Every morning, millions of North Americans step onto their yoga mats to salute the sun. The sun salutation, in all of its many forms, is a gorgeous moving ritual that effectively warms the body, lubricates and strengthens the joints, lengthens muscles, and fills the body with breath. Yet, despite its many benefits, most if not all sun salutation sequences are fraught with potential pitfalls for both new and experienced yogis alike.
The issues stem from the simple fact that sun salutations are done relatively fast and frequently. The impeccable alignment of breath and movement during each sun salutation (known as vinyasa in yoga circles) means we rarely linger in its individual poses. We inhale, sweep arms overhead; exhale, swan dive over to fold; inhale, come to flat back; and so on—and that doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for detailed alignment instructions or careful proprioception. Add to this the fact that the same sequence is repeated over and over again and you have the perfect conditions for practicing on autopilot. In fact, experienced practitioners may be even more prone to chronic injury from habitual movements and deeply entrenched body blind spots.
Although the first movement of most sun salutation sequences—the reach of arms overhead to a pose called urdhva hastasana—may seem simple enough, it can spell trouble for your shoulders if done without awareness. Called yogi’s shoulder, painful arc syndrome, impingement syndrome, or just a rotator cuff injury, the symptoms can include shoulder aches, pain when raising the arm out to the side or in front of the body, discomfort when lying on the affected shoulder and a sharp pain when reaching into your back pocket.
The four rotator cuff muscles work to support the shoulder joint by stabilizing the head of the upper arm bone in the shoulder socket as the arm moves through space. The position of one of these muscles, the supraspinatus, and its tendon is particularly important because it is sandwiched between two bones (the edge of the scapula and the head of the upper arm bone) and is quite easily pinched when the arm is lifted a certain way. Do this enough and the tendon becomes irritated, inflamed and possibly even frayed or torn.
The good news is this can all be avoided by simply: (a) pulling down the upper arm bones down to sit more squarely in their sockets; and (b) rotating them externally before sweeping the arms overhead. The palms will turn gracefully skyward as you lead the way upwards with your pinky fingers.
Note that external rotation of the upper arm bones looks different when the arms are down by your sides and when your arms are reaching overhead. To train external rotation with arms down, try Pin the Arms on the Yogi. To train external rotation with the arms overhead, try Holy Cow at Trough. By strengthening your rotator cuff muscles, these Yoga Tune Up® exercises will protect your shoulders and bring longevity to your practice.
When ever I sub a class that is prone to sun salutes I always break the sequence down slowly first and I have found that the Pin the Arms on the Yogi exercise really helps to get my student brains on board!
Wonderful article! I like to include pranic bath and raise the chalice in my opening/warm up sequence to get the shoulders warmed up and teach the actions they will need throughout the sun salutation. I also show them the difference between internal and external rotation while they are in pin the arms on the yogi.
I think that this article has valid points regarding injury. It is indeed true that experienced professionals sometimes take their knowledge and abilities for granted and often hurt themselves. It is important as an instructor to be aware of the motions that are happening in the shoulder joint and bring this awareness to your students. As a professional when you are aware of what musces create what joint actions, in this case the shoulder joint you can bring safe solutions into your classroom. The supraspinatus assists the arm when it is lifted away from the body. When we train the supraspinatus to engage correctly we can prevent injury through enabling it to go through its correct range of motion. So whether or not we are performing an action fast or slow, training the muscle and joint to work properly will reduce injury probablity.
[...] article originally appeared on the Yoga Tune-Up Blog. Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:LikeBe the first to like [...]
As a student and teacher who has shoulder issues, I appreciate the attention to detail in your breakdown of Urdvha Hastasana. I hope it will give other teachers an important cue to help their students keep their shoulders safe.
Thanks for the post so helpful to bring YTU poses into flow classes as this style of yoga is becoming increasingly popular. It also serves as a great reminder to have anatomically correct tadasana to help with externally rotating the shoulders as place to drive this home along with holy cow at the trough and pin the tail on the yogi. I also notice often times many people bend from their waist vs. their hips and lose spinal extension when coming through to utanasana. It seems helpful to go through the first sun salutation in a slow manner to give the reminder of proper alignment during sun salutations. In vinyasa it can be easy at times to tune out of your alignment if you practice regularly and I will definitely bring this concept to my next vinyasa class. Thanks again!
Thanks for the reminder. As a teacher of flow, I see how many students move through Sun Salutations almost on auto-pilot and are increasing their risk for shoulder injuries. Few people notice how simply reaching the arms up over head can put a lot of strain on the supraspinatus. With some direct cuing, teachers can help students avoid injury but also call students back into their bodies and stay present throughout the entire practice.
