I have a question… in the sun salute, some of my students have a difficult time moving from plank pose into lunge and down dog to lunge… it’s difficult to get the foot forward between the hands. Any recommendations how to do this? What muscles are weak if they are unable to achieve this?
Thanks so much, Hiyalah
The weakness is in the hip flexors – rectus femoris and psoas. One way around this is to come up on tiptoes in dog or plank then bend knee attempting to touch chest as you swing foot forward. With practice this elevating the pelvis acts like a longer pendulum swing and hence will produce more range of motion. If they cannot do it always recommend pulling the foot upward with the hands so distance is maintained between feet.
I read your answer re. The sun salute – moving into lunge from Q&A on 7/2. You said it is weakness in the hip flexors – rectus femoris and psoas that prevents the student from bringing their leg forward into lunge. I think of it as tightness or lack of flexibility in the hip flexors so I wouldn’t use the term weak. If by weak you mean tight or reconditioned, then I would use the word weak. If you say the hip flexors are weak, what are you also saying about their relative tightness or flexibility in this case?
Thanks, Deva Cohen
Your thoughts of kinesiology are reversed. To understand movement or kinesiology one must understand the principle of antagonism. The motion of bringing the knee towards the chest is hip flexion. This is created by contraction of hip flexors - psoas, rectus femoris and 7 assisting muscles - not by their tightness. All movement is created by contraction, strength not by flexibility. An inability to touch thigh to lower ribs is due to lack of strength in these muscles. As normal range of motion of hip flexion is 135 degrees, this means that the thigh can touch lower ribs without assistance from anything but these muscles. To test lay down and see if this range is achievable. The idea of flexibility is in the opposing or antagonist muscles to this motion. This hip flexion motion is accompanied by lack of flexibility in the antagonist muscles of hip extension ? hamstrings and gluteus maximus. If you cannot bring leg up in sun salute lunge, this says the hip extensors are probably tight. One cannot evaluate flexibility of the hip flexors or any muscle group that is in a position of contracting the muscles, so your last question cannot be answered without doing the opposite motion.