Chaturanga Dandasana: the missing links
I've been (surprise, surprise) thinking about chaturanga dandasana of late. I've noticed that in practice, chaturanga can be an easeful fully-embodied posture, but it can also be a source of frustration when it's not. There are so many things that need to happen in chaturanga dandasana that it bears looking at (again!).
I'm going to suggest that there are a couple of structures we can access that fall under the category of Tom Myer's Deep Front Line --a myofascial meridian that links muscles and other structures together to provide the spine , and arguably the entire body,with support. The DFL plays a part in lifting the inner arches of the feet, stabilizing the legs, supporting the front of the spine, stabilizing the chest in breathing, while allowing for the expansion and relaxing necessary for a full, easy breath; and balancing the neck and head on top of all of it!
As we know, nothing in the body operates in isolation. One way of looking at how the body is organized is through the lens of the fascia and its attendant structures. We know that the fascial web is one continuous structure throughout the entire body. It surrounds and pervades every organ, vessel, and muscle. The meninges surrounding the spinal cord and brain are fascia. Literally every structure in the body is invested with or surrounded by fascia. The human body can be described as a biotensegrity structure. Biotensegrity refers to biological "structures that maintain their integrity due primarily to a balance of woven tensile forces continual through the structure as opposed to leaning on continuous compressive forces like a stone wall." (Tom Myers, Anatomy Trains, 2nd edition p.45) So, we no longer really look at the skeleton as bones stacked upon one another, in a compressive structure, with muscles that lever them through space, but as a structure where the compressive forces and tensile structures balance one another. The compressive structures (here, the bones) are afloat in a sea of fibrous connective tissue that lend the body lightness as well as stability. In this concept, the bones are seen as spacers pushing out into the soft tissue, the tone of which determines the balance of the structure. The fascial continuity model would imply that the myo-fascia (or the fascia of the muscles) acts as a tensegrity structure around the skeleton, where a continuous inward-pulling tensional network supports the bones within the connective tissue, and the bones act as struts, rather than compressive structures that are stacked upon one another.
So --the Deep Front Lin (DFL) is a huge player in supporting the body, especially from the "core". The DFL goes from the sole of the foot --the attachment of tibialis posterior and the long toe flexors, up through the popliteal space behind the knee, through all of the adductors, through the ilio-psoas complex, pectineus, and including the fascia of the pelvic floor (important for the bandhas) and then divides into three tracks, which function as one. The deepest track follows the anterior longitudinal ligament (ALL) up the front of the spine through longus coli and longus captis to attach on basilar portion of the occiput. The middle track includes the breathing diaphragm and its stem (which we know when embodied goes all the way to the tip of the coccyx tail); the pericardium, the mediastinum, the parietal pleura of the lungs, continues up through the scalenes, the pharyngeal raphe to attach on to the cervical transverse processes and the basilar portion of the occiput. The anterior track also follows the breathing diaphragm and its stem, up towards its bony attachment at the xypohoid process, behind the sternum (the endothoracic fascia) through the infrahyoid muscles and the suprahyoid muscles via the hyoid bone to attach on the mandible.
The DFAL is a continuation of the DFL to the arms --it consists of the thenar muscles, from the lateral side of the thumb, through the inner arm, via the radial ligaments, the radial periosteum, the biceps brachii, to the pec minor and clavipectoral fascia, to attach onto the anterior surface of ribs 3, 4, and 5. In Embodyoga®, we would take that all the way to the tail, even though in terms of the meridian itself (which is determined largely by lines of force) it doesn't follow that track all the way down to the tail. Besides, hands-to-tail and feet-to-head in practice go through the pancreas, which is also a huge support, but not a myofascial one.
Let's look at a couple of the myofascial structures that I think will be helpful in learning and doing chaturanga dandasana. The ilio-psoas complex acts as the bridge between the upper and lower bodies. Now we know that chaturanga dandasana requires that the entire body be involved. The more supports you can layer on, the more easeful the pose will be. But for now, let's focus on the myofascial supports. I see a lot of students in chaturanga pulling themselves forward into the posture... which isn't surprising, since that's largely how it's been taught. (ie. yoga journal, etc). What I have found is that if we use yield and push, and take it all the way through the entire body --from hands-to-tail and from feet-to-head, and come into chaturanga by pushing down and away, not dragging yourself forward, then you hit the myofascial sling of support, and there is no collapse in the pose. I'm not arguing that this is easy to do at first, but once the connections are made, this way of entering the pose has many benefits. For one, there is almost zero compression in the wrists. You create space by pushing down and away, and when you come forward (yielding your weight into your hands) --maintaining the push down and away as you come forward, you maintain the space created in the wrists. Additionally, the the shoulders don't collapse, the butt doesn't tip up, and you have all your supports in play. You don't want a big arc in the lumbar spine in chaturanga. In order to maintain axial extension in the spine, we'll look to the DFL for the myofascial supports.
