Asana Compensations by White Crow

Here are a few of the most common compensations that occur in common poses. This certainly isn’t an exhaustive list, but it covers a lot of the major issues.

1) Warrior I and II – focus on compensations that occur because of the pelvic alignment:

In Warrior I - Most of us need a slight external rotation of the back leg. Some yogis will tell you to internally rotate the back leg, because they are thinking about ‘squaring the hips. But remember, while it is a more closed-hip pose than Warrior II, if we force the hip socket of the back leg to be totally square (more internally rotated), we might torque the knee, but it is all dependent upon our bone structure.

Of course, this is relative – a student MIGHT need to internally rotate the back hip socket. If a student’s hip sockets have them naturally in excessive external rotation (when standing in anatomical position), then that student may have to slightly internally rotate to get back to the proper position (where you are turning the foot out about 45-55 degrees and the hip is in the position to support this without torqueing the knee). Think of it this way: If I wanted you to bring your knees “straight ahead to the center”, if your knees were naturally too far to either the inside or outside of your body (due to natural external or internal hip rotation), then it makes sense that you would have to intentionally rotate to some degree to the opposite direction to bring the knees into the center. So if the knees were way out to the side of your body because your hips were too far externally rotated, then you’d have to internally rotated and vice versa.

Never force the hips squared in warrior one. If you watch the Paul Grilley anatomy video, you’ll see that we all have a different degree of internal rotation of the knee available to us. Therefore, it stands to reason that if your degree of internal knee rotation is higher than mine, you can probably square your hips more in warrior one without hurting your knee than I could.

Compensation: Tucking the pelvis in Warriors – If our stance is too long in warrior, we tend to get too much lordosis in the lumbar. Instead of taking such a long stance, focus on the pure movements with a shorter stance – slight hip flex of front leg, internal rotation of front leg, external rotation of back leg.

Other reasons why tucking the pelvis doesn’t work: A) It encourages overuse of more superficial muscles – instead of deep muscles (of the core, for example). B) It can overuse or stress gluteus maximus and hamstrings C) It does not provide true stability of the pelvis D) It keeps us from engaging the transverse abdominal muscles and multifidus muscles, which means are back is at risk. E) It may take students out of “ideally positioned pelvis” (which is neutral…that is slightly anteriorly tilted for most of us) into a flattened lumbar/posterior tilt.

Instead of tucking the pelvis: A) Use mula bandha to lift up, and a slight drawing in to the waist, encouraging the front of the hip bones to come toward the ribs

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B) Shorten the stance if needed

Summary: Tucking pelvis? Shorten stance. Pure movement = slight hip flex of front leg, internal rotation of front leg, external rotation of back leg. “Ideally positioned pelvis” is slightly anteriorly tilted (we say “neutral” but it’s not truly 0 degrees…it’s usually 10-23 degrees slightly anteriorly tilted, studies vary, some say 0-15 degrees).

2) Warriors and Lunges – focus on the compensations that might occur when you see the knee not stacked over the foot

Compensation: Knee moving inward. We must have weight evenly distributed through the 4 corners of the feet to keep the knee from falling in. But, what if we can’t get the weight evenly distributed in the front foot? It may be that we have a difference between abductor and adductor strength or flexibility, so our leg is being pulled in too far (or out too far, but it is usually in too far). How do we fix this? Shorten the stance and work on other poses that will create the flexibility/strength balance needed.

Also, are you leaning forward from waist or jutting back hip so that hips are not even (think about waist band being higher in back than front hip)?

Summary: For pure movement, shorten the stance if needed and focus on the pelvis. It’s about creating stability and mobility in the pelvis – not about how far apart the legs are. Make sure you are upright – not leaving forward or jutting the back hip out.

3) Cobra

Exercise: - Demo (and have students practice with you) while standing up that if you tuck your pelvis, you flatten your lumbar. Do this and try to move into extension (which you can’t do!). If you do this same thing in cobra, you still flatten your lumbar and then you ask your body to move into extension. You can’t tuck your pelvis and then move into extension – it won’t work! So, 2 things about cobra:

#1. We want to feel the hip bones and pelvis on the mat, but we do not want to aggressively push the pelvis into the mat. Otherwise, we’ll be tucking the pelvis to the extent that we flatten the lumbar, and we’ve already seen that we can’t move into extension in this positon.

#2. Tighten the glutes in Cobra (not a death grip!): If we do not tighten the glutes in cobra, we are not stable in the pelvic girdle, which can lead to SI issues because that’s where the compensation shows up. Not a death grip – but definitely stable.

Summary: Allowing pure movement here means keeping the pelvis stable and allowing the movement to be about the back extension. Just let the hips be solid and neutral. Slightly tighten the glutes to provide stability.

