AYGMyJune2015

balancing

act

Our high-tech

culture is great for innovating,

sharing information – and triggering pain.

Sitting perched over a keyboard or digital device for

hours on end, day after day, sets you up for imbalances in

muscle strength that may increase your risk for injury.

Yoga can help.

STORY BY HILLARI DOWDLE

POSES BY DR RAY LONG

PHOTOGRAPHY BY RICK CUMMINGS

m

USCULAR IMBALANCES

happen. We all have them,

to lesser or greater effect, whether we

know it or not. You have chronically tight,

overworked muscles in one region of your

body and weak, underworked muscles in

another. When you do sense a weakness, it’s

logical to blame neighbouring muscles. (Tight

hamstrings? Might be a problem with the

quads. Low-back pain? Look to a smooshy

core.) But an emerging science within sports

medicine suggests it’s just not that simple.

“The whole body is connected, and

imbalances can have a domino effect,”

says Dr Ray Long, orthopaedic surgeon,

sports-medicine specialist and author

of the book series The Key Muscles of Yoga

and The Key Poses of Yoga. “You can have an

imbalance that starts in your shoulder and

eventually leads to pain in your heel,” he

says. For the past year, Dr Long has taught

yoga workshops that include discussion

of two common patterns, or syndromes,

of imbalance involving up to 3o muscles

across the upper and lower body. Called

upper crossed syndrome (UCS) and lower

crossed syndrome (LCS), the imbalances are

responsible for most of the shoulder, knee

and back pain yogis experience, he says.

These patterns of imbalance aren’t

a new discovery. They were first identified

by Czech doctor and physiotherapist

Dr Vladimir Janda in the late 197os and

further defined by Dr Shirley Sahrmann –

a physical therapy professor at Washington

University School of Medicine in the US –

in the early 2ooos. Yet they’ve only gained

widespread attention within the sports

medicine community within the past few

years, mostly among physical therapists

and exercise specialists. While the

potential combinations of muscles that

can be involved is incredibly complex, a

main culprit of these imbalances is simple

and rampant in Western culture: sitting

for long periods of time with poor posture.

It can all start when you’re seated

staring at a computer screen, hunching

forward, neck craning, shoulders rounding,

belly and butt relaxed. In other words,

slouching on the top, slumping on the

bottom. Continue this posture pattern

day in and day out, and you create muscle

imbalances that may lay the framework

for injuries, especially chronic ones

involving the shoulders and back.

“When you start to understand these

imbalances, you start to understand the

genius of yoga poses,” Dr Long says. “When

they’re done with proper alignment, you

simultaneously stretch the muscles

that tend to be tight or overactive and

strengthen the muscles that tend to be weak

or underactive.” But yoga can also reaffirm

imbalances if you practise unconsciously –

for instance, frequently doing Chaturanga

Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose)

without counter poses to stretch the chest

or without working to build core strength

can stress shoulder joints. To get the balance

right, turn the page for our simple guide

to understanding upper crossed (slouch)

syndrome and lower crossed (slump)

syndrome, plus how yoga can help halt

74 their progression before they lead to injury.

may/june 2015

yogajournal.com.au

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