Help me with my form?

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

Hi,
Brand new to the forum, somewhat new to yoga. A year or two ago, I tried a month of Bikram, then a month of Hatha. I’ve been doing Pilates for 6+ years, and now that my gym is also offering yoga, I’m practicing twice a week. One instructor says she teaches hatha, the other doesn’t specify, but it’s similar. The instructor I liked best just moved to L.A., and I think she was more Vinyasa, as she emphasized “flow”.

One issue I have with yoga is that there seems to be some info/instruction missing, like which muscles should be working. Most of the instruction is “breathe”, “relax” and such, but some muscle(s) must be tense or I’d be in corpse, no? I’m thinking fondly of high school calisthenics, weight training, and other activities where I might be told “work your chest, not your back”, or “let your abs do the work”.

Specifically:

Cobra: what’s lifting my torso? I find I’m “flexing” my lower back; is that wrong?

Downward Dog: I’m told to “raise my tailbone”, but how? Should I be in a pelvic tilt (thrust forward) or arching my back?

I’ve got more, but that’s a start. Namasta!

#2

We have the same issue with yoga, my friend. There are clearly some things “missing”, though I’m not sure it is universally “which muscles” should (or should not) be working.

Many teachers do not have the interest or underpinning in their training to give you much in the way of anatomical direction (or bio-mechanical, if you prefer that term). At the same time, it is very easy to get overly wrapped up in the anatomy to the point where the yoga itself is strangled.

So I prefer to think of it conceptually as “applied anatomy”.
I also find the terms “tense” and “relax”, as it relates to muscle, to be very ambiguous and therefore misleading. Some muscles are contracting others are not. Some muscles are contracting eccentrically, others are contracting concentrically. But so what.

Bhujangasana (cobra)-
If you are pressing the hands into the ground, the lifting of the sternum comes from the pectorals, deltoids, and triceps (assuming the elbows are slightly bent and the student is trying to straighten them) in the front. In the back it would be erector spinae and mutifidi. However, it is quite possible for a student to try the “doing” with other muscles.

The lumbar spine should NOT compress in backbends. If the lumbar spine compresses in this pose the nervous system is agitated and the integrity of the spine is sacrificed.

Adho Mukha Svanasana
In my opinion “raise your tailbone” is an unsound instruction. When heard it creates confusion in the student, therefore it creates a different action in every listener AND when executed it moves the wrong thing to get the right alignment.

The teacher who gives such an instruction should be the one to explain it. In that way he/she may eventually “get” that the instruction is almost universally misinterpreted and at the same time have the opportunity to clarify the posture for you one-on-one.

Namaste to you as well.
Welcome to the community.

gordon

#3

Thanks Gordon. I looked a a couple of yoga forums, saw you on both, and it appears I’m in good hands!

[QUOTE=InnerAthlete;16360]
…
Bhujangasana (cobra)-
If you are pressing the hands into the ground, the lifting of the sternum comes from the pectorals, deltoids, and triceps (assuming the elbows are slightly bent and the student is trying to straighten them) in the front. In the back it would be erector spinae and mutifidi. However, it is quite possible for a student to try the “doing” with other muscles.

The lumbar spine should NOT compress in backbends. If the lumbar spine compresses in this pose the nervous system is agitated and the integrity of the spine is sacrificed.
[/QUOTE]
I thought I had been told NOT to push with the hands/arms/chest, as in Up Dog; when I asked about it I was told “list with the spine” (??!?)

[QUOTE=InnerAthlete;16360]
Adho Mukha Svanasana
In my opinion “raise your tailbone” is an unsound instruction. When heard it creates confusion in the student, therefore it creates a different action in every listener AND when executed it moves the wrong thing to get the right alignment.

The teacher who gives such an instruction should be the one to explain it. In that way he/she may eventually “get” that the instruction is almost universally misinterpreted and at the same time have the opportunity to clarify the posture for you one-on-one.
[/QUOTE]
I am SO glad you say that. I approached the teacher and said that I thought the tailbone instruction was vague. I said “I’m aware I have a tailbone, but it’s not something I can move”, and when I pressed her for more detail, she simply said “stick your butt in the air”, which was no more helpful.

So what’s your focus in downward dog? I’m trying to get my heels on the floor, let my head and shoulders get low, and my butt is, by default, up in the air.

#4

How odd Eddie. “List” means to lean to one side or the other. There’s no leaning in bhujangasana.

Of course there are differences in asanas from one school to the next. And these days just about everybody and their DJ is inventing a new yoga. That having been said…

In Purna Yoga, the yoga in which I practice, train, and teach, the asana and pranayama practice is in the lineage of BKS Iyengar. In that lineage the pose where you do not press with the hands is sarpasana (serpent). In that pose it is ONLY the erectors that do the lifting.

That pose is not cobra, however some have taken to calling it “baby cobra” which, like “cat/cow” is editorial license, to say the least. But that is an entirely other thread. :slight_smile:

I should clarify on the tailbone. As the student’s awareness increases (from the practice and its application in life) it becomes possible to find and move many things that we do not believe we can move in the beginning of our practice. The issue is not in finding and moving the tailbone. The issue is that it simply does not facilitate alignment in the pose - when it is understood at all, which may be rare.

The focus of the pose depends on the student, the teacher, the practice, the mood, the day, the life, the intended results, etcetera.

Generally speaking, poses are built from the foundation up. However in this pose the line of the spine cannot be sacrificed for the rooting of the heels. When the line of the spine is sacrificed the nervous system becomes agitated and energy is obstructed. Going into it more deeply (for you) would require me to see it.

#5

Thanks again. BTW, I mistyped: I was told to LIFT with the spine.