Chaturanga Dandasana: Strengthening the Arms, Shoulders and Core

Because you are holding your body basically parallel to the ground in this posture, to have good form and hold your spine in postural alignment and your shoulders in a neutral position, you need to be working the connections between the strength of your core and the deep muscles of your spine. This means that if you have the strength to do the pose well, it can be a great pose for maintaining or increasing your core strength.

There are a few things that are going on in this photo that I like. The first thing is that my shoulders are centered midway between the front and back of my ribcage. That means they are not being pulled back or dipping forward. As a result I have maintained the natural curves of my spine so that my posture in this pose maintains the actual, natural curves of my spine. I have not flattened out my thoracic curve (the curve of my upper back) and I have not distorted my lumbar curve (the curve of my lower back). If I was standing upright with my upper arms parallel to my body and my forearms basically parallel to the floor, my spine would have pretty much the same alignment it has in this picture. This means I am using my core effectively to keep the curves of my spine from distorting. It also means I am using my legs to maintain alignment effectively. I also like my head position and where I am gazing because it maintains the natural curve of my cervical spine (the curve of my neck) without distortion or tension. The result is that my shoulders are relaxed and they are not dipping forward. I also like the distance away from the ground that my body is in this picture. If I go any lower my upper arms and elbows would be higher than the back of my body and this would cause a flattening of my upper back, a dipping of my shoulders and tension in my neck.

The last thing that I think is worth mentioning about this photo is how relaxed the work looks. It is work to hold that position but you would not know from looking that I am working hard. This, again, is that concept of effortless effort that the Yoga Sutras describes in defining asana as stirasukham asanam.



Look closely at my toes. In this second version of Chaturanga my toes being pointed makes the work of the pose a little more challenging.

Hand Balancing Version of Titibhasana

This is a hand-balancing version of Titibhasana. It is the same basic movement of the legs, pelvic structure and spine as what you are doing in the posture from On Binding in Titibhasana C, except you are balancing on your hands.

I just want to point out a few things I think are important about some of the fundamental aspects of what is happening in this pose in this photo.

The first thing is that this is not the hardest pose in the world but it is also not an easy pose. The second thing is that, although the pose is somewhat difficult and I am working strongly, there is a quality of relaxedness and effortlessness that is present in the work my body is doing. This quality in the postures, is what sthirasukham asanam is alluding to.

This is the quality that the Yoga Sutras says you are looking for in any asana: effortless effort. To achieve that quality, you really have to have good body mechanics and therefore good alignment, and when you are gripping or struggling some part of your body is distorting, some joint is not quite in an appropriate alignment, or you would not have that muscle tension. The tension created by struggling actually is an indication of something, somewhere, not being quite right.

There is a distinction being made here between good strong work and tension that is unnecessary to the work of maintaining the posture; there is nothing wrong with muscles contracting which is what muscles are supposed to do, but you don’t need to overcompensate and overwork: effortlessness in effort, strong and soft.

Peace.

UpSideDownCarl