Yoga Tune Up^® Blog

The pectineus is a small, quadrangular stealth muscle that creeps up on you without warning. A muscle that wrecks havoc not only in the groin but also impedes proper biomechanics & breathing.

Have you ever awoken the next day from a squat/leg workout [or cycling, hockey, football, sprinting, horseback riding, etc] feeling so sore you can’t really walk or stand or breath properly? I am pectineus- feel my pain!

Pectineus shares fascial connections with the psoas.

The pectineus attaches from the superior pubic ramus to your pectineal line. Simply put- it goes from your pubic bone to your upper femur bone. The pectineus is one of your many groin/ adductor muscles (adductor brevis, adductor longus, adductor magnus, gracilis).

The difference between this muscle and other groin muscles is its proximity and interconnectedness to the psoas and illiacus. These three muscles are intertwined within their fascial fibers. If one muscle is unhealthy, dehydrated, and tight, the others will follow suit. In addition, the psoas is married to the diaphragm in a similar fashion.

To make my point, Thomas Myers, author of Anatomy Trains, has dissected many cadavers and shown clearly the relationship of the pectineus to the diaphragm. Upon a slight pull of the pectineus the fascial line went straight up through the psoas to movement in the diaphragm. An incredible finding shedding light on many athletes’ issues with groin pain and tacked down, hard to use diaphragms. How easy is it for you to breathe?

If you have any restrictions in your breathing (can’t breathe fully/properly) this will impact your pelvis and groin region placing more constraint/inhibition of muscle use and increased risk of injury. How can you increase mobility of the pectineus? Find out in my next post!

The infraspinatus is nestled in the infraspinous fossa of the scapula and attaches the greater tubercle of the humerus.  With muscle fibers running horizontally, infraspinatus works with teres minor in external rotation, adduction and stabilization of the shoulder.  It is one of four rotator cuff stabilizing muscles along with supraspinatus, teres minor and subscapularis.  Infraspinatus is the second most common culprit of rotator cuff problems and can be a contributor in frozen shoulder.  Pitching, pulling a lawn mower cord and even side sleepers whose arms are externally rotated and under head are actions that contribute to injury and overuse.  The infraspinatus can be very tender and get little caring attention.

Create a new soft tissue relationship with your shoulders:  start by getting real with the issues in your tissues!  This Yoga Tune Up® Therapy Ball video will show you how to roll, knead, realign and redefine your infraspinatus muscle to its optimal health so you can feel good in your body.

YTU balls illuminate our body blind spots.  Body blind spots are places in our bodies we are not aware of.  We all have blind spots, and if not found they can be the source of pain and injury. They are our jagged edges.

Yoga Tune Up® balls illuminate blind spots, cultivating awareness. Through practice we learn how to strategically use the YTU balls’ magic. Excavation of tissues not only shines a light of awareness, but begins to change the structure of muscle fibers, liquefying, realigning, nourishing and revitalizing our tissues. When we use or overuse our muscles the fibers break and tear. As they heal, if there is no attention and care given, they will regenerate and lay in a haphazard way. This sets up conditions for a weaker infrastructure and bigger tearing to occur down the road and/or forming of adhesions. Massaging with YTU balls helps break up adhesions and realign muscle fibers so they are healthier and stronger. It’s like how dropping a box of toothpicks creates a haphazard pile all going in different directions. If you roll your hand over the tooth picks in one direction eventually the toothpicks will realign. Read the rest of this blog post »

Try this Yoga Tune Up® pose Reverse Crucifix to stretch the rhomboids major and minor. If the serratus anterior is going to do its job holding your scapula on your back, we need its antagonist – the rhomboids – to be supple and pliant. Otherwise, it’s just a big tug-of-war between serratus anterior and rhomboids to see who gets the scapula!

There’s tightness in my upper back.  Maybe it’s masculine energy stuck on the right side.  Or maybe it’s feminine energy stuck on the left side.  There’s a tightness or tension between my shoulder blades. It could be repetitious unconsciousness instead of repetitious awareness (Thank you, Daniel Stewart).  There’s tightness when I breathe.   Maybe it’s… NO! Wait! It’s your rhomboids!  That’s exactly what it is.

Overworked or overstretched rhomboids can lead to scapular instability.

Two upper back muscles located between your shoulder blades are holding tight because of the way you sit, stand, walk, plank, handstand, text, etc.  Slouch means ouch, even when you’re inverted!  The rhomboid major originates at the spinous processes of T-2 to T-5 and inserts at the medial border of the scapula between the spine of the scapula and the inferior angle.  The rhomboid minor originates at the spinous processes of C-7 and T-1 and inserts at the upper portion of the medial border of the scapula, across form the spine of the scapula.  Meet your rhomboids.  Get to know your rhomboids.

Rhomboids rotate the scapula downwards, retract the scapula and elevate the scapula.

Have thin fibers that lie deep to the trapezius and superficial to the erector spinae muscles.

One rhomboid is the major, the other the minor.  The minor is located superior to the major.

Major and minor rhomboids are known flat, rectangular muscles.

Both rhomboids have fibers that run on the diagonal or oblique angle.

Overworked and over tired, these muscles need to be rolled out with YTU Therapy Balls.

Indeed, scapular instability can result if the rhomboids are not doing their job.  (no winging!)

