Urdhva Dhanurasana (wheel) and Shoulder flexion

Please use this forum to ask any questions you may have about yoga in general or Yin Yoga in particular, or to discuss anything you have discovered that may be of general interest. Note, spam will be removed and the user deleted, and this includes putting website in your posting that are purely commercial.
Post Reply
Liz A
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri May 03, 2019 1:19 pm
Location: Melbourne Australia

Urdhva Dhanurasana (wheel) and Shoulder flexion

Post by Liz A »

Hi Bernie,
I hope you are well during this difficult time.
I'm currently doing Paul Grilley's fabulous online course Yin Yoga the Functional Approach as I'm trying to make the most out of Covid 19 lockdown so least I have more time for study! Which is great!
I had a light bulb moment yesterday in one of the videos which talked about shoulder flexion and how it can make it impossible for someone who is strong to get up into Urdhva Dhanurasana (which I realise isn't a yin pose but it's an anatomy question about skeletal variation) if they reach compression earlier than others. . This provided some relief for me as I have never been able to get into this pose by myself and I wouldn't call myself weak, as I do plenty of upper body resistance training through weights at the gym and reformer Pilates. However I have been able to get into wheel with a teacher assisted me by lifting my pelvis and it felt okay on my shoulders. Does this mean I should be able to get into wheel myself since I can with someone helping me? I.e would a person who is limited due to shoulder flexion not even be able to with a person helping them? Or is it a case of 'it depends'?
Like a lot of people I have less than 180 degrees of shoulder flexion.
I couldn't find this in your books about shoulders as they focus on lower body and spine...
Many thanks
Liz
Bernie
Posts: 1293
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2006 2:25 am
Location: Vancouver

Active versus passive range of motion of shoulders

Post by Bernie »

Hi Liz

That is an interesting question. I am currently writing the 3rd book in my Your Body, Your Yoga series which will focus on the upper body, thus the shoulders are a current topic of interest to me. There are 2 aspects to your question that are worth considering:

1) Passive vs Active Range of Motion

Try this little experiment: stick out your right forefinger and extend it as far as possible. Notice how high you can make it go with voluntary muscular effort. That is your “active, range of motion. Now, relax that finger and with your other hand, push it as high as it can go. That is your “passive, range of motion. See the difference? Next, go to your passive range of motion, release the finger but try to keep it where it was. Did you notice that it came a little lower, but not as low as when you tried to actively raise the finger. Finally, this is interesting, shake out your hand again and once more actively extend that finger. Notice that it still does not go as high as when you passively raised it and released it. There can be significant differences between passive and active ranges of motion.

Why is this relevant? When someone lifts you up into Wheel (or if you lower yourself down into it from standing) you are passively flexing your shoulders. When you lift yourself up from the ground into Wheel, you are actively flexing your shoulders. As you saw with the finger example, these are different ranges of motion. The reason you can't actively extend your finger higher is a bit complex and deals with the lines of pull of the muscles and the resistance in the joint capsule which increases when your muscles are activating. (Imagine this: when you contract your muscles, they pull the bones in the joint tighter together, which means there is less room in the joint for movement. When the joint is relaxed and thus the muscles are relaxed, there is less resistance to the bones moving.) No matter how much you strengthen your finger muscles, they will not lift your finger higher! They will only make the joint tighter.

2) Reaching your compression limit to range of motion

The muscles that raise the arm at the shoulder are the deltoids and supraspinatus. They both do a good job when the arm is low, but once the arm is above horizontal, they start to lose their leverage and are not as strong. (The scapula also rotates to lift the arm but that discussion is too detailed for this reply.) Almost everyone can raise the arms high enough that, as Paul Grilley explains so well, the humerus comes into contact with the scapula (specifically, the acromion process of the scapula.) There are some people who are stopped before reaching compression due to residual tension in the pectoral muscles. Over time they may be able to work through that tension and eventually reach compression. How to know if what is stopping you is tension or compression? What are you feeling? Do you feel only tension in the front/upper chest region or do you sense something at the top or back of the shoulders? That is compression. Once that compression is reached any further elevation of the arm will have to come from the scapula tilting backwards. There is limited ability of the scapula to backwards tilt actively. Again, however, you can passively tilt the scapula backwards, just like with your finger, but there is little ability for the muscles attached to the scapula to keep the scapula there.

So, yes, like with your finger, you can be placed in a deeper position passively, but this does not mean you can always actively get to that same place.

I will endeavour to explain this in more detail in my next book, but I hope this suffices for now.

Cheers
Bernie
Liz A
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri May 03, 2019 1:19 pm
Location: Melbourne Australia

Post by Liz A »

Thanks Bernie this answers my question! I only feel compression in the back of the shoulder and no tension is felt through the pecs.
I'm looking forward to your next book!
Post Reply