Saddle Pose - Unevenness

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LovinYin
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2011 9:24 pm

Saddle Pose - Unevenness

Post by LovinYin »

Hi all. I have been doing Yin yoga for a couple of years - on my own and in class - and would like your opinion and recommendations for an issue I have in Saddle Pose. I do the Half-Saddle pose on each side just fine. But when I go on to do the Saddle Pose I feel very uneven. I understand that the right and left sides of a body are never the same - but I don't know what to focus on in Saddle. This is what happens - my right leg has a good hip rotation. In half saddle, my foot flexes and my leg moves out to the right. My arch lies flat on the floor, and my leg lies rather far out to the right with my knee flat on the floor. On the other side in half saddle, my foot doesn't arch as much. It is more the top of my left foot that in contact with the ground, and my leg carries slightly out to the left. I don't seem to have the same comfy rotation in my hip. When I try full saddle, I need to use a bolster behind my back, and I feel very lopsided from left to right. The left side of my pelvis is much higher than the right and my leg positions are distinctly different looking. My instructor has suggested that I continue with the half-saddle poses and not try a full saddle until I become more even. I seem to be getting stretching benefit from the full saddle (on the bolster) and it is not painful, but I can't focus on visualizing a part of my body for the work - as I am more concentrated on how uneven I feel. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Bernie
Posts: 1293
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2006 2:25 am
Location: Vancouver

Uneven in the Saddle

Post by Bernie »

Without seeing you, I can only visualize what might be happening from your description, but let's start by stating what you already know: we are not symmetric! Our left side IS different than our right side: the reason may be correctable, or it may be just the way we are.

Saddle pose internally rotates the femurs in the hips sockets: depending upon what causes this rotation to stop, you may or may not be able to even up your left side and your right side, but let's first examine the bare bones of this pose. How much we are ultimately able to rotate our femurs in the socket depends upon the shape, size and orientation of our bones. For example, if one hip socket is more frontally located than the other, your two sides will not be the same. Paul Grilley has created a wonderful DVD (The Anatomy of Yin Yoga) which illustrates just how much our bones dictate our ultimate range of motion. He also has provided some nice pictures of actual bones: check this image out to help you visualize your hips. Notice the difference in the location and orientation of the hip sockets from the left side and the right side.

Other body structures that can affect your internal rotation includes the shape, angle and orientation of your femurs. Wander around in Paul's web site to find his pictures of femurs.

You don't mention, but usually (but not always) people that can internally rotate one hip more than the other find that they can externally rotate the other hip more than the first. This too is a function of their bones. Can you externally rotate your left hip more than your right? If so, this is a clue that what may be stopping you from internally rotating your left hip is your unique bone structure.

Of course there are other possible reasons why you can't rotate the left hip as much as the right: it may be due to tightness in your joint capsule, tight ligaments on that side or even tighter muscles. These causes are due to "tension" ... a shortness of the tissues binding the joint. With yoga, and over time, we work through our tensile resistance until, eventually, we reach a point of compression, where your body hits yourself and that is it. Once we reach compression, the movement is over for that pose in that direction.

Another way to test this is to try the Deer Pose. Notice how far away the back foot (which is internally rotated) can move away from your hip before you start to tilt and lift your buttock off the floor. Try it on both sides: If your right foot can go further away than the left, you are again seeing your asymmetry: now to try to figure out - what is stopping me? If it is compression, you may feel the restriction on the inside of the thigh/groin - if it tension you may feel it more on the outside. However, it takes a lot of attention to really feel what is going on in the hip area: it is a very deep joint.

Realize that your left hip may never open as much as your right, and that is okay! That is just the way you are. As long as you don't push yourself into pain, having this asymmetry is perfectly normal, for you. If you want to feel more even, try placing a folded blanket under the left buttock as you recline in Saddle.

Hope this helps.
Bernie
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