Anatomy and Asana:
I love Anatomy Ezine
Principles of anatomy for your yoga practice.
Easy to understand. Simple to apply.
By Susi Hately Aldous, Founder
Functional Synergy and Anatomy and Asana
feeling the flow of body, mind and soul
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Functional Shoulders
A student approaches you in class and tells you that her shoulder is sore. She isn't sure why - the pain and tension just showed up one day. She expected it to go away, but then each day it didn't. Now, three months later, the pain and tension remain.
This is a familiar story for many yoga teachers and a predicament that occurs for many people, yogis and non-yogis alike. Pain and tension show up, the reason unclear, with an equally unclear medical diagnosis.
And here you stand, face to face with the yoga student, wanting to make a difference. You may wonder . . . how?
The first piece of the puzzle is to get realllllllyyyy humble, while connecting back to your skill set. Remember your strengths, be aware of your limitations, and consider at what point you need to make a referral to someone with a different skill set. (Sometimes, I've made the biggest difference for people when I have referred them to the appropriate professional - someone with the skill set and personality that would serve them the best.)
The second piece is to look at the student's shoulder movement and how the pieces that create the shoulder joint move relative to each other. For example, how does the humerus move relative to the scapula, relative to the rib cage, relative to the spine? Does the scapula move fluidly and fully into elevation, depression, retraction, protraction, upward and downward rotation? How do these movements relate to spinal movement? Is there clicking, clunking, clacking?
The third piece of the puzzle is to view both the shoulder girdle and the issue presented relative to the full body - that is, relative to the pelvis, legs, and feet; the face, arms, and hands; and of course, the smoothness of the inhale and the exhale.
The fourth piece is to maintain a sense of exploratory ease while making sense of this whole puzzle. To help keep an open mind, consider the following questions:
· What am I seeing?
· If I see this, what else would I expect to see?
· What don't I see?
The fifth piece is putting it all together. As you do, you'll see patterns of movement emerge that will help you determine and apply asanas or modified asanas to unwind those patterns, introduce new patterns, and if the student is ready, stabilize those new patterns.
If you are interested in exploring this further, you can read The Shoulder Girdle, one of my Anatomy and Asana updates, which explores the anatomy of the shoulder girdle and its movement patterns. Also, my newest book, Therapeutic Yoga for the Shoulders and Hips, offers a sequential series of modified yoga asanas for the shoulders and hips. This comes with an instructional online streaming video of the asanas described in the book. And in January I am hosting five yogis for a teleclass series to take a deeper look at the spine, core stability, and yoga asanas. If you are interested in the books, please visit http://www.functionalsynergy.com/qs/category/48/2812/0/0 for information on the teleclass series, please visit http://www.functionalsynergy.com/qs/category/48/5467/0/0
Happy exploring!
Susi
Copyright 2007 Functional Synergy, inc and Anatomy and Asana. All rights reserved. You are free to post these articles on your website so long as you post Anatomy and Asana contact information. I do not sell, rent or share this list of subscribers to anyone. You have trusted me with your email address -- for the sole purpose of sending your "I Love Anatomy" and workshop updates.
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