Anatomy Principles of Movement and Alignment There Is a Way of Doing Yoga Poses That We Call “Asanas,” Without the Slightest Effort
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Anatomy Principles of Movement and Alignment There is a way of doing yoga poses that we call “asanas,” without the slightest effort. Movement is the song of the body. Yes, the body has its own song from which the movement of dancing arises spontaneously. In other words, the liberation of the upper part of the body (the head, neck, arms, shoulders, and trunk) produced by the acceptance of gravity in the lower part of the body (legs, feet, knees, and hips) is the origin of lightness, and dancing is its expression. This song, if you care to listen to it, is beauty. We could say that it is part of nature. We sing when we are happy and the body goes with it like waves in the sea. Vanda Scaravelli, Awakening the Spine Principles of alignment depend somewhat on one’s view of the body. If the body is seen as a skeletal structure kept in line by individual muscles, then proper alignment will depend upon positioning the body’s bones correctly in each pose. If the body is seen as a tensegrity structure in which the body’s compression members (bones) push outward while its tension members (fascial system) press inward, alignment becomes a matter of fascial pressure and pull. If the body is viewed primarily as an energetic construct, each pose is formed from the energy flow it produces and alignment is honest adherence to an energetic template. As a yoga teacher, it is instructive to view the body in many ways, discovering principles of alignment. Here are three simplest rules for beginning students, they would be: • Transfer the body weight through the bones. • Distribute weight equally through the base of support for a pose. • Transfer weight equally though both sides of a joint, such as the knee. These three rules will protect beginning students from undue stress on joints and give them a felt reference for good alignment. Find ways to help students feel when a pose is balanced body-wide as well as teaching them the correct position for body parts or correct actions in the body specific to each pose they do. Generalize their experience as well as particularizing it. For example, yogis can know they are out of alignment in Trikonasana if all their weight is on the inside of the front leg, stressing the inside of the knee. Teach students how to position themselves in Trikonasana in order to balance weight between the front and back legs and to protect their knees, but they can feel for themselves they are being corrected and work toward by harmonizing weight distribution in Trikonasana. That said there are many other alignment tips to consider. Some aid teachers in assessing students’ posture and alignment and some are useful to teach to students in the first year or two of practice for their self-assessment. Chapter 8. Anatomy 1 Yoga on High © 200-hour Teacher Training Manual Spinal Integrity Much has been said in this course about maintaining the natural curves of the spine in a pose. A neutral spine is one in which the curves are balanced in relation to one another. The neutral position of the spine acts as a central motif for all other movement. One of the primary jobs of a yoga teacher is to introduce students to the idea of the neutral spine and to work toward enough freedom in the vertebral column, the hips, and the shoulders to sit, stand, and sleep in balance. “The large majority of postures ask us to maintain their neutral position, with the neutral spine being the precondition for the more specific actions we wish to do. While the more advanced postures may reverse the curves dramatically for a brief period of time, they are almost always followed by movements that return us to a neutral central axis.” Farhi, Yoga Mind, Body and Spirit Base of Support The part of the body in touch with the floor builds a foundation for a pose although there may be secondary foundations higher up. The foundation is there so that something higher up in the body can happen. Base support dictates what the body can and cannot do. When support is lacking in the base of a pose, the structures higher up compensate by supporting rather than being supported, creating stress in the body. It is very important to distribute the weight of the body evenly through the base. Equal weight distribution at the base creates equal distribution of stress. For example, when weight is nearly equal in both feet in Trikonasana, the center of gravity in the pelvis is over the feet and the vertebral column can be long and free. When weight is concentrated in the front foot, the top of the body is stabilized at the waist and in the ribcage. The shoulders, head and neck are supported by a rigid back rather than by the feet and legs. Gravity Gravity informs all movement and allows all movement. The pull of gravity under our feet makes it possible to for us to extend the upper part of the spine, and this extension allows us also to release tension between the vertebrae. Gravity is like a magnet attracting us to the earth, but this attraction is not limited to pulling us down, it also allows us to stretch in the opposite direction towards the sky. Vanda Scaravelli, Awakening the Spine The center of gravity in the upright body is in the mid-abdomen. That point should be centered over the base of support for a pose. For example, in Virabhadrasana II beginners often have their center of gravity shifted toward their forward leg without much weight on the back foot. Shifting the center of gravity between the feet balances the pose. Less effort is needed when the pose is centered and balanced. Chapter 8. Anatomy 2 Yoga on High © 200-hour Teacher Training Manual The body’s relationship to gravity also determines how its muscles are working and how strenuously. For example, Supta Padangusthasana and Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana form the body into the same shape, but the whole back body is the base of the pose in Supta Padangusthasana while one foot is the base of the pose in Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana. In one pose, you are supine and in the other you are upright. One pose is a balancing pose and the other is not. Each pose presents its own lessons and challenges due to gravity’s effect on it. Equal and Opposite Stretch Understand from what point a pose is held and what parts of the body are moving away from each other. Involve the whole body in stretching in opposite directions. This involves understanding what is stabilized and what is reaching in a pose. For example, when standing and reaching the arms over the head, the feet must be firmly rooted to the floor for the torso to extend upward. In most poses there are multiple directions of stretch. For example, in Ardha Chandrasana, the back leg counterbalances the torso and head, and the two arms stretch away from one another. The down leg is stabilizing and moving down while the up leg and head are reaching in opposite directions. Often beginners stretch just one part of the body and letting the rest either grip or collapse. In Trikonasana, they may feel a strong stretch in the hamstrings of the forward leg, concentrate all their effort in the pose in that leg, and never move the back leg out and down through the foot and the trunk up and away from the back leg. They often stretch the top arm but not the down arm. Stretching in one direction only pulls a pose out of alignment. Extend Throughout the Body Building a base of support and stretching equally in opposite directions lets one extend throughout the body rather than restricting the work in a pose to a few muscle groups. Extension in this sense means to lengthen or to expand. Beginners will not be able to control all body parts at one time or feel the whole body as a unit. Teach opposite body actions one at a time in different repetitions of a pose in class or in different classes, moving toward a body-wide sense of extension. For example, in Trikonasana teach students to keep weight in the back foot and extend the torso away from the back foot and leg in one class. In another, teach them to stretch the up and down arms away from each other. In a third, teach students to extend both sides of the torso equally away from the pelvis. Slowly, under your guidance, these physical actions will coalesce into a full awareness of body placement and extension. Align the Bones Alignment is not, as is commonly thought, a static position that we hold. …The first step in aligning ourselves is to find a cooperative relationship between the parts of the body. This can be as simple as rotating the foot in the same direction as the knee. When we find this cooperative relationship, the parts Chapter 8. Anatomy 3 Yoga on High © 200-hour Teacher Training Manual of the body are in agreement with one another about the action to be performed. The foot agrees with the knee and therefore they can now move in unified action. The arrangement of the structure determines where force can and cannot flow…. We engage our alignment in two ways. We can yield and push against a supporting surface with a peripheral limb and direct the rebounding force through our center and out through the opposite periphery.