Yoga Tune Up^® Blog

Have you ever had a shoulder injury? If so (or even if not) it’s important to get clear about how your shoulder works so that you don’t re-injure yourself.

Quite often, learning how to locate your body’s tissues and taking the time to learn a bit about anatomy can make all the difference between keeping your body functional and damaging yourself in Downward Dog. A bum shoulder can make all sorts of everyday movements painful and difficult, so it’s vital to keep yours in working condition.

In this post, I’ll give you the tools to do just that! Read the rest of this blog post »

The levator scapulae is often bogged down and stuck to the muscles surrounding it – posterior scalene and trapezius in particular. Rolling out these areas will unstick adhered tissues from each other and return them to their natural ’slide and glide’ relationship. As Jill says in the video, “It’s going to feel a bit gnarly from time to time!” But the therapeutic relief that you feel afterwards indicates a healthy release of tissue to its natural position.

The levator scapulae can be a very problematic muscle when it comes to two chronic poor alignment issues that plague a lot of us — habitual shrugged shoulders, and habitual forward head movement.  I have spent much of my life doing both — hence my intrigue with this muscle.  I have also spent many, many hours holding a telephone pinned between my ear and the shoulder; and many days walking around with heavy backpacks, computer bags, etc hanging from my shoulder. I now know that these actions can severely aggravate the levator scapulae.  One more interesting and important fact to note is that the levator scapulae is often referred to as a fight or flight muscle, as it is automatically contracted and raised when the body faces a stressful or tense situation – and how often does this happen in daily life?

“Levator” is from the same Latin root as elevator. Scapula is Latin for shoulder blade.  The levator scapulae sits behind the posterior scalene. It is a thin, flat muscle that lies under the trapezius muscle in its lower portion, and under the splenius capitis and the sternocleidomastoid in its upper portion. The muscle’s origination actually starts as four attachments to each of the first four cervical vertebrae.  The insertion is on the superior angle of the scapula. This arrangement allows the levator scapulae to assist in raising the scapula (along with the upper trapezius, rhomboids) and thereby raising the shoulder.  As an attachment to the cervical vertebrae it is also responsible for pulling the neck back, or preventing it from falling too far forward. These functions often get the muscle into trouble, usually from simple overuse. If we add daily stress, along with the strain of the head often floating forward because of bad posture, it’s pretty clear that this muscle is struggling with a lot of additional and unnecessary work load.

Oftentimes people overlook the levator scapulae when they are having shoulder or neck pain, assuming it’s the larger and more prominent trapezius muscle that is the cause of their problems.  Most likely both muscles are involved.  Because the levator scapulae helps to hold the head up – a tough job given the head weighs over ten pounds — chronic tightness in both can lead to significant neck pain.  Trigger points also often develop in the levator scapulae.

In regard to therapy for this muscle, have the student practice keeping the head in proper alignment with the body.  Floating the head backward will ease the strain on the muscle. Also, encouraging students to keep the shoulders depressed in daily movement can also be very therapeutic and crucial in a healthy, and pain-free, posture.

Sitting Seza is a perennial favorite among Yoga Tune Up® practitioners to stretch the plantar fascia on the bottom of the foot. It also works to help keep toes separated and pointing forwards to assist in avoiding bunions. Here’s the clip (and more like it are available on the Quick Fix for Feet and Ankles video).

Bunions are a fear of every dancer, and not just from a pain standpoint.  I have been in pointe shoes since the age of 9 and twenty years later, I insist on squeezing my feet into gorgeous sky high tango heels many times a week.  Pain is not an issue, but my ego… oh my ego, is rather attached to the beauty of the feet I have been training for the last quarter century and bunions are…. ugly. Read the rest of this blog post »

My first yoga experience in a YTU class taught me that there is a whole lot more to health and fitness than just strength training. Pandora’s Box had been opened. Since that humbling yet educational experience, I’ve voraciously learned every philosophy and modality that crossed my mental landscape. I don’t belong to a single school of thought because they all can provide a little gem of knowledge that connects the dot a little bit more. There is a time and place for each and every modality and type of movement or exercise. The trick is to remain open-minded, connect with your own body, and objectively assess your own strengths and weaknesses.

The author combines strength, flexibility and balance to pull off this pose!

Building health starts with building flexibility, but it is surely not the end all be all. What good is a slingshot if you can only load it to its maximum length, but it just droops down like a stretched out piece of chewing gum when you let it go? You have to add strength, power, high-quality fuel through healthy food and hydration, meditation, and a positive and optimistic frame of mind if you want to build the total package. It all counts if you’re chasing longevity.

From Better Body to Better Business

I don’t prescribe to any single school of thought solely. I journey from camp to camp and learn from the greatest minds this industry has to offer, keeping an open mind at all times. In the process I’ve synthesized and created an approach to personal training, nutritional consulting and lifestyle coaching I can truly call my own. I have a wide variety of clients with different goals, cultural tastes, physiologies, and case histories. Each warrants a slightly modified approach in order to elicit optimal results. Different strokes for different folks. If it were not for my first ego-breaking YTU experience, I’d still be a one-trick pony trainer.

As a professional athlete, my job was essentially to follow orders without question. The results were great at the time. I was bigger, stronger, and faster than at any other time in my life. But the realities of chasing a max bench and squat started setting in only after my playing days were done.

I had aches and pains that prevented me from doing the activities that I loved. The only solution? Do what I always did: Train. Hard. This had been the philosophy drilled into my psyche for many years. Hurt? Work through it. Pain? Walk it off. Only the strong survive. **pound chest and grunt**

Well, no. Only the smart survive.

