Thanks for posting this! The whole idea that the (current, western) yoga world sells of downdog being a resting pose bugs me so much. Load bearing with shoulders overhead, especially if you have long femurs and short arms, pushing more weight to the arms, is not a rest for many bodies!
And many trainings teach the "alignment" that when arms are raised overhead shoulder blades must be pulled down and in. That is nonsensical for likely the vast majority of shoulder blades (unless your humorous can magically float through your acromium) and seems even worse when load-bearing.
And like you said, the whole idea of jamming your body into load-bearing on shoulders that may not even be able to get in that position...not to cancel down dog, but again like you said, it would be super helpful if people knew what they were asking their bodies to do and whether their bodies could do it and what their bodies would do to make it happen.
Agreed on many fronts. It's important that people be able to access scapular ranges of motion unloaded and know what it is you mean before just telling them to pull them "down" in a loaded scapular position. Great points.
I think assessments would be SO VALUABLE for starting (or continuing, never too late) a yoga practice! If anything, it'd probably keep half of the room from feeling left out or like they were failing when they couldn't get their bodies into positions well past the ROM they really have (or what on average most people have) and they'd understand why, and maybe feel less crappy about it. Or know how to work towards increasing those spaces. I know a great coach to do an assessment.... :-)
I think it’s hard to do in group settings. It’s an unfortunate side effect of capitalism making access affordable to groups while largely neglecting individual issues. Don’t want to start a discussion on that, but screening a large class is a tough thing to do.
Thanks for posting this! The whole idea that the (current, western) yoga world sells of downdog being a resting pose bugs me so much. Load bearing with shoulders overhead, especially if you have long femurs and short arms, pushing more weight to the arms, is not a rest for many bodies!
And many trainings teach the "alignment" that when arms are raised overhead shoulder blades must be pulled down and in. That is nonsensical for likely the vast majority of shoulder blades (unless your humorous can magically float through your acromium) and seems even worse when load-bearing.
And like you said, the whole idea of jamming your body into load-bearing on shoulders that may not even be able to get in that position...not to cancel down dog, but again like you said, it would be super helpful if people knew what they were asking their bodies to do and whether their bodies could do it and what their bodies would do to make it happen.
Agreed on many fronts. It's important that people be able to access scapular ranges of motion unloaded and know what it is you mean before just telling them to pull them "down" in a loaded scapular position. Great points.
I think assessments would be SO VALUABLE for starting (or continuing, never too late) a yoga practice! If anything, it'd probably keep half of the room from feeling left out or like they were failing when they couldn't get their bodies into positions well past the ROM they really have (or what on average most people have) and they'd understand why, and maybe feel less crappy about it. Or know how to work towards increasing those spaces. I know a great coach to do an assessment.... :-)
I think it’s hard to do in group settings. It’s an unfortunate side effect of capitalism making access affordable to groups while largely neglecting individual issues. Don’t want to start a discussion on that, but screening a large class is a tough thing to do.
Yes yes yes, that.