Open Shoulders + Open Hips = Long, Flexible Spine

Last week I presented the essential spinal movements for a well-balanced yoga practice.  Keeping the spine supple, fluid, and flexible maintains a wellness throughout the body because it is able to nourish all body parts with the energy that they need.  Unfortunately, some of us experience difficulty accessing the spine.  Even though we are in a pose that should lengthen the spine, it is not happening as fully as it could and should because either are hips, shoulders, or both are not opening to facilitate the spine's movement.  This is a common problem among adults.  Opening hips and shoulders can transform your yoga practice.

When you think of the spine as the vertical axis of your body, then you can easily observe that there on only four access points to it.  They are the right and left shoulder joints and the right and left hip joints.  If you are experiencing tightness in any of these joints, you will be unable to lengthen and move your spine optimally.

When we do hatha yoga, we can rotate the shoulder and hip joints in two ways, internally and externally.  During a class, you should do poses that require both rotations to bring you into balance.  Internal Rotation refers to rotating toward the centerline of the body (belly button).  External Rotation refers to rotating away from the centerline of the body.

External Rotation of the shoulders leads to a broad and open chest. 

Tadasana (Mountain)

Cow

Cobra

Internal Rotation of the shoulders leads to a broad and rounded upper back. 

Cat

External Rotation of the hips leads an open groin, front of pelvis and inner thigh. 

Bound Angle Pose (both legs)

Tree Pose (lifted leg)

Warrior 2 (bent knee leg)

Internal Rotation of the hips leads to open sit bones for a broad back of pelvis.

Downward facing dog

Warrior I

When you begin to understand the habits and biases that you have in your body, you can focus on poses that present the opportunity to counteract and balance them.  Most adults in our society are very tight from sitting in chairs and leaning over desks for too many hours a day.  They are biased toward internal rotation and flexion.  They need a greater dose of external rotation and extension in their practice to balance the body's predisposition. However, that does not mean that they avoid all internal rotation and flexion in their practice.  Those still need to be done with awareness and proper alignment for a healthy balance.  It does mean though, that these people may be avoiding external rotation and extension because it is more challenging to them.  Be aware of this and don’t let it happen to you!