Category: Joint

By Renee’ Fulkerson

One easy way to keep your joints healthy, pain-free and what YogAlign is all about is good posture. Standing and sitting with proper posture protects our joints from head to toe.

Recently teaching the Whole Body Recalibrator/ Hanumanasana, Monkey Pose, splits. A long-time student voiced she was not comfortable in the posture. Which I could appreciate, given she had been having some hip discomfort. We always use yoga block support during this posture. And also move through the preparatory sequence building up to the Whole Body Recalibrator. I would not consider her hypermobile. And she has practiced this posture with me so many times I could not count. But on this day, it just was not working for her. She usually has two yoga block configurations for support. I recommended we add another yoga block to make three. And for her to engage her inner thighs to fire her gluteal muscles and start her SIP breath to engage her core. That gave her the lift she needed rather than hanging in her hip and lumbar spine joints. She was more comfortable physically and able to reap the benefits of the posture. The tuning, toning, and balancing from the inside out. However, her ego took a hit. She replied with frustration that she felt she was moving backward in her practice.

Joint stability and mobility are topics that come up in almost every YogAlign class I teach. On that day, I had to remind her to practice posture and proper alignment and not just a pose. The definition of a pose is to assume a particular attitude or position to be photographed, painted, or drawn. Stable Joints give you the ability to remain or promptly return to proper alignment through a balance of forces. Joints that provide stability are your elbows, feet, knees, and lumbar spine. Mobile Joints give you the range of unrestricted movement around a joint. These include the ankle, hip, and thoracic spine. And then there is hypermobility. Meaning some or all of a person’s joints move way beyond the normal range of movement. And could put them at risk of injury during stretching and bending. If their bodies don’t have enough strength to stabilize their muscles as they stretch and bend. We must be equally strong as flexible. And be mindful of our end range when practicing postures like Hanumanasana/ Whole Body Recalibrator. Remaining active with muscle engagement allows us to reap the benefits of this posture.

By the way, most anyone can practice Whole Body Recalibrator with proper support. I find for me when I have sat too long (blogging) this, is my go-to pose. Tuning, toning, and balancing me from the inside out!

Aloha