TheHotYogaDoctor

Hi everyone!

I’ve got two questions:

1. Is it more important to keep my spine straight, square to the floor, or do I have to reach my knees with my hands? Does it depend on the length of my arms?

2. Do I need to keep my shoulders relaxed even if they tend to round, or should I keep my chest up and my shoulder muscles engaged all the time?

Thank you

Martina

Hi Martina

In short, your spine should be straight and your arms relaxed. Asking for hands on knees or straight arms just creates stress and you can see students focusing hard on this part of the pose which usually makes the exercise itself harder. You can see the strain in the shoulders and arms.

As for the shoulders, just think ‘elbows in the back pockets’ and you will eliminate rounding and automatically keep your chest up. You are definitely trying to remove stress from your shoulders which means they are not engaged, they are positioned down and back away from the ears.

For those who haven’t yet seen it, take a look at this video about optimal arm and shoulder position: A transformational technique for your practice

Namaste
Gabrielle

Ahhhh! Arms relaxed makes so much sense to me! Finally!

The only way I can reach my knees with my hands is if I keep my arms straight, my shoulders tense and my back leaning a bit forward. Which is not good, as you said. And it didn’t feel good because I was all closed up, and the compression of my chest made me feel I never had enough air!

So from now on: spine straight, shoulders down and back, arms relaxed (naturally bent) and hands wherever they end up? 

This is great Gabrielle! Thank you very very much!