2019-04-01_Australian_Yoga_Journal

64

april 2019

yogajournal.com.au

Against Gravity With Gravity

SUPTA PADANGUSTHASANA

Reclining Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose

Begin by lying supine on your mat. Exhale as you lift one

straight leg up, moving into hip flexion. Catch the big toe

with your fingers, or hold your outer ankle or lower leg if

your hamstrings are tight. This action, moving against the

force of gravity, is created by the hip flexors undergoing a

shortening contraction against gravity.

UTTANASANA

Standing Forward Bend

From standing, with your feet hip-distance apart, hinge

forward from your hip joints, keeping a long spine. Notice

how muscles on the back body, especially the hamstrings

in the back of your thighs, are controlling the creation of

hip flexion, not the hip flexors. The hamstrings are working

with the force of gravity to let you down gradually.

OUR PRO Judith Hanson Lasater,PhD, PT, has taught yoga since 1971. She is the author of nine books on yoga, including Restore and Rebalance and

Yogabody: Anatomy, Kinesiology, and Asana. For more information, visit judithhansonlasater.com.

extensors, you would simply crash down

onto your legs or onto the fl oor because

the force of gravity is pulling you down.

Just the opposite occurs in the hip

extensors with Salamba Sirsasana

(Supported Headstand). Think about

coming into Sirsasana with both legs

straight. You prepare for the pose in

hip fl exion, with your arms and head in

Headstand position, and your weight on

the balls of your feet. You slowly move

into the pose by creating hip extension

against gravity as you lift both legs up,

stacking your feet over your hips. You

are moving into hip extension against

gravity and therefore the hip extensors

are creating the movement.

When you come out of Sirsasana,

you are moving into hip fl exion but the

Hip flexion with

gravity, created

by a lengthening

ontraction of the

hip extensors.

hip extensors are still controlling the

movement. They are undergoing a

lengthening contraction to slow the

descent against the force of gravity and

to protect you from injury.

Whether you are practicing or

teaching yoga, it can be diffi cult to keep

all the actions of muscles at the forefront

of your mind. But if we begin to think

fi rst of the effect that gravity might be

having on the body in a pose, it is easier

to quickly fi gure out which muscles

might need to be stronger, and which

might need to be stretched.

In Sirsasana, for example, it might

not cross your mind that the hamstrings

need to be both stretched and strong in

order to come up with two straight legs.

In Uttanasana it might not seem like the

hamstrings are doing most of the work

of creating the pose, both as you descend

and ascend. But the hip fl exors in

Uttanasana are not creating hip fl exion,

even though you end up in hip fl exion.

Because we swim in a sea of gravity,

it is indeed the hamstrings that are

mostly controlling both the ascent

and descent.

Begin to notice in your own practice

which muscles are activated as you

practice. Start slowly with the poses

offered here, and then begin to observe

your muscle action in other poses. Not

only will this be an effective way to study

muscle actions, but it will help you

appreciate even more how wondrously

subtle and intelligent all of our

movements really are.