Progress on yoga has been slow, but steady.
Have I mentioned the breakthrough I made based on last Friday's primary practice? I was reading up on the proper chaturanga alignment because my shoulders were killing me and I could sense the rate of degradation they are facing. So with the help of several googled articles and yoga journal's invaluable alignment articles, I learned how to really set my body up for chaturangga. Of course, Im no yoga teacher, therefore might need proper tweaks to make it 'perfect'.
But, the MOST OBVIOUS sign that I am doing chaturanga better is that the front of my shoulders do not hurt anymore! What an amazing discovery. Ever since I started ashtanga yoga the front of my shoulders have been taking the brunt. And it's amazing that I keep abusing it week after week and not really give a damn, or not caring enough to do something about it. I have read that if you activate the right chaturanga muscles, the front of your shoulders shouldn't hurt, while your serratus anterior and all the back muscles would feel it.
Friday I was adamant to work on my chaturanga. And what I realized that all these while, even though I am aware I should NOT do it, I was lowering my shoulders below my elbow, making the angle to be less of 90 degrees as chaturanga envisions us to be. I am suprised when I finally figured it out as I always thought my shoulder don't dip but I still feel it in my shoulders the very next day. But that Friday I was surprised to find out that I have been going down lower than I should be. And for the whole primary series I spent my chaturanga looking either to my right or left shoulder to make sure it is not going down below my elbow.
And the next day - my upper back hurts! Well, good sore, but still. It literally means i've been activating them as I should. There is no soreness on my shoulders, which feels amazing! And it ONLY took me a year to figure this out -___-.
Sunday was spent anchoring my proper chaturanga alignment, sort of imprinting the muscle memory. I admit it is hard work, making me dread the vinyasas a little bit more, but that's the beauty of primary series. I find that suffering or working through difficulties of a pose to get it right makes it so much easier and better. I remember when chaturanga with my knees off were horrible.
Hatha today!
Hello!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your discovery! I'll check if i'm not doing the same next time !
I have notice my elbows tend to get on the side more than they should.
I've been trying to focus on keeping them close to the ribs and also keeping the neck up!
It's still pretty hard but little by little the pieces come together don't they ! :)
Hi Marion,
ReplyDeleteNo problem, I am always on the quest to make the asanas a little easier especially on my injury prone body. The chaturanga was always top in my list of asanas to work on!
And yes, it was painful correcting the posture and I did not have a great time the 2 primary series I practiced but after that the chaturanga felt effortless... with no shoulder pain!