Lesson There • Full Body Plank, Adho Mukha Svanasana & Urdhva Mukha Svanasana
Supple is Functional:
Understanding Shoulder Mobility and Strength
The Shoulder Girdle:
The shoulders as a whole sit atop the rib cage like shoulder pads might on a football player, or the yoke on an ox. The Girdle itself is composed of two pairs of bones: the clavicle in front and scapulas behind. The dynamic stability of our shoulders relies on their balance over our rib cage. If the girdle sits too far forward or back, the girdle loses its functionality— just like an ox would struggle if its shoulder harness were positioned off center. Sure, we can position our shoulders forward or back at a moment’s notice, but where do they rest when we aren’t paying attention? Our supple shoulder postures offer us a chance to reset the resting position of our shoulders in a holistic way, from the inside out.
Overview of the Shoulder joint:
The shoulder joint is a complex structure made up of several joints and supporting structures. These joints, along with the surrounding ligaments, tendons, and muscles, work together to provide stability and mobility to the shoulder complex, allowing us to perform a wide range of movements with our arms. It can be helpful to know, though, that the shoulder joint is primarily composed of two sets of bones, the collar bones and the scapulas. The interactions of these two bones with each other and the axial skeleton define the four major joints of the shoulder. The main joints of the shoulder are:
Sternoclavicular joint (SC joint): This joint is formed by the clavicle and the sternum (breastbone). It is located at the center of the chest and allows for shoulder movements along with other motions related to the arms and upper body. Skeletally speaking, our arms and shoulders are only connected to our axial skeleton via the Sterno-Clavicular joint, a strong but small boney attachment point for such a dynamic and useful anatomical system. This joint is not fixed, but quietly mobile, as you can feel when holding your fingers there as you lift and lower your arm. Any kind of break in the clavicles themselves will show you just how often this joint is utilized, as even picking up a cup of tea can become very painful without the stability of this boney connection.
Acromioclavicular joint (AC joint): This joint is formed by the acromion process of the scapula and the clavicle (collarbone). It provides stability and some rotational movement of the shoulder. The AC joint, along with the sternoclavicular joint and the glenohumeral joint, helps maintain stability and support in the shoulder girdle. During yoga poses that involve weight-bearing on the arms, such as Downward Dog or Plank Pose, the AC joint helps distribute the load and prevents excessive stress on the glenohumeral joint, reducing the risk of shoulder injuries.
Scapulothoracic joint: This is not a traditional joint like the others but is a functional joint formed by the movement between the scapula and the thoracic (ribcage) wall. The scapulothoracic junction, where the scapula (shoulder blade) interacts with the thoracic cage (rib cage), is integral to shoulder function. It serves a delicate balance between stability and mobility, crucial for a wide range of arm movements. Muscles such as the trapezius, serratus anterior, rhomboids, and levator scapulae attach to the scapula, orchestrating its movements and stabilizing it during various shoulder actions. Unlike traditional joints, the scapulothoracic junction relies heavily on muscular support for stability, emphasizing dynamic stability. This dynamic stability is vital for activities requiring overhead arm movements like reaching, lifting, and throwing. Furthermore, the alignment of the scapula relative to the thoracic spine influences overall posture, affecting movement efficiency and injury prevention. In essence, proper function of the scapulothoracic junction is essential for optimal shoulder performance and maintaining musculoskeletal health.
Glenohumeral joint: This is the main joint of the shoulder and is formed by the head of the humerus (upper arm bone) articulating with the glenoid cavity of the scapula (shoulder blade). This joint allows for a wide range of motion and is responsible for most of the shoulder movements. We will dive deeper into this joint when we look at the rotator cuff in just a moment.
Supple is Functional:
Suppleness is crucial for functional movement in the joints of our shoulder. For example, if we do not have suppleness in our shoulders while flexing and extending the Gleno-Humeral joint the action becomes nearly impossible. If your shoulders are hunched forward, or artificially drawn down in the back, you will find the act of lifting or pressing the arms severely limited. Try it for yourself—round your shoulders forward and attempt to lift your arms in front of you; notice how they stop at about head height. Opposingly, root your shoulders down your back and see also how this cue limits mobility of the shoulders. Now start over from a place of spacious suppleness— visualize holding a large, weightless beach ball in front of you and roll your shoulders open while maintaining spaciousness. Lift the imaginary ball up and move it around, feeling the expansiveness follow you. You might think this spaciousness is flexible, but maybe not strong— this is not the case. Take a moment and pick up a heavier object, like a meditation cushion. Hold it in front of you, and once again visualize the lightness of a beach ball. Lift the cushion up and feel your shoulders, particularly your scapula, naturally glide to support the weight and movement. Suppleness is simply moving with surrender.
Shoulder Stabilizing Plank
Anatomy in Motion
Plank is commonly seen as a pose that solely focuses on muscle strengthening, particularly in the abs and shoulders. However, if you only feel it in these areas, it indicates that the superficial muscles are overshadowing deeper, core muscles. In the Shambhavananda approach, a well-executed plank should feel both effortless and holistically engaging, activating the body uniformly from the inside out and head to toe. When the deep core is strong and supportive, we can release chronic tension, find more space in the joints and become more resilient and capable in the body. This experience embodies Patanjali's principle of 'effortless effort' and 'perseverance without tension,' leading to an experience of boundless energy.
Set-up
From table top, paw out the hands, finding a place where the shoulders are supported and the hands are relaxed and natural, like in the “Spacious Hands” exercise
Exhale very slowly glide one foot back to a half plank, feeling the deep postural core muscles engage in a gentle and responsive manner, and then glide that foot back in to table.
