The Inner Spiral of the wrist vs the Outer Spiral of the Shoulder When students first begin to practice Downward Facing Dog, one of two common misalignments typically occurs in the upper body:
As teachers, most of us probably spend a lot of time telling students to ground the inner heels of their hands and an equal amount of time telling them to work the external rotation of their arms at the shoulder joints, while performing corresponding hands-on assists that encourage these actions. These cues will help for awhile, but over time there is the potential that many students will take the "externally rotate the shoulders" cue too far, causing biomechanical stress/torque at the shoulder, elbow and wrist joints. In the following video... I talk about how to create a balanced action between the inner spiral of the wrist joints and the outer spiral of the shoulder joints in order to cultivate optimal alignment and more ease in the upper body. Neither one of these spirals should be practiced aggressively, and each should keep the other in check.
3 Comments
9/16/2016 07:30:09 pm
Brilliant. Have heard the external rotation of humerus bone so eyes of the elbow forward, while grounding the base of the thumb and index finger for so long! Fortunately I knew it was nonsense in my own body, so stuck with the foundation cues and have been muddling through the shoulder girdle cues. Will play with this!
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Hi Shelley - thanks for watching the video. Yes, trying to force the eyes of the elbows to face forward is way too much external rotation force at the shoulders. In my experience, when someone is balancing the inner spiral at the wrists with an outer spiral at the shoulders the eyes of the elbows will be at about a 45 degree angle toward the front during plank, but will then gradually turn to face each other as you transition to downward dog as some inward rotation needs to happen as you go into full flexion.
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Judith
11/7/2018 05:52:57 am
Very helpful video and insights - it makes so much sense that we need to balance everything out and not overdo one particular thing, and yoga is such a great way to explore this balance between effort and ease. Thank you!
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