6 Common Pose Mistakes & How To Fix Them | Chandra Yoga International

By Author: Dr. Sushil Yogi
Total Articles: 3
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1. Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
Correct Alignment
Establish your hands shoulder-distance apart or wider at the top of your mat, Expand your fingers, and root down through your knuckles. Raise your hips high and step your feet to the back of the mat. Distinct your feet hip-distance apart and point them to 12 o’clock. Ground down through all 4 corners of your feet and press your heels toward the mat. From the skin to the muscle to the bone, hug in, and stable your legs and arms. Set your Drishti (gaze) between your ankles.
Default: Short Dog
When your posture is too short, Downward-Facing Dog can feel constrained and tight, especially through the shoulders, wrists, and low back.
Adjustment: Create more space
Open up your base and broaden your hands and feet to access more freedom, equanimity, and power. Step your feet back and hands forward to construct more space in your pose. Press your knuckles strongly into the mat, bend your knees deeply, and elongate your spine. With your back open and full, start to straighten your legs and work your heels toward the mat.
2. Chaturanga ...
... dandasana
Correct Alignment
From Plank, melt your thoracic spine (middle back and upper ) in and spread across your chest. Raise your gaze to the top of your mat, press forward to your toes, and lower your arms to ninety degrees with your elbows straight over your wrists. elongate your tailbone toward your heels and steadfast your leg muscles.
Default: Shoulders forward, bottom up.
Shoulders usually round forward and your bottom goes up, and collapse in Chaturanga. This disintegrates the lower and upper halves of the body, you lose power, and it puts tremendous pressure on the rotator cuff and the shoulders.
Modification: Bring your knees down
Bring your knees down to the mat. Keep your chest open and broad and your side body long. Elongate your tailbone down and Raise your low belly up and in. With your whole body working as one unit, lower down to a modified Chaturanga at ninety degrees.
3. Upward-Facing Dog (Urdhvamukha shvanasana)
Correct Alignment
Press your palms into the ground at the top of your mat, shoulder-distance apart, and the tops of your feet to the back of your mat at hip-distance apart. Engage your abdomen and quadriceps in lifting the front of your thighs off the mat, and spin your inner thighs to the sky. Stack your shoulders over your wrists and soften your elbows slightly. Root down via the triads of your hands, draw your upper arm bones back and lift and open your chest.
Default: Shoulders forward, thighs on ground
If thighs are on the ground and your shoulders are rounding forward, Upward-Facing Dog can feel tight and constricted rather than expansive and open.
Adjustment: Bend your elbows and lift your thighs
Ground down via your knuckles and bend your elbows. With your elbows bent you can move and access the heads of your upper arm bones onto your back. Spread across your chest. Press the tops of your feet down, hug your outer shins in, and Raise your thighs up off the mat. Press your hands down, lift your gaze, straighten your arms, and come into your full expression.
4. Side Plank (Vasisthasana)
Correct Alignment
Ground down through your lower hand and Raise your other arm to the sky. Press the outer edge of your lower foot into the floor and stack your upper foot on top. Fold both feet, expand your toes, and hug your leg muscles to the bones. Press your tailbone to your heels and raise the pit of your belly in and up to build your inner fire. spread your fingers wide and look to your top hand. Raise your hips as high as you can and open your chest as you expand from the inside out.
Default: Inactive feet
If your feet are passive in Side Plank, you are depending heavily on your core strength and your arm to keep your whole body lifted. Feet create the base of the pose and integration of your legs with your core.
Modification: Drop one knee
Bring your bottom knee to the mat, straight under your hip. Press down into the ground the through all 4 corners of your top foot, stack your hips, and engage your top leg. For more support as you set your base, bring your top hand to your top hip. When you are set, access the crown of your head long and extend your top hand to the sky.
5. Crescent Lunge (Anjaneyasana)
Correct Alignment
With a long posture on your mat, ground down into all 4 corners of your front foot. Stack your back heel over the ball of your back foot and hug skin to muscle and muscle to bone. Bend your front knee to ninety degrees and align your front knee over your ankle. Hug your inner thighs toward one another and square both hips to the front of the mat. Raise your chest and arms high. Raise your low belly and scissor your inner thighs in toward your centerline.
Default: Back heel is pressing back
With your back heel pressed to the back of the mat, your back leg works freely from your body. This results in loss of overall ability and power to hug into the centerline.
Modification: Drop your back knee
Pull Down your back knee. Bringing your back knee down can help to build stability and strength in your leg, and build integration and core strength.
6. Wheel Pose (Chakrasana)
Correct Alignment
Lie downwards on your back, twist your knees, and put your feet hip-distance apart and facing 12 o’clock. Plug into the earth with your feet and stack your knees over your ankles. Set your hands on your shoulders by your ears, wider than your shoulders, with your fingers facing back toward your body. With a breathe in, press up to the crown of your head, and draw your shoulders onto your back. With your next breathe in, press into your base and lift up off the ground.
Default: Foundation is too wide
When your base is very wide in Wheel, it can feel like you are hardly hanging on. There is a chance for more power and integration by shortening your base.
Adjustment: Better shoulder integration
Move your hands nearer to your shoulders and wider than your shoulders in the set up on your back. With your first breath in, come to the crown of your head and unified your shoulders. transpose your elbows in toward your body, and hug your shoulder blades onto your back. With this shoulder integration, press up into full Wheel Pose.

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