Building Strong Shoulders To Lean On

It was another lovely evening in Castleberry last night. We began with arm and shoulder work. We reviewed our understanding of the bicep/tricep rotation and how it affects our chest and shoulder blades. We applied our lessons in a variety ways and used the wall and floor to give us feedback. 

Utthita Trikonasana -  Extended Triangle with our backs to the wall let us know how well our biceps were rotating out and how well our shoulder blades were tucking into the chest. With lower arm supported on the block and the upper arm opening to the wall, we began to work the bicep/tricep action to stabilize the top half of the body. However, we realized if we didn't begin with our legs wide enough, our upper body wasn't able to rotate upwards flattening our backs to the wall. A wide base anchors the pose and facilitates the rotation of the chest. ALWAY BEGIN WITH A STRONG BASE: Feet wide apart, heel to arch alignment, front knee rotating towards the pinky toe side to help rotate the thigh out and the buttock in --with those actions anchoring the pose, the chest can move more freely.

Parvritta Trikonasana - Revolved Triangle at the wall gave us another perspective of our arm and shoulder lesson. A new pose for most of our Castleberry crew, it proved to be an excellent platform for integrating our arm and shoulder work and getting immediate feedback as to the effectiveness of the bicep/tricep rotation and tucking the shoulder blades into the chest. Once we understood how to create the shape of the pose, we went back to our base. There we found a lot of changes happening to accommodate the twisting action of the upper body. This week, while we recognized the compensation we were making in the lower body and made allowances--- letting the back foot come up, etc. to get the deeper wall twist of the upper body.

We continued our lessons into sitting twists in sage poses like Bharadva-jasana and Marichyasana I. With our backs to the floor and our arms out-stretched, palms up we twisted side to side with our knees bent in the first stage of jathara parivartanasana. Here the anchor became our upper back, shoulder blades, and arms. It gave us another perspective of how important the work of our arms, shoulders and shoulder blades is to how easily we move through life.