that I was doing it incorrectly even after a decade of practice. And while yoga is not about a checklist of doing postures in an exact way, we do work in our practice to "be in alignment." If you picture most things, they are at their strongest when they are stacked correctly. A pile of blocks is sturdier and stronger if placed directly on top of each other. A car runs better if it's properly aligned and balanced.  Our bodies are no different. Many times, be it not working with a teacher (i.e. DVDS, podcast), or maybe a teacher who doesn't adjust their students, some of these alignment adjustments go unknown and people just do the best with what they know. In any event, in most poses, alignment is key to working smarter.

A common desire in Chataranga is to treat it like a typical push up. We've done those since the 2nd grade, so in fairness, it's pretty hard wired. While upper body strength is part of the process and will develop in time, chances are there are things you can implement now that will make this posture feel more natural in your body and help you to work in the muscles and not in the rotator cuffs.

Start in high push up position and really pull the belly button up towards the spine, and pull the tailbone down. So many times I see students come to high push up and already let their spines sway downward towards the floor. Engage the core and tuck the tailbone, it makes the posture more stable and builds strength in the core.

Engage the quads. By doing so, the lower body, with all those nice and convenient bigger and stronger muscles, take some of the pressure off the upper body. See, aren't we having more fun already?

Next, really root down through the balls of your feet and make sure your palms and elbows are underneath your shoulders. Now, here's the real key: Look forward and go forward as you lower and only lower down till the triceps are level with your back; the forearms and upper ams forming a right angle. We think we need to go all the way down sending our spine below our shoulders, but we want to be level. Make sure the elbows hug the rib cage the whole way down. As the elbows flair out, we become less stable. Holding the elbows tight to the body will keep your whole frame sturdier and stronger and keep us working in the biceps and not the joints.

Like everything it just takes practice. Coming to the knees is a great modification. It allows you to really focus on the proper alignment while building the needed upper body strength. Eventually you'll experiment with taking your knees off the floor and the work will continue as it always does. Breathing, exploring, deepening or backing off. It's your practice to build upon, so have patience that your practice will evolve as you do.