This is so important for us to constantly remember and remind ourselves and our students to continue to move consciously, especially through poses we know so well and do so often. I also like pin the arms on the yogi and pranic bath as ways to warm up the shoulders and bring better understanding of external rotation. Thanks for a great post.
Definitely an article that all yogis should read! I had no clue that there could be so many things that can go wrong with a simple (well, I thought simple) movement of the arms overhead. This really shows that every movement in a vinyasa needs to be done with accuracy and attention to detail. I also like the solutions/prevention techniques given at the end of the post.
As someone who has suffered with rotator cuff injuries I found this article very interesting. Slowing down and being more mindful in sun salutes has been extremely helpful. Working on Pin the Arms on the Yogi the other day in class was helpful, as well. I look forward to learning Holy Cow at the Trough!
Good article thanks for posting. I’m noticing more and more it’s not just students who are suffering from shoulder cuff issues in Flow classes but even more it’s teachers suffering who are coming into incorrect alignment themselves over and over in their practice and it’s so important to slow down plug back into the life force and allow a healthy awareness to arise again.
We learned Pin the Arms on the Yogi in class the other day, which felt amazing, I am now eager to learn Holy Cow at the Trough. For such a long time, without even realizing it, I did pretty much all shoulder flexion poses with my shoulders shrugged up to my ears. Until a physical therapist pointed out to me what I was doing, I really had no idea. I know this shoulder position has caused many of the shoulder issues that I struggle with on a daily basis. In becoming aware of how I was moving in yoga, I also became of aware of the fact that I basically spent my entire life performing all activities with my shoulders hunched up to my ears. Now, on a daily basis, I concentrate on keeping my shoulders down. I am hyper aware of doing so in yoga (even though I still struggle with actually doing so — habits are so hard to break). What I haven’t so much focused on is the external rotation of the shoulders during extension. This I will definitely want to try, hence the intrigue in regard to Holy Cow.
Great post! Being mindful of our postural alignment is so important……and is even more so when practicing a series of postures through which we move quickly and repetitively. One (of the many) things I love about Yoga Tune Up is the breakdown of the components of an asana to the “nuts and bolts” of it while examining the how and the why of the posture or exercise….just as you’ve done here with regard to shoulder alignment during urdvha hastasana. I love pin the arms on the yogi and find holy cow at the trough to be a challenging, yet effective tool to educate the shoulders to externally rotate. Great information to embody and share. Thank you!
In my opinion sun salutations ARE strutctured to be repetitive to train your brain to be Present the moment of what you are doing. Regardless of how many times you have done it…5 or the 575th time. The excercises you explained are wonderful tools to keep your mind focused on proper alignment.
I never thought about externally rotaing the shoulders before raising the arms. I do find that I’m on autopilot during the sun salutes, this will be a fun new excercise to do with the students in class!
Recently we did (at least attempted to do) 108 sun salutations for a charity event. Subconsciously perhaps, I externally rotated my shoulders as I had no shoulder pain. I did experience pain in my wrist during adho mukh svansan ( downward facing dog) by the 70th sun salutation.
Jill breaking down the downward dog has been a big WOW, I will definately have my students in the next Vinyasa class try the ‘cast the elbow’ movement and see if they can keep the external rotation of the upper arm and turn the palm down flat. There are going to be a few more Dolpin poses in my classes, if that means breaking up the Vinyasa sequense so be, reason I am taking this YTU level 1 is to learn more about anatomy as my concern has alwasy been with my students safety and their enjoyment and able to leave a class feeling better then when they arrived. Thank you Jill.
Learned something new! Thanks for the great tip in injury prevention! Very useful!!
I am new to Yoga Tune Up and a relatively new yoga teacher, but I do experience intense sensations in my shoulders on a regular basis. I do not know the exercises you mentioned, but am now eager to learn, as I have feared wincing while teaching salutations. I have learned to modify by placing the back of my hands together to rotate shoulders out for mountain or warrior, but this can not work for sun salutation’s urdvha hastasana. I am on a quest to learn these new exercises to help train my external rotation and then to help train my students.
Fortunately, I was taught to lead with my palms up when raising my arms but I also was taught to lead with my palms down when lowering my arms. I wonder if someone could comment on whether that is a problem? The importance of anchoring the arm into the shoulder on all lengthening movements of the arm can not be over emphasized in the prevention of rotator cuff .
This was a great article – the last year or so, I have been focusing on pushing into the floor during down dog and handstand, and other arm balances while maintaining correct alignment in shoulders i.e. depression and it has really healed a long term shoulder injury. Off to do some pranic bathing.