Still Not Strong After 1,000’s of Chaturangas?
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"All We Do Is Pushing In Yoga, Yet I Still Can't Do Chaturanga"
If you’ve followed our work for a while, you’ve no doubt heard us discuss the fact that a yoga practice includes a lot of shoulder-pushing movements but no complementary shoulder-pulling movements.
Quick reminder:
Shoulder-pushing is when we push something away from us (e.g., the floor or a weight).
Shoulder-pulling is when we pull something toward us (like a weight) – or when we pull our body toward something (like in a pull-up).
It’s becoming more widely understood that the lack of pulling work in yoga means that yogis tend to have weak, underloaded shoulder-pulling muscles.
But did you know that even though we do so much pushing in yoga, we’re not necessarily strong in our shoulder-pushing muscles either? What gives?!
Take chaturanga, for example...
Chaturanga is yoga's classic shoulder-pushing move (at least pushing in a horizontal direction).
But for all the chaturangas we do, many of us still can’t do a single full-range push-up. How could this be? 🤔
One of the major reasons that 1,000's of chaturangas might not actually make us strong is that chaturanga requires more strength to perform well than many yogis truly possess.
By some calculations, we push about 70% of our body weight in a push-up. For a 140-lb yogi, that would be 98 lbs, which is actually a ton!
If we're not strong enough to push 70% of our body weight with our arms (and many yogis – particularly females – are not), we have to resort to tactics that allow us to work less in chaturanga. And we often do this without even realizing it!
Chaturanga should be a moving plank
Here’s a helpful way to think about chaturanga: chaturanga should ideally be a moving plank.
We start in plank pose, and we should maintain that alignment of a straight line from head to hips to heels as we lower down (except, of course, for the bending of our elbows):
But maintaining a well-aligned plank as we lower down into chaturanga is hard!
One of the most common ways we make things easier on ourselves in chaturanga is sticking our hips up in the air. As you can see, doing so brings us out of that straight-line plank alignment we ideally want:
Another example of losing our plank pose "line" in chaturanga is allowing our head to poke forward – as though our head wants to lead the way as we lower down:
A third tactic we often employ in chaturanga is to lower down fast – allowing gravity to move us toward the floor rather than using the strength and control of our muscles. When we rely on gravity like this, we once again make the pose easier!
For all of these reasons, we can practice 1,000's of chaturangas and still lack the strength to do a single full-range push-up.
The Answer to Our Chaturanga Woes
What could be a more productive way to truly build shoulder-pushing strength? A way to increase the capacity of our upper body and make chaturanga easier for us in our yoga practice? 🤔
The answer is simple!
Start strength training your shoulder-pushing muscles using smart push-up regressions (and other targeted accessory exercises) that truly meet your body at its current strength level. As you build strength, gradually increase the challenge so your strength adaptations continue.
Once you've built the prerequisite strength chaturanga requires, you'll be surprised how much easier it becomes to practice chaturanga in that "moving plank" alignment!
WANT TO KNOW WHAT OUR FAVORITE PUSH-UP REGRESSION IS? CHECK OUT OUR QUICK VIDEO!
Want to build shoulder strength without having to think about which exercises to do, what order to do them in, and how many sets and reps to do?
Guess what! This is exactly what we do for you in our 5 Weeks to Strong & Flexible Shoulders program. Order it on its own or in combination with our 5 Weeks to Strong & Flexible Hamstrings program!
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