When I finally summed up the courage and ignored the machismo voice in my head, I hesitantly stepped into my first yoga class. It was a Yoga Tune Up® class in Santa Monica. Humbled would the most politically correct way of describing how I felt after the class finished. Flexibility was a word that obviously never found its way into my vocabulary. It was time to learn.

Importance of Flexibility

While many people focus on strength and cardiovascular exercise when they enter the gym, it is actually flexibility that should be the primary focus as it is the foundation of physical health. With an injured shoulder or hip you can imagine not being able to reach above your head or taking a full stride when walking. The body will protect itself and prevent you from moving into ranges of motion that cause pain. This is a normal and natural protective mechanism since the body in not in perfect health. This is also why health can often times be gauged by how wide your sphere of movement stretches from your body’s center. Your sphere of potential movement starts with flexibility, since tight muscles can inhibit potential movement in much of the same way as an injury.

Improving flexibility will have an instant and drastic impact on athletic performance and decrease your risk of injury. Needless to say, I don’t talk about bench pressing or squatting anymore. Those are just numbers on a piece of paper that once served to inflate ego. Now, when I wake up in the morning, I move. I feel for tight spots and stretch. My Downward Dog looks more like a pointed arrow than a rainbow. I can comfortably reach down and palm the floor with locked legs. I’m a couple of blind spots away from doing a hand stand without the use of a wall. Oh yeah, and I don’t hurt.

Try this YTU pose called Asymmetrical Uttanasana (and for more like it check out the Quick Fix for Hips videos) to access the flexibility you need to forward bend successfully!

The Yoga Tune Up® Therapy Balls massage sequences bring awareness and blood flow to muscles. In addition they break up adhesions and as a result offer significant relief to pain and associated restrictions.  The Upper Body Therapy Ball Series is helpful to release the rotator cuff muscles, as well the accessory muscles such as the trapezius, levator scapula and rhomboids, which could be overworked as a result of rotator cuff imbalance.

The Yoga Tune Up® shoulder exercise sequences provide opportunities to move the shoulders through their full range of motion.  Pranic Bath is one example: a rotator cuff and shoulder exercise that stretches and strengthen muscles from shoulder to the hands balancing the weak with the strong, the overused with the underused. Here’s the Pranic Bath below, also available on the Quick Fix for Shoulders video:

The rotator cuff is a group of 4 neighboring muscles that surround and work together to stabilize the glenohumeral joint. They are: supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor and subscapularis.

The supraspinatus lives in the supraspinous fossa, the little valley directly above the horizontal ridge, or “spine” of the scapula. The supraspinatus initiates abduction of the humerus. The infraspinatus, is a flat triangular shaped muscle that lives in the infraspinous fossa, on the back of the shoulder blade, below the spine of the scapula. The infraspinatus laterally rotates the humerus. The teres minor is a diagonally shaped muscle that lives just south of the infraspinatus. It assists in lateral rotation of the humerus. All 3 attach to the greater tubercle of the humerus. Finally, the subscapularis, another triangular shaped muscle spans the entire front surface of the scapula. It medially rotates the humerus. The subscapularis attaches just below the head of the humerus.

When balanced, the rotator cuff muscles work together to stabilize the head of the humerus.  However, due to repetitive movement patterns of the arms associated with everyday activities such as working on computers, driving, picking up children, carrying bags, the humerus bones are often chronically in internal rotation. As a result, the rotator cuff can easily become imbalanced. If the rotator cuff muscles are unused or injured, other accessory muscles then take over, causing further movement compensations. Extreme cases of overuse cause adhesions in rotator cuff muscles, which can lead to limited range of motion, pain, or injuries like frozen shoulder. These common issues interfere with activities of daily living making simple tasks like washing your hair and getting dressed challenging and very painful. The good news is, this can be prevented with Yoga Tune Up®!

After long hours of spent in a chair (where most us tend to stick for 8-10 hours each day), the psoas  appreciates stretching,  stimulation, proper alignment, massage and constructive rest.

Constructive Rest: (Also known as Ardha Savasana) offers a passive release of the psoas.

• Lie on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
• Your feet should align with the front of the hip sockets.
• Your trunk and head need to be parallel to the floor (if your head is tilting backwards,place a rolled up towel or small cushion under your head to keep your  spine in optimum alignment).
• Feet are parallel to one another.
• Arms rest several inches away from the midline of the body (with palms faced upwards) or rest your palms on top of your abdomen.
• Close your eyes;  breathe deeply and allow the force of gravity to release the psoas. Read the rest of this blog post »

A few weeks ago, I taught a Yoga Tune Up® class that focused on the psoas.

I started by educating my students on the very basic anatomy of this deep gut muscle. All across the room I begin to witness complete silence. I guess most of the students  have not connected to their p-s-o-a-s in a very long time.

The psoas, also known as a primary hip flexor and ‘’13^th Organ,’’ originates at the transverse processes of last thoracic and 5 lumbar vertebrae (T12-L5), bisects through deep inside of the gut and attaches at the inner femur (thigh bone). This is a very unique muscle that both flexes and laterally rotates the hip, and is one of the major muscles responsible for walking.

The lower portion of the psoas intertwines with the fibers of the iliacus, and together they form a muscle group known as iliopsoas.

The psoas also affects the structure of our upper body. It originates at T12 which is a major attachment site for the trapezius muscle. Through this junction the psoas can send forces into the upper body and directly affects the level of shoulder flexion (reaching your arm above your head). Read the rest of this blog post »