FILEX 2015
PRESENTER
SOFTENING AND
ALIGNING JOINTS
By focusing on the alignment and softening of the knee and elbow joints you can
safely cater to participants with widely differing ranges of motion.
WORDS: LISA GREENBAUM
ogaFit’s Seven Principles of Alignment (SPA), which has
been discussed in previous instalments of this feature, is
a useful tool for explaining the importance of proper
anatomical alignment to your yoga fitness participants. One area
addressed by these principles is softening and aligning the knees
and the elbows.
As hinge joints, our elbows and knees naturally flex and extend.
However, range of motion within these joints varies from person
to person. In addition, a small degree of lateral flexion is built into
both of these joints as a means to support the joint through shock
absorption – not to extend flexibility or load from other areas of the
body, which is what can happen without due care.
Aligning the joint
Softening the joint
For alignment, a good rule is to align the knee
with the ankle or big toe. An example of this
would be in chair pose, where we want to sit
back away from the toes, taking our weight
into our quads and glutes and away from
our knees and ankles. Further alignment will
bring the knees along the same degree as our
first or second toe, thereby keeping the knee
joint stable and avoiding either collapsing in
or out, which could increase pressure on the
ligaments of the knee, the ankle and possibly
the hips, pelvis and lower back.
Elbow alignment comes quite naturally to
most people during yoga practice, provided
that in weight bearing poses, such as plank
or crocodile pose (tricep push up), the wrist
is aligned to the shoulder joint and the elbows
are tucked into the body.
As mentioned, range of motion within the joint can vary greatly between
individuals. Softening the joint – and avoiding locking or hyperextension
– is therefore very important. Hyperextension is defined by moving
past a 180-degree line of the joint to a point at which the muscles
surrounding the joint are no longer supporting it.
In the elbows this
is often seen in plank
pose,
where
the
insides of the elbow
shine forward or in
some cases create
the look of a bow. To
correct this, begin in
the shoulder girdle,
rolling the shoulder
blades
back
and
down. With the arms
straight, maintain the
activation of both the
biceps and triceps and
Plank
Mountain pose
gently turn the insides
of the elbow in towards the centre of the body. Take time to notice
the stabilisation felt through the entire upper body with this simple
adjustment.
Similarly, we want to avoid locking the knee joint and reducing
the muscular support of the knees and overall strength and support
of the lower body during exercises such as mountain pose. By
softening or adding a micro-bend to the knees, we are better able
to engage the muscles of the quads and hamstrings, which carry up
to our pelvis and lower back. This reduces the lordotic curve of our
spine, or anterior pelvic tilt, and releases tension from the muscles
that support our lower back.
Y
Chair pose
INSPIRING GREATNESS
10 TO 12 APRIL 2015
MELBOURNE CONVENTION & EXHIBITION CENTRE
Join Lisa when she shares her wealth of yoga know-how
at FILEX
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Power YogaFit® (A1J)
YogaFit® YogaCore (B2U)
YogaFit® Strong and stretched with seated yoga (C2S)
YogaFit® Yoga for PTs (C3T)
YogaFit® PreNatal – (Pre-Convention 1-day workshop)
Head to filex.com.au to check out the session detail