5 Mistakes you may be making in your yoga practice.
There are some really common mistakes that we often see students make in our live & in real life classes at Move & Inspire. We wanted to give you some tips and insights in order to help you correct these common yoga mistakes when you practice yoga. All bodies are different and therefore everyone is going to take a slightly different approach to each yoga posture but we believe that if you correct these common mistakes you are going to feel stronger, lighter, more connected & more comfortable in your yoga practice! As always though, please listen to your own body. It’s our aim to help educate yogis in order to create a more mindful & more integral practice that just