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4) Compensations in

#1. Hips don’t move (students moving only from ribs). The hips MUST move in Triangle! – SHIFT the hips. #2. Hiking up the hip (too much lateral tilt on the back leg side). #3. Collapsing through the side body to touch the floor. This happens often because we try to lean too far forward (reaching out) before going down or we try to touch the floor when we shouldn’t. Encourage students who are reaching forward to ONLY go as far as they can while still maintaining length in the side body. Don’t go as far as you CAN, only as far as you can WHILE maintaining length in the side body.

Summary: Let the hips move (shift) and stay long in the side body

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5) Compensations in Eagle Pose

We see the foot unable to hook, which is sometimes because the top leg doesn’t have enough internal rotation. Don’t worry about hooking the foot – just work toward internally rotating the hip and the “foot hook” will eventually happen for most students.

We sometimes see someone who wants to hook the foot so badly that they “drop the hip” – instead of the pelvis staying straight across, one hip drops down low (imagine the waist band being at an angle).

Summary: Instead of using this compensation of dropping the hip (lateral tilt) to hook the foot, keep the hips level and continue to work the internal hip rotation.

6) Compensation in Tree

Are you having to reach down really far to grab foot – using a lot of shoulder flexion or bending at waist? It’s ok to take the foot with the hand to gently position it on the thigh IF you can remain upright without forward flexion. If you can’t flex your hip enough to bring the foot up high enough to easily reach it (without forward flexion), then you are probably forcing your hip into more flexion than it is ready to do (all while externally rotating, throwing another possible compensation into the game). Likewise, don’t force the hip to externally rotate using the hands. Both of these (forcing flexion or rotation) may possibly cause femoroacetabular impingement or acetabulum labral tears. (acetabulum labral is a ring of cartilage that surrounds the acetabulum – where femur meets pelvis.)

Summary: Don’t use a lot of shoulder flexion or bending at waist to grab foot in Tree. Let the foot be lower if needed. Also, don’t use your hand to produce excessive pressure to externally rotate the hip.

7) Compensations in Happy Baby

Are you having to reach up really high (bring your upper back and neck off the mat) to grab the feet? If so, chances are good you are not getting your shoulders and tailbone back down on the mat, so it’s better to take the calves or hamstrings than to cause this compensation.

Summary: Take calves/hamstrings if needed to avoid making upper back and neck do the work.

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8) Upavistha Konasana (also spelled uptavista)

#1. When you do this pose, are you compensating by allowing excessive internal rotation of the hips? Look at your knee caps and feet. They should be pointed straight up toward the sky, not inward.

#2. Think about stabilizing (“fixing”) your femurs and letting the pelvis move in the hip sock, taking you toward the floor. This will keep the problem listed in #1 above from happening. If you start allowing the femurs to move, you’ll probably internally rotate. (Let the pelvis move, not the femurs)

#3. If a student needs to prop up on a blanket or bend the knees or take a more narrow stance with the legs, it is best to opt for propping up on a blanket or narrowing the stance vs. bending the knees (although it is ok to do all 3 if needed).

If the knees are bent, we don’t get as much stretch of the gracilis and we lose hamstring stretch closest to back of knee where we need it most. That’s why in , we stretch more of the adductor magnus and less of the gracilis than in upavistha konasana.

HOWEVER!!! VERY IMPORTANT….If the hamstrings are too tight and propping on a blanket and narrowing the stance does not provide enough relief, then you DO need to encourage the bending of the knees. You’ll be able to tell if you need to bend the knees because if you see a posterior tilt of the pelvis, then you’ll need to bend the knees, too.

Summary: Fix the femurs, let the pelvis move. Avoid excessive internal rotation of hips. Avoid posterior tilt of pelvis. Choose taking narrow stance, propping on blanket, then bending knees as modifications (in general, if this works for student).

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9) - Great pose to develop from lunge, because it takes one leg in 1 direction and 1 in another direction while keeping pelvis square. Feel the heel in front leg and back foot and then gently pull in toward midline of body. Idea behind that is so you don’t just ‘flop’ into the pose so it enables you to build some strength along with the sense of release.

Summary: Make sure you are not moving into the pose with an unsquared pelvis just to get closer to the floor.

10) Janu Sirsasana - Traditionally, most lineages teach this posture where the extended leg is slightly abducted. This can be a concern for some students because we are twisting (to bring the chest in alignment with the knee) and then flexing. Flexing while twisting can increase our risk of herniated disc. That’s not to say that the movement can’t be beneficial, but that’s only true if the communication among pelvis, legs and spine is balanced and healthy. However, many students won’t have this degree of connection and suppleness in and among these regions. For these students, try taking one leg straight in front instead of out to the side.