This motion initiates the deep core, you should feel it like a gentle hugging around the mid section, as well as a brightening of the back line
Repeat on opposite leg.
Primary movement (Breathing without doership)
Note: Once we are in plank, the goal is to breath as smoothly and naturally as possible. Notice the tendency for the body and the mind to want to ‘do more’ - push harder, over-engage. See if you can soften and ‘do’ as little as possible while maintaining integrity in the posture.
(From the setup of single leg plank, ie. one leg extended back and the opposite knee under the hips on the ground)
Exhale to slowly ‘un-weight’ the grounded knee. The ‘un-weighting’ of this knee should bring the experience of our full body’s weight seamlessly into the posture, like a water bottle filling while you are holding it— the weight arrives invisibly, smoothly.
Inhale, Release the knee down slowly, feeling your weight once again supported by the knee.
Exhale, slowly unweight the knee once again. Now with the option to glide the leg smoothly back to full plank. There should be no shifting of the pelvis as you glide the leg back because your weight should already by supported by the rest of the body. If you notice the hips dip, bring the knee back under you and glide the leg back in a smaller range.
Breathe as smoothly as possible and feel the work of plank evenly across the body— effortless effort, perseverance without tension.
Notice the tendency for the body and the mind to want to do more - push harder, over-engage. See if you can soften and do as little as possible to maintain this pose with integrity. Adho Mukha Svanasana
Anatomy in Motion
Adho Mukha Svanasana is an experience of flexion, like our fluid forward folds, except now the majority of the work comes from the upper body. As we learned in fluid forward folds, it is essential for the whole posterior chain to work together rather than just maxing out one link in the chain, like the hamstrings. This is even more challenging when our base of support is our hands and the weight of our body is supported by the shoulder girdle. Not only does this pose demand strength in the shoulders, but also quite a bit of flexibility. This is a wonderful combination because the muscles in the back and shoulder complex engage as they lengthen. Just like in plank, we want to find a sense of ease here so that the deep core is supporting us as we melt through the back of the body.
Set-up
From an effortless ‘Shoulder Stabilizing Plank’, bend the knees, hovering them just above the mat.
note: Finding plank includes establishing your Spacious Hands.
Press into the hands to send the hips up and back. Notice how the downward/forward pressure of the hands helps lift and lengthen the spine.
Keep the knees deeply bent while you sway the hips from side to side, making sure the wrists, shoulders and spine feel supple.
Breath fully and naturally.
Primary movement (Lengthening the legs to extend entire backline of body)
Push both downwards and forwards into your spacious hands, sending your hips up and back while simultaneously working the legs a little straighter, but not completely straight.
For every inch you stretch your legs, ensure you're equally lengthening your torso by pressing through the hands. These two efforts should work in tandem during the primary motion.
As you exhale, draw the front of your body closer to the back, fostering a sense of lightness and ease.
Swaying Exploration
Allow the hips to sway from side to side, noticing the subtle shift of pressure through the hands and torso. Notice also how the shifting weight transfers the sensation across the back of the body.
Waving Exploration
Press slowly through the feet, drawing the naval towards the spine as you round the low back in cat and gracefully glide forwards, bringing shoulders over hands. Maintain the abdominal retraction as you slowly lower the hips towards plank. Notice the integrity of your plank before bending the knees and moving back through the primary movement into Down Dog, and repeat.
Urdhva Mukha Svanasana
Anatomy in Motion
What Down Dog is to fluid forward folds, Up Dog is to inflated backbends - an experience of extending the frontline of the body with the shoulders as the primary base of support. If the deep core is not strong enough to support the spine here, there can be serious compression in the lumbar vertebrae. If the Serratus Anterior is not engaged to help lift the ribcage into the scapula, the cervical vertebra will compress, reinforcing tightness in the neck and shoulders. It will be very important to make sure the spine feels spacious and the neck feels free. Always teach the first round with knees down so that students can self-assess before having the opportunity to increase the load on the body.
Because of the amount of integration and support required to succeed in this pose, we first round our spine forward to integrate the front line of the body, and then eccentrically contract the superficial front line to extend the spine, while remaining buoyant and supported. This will prevent compression of the lumbar vertebra. This rounding action can start in Bhaktasana, table, down dog, or plank.
Waving Set-up from Bhaktasana
From Bhaktasana with toes tucked under or flat, press down into shins and hands to round forward into a long cat pose.
Maintain your abdominal retraction as you follow the trajectory of your arc forward into a half plank pose, with knees, hips and shoulders in a line.
Feel the downward force of the shins and hands helping to integrate of the front line of the body, abdominals rising up to help support the spine.
Allow the shoulders to glide down the back, freeing up the chest for easy breathing.
Primary movement (Deep Core integration and hip/spinal extension)
Isometrically draw the hands back and wide to eccentrically lengthen the front line as you lift the heart through the shoulders
As the heart peaks forward and up, you may feel the natural urge to elevate the knees off the floor behind you by extending through the legs. This can be done with toes tucked or tops of the feet flat on the floor.
The hips can lower to allow the spine to extend, but there should still be support from the front line, namely the quadriceps and rectus abdominus, to help support the pelvis and prevent compression in low back.
Waving Exploration
The process of setting up and moving through the primary movement of Urdhva Mukha Svanasana can itself become a waving exploration— the only step that is required is to actively push through the hands and feet to activate the front line as you round yourself back to Bhaktasana.