AYGMyJune2015

muscle imbalances

in your upper body

Picture yourself at your office desk,

shoulders hunched, neck craned

forward, eyes glued to your computer

screen. Your outward appearance

of calm concentration belies what’s

happening inside your body: the

muscles that round your shoulders and

internally rotate your upper arm bones

(subscapularis, teres major, anterior

deltoids), the chest muscles that draw

the arms and shoulders forward

(pectoralis major and minor), the

rear and side neck muscles that hold

the head forward (levator scapulae,

scalenes, sternocleidomastoid, upper

trapezius) – they’re all getting

overworked and may become tight.

At the same time, the muscles that

externally rotate the upper arm bones

(infraspinatus, teres minor, posterior

deltoids), the muscles that stabilise the

shoulder blades and draw them down

(serratus anterior, rhomboids, middle

and lower trapezius) and the deep-

neck flexors (longus capitis, longus

colli) are underworked and thus

may become weak.

Staying here from 9 to 5, five

days a week, in some variation

of this position sets you up for

physical trouble. Think future neck

pain (as your head juts forward

to stare at a screen, it puts pressure

on neck joints). Or rotator cuff

problems, such as rotator cuff

syndrome, in which the muscles

and tendons of the shoulder get

pinched and a small sack of fluid

called a bursa becomes inflamed,

causing pain. You may even get

an eventual rotator cuff tear from

the chronic irritation. Use the four

therapeutic poses on page 78 to help

lengthen the muscles that tend to

be overactive or tight while also

strengthening the muscles that tend

to be underactive or weak in UCS.

the inside story

muscle imbalances

in your lower body

When you sit in a chair, your hips are

flexed and the muscles at the front of the

pelvis called the hip flexors (psoas, rectus

femoris) are shortened. If you stay this way

for long periods of time, day after day, week

after week, the psoas becomes chronically

shortened. “Muscles adapt to the position

they’re most often in,” Dr Long says. “Your

brain tells your muscle to stay where you

habitually put it.” This tightening of the

hip flexors causes an arching of your low

back (extension of your lumbar spine) and

tightening of a group of muscles that run

up your back (erector spinae), which can

in turn put pressure on discs and inflame

soft tissues of the low back (thoracolumbar

fascia), potentially raising your risk for

76 a soft-tissue tear or even a collapsed disc.

may/june 2015

yogajournal.com.au

yj43_74-81_FEA Balancing act_272.indd 76 31/03/2015 12:56 pm