Sometimes, teachers cue, “bringing the foot as close to the pelvis as possible” or “slide the foot up the inner thigh as much as possible”. That might work for some students, but in other students, it may cause the pelvis to tilt. Keep the pelvis grounded and neutral.

Summary: Only abduct the straight leg if there is a healthy relationship and suppleness among pelvis, legs and spine. Otherwise, take the leg straight in front to avoid flexing while twisting since these movements in combination increase our risk of disc herniation. Also, keep the pelvis in neutral.

11) - Coming into Dandasana, there is going to be some hip flexion because we are seated, but we should try to keep the hips neutral enough that the spine can remain neutral. If you roll too far forward or back with the pelvis, the back will follow by increasing or decreasing the lumbar curve.

In Dandasaa, the calves and hamstrings and entire backline of the body need to release. If we are tight in the backline, we tend to get a posterior tilt in the pelvis. Sometimes, we catch ourselves in this position and in our attempt to correct it, we actually lift up from the rib cage, when really we should be putting the pelvis back in neutral and then making sure the rest of the spine stays tall and neutral. Use a blanket under the hips if needed, and bend knees/put blanket under knees if this feels better.

Summary: Avoid posterior tilt in the pelvis. Prop the hips on a bolster/blanket if needed.

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12) - (Reclining hand to big toe pose) What we see often is that students want to bring the leg closer to the face, but in doing so they lift the pelvis off the ground. Our main goal in this pose is often a hamstring stretch. It would be more effective if we go only as far as we can while leaving the pelvis grounded because biomechanically, if we lift the pelvis off the ground, we have no fixed point, which means we won’t get an effective stretch of the hamstring, calf or foot.

The same concept applies if we drop the leg across the body or away from the body. We should strive to keep the pelvis down. Let the hip move within the socket as far as it can comfortably go and then stop. There is no need to lift the hip off the ground. That is not to say that you would never add a twist to this pose, because that might be your intention, but in the pure expression of the pose, we are not twisting; we are simply working the hips and legs. It always comes down to this: What is the intention of the movement?

We also see students who leave their leg straight but can only bring it to 70 or 80 degrees. This may put too much strain on the lumbar, so instead we should opt to bring the hip/leg to a 90 degree level even if that means we have to bend the knee.

Another compensation we see is the lifting up of the shoulders, head and neck. This might be in a misguided effort to “get the face and leg closer together” but we need to relax the upper body to avoid excessive strain and tension.

Summary: Bring the hip/leg to at least 90 degrees, even if that means bending the knee. Do not go further than you can go while keeping the pelvis on the floor. If moving the leg across the body, there is still no need to lift the hips off the earth. Relax the head, neck and face.

13) Parsvakonasana and - Warrior 2 must be solid before trying Extended Side Angle. These tips assume that Warrior 2 compensations have been eliminated. If a student is collapsing down in parsvakonasana, they should work to fix that issue before trying utthita parsvakonasana. It is ok to gently place the arm on the quad in side angle, but we should not allow our weight to collapse there.

A compensation we see in both side angle and extended side angle is that the pelvis starts to turn forward, so instead of keeping the pelvis toward the long edge of the mat (since we are moving from Warrior 2), we might see students start to turn their pelvis and shoulders toward the short end of the mat. This is usually because the body is trying to work its way around a strain, and usually, this strain is a dysfunction between the femurs and pelvis. If students feel SI joint pain, we may see this compensation, but this means we need to work on less complex posture to regain our pelvic stability and mobility, as well as our balance between abductors (outer line) and adductors (inner line) before trying more complex poses. Do this by working with Warrior 2 and Triangle before going into side angle.

A final compensation we see is a leaning toward the ground with the chest. Encourage students to keep the top hip and shoulder on an even plane, even if that means using side angle instead of extended side angle or shortening the leg stance.

Summary: In side angle, do not collapse down or put weight into the arm that’s resting on the quad. In side angle and extended side angle, be sure to keep the hips open toward the long edge of the mat and avoid turning the pelvis and shoulders. Avoid dropping the chest toward the earth.

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14) – When we come into uttanasana, the back side of the body is in eccentric contraction to decelerate the movement (otherwise, gravity would let us crash into the floor). We need to let go of the back body contraction at some point in order to go further into the pose. In order to do that, the brain has to know that we have support. One of the ways we can do this is to hold a block between our legs and active the adductors. This tells our brain that we have some support and the back line of the body doesn’t need to stay overly engaged (obviously, it needs to control our descent, but then we need it to release some so we can get a stretch of the back body). You could accomplish this signal to the brain using the abductors by fastening a strap around the upper thighs and pushing against the strap.

