Hi Gabrielle,
I was hoping you could give me some advice on a certain restriction of one of my students.

This particular student has been coming to our studio for about two years now. She is in great shape and has a dedicated practice, but struggles with those postures, this one in particular, where you are instructed to tuck your chin to your chest, and compress your throat.

This student has fused disks in her neck. She has very little, if any, range of motion in her neck which inhibits her from being able to tuck her chin to her chest, thus losing what seems to be the primary, and extremely important benefits of this posture. When she tries to drop her head backward during the backbends, her flexibility is a little bit better, but is still a significant problem.

This student is a quiet, patient and positive woman who has never once complained about her situation. I would love to give her a modification for this pose, and for those others with the compression in the throat, but I have no idea what would create the same effect. I would greatly appreciate any advice or instruction you could give on this matter.

thank you so much,
sincerely,
susan

Hi Susan

Would you by any chance know which vertebrae are fused? It would give me a sense of the seriousness of the problem. What conversation have you had with your student about her condition?

Mind you any fusion of the cervical spine is serious. As you have worked out it affects the way your student can move into any pose that has a chin tuck. In fact it is contraindicated. The reason is that it places way to much stress above and below the fusion (due to the heightened leverage forces).

Backbends don’t cause the same problem.

Your student already seems to know how to gauge her own depth in the pose - as one would definitely hope. I guess in the scheme of things, if you had a choice between tucking the chin which could cause great risk and losing a few compressive benefits of the organs in the neck by lessening the chin tuck.... well it is really no contest

Namaste
Gabrielle