Direct antagonists of the serratus anterior muscles?  You know it!  Your rhomboids.

Stretch the rhomboids in Reverse Crucifix. Contract the rhomboids in Standing Bridge arms.

Get real with your rhomboids using the Yoga Tune Up® Rib Rock.   Really real.  This totally uncorks tension in your upper back and improves your posture and so much more.  Ready, set, ROCK your rhomboids!

Watch Jill Miller explain and perform Uddiyana Bandha in in her final of the three part series with Dr. Kelly Starrett of mobilitywod.com. Note how the vacuum is created not by pulling the guts in, but by relaxing the abdomen completely and drawing the ribs apart instead.

In Anatomy of Hatha Yoga, author and yogi Dr. H. David Coulter claims, “Udiaynna bandha is the only practice in Hatha Yoga that frankly stretches the respiratory diaphragm.” (p. 197)

After 16 years of yoga practice, Udiyanna Bandha still remained to me an ellusive Da Vinci Code only cracked by a few lucky adepts.  It looked so freaking cool, but seemed impossible and no one could actually explain how to do it or even what to practice in order to do it.   No one even said why to do it.  But that didn’t matter.  It looked radical,  and I’m radical.  But all I ever heard was “Pull the belly in” or “Pull the navel to the spine.”  Then finally, in January of 2011 during Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, in Jill Miller’s Core immersion, I learned how to stretch – actuality stretch — my diaphragm and I was free at last, free at last, thank gawd almighty, I was free at last.  I felt like a giddy little boy unleashed in the marvelously odd playground of my insides…and that was just the beginning!  This set the stage for the next three years of practice to graduate to Nauli Kriya, the seeming magical churning of the abdomen that yogis have performed for generations. Read the rest of this blog post »

In my last post, we brought the slip and slide back to the abdominal layers using the Coregeous Ball in order to give the diaphragm a chance to release from the front. Now let’s talk to the back. Try this Yoga Tune Up® Therapy Ball Massage with Dr. Kelly Starrett of MobilityWod to free up the diaphragm’s partners on the back and between the ribs to further prepare the canvas so to speak.

Then we’ll be more ready to toughen it, broaden it, and soften it as it synergies with the orgy of tissues all around. (More on that later!)

“So…the diaphragm is a muscle?”  a student epiphonied during one of my beginning yoga sessions.   “Yes!” I said with the same glee a mom has when her baby takes that first step.  “Just like your biceps.  You gotta stretch it and strengthen it.”  We’d been working on Bridge lifts to Udiyanna Bandha and his new understanding of this muscle changed how he viewed “core” work, bike riding, and how he breathed in everyday life.  Way cool.

I can live without a biceps.  I can live without the giant quadriceps on the front of my thigh.  I can even live without the overworked chewing muscle called the masseter who does the most work for its size of any muscle in the body.  But, I cannot — repeat, cannot — live without a diaphragm. Read the rest of this blog post »

Not only can a weak supraspinatus muscle hinder everyday activities and workouts, but neglecting the muscle all together can be a source of discomfort and neck pain.  Discover your body blind spots by reaching areas that have become neglected or overworked with Yoga Tune Up® Therapy Balls.  Ridding yourself of tension in the shoulders and neck will make for a smoother rotation of movement in the rotator cuff muscles as well as avoiding future injury.  Check out this clip of Jill Miller showing us how to roll out the supraspinatus muscle to relieve tension and neck pain by massing deep into the tissues.

Try to hold your arms out to the sides for 5 minutes.  Just try it.  Ok, for time’s sake try 1 minute.  It’s hard, right?  Now try it in Warrior 2. Woah!  It takes a lot of work!

So much is happening in Warrior 2 that your arms/shoulders can become neglected.  How many times have you been in a yoga class and the instructor lifts your drooping back arm in Warrior 2?  Not only is every muscle in your legs and torso either stretching, lengthening, or building muscle, but your arms are abducted as your shoulders hold up the weight of your arms.  If you’re having a tough time keeping the full expression of Warrior 2, it could ultimately be weakness in your supraspinatus muscle.

The skinny supraspinatus initiates abduction of the arm away from the body.

Building strength in your arms and rotator cuff muscles will assist in providing enough strength to abduct your shoulders for a longer period of time.  The most important of these for abduction of the shoulders is the supraspinatus.  The supraspinatus, infraspinatus, subcapularis, and teres minor are the 4 muscles of the rotator cuff.  These rotator cuff muscles surround the humeral head to stabilize the shoulder joint.   The supraspinatus originates at the scapula and inserts on the greater tuberosity of the humerus in front of the infraspinatus.  It helps to abduct the upper arm bone away from the body and move it overhead (a la Sun Salutations.)  It is the only rotator cuff muscle not involved in shoulder rotation but it assists in many everyday activities and yoga poses.

Strengthening rotator cuff muscles is crucial in preventing common shoulder injuries and helps open up the chest.  In a world where millions of people internally rotate and hunch over, the supraspinatus weakens causing a rounding in the shoulders.  Yoga Tune Up® poses like Pranic Bath, Propeller Arms and Stand Up Bodysurfing will awaken and/or strengthen the supraspinatus for a much more open chest and stronger Warrior 2 pose.