Yoga Tune Up^® Blog

One thing I always focus on in my classes is opening the chest to create space for more breath, and while we yogis always think about backbends and contracting the back muscles for chest opening, sometimes we need to bring our attention to the muscles on the front body. For example, the small pectoralis minor is hidden beneath the pectoralis major; despite its size, it is a vitally important muscle for shoulder health in particular, and overall health in general. The pectoralis minor originates on the third, fourth, and fifth ribs and inserts on the coracoid process of the scapula; thus, this little muscle connects the shoulder blade to the rib cage. Its major function is to help elevate the rib cage during inhalation, allowing for full, deep breathing. That is in a perfect world.

Most of us, because of our daily routines, do not have full range of motion in the pec minor. We spend so much time hunching with our shoulder internally rotated and the shoulder blades protracted—in front of computers, over our steering wheels, leaning on a counter while chopping vegetables and other food for meals, hunching over flower beds when gardening, and so forth—that this muscle is chronically shortened, pulling the shoulder blades forward, and compromising the ability of the rib cage to expand. In addition, when this muscle is compressed, the major blood vessels of the arm as well as the brachial plexus (nerves that innervate the arm) that run under it are also compressed and their function is compromised, causing numbness and poor circulation. We need to reverse this habitual posture for our breath, our shoulder health (range of movement and flexibility), and our general health (being able to reach overhead into a cabinet, and behind us to scratch our own back, for example).

The good news is that the “damage” can be easily repaired with a ball routine and a few stretches that take very little time. Since I spend most of my work day in front of a computer, I’ve developed a special fondness for rehydrating and mobilizing my pec minor. My favorite sequence is to take a YTU therapy ball and a block to the wall, placing the ball on the block and then rolling from just under the inner collarbone to the outer collarbone, pressing gently on the coracoid process (a nubby protrusion on the shoulder blade that pokes out into the armpit area) when I reach it. That movement also rolls out the subclavius which acts to elevate the first rib during inhalation—a bonus! Then I move on to Shoulder Flossing Variation #1 (using a strap to take the shoulder girdle back and forth through circumduction) for four or five sets (more if I have time). You could stop there and feel the benefits, but if there’s more time, I like to add Bridge Arms into Prasarita, and Open Sesame. Try it—your breath won’t be the same.

During many yoga classes I have attended, the teacher would continually tell us to “open your heart” and “bring your shoulders back and down.” In Pilates reformer classes, the cue was to “place your shoulders in your back pockets,” or just the stern command:  “SHOULDERS DOWN!” Wanting to be a good student, I did this… over and over again until my shoulder blades were so retracted (drawn together) and depressed (drawn down) that I thought I was destined for an “A” in the class. Full disclosure: Yes, I am a habitual overachiever.

This cue was continually offered up because most of the students in the class had overdeveloped upper traps that kept their shoulder blades perpetually elevated (up near their ears) and protracted (separated). The problem was that the teacher could have repeated this cue until the cows came home, and her students still would have been unable to execute scapular retraction and depression.  This is because without some blend of myofascial release and an embodied understanding of basic skeletal anatomy and directions of movement, it just wasn’t gonna happen.

To complicate matters, not all of the students were in this postural situation. In walks hyper mobile me, loosey goosey with instability in every joint (which, by the way, made me look really pretty in those yoga poses) with the ability to place my bones in virtually any position she requested.  I kept listening to the instructor’s cues like a good girl until the medial border of my shoulder blades were French kissing like Marlon and Maria in the Last Tango in Paris.

Finally, I started taking private Pilates sessions. My shoulders were hurting and I couldn’t do the Vasistasana“Wild Thing” anymore (the horror!). I needed some one-on-one guidance from a teacher who taught teachers. She showed me the skeleton and the curved shape of the scapula, spine of the scapula, and ribcage.  She explained how to test to see if your scapula were in a neutral position, and taught me exercises that strengthened the local stabilizers of my shoulder joint. I quickly learned how all this “opening of my heart” (while important to do when caring for a young child) was not serving my anatomical body, or my yoga and Pilates practice. I also discovered that all of this scapular retraction was interrelated to the anterior displacement of my ribcage (rib popping) and to my anterior pelvic tilt (happy tail). They all seemed to go together like a high school clique and I was beginning to look a lot like my childhood hero Nadia Comaneci (which is not a good thing unless you want to be an Olympic gymnast).