Obviously, we can do a forward fold without adding abduction or adduction, but these actions help activate the pelvis and signal the brain to release the back body.

Other considerations for uttanasana include hip hinging and keeping a slight bend in the knees where appropriate. While it might be perfectly safe for some people to move into a forward fold without a hip hinge, most of us have knees or backs that would prefer the hip hinge. Read more about it here: http://www.aaronswansonpt.com/hip-hinge/

Another good article about hip hinging: https://yogainternational.com/article/view/hello-hip-hinge-goodbye-roll-up-rethinking-the-kindest- way-to-rise-to-stand

Now, about keeping the bend in the knee: I’m not saying everyone needs to bend their knees in Uttanasana (but we do need to bend them to get INTO Uttanasana). What I am saying is that if our sacrum has some dysfunction, then we probably should consider it. Here is why: Bending forward pulls the weight of the upper body and spine forward. If we keep the legs straight, tight hamstrings can pull the pelvis downward, placing force on the SI joint and ligaments.

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Source: www.sequencewiz.com

Summary: Hip hinging is appropriate for most students and those with SI issues should bend the knees. To go into the pose deeper, activate the adductors or abductors with a block or strap.

15) Warrior 3 – We see many of the same compensations we see in other standing poses plus locking the standing leg (seen in many one legged poses) and shifting the hips to the side (as seen in Tree pose, too). Avoid opening the hip, as you’d do in . To bring pelvic stability into this pose, bend standing leg, and take your hand to the outside of the standing leg, toward the acetabulum. Press gently to generate abductor strength. This helps create more pelvic stability, similar to how we can create stability in Uttanasana by using either a strap around the outer thighs or a block between inner thighs.

Summary: Avoid locking the knees and shifting the hips. Keep the hips as ‘squared’ as possible and activate the abductors to help create pelvic stability.

16) Parsvottanasana (pyramid) – We see the following compensations often: Locking of the knees (esp. front knee), hips shifting instead of staying level and forward, and rounding of the spine BEFORE the student has reached their ‘end point’ in the pose. It is fine the round the spine after we are as far into the forward fold as we are going, but do not round the spine while moving into that position. Use neutral spine to ‘get there’ and once we are there, then we can release the spine if desired.

Stepping forward into the pose, instead of backward into the pose, will help ensure the pelvis is square. It is not ‘wrong’ to step forward, but keep this in mind if you see students who are not keeping their pelvis forward. Of course, ‘forward’ and ‘squared’ might not be completely squared or completely forward…it depends on our bone structure, but that’s what we are working toward.

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Back leg can be externally rotated if needed or pointed straight forwarded if that’s available to the student.

Summary: Avoid locking the knees and shifting the hips. Don’t round the spine as you are going into the position.

17) – Be careful not to lock the knees. Don’t let the pelvis laterally tilt; in other words, don’t let one hip lift off the ground as can happen if someone favors one side. Keep the legs active. Here is a trick: Put a rubber band around the 2 big toes to keep them together (the kind that comes on broccoli works well), then put a pair of socks (tucked together into a ball) between your heels. You will push in on this sock ball slightly and that’ll help activate the legs.

Summary: Avoiding locking the knees. Keep the pelvis from tilting and keep and the legs active.

18) Mountain Pose – Obviously, we need to keep our general alignment principles in mind (soft joints, natural S curve in the spine, dynamic tension, staying stacked in the joints, neck in alignment with rest of the spine, don’t hunch the shoulders toward the ears, keep the bandhas), but a question that comes up often concerns placement of the feet. Should they be together, apart or toes together and heels slightly apart?

First, it depends on your body, of course, but if students understand the reasons why they might want to stand one way vs. the other, then they can make their own decision as to what is right for their body.

If feet and heels are together completely, it gives the best stretch on the IT band (not an extreme stretch, but more than if feet are apart). It also challenges the balance the most. The downside is that, for most of us (depending on bone structure), it might pull us into too much external rotation, getting us out of optimal alignment (look at the knees). Separating the heels slightly while leaving toes together usually fixes this for most students.

Feet and toes apart is more stable (easier to balance), but it does lose some of the IT stretch. Also, even if the feet are apart, if the toes and ankles are parallel, you might still have the same issue mentioned above, where you are too externally rotated. So, even with feet apart, you might want heels very slightly wider apart than the toes.

At the end of the day, it depends upon your bone structure. If your bone structure is too internally rotated, then you may desire/need this slight external rotation that occurs with the feet/heels together, so it is important to understand what each stance provides so we can make an informed decision.

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