By David Keil • October 11th, 2010

I hear it in so many workshops. Chaturanga hurt my shoulder! As if chaturanga is a living breathing entity that has the ability to rise up and hurt people. Actually, I hear this about many things, whether they are postures or methods. As if a posture or method actually does something to us.

The truth is, the pose doesn’t even exist until we do it. Key word is WE, that is, we, are doing the pose. Sometimes we don’t do it correctly, or we have no focus while doing it, or we’re instructed poorly, it’s even possible that its just karma. Who knows exactly why, but I feel like I do know that it’s never the posture (or method), it’s us doing it that causes problems. I often say that the pose doesn’t even exist until we are performing it.

Let’s move on to the posture that is most often blamed for creating shoulder pain, chaturanga.

The Anatomy

The shoulder girdle is complex, sometimes even referred to as the shoulder complex. It is a very versatile and mobile structure and made up of more than one joint. Most of the time we simply say shoulder and this is sufficient for most conversations but of course, it’s me, DK, A.K.A “the bone man” on this end trying to elevate the conversation and reminding everyone to see a little bit more of the bigger picture and be more specific if possible.

When we say shoulder we’re being vague about what we’re talking about. On the technical side we’re talking about the shoulder joint and when we say shoulder we mean the relationship between the scapula and the humerus (glenohumeral joint). But, this is just one of the relationships in the shoulder girdle.

We also have the clavicle or collarbone that attaches to the sternum on one end and the scapula on the other. The end that attaches to the sternum is the single place where the upper extremity (arm) attaches onto the axial skeleton (spine, skull and ribs). That joint is another conversation to have in a different article. Let’s just say, it’s also complex and has to manage forces from the rest of the shoulder girdle.

The end that attaches onto the scapula is called the AC joint, which is short for AcromioClavicular joint. This means that the clavicle is tied to the scapula via ligaments and any scapular movement includes clavicular movement and vice versa.

When...

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Location:  Miami, US

David Keil was introduced to yoga in 1989 by his Tai Chi Chuan  teacher. Both the Tai Chi and Yoga practice at the ripe age of 17 began his research into his own mind-body connections. As...