Australian_Yoga_Journal_October_2017

50

october 2017

yogajournal.com.au

focus on standing postures until their

bodies build up enough strength and

their awareness of alignment is good

enough. In a pose where you do

have weight through the wrists (e.g.

Downward-facing Dog or Crow), make

sure that you start by drawing the

shoulders down and back (this activates

the middle and lower trapezius muscles

and the latissimus dorsi), ensure the

elbows are not locked out but rather stay

soft, and feel even pressure between the

base of the thumb and the palm of the

hand.

Knees

I’ve lost count of the amount of times

I’ve cringed at people’s knee position

during Warrior II. Kneecap pain is a

common complaint in standing

postures. From an anatomical

perspective, the kneecap is designed to

increase the leverage of the quadricep

(thigh) muscles, it is not designed to be

a load bearing joint. The load bearing

portion of our knee is between the

femur (thigh bone) and tibia (shin

bone). However, as soon as we deviate

the kneecap inwards of the big toe or

bend the knee so far that the kneecap

goes forward over our toes, we begin

loading into the kneecap joint. Given it’s

not designed to take this load, people

will often experience pain. The most

common postures I see this problem

occur in are Warrior I, II, Triangle and

Crescent Lunge. The movement of the

knee inwards is generally a result

of being weak through the gluteal

(buttock) and inner thigh muscles

and having poor body awareness. When

teaching these poses, I like to tell my

students to keep their knee stacked over

the ankle, to align the kneecap with the

second and third toes, and to make sure

they can always see their toes. I also like

to practice some single leg balance

poses, such as Tree, prior to doing any

poses with a lunge to activate the gluteal

muscles.

Lower Back

How good does the perfect backbend

on a beach in Bali at sunset look on

Instagram? Yes, it’s something we’d

all like to be able to do. But like any

advanced poses in yoga, our body needs

time to adjust and develop the strength

to achieve this.

Activation of uddiyana and mula

bandha during strength and

backbending poses of yoga are essential.

Most cases of lower back pain related

to yoga that I see are a result of lack of

strength or coordination of the

muscles that make up these two

bandhas. As a quick guide, uddiyana

bandha is made up of the abdominal

muscles and focuses most closely on the

transversus abdominus, the deepest

layer of our abdominals which acts like

a corset. Mula bandha consists of the

pelvic floor muscles. When these two

bandhas contract together, they provide

support for the joints of the spine and

pelvis and allow room for the joints of

the spine to bend forwards and

backwards. Without the activation of

these bandhas, people can experience

pain through their lower back, neck

and hips.

The importance of

bandhas in backbends

I often start a class with a brief

meditation and go through the

activation of these two bandhas before

starting a flow practice. To get a

contraction through the transversus

abdominus and activate uddiyana

bandha, I cue my students with “a pull

of the bellybutton to the spine” or

“imagine you are pulling on a tight pair

of skinny leg jeans”. To get mula bandha

and the pelvic floor muscles, I ask my

female students to imagine they are

sitting on the toilet and stopping the

flow of urine mid-stream, and for my

male students I use the ever-so-

delightful “nuts to guts” cue. PHOTO: MIKOLETTE/ ISTOCKPHOTO.COM