There are a couple of what I think may be small but important missing links along the myofascial meridian of the DFL. The first one (going from feet-to-head) --you could just as easily look at it from head-to-feet-- is the psoas minor. The psoas minor runs along the anterior surface of the psoas major, and attaches from the front of the pelvis (the iliopectineal eminence), to the bodies and discs of T11-12, and acts to flex the lumbar spine and posteriorly tilt the pelvis. Although it only expresses as muscle in about 51% of the population, it expresses as a fascial band in 100% of the population. So --many people may not have a lot of control over the psoas minor, but I think when we start to embody it, and see how it works, we can develop the muscle portion, similarly to the way the stem of the breathing diaphragm develops with full use. The core work below will aid in that discovery and development. The psoas minor acts to slightly flex the lumbar spine, and aids in posteriorly tilting the pelvis. This is important in chaturanga dandasana. The psoas major, as i stated before, acts as a bridge between the upper and lower bodies --it blends in with the stem of the breathing diaphragm to continue up the deep track of the DFL. When we can fully access psoas major and minor, along with the other supports of the DFL, chaturanga becomes a different experience.
The other structure that is very important in chaturanga dandasana is the hyoid bone. The hyoid bone (one of the bony "stations" of the DFL) attaches onto the tongue, and the hyoid muscles, some of which attach to the posterior surface of the sternum, and to the upper border of the scapula. When we place the tongue lightly on the hard palate of the mouth and keep it there, it keeps the hyoid bone snugged up and back --drawing the sternum up ever so slightly, and securing the shoulder blades on the back, both important supports in chaturanga. It also helps to keep the jaw soft and the breath even --and is also called jiva bandha!
So --to execute the pose --start in plank pose, with your shoulders slightly behind your wrists --yield and push down and away, drawing the pit of the belly in. Keeping the tongue on the hard palate (anywhere --it doesn't matter where --and lightly perch it there) see if you can activate psoas minor and psoas major. (You'll feel a slight "hooking" of the sitbones towards the fronts of the feet.) It's not a big tuck of the pelvis --and the tail remains rooted towards the heels (pit of belly still drawn in). Keeping all of that, slowly start to lower forward and down by pushing down and away. As you lower down, spinning the elbows in towards your ribs, don't let go of the psoas minor (even if you don't have it expressed as muscle, it can act as the support --you can do the action itself using the iliacus/psoas major). Of course, you also need to maintain the feet-to-head connections provided by the entire DFL --but just pay extra attention to the psoas minor and the hyoid if you tend to collapse in chaturanga.
When done in a fully-embodied manner, you can hold chaturanga dandasana for several breaths easily. If you cannot ---return to core work and stay aware of what happens along the front of the neck. If the chin dips forward, you've lost the longus coli/captis and hyoid support. In order for chaturanga dandasana to be easeful, you need to maintain the connections all the way from the soles of the feet up to the head. The DFL provides us with the material to do that.
Here are a couple of core exercises that can help you find your psoas --both of them!
Lie on your back with your legs slightly more than 90 degrees away from your torso. (The psoas only fires up to 90 degrees, if your legs are closer to your torso than that, you're in your superficial abdominals) Place your hips about 6 inches from the wall, and rest your legs on the wall, heels touching, legs straight. Feel for the natural arc of the lumbar spine here. Placing your hands behind your head (just for support) a block between your thighs, inhale your breath (tongue on the hard palate) squeeze your block and press your low back into the earth (not lifting the pelvis off the floor --it's a very small movement) by curling your tailbone towards the ceiling. Your pelvis stays on the earth. You're just pushing the low spine towards the floor. Your feet will move very slightly towards the ceiling. Retain your breath. Exhale and curl your chin in towards your chest, gaze down at your belly. Elbows towards knees. Retain your breath. Then inhale and release your head and arms, keep pressing the low back into the earth, curling your tail up towards the ceiling, and then exhale and release your tail. The natural arc returns to the lumbar spine. Repeat this 5 times. When you feel like you've found the action in the psoas, take your legs away from the wall and do it again, this time reaching your feet up and away from your face instead of up the wall.
Then do the same thing with your legs bent, so that your shins are parallel to the floor, and your thighs at slightly greater than 90 degrees from your torso. Again, do this at the wall to isolate the action. Place your heels on the wall, shins parallel to the floor; hands behind the head for support (don't push your head forward, use your front neck muscles to curl the chin towards the chest). Squeeze the block, inhale and curl the tail (low back presses down), kicking your heels into the wall. Retain your breath, then exhale, curl chin to chest, elbows towards knees; retain your breath, then inhale and release your head (tail still curling up --low back on the earth, heels still pressing into the wall) then exhale and release your tail. The natural curve returns to the lumbar spine. You can then take this one away from the wall as well --which will be a little bit more challenging. Repeat 5 times.
So --to recap --in chaturanga dandasana --start with yield and push, maintain axial extension (neutral curves with bandha) access the supports of psoas major, minor, and the hyoid bone and its attaching structures. In short --find the entire Deep Front Line --and as Patty Townsend would say, "have a party!" Have fun, and let me know how it goes!!
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