Thanks to all who stayed after class today for our mini "Chaturanga Clinic." Your questions, suggestions, and encouragement are what makes our group practice such a satisfying experience.
Most every yogi and yogini would agree that Chaturanga Dandasana is not an asana for beginners. Remember that Chaturanga Dandasana is considered an "intermediate" pose. If you are new to yoga, don't get discouraged. You are in the process of building strength in your triceps and serratus anterior muscles, among many, many others (see below).
So if Chaturanga Dandasana isn't for the beginning student, why do we do it? Ironically enough, this pose is part of the vinyasa series that is part of most yoga practice, particularly in Sun Salutations. Making this more challenging pose part of our practice helps us build confidence, patience, and muscle mass. During Sun Salutations, we complete many vinyasas. A vinyasa is a series of asanas that flows from Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward facing dog) to Plank to Chaturanga Dandasana (a type of low pushup) to Bhujangasana (Cobra) or Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward facing dog), and finally, back to Adho Mukha Svanasana. Whew! Doing a vinyasa utilizes many muscle groups and takes a lifetime to master.
Here are the basics of Chaturanga Dandasana:
1. From Plank (either full plank or a modified plank on your knees), bend your arms straight back, your elbows pointing back toward your feet. Keep your upper arms hugging your sides.
2. Lower down toward the floor, stopping when your forearms and upper arms are at a right angle.
3. Keep the whole body very level; you're there!
4. To exit the pose, roll over your toes to come into either Bhujangasana (Cobra) or Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward facing dog.
If you feel that this asana is no longer presenting a challenge for you, practice your plant with one leg lifted and moving into Chaturanga will keeping the leg lifted. Lower the leg to join the other as you move into Upward facing dog.
Okay, that was the short "mini-lesson" on Chaturanga (Four Limbs) Dandasana (Staff or Spine Pose). In the section below, I have listed the exact anatomical process of doing the asana, including the preparation pose (Plank). When you read all about the actions that you are performing as you move through a Chaturanga Dandasana, you'll understand just why the pose is so beneficial to your arms, shoulders, back, core, abdominals, and hamstrings. Keep the integrity of the pose, modify when you feel fatigued, and be patient with yourself as you build your core strength.
In the preparation stage, we are in plank pose with our wrists are stacked under our shoulders and our bodies parallel to the floor with our toes on the mat. While 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. 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 (pelvic floor), 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. With our heels pressing back like we are pressing into a wall, we are activating the muscles that dorsiflex 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.
Moving into Chaturanga Dandasana, we start from plank, this place of stability and alignment, to safely flow into the pose. The most complex movements in Chaturanga come from our upper body. In order for us to lower, a number of actions must occur. Firstly, we must balance the action of inward and outward rotation at the shoulder joint. The outward rotation of teres major and infraspinatus muscles of the rotator cuff counteract the inward pull of the pectoralis muscles, and latisimus dorsi on the back. By nature of the fact that our palms are on the mat, the pronator muscles of the forearm are activating an inward rotation at the wrist. To maintain neutral rotation at our shoulder joint, our elbows must hug to our sides to engage the triceps, whose natural action is pure flexion and extension at the elbows. It is important that we keep the engagement of the scapular support muscles that we started with in plank pose. This means that we keep an open heart moving forward, broad across the collarbones, and our shoulder tips never drop below our elbows. The subscapularis muscle of the rotator cuff (on the underside of the shoulder blade) is working over time to prevent the arm bone from moving forward out of the shoulder joint. We maintain the contraction of the transversus abdominus throughout Chaturanga, which keeps our body parallel to the floor and avoids any lower back discomfort. Imagine your side body growing long as your heart shines forward and your heels press firmly back. The action of pressing back through the heels maintains length through the legs and deep hip flexor muscle, the psoas, which has attachments in the spine and the legs. The legs support our upper body so that Chaturanga becomes a full body pose, not just an arm balance.
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