Fast forward several years later, I discovered Yoga Tune Up®, and that directions of movement and myofascial release techniques can be taught DURING the group class, not just kept as a secret to be revealed in private sessions. This allows students to embody their tissues first and understand basic human movement before moving on to more complicated exercises or postures. Wow! Imagine it: you are taught how to release your upper traps with the Yoga Tune Up® therapy balls. Then you physically move your shoulders through protraction, retraction, elevation, and depression while learning what the terms mean and how they feel in your body. Later on in class, when you get a cue to protract or retract, you actually know how to do it and what it means.  VOILA! You now have mad skills that will help you to live better in your body every day. Luckily, you don’t have to imagine it. It happens all the time in Yoga Tune Up® classes, workshops, and teacher trainings.

“Stacy” (not her real name) was my new private client. She arrived at the studio where I teach in a wheel chair. She was post–op and post her allotted amount of physical therapy sessions. With a torn Achilles tendon, horrible back spasms, and a broken right and subsequently left sesamoid bone, she was in a lot of pain, frustrated and depressed. This young woman was suddenly unable to drive her car or go to work. Simple daily activities like putting on her jacket or reaching for the toilet paper sent her into painful back spasms.

She used to take an exercise class 3-5 days per week that she loved because she could “feel the burn” and she was really good at it.  Here’s the problem:  she was “really good at it” because the postural positions emphasized in the workout were the same ones she did all day long at work in the following four scenarios:

1. sitting at a desk or in the car (in high heels)
2. standing  (in high heels)
3. walking  (in high heels)
4. lifting a roller bag suitcase (in high heels)

Did I mention that all of the above are while wearing high heeled shoes?

The class emphasized a tucked pelvis(sad tail), with the femur bones in external rotation (turnout or duck foot), and plantar flexed ankles (pointed toes) in a weight bearing position; all three of which she was already doing on her own outside of the class in her daily life. Adding fuel to the fire was that she was adding concentric and isometric muscular contractions in this disastrous postural position. Now don’t get me wrong, this is a great way to train to be a better ballet dancer, but that wasn’t her goal.  She wanted a dancer’s physique without the dancer injuries.

The lessons learned from this situation can apply to all types of athletic endeavors.  Here are a few questions to ask yourself when choosing from the fitness menu:

Does your exercise program reinforce what you do in your daily life? For example, do you schlump in a chair at your desk all day and then hunch over your spin bike at night for exercise? Maybe you should try a yoga class that includes some restorative backbends. Perhaps you walk and stand all day with your belly muscles relaxed and your spine in extension, then take a heart opening backbend class you are “really good at.”  Maybe you should sign up for a cycling class…

So here’s the take home with regard to your exercise regime:

Your exercise can be your therapy, by choosing exercise that undoes what you do all day.  Learn basic human movement and ferret out those body blind spots in a Yoga Tune Up® class and your body will thank you!

What the heck is a neutral pelvis and why do I need to have one? This is a question I often get from my students and private clients. In Pilates reformer classes, teachers are constantly reminding students to bring their pelvis to “neutral”. Understanding and embodying a neutral pelvis is imperative not just for your Pilates or yoga practice, but for everything you do in life.  This is because neutral is the most stable and shock absorbing position.

There are many ways to help students find a neutral pelvis with verbal cues.  I have found that facilitating an embodied understanding of this concept happens best by palpating some crucial bony landmarks. Read the rest of this blog post »

If your social circles include yoga teachers and students, then surely you know about and are a possible constituent of the Texas-sized uproar over a recent piece in the New York Times Magazine by William J. Broad.  The five-page, single-spaced printed article with amusing photographs of yoga poses (also available online) suggests very unamusingly that yoga has the potential to be a ticking time bomb for injury if the practitioner is unaware of his or her body’s unique physical limits.  In other words, one must be able to distinguish between the John-Mellencamp-Hurts-So-Good sensations of sound biomechanical exercise and the undeniable internal signals of imminent harm.  Failing to make this distinction would be non-ahimsic (that’s yoga language roughly translated as “self-destructive”).

Based on the sampling of abundant commentary I’ve read, longtime yoga teacher Glenn Black, the primary interview subject of the article, has been either utterly vilified or amazingly praised in the 500 bazillion response pieces in print and online (that’s an approximation).  My thought is that a lot of this is impulse reaction.  We just don’t often associate yoga with warnings and disclaimers. I’ve never had the occasion to work with Black, though I have been fortunate to work with his student and my teacher, Jill Miller, who came up with Yoga Tune Up®.

Photo courtesy of Alisa Clark. Using six blocks has dramatically improved my posture in a forward bend by accommodating my end range of hamstring motion.

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Kayla is strong and athletic: she was a gymnast and shot putter in high school. However, as we poignantly know, even the strongest young person’s life can change radically as a result of an accident.  Kayla’s car was one of five vehicles rear-ended in a chain reaction car crash.

Kayla's recovery from a nasty car accident was helped along with YTU Therapy Balls.

Life transforms in an instant

Kayla’s cervical and thoracic spine seized and were pulled laterally, causing scoliosis. Kayla was in so much pain in her torso, she reports that “it even hurt to eat.”

Several months after the accident, following physical therapy, Kayla signed up for my yoga class. Our work with the Yoga Tune Up® therapy balls has helped her upper trapezius muscles tremendously. According to Kayla, “just  reclining and relaxing over the therapy balls on my upper back helps me where it hurts!” Additionally Kayla’s range of motion has increased from yoga. She also reports that in jithara parivartanasana she could not get her knees to the floor as the class began. In other words, she could barely perform a reclined twist. By the end of class, she had recovered full range of motion. Of course, the breath and meditative benefits of yoga have helped her manage lingering aches and pains from the accident.

Kayla reports to me that she has even shared her YTU therapy balls with her 13 year-old brother. He is a track runner and the balls have helped him with leg cramps.

Theresa is a full time college student, wife, and mother of three. She has been on a positive life changing path for the past two years. Losing 92 pounds has been one of her greatest accomplishments! Theresa has also been working closely with a personal fitness trainer who has taught her how to manage food portion sizes and additionally helps her realize her cardiovascular and strength fitness potential.

Yoga Tune Up® has been an integral part of Theresa's success!

Although Theresa had taken some gym based yoga when she joined my class, she had not been guided in meditative practices and Yoga Tune Up® alignment principles such as joint stacking. Theresa told me in spite of all of her previous training, “No one ever told me about alignment!”  Learning new yoga poses has been empowering and built her confidence.

Theresa’s hectic life in which she juggles multiple responsibilities called for an extra dose of balanced self care. In addition to the Yoga Tune Up® Therapy Ball program focusing on her tight jaw, described in the previous article, she has loved the Knee-hab work also found on this DVD. The YTU Therapy balls have beneficially counteracted the tightness Theresa has experienced in her fitness journey.

Theresa  truly is a wonderful role model for other students juggling family and work responsibilities. She has embraced the self-care practices of Yoga Tune Up®!

My painful earaches had been unwelcome visitors for years. When I finally scheduled an appointment with my physician, I was symptom free.  (Don’t you hate when that happens?) He ruled out infection, fluid buildup, and detected no redness or swelling. Alas, over the ensuing months, the intermittent symptoms continued. I felt so much pressure in my left ear that even the slightest touch on my pillow at night would hurt in an excruciating way. I could barely change sleep positions. Finally, after persistent complaints, my doc referred me to an Otolaryngologist, otherwise known as an ear, nose and throat specialist (ENT).

The ENT palpated my outer ears, he listened to my jaw as I opened and closed my mouth. He asked me questions such as “How much do you chew gum”?

I was surprised to find out that my earaches were symptomatic of TMJ disorder.

Masseter and the Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ)

An irritated masseter can trigger painful TMJ disorder.

The TMJ is located in front of each of your ears. It joins the mandible and maxilla, otherwise known as the lower and upper jaws. We use this joint throughout the day (some folks more than others) to chew, talk, yawn, and bite.

The masseter is the thick rectangular muscle in the cheek that functions to close the jaw. It is one of the four muscles of mastication, and considered the most powerful. Clenching and grinding of teeth, particularly under stress, or excessive gum chewing can overwork this muscle. Furthermore, the superficial masseter can refer pain to the face, lower jaw, and even the teeth. With TMJ disorder, the deep masseter refers pain to the ear.

Physical symptoms and ailments can be great opportunities for learning. My education came from the very real lesson of proximity and pain referral. By becoming conscious and informed about the anatomy of the jaw, the source of my earache was identified.

Yoga Tune Up® provides a simple Ball Therapy technique to relieve symptoms of TMJ disorder. If I feel my masseter beginning to spasm as signaled by ear pain, I immediately use my YTU therapy balls to massage out the pain (and you can try it yourself as demonstrated in the clip below!).

The rhomboids are – wait for it – two rhomboid shaped muscles that lie between the shoulder blades.  I love anatomical terms, they tell it like it is.  Rhomboid Major and Minor connect the medial edge of the scapula to the spinous processes of the spine (those dinosaur-like nubs that stick out the back of your spine). In the complex shoulder joint, they guide retraction(adduction), elevation (think shrugging) and downward rotation of the shoulder blades.  If you read my article on cycling you will know mine live in protraction a lot of the time.  In fact, in our society of computer users and drivers, many  of us are chronically protracted, which means leads to chronic weakeness. These muscles can help up open doors, pick up bags and a ton of other daily tasks.  It’s important to keep them healthy and strong.  YTU Scapula Squeezes bring circulation into the muscle as well as focused movement.  Check out the full Yoga Tune Up® 5 Minute QuickFix for Shoulders Video for more on healthy shoulders.  Seriously, don’t shrug it off.

The triceps sit at the back of the upper arm.  In fact it is the only muscle at the back of the arm.  It is called the ‘tri’ceps because it is, as the Latin clearly states, a three headed muscle.  There is a long head, a medial head and a short head.  These three head originate at different places in the shoulder and all end up inserting into a thick tendon at the olecranon process of the ulna, or what we call the elbow.  All three heads of this muscle extend the elbow and the long head alone is an extender and adductor of the shoulder joint.  Most yogis and yoginis become acutely aware of the location and strength of this muscle in Chatturanga Dandasana.  If you read my previous article about cycling, you will know mine got pretty beat up in the Fall.  My go-to YTU exercise for the tricep, especially for that long head is Long Head of the Triceps.  I do it after my rides, I have my indoor cyclists do it after class, I have my yogi and yogini cyclists and triathletes make it part of their routine.  It is a great strengthener and toner for that stretched triceps.  Check it out below and on the 10 Minute Quick Fix for Shoulders video.

Traditionally, “shoulder to the wheel” means to work hard or exert yourself.  While you certainly do those things when cycling, the phrase took on whole new meaning for me this year.  Bar tops, hoods, and drops could refer to an ‘interesting’ Saturday night in Manhattan… but for the purposes of this article, they are the three main placements of a cyclist’s hands on the handlebars, which clearly establish three very different body positions on the bicycle.

1.  Riding on the bar tops is an upright and fairly relaxed position (where many people are most comfortable)

2.  Riding on the hoods (the rubber thingies that protect your brake lever mechanics), moves your upper body a little lower and forward.

3.  Being in the drops takes you into a more aggressive and aerodynamic position.  This promotes greater power transfer to the legs.  I spend a lot of time in those three positions, especially on the hoods and in the drops.  Why is this important?  If you take a look at the photos below, you can see the increased flexion in my upper back as my hand position changes.  “Shoulder to the wheel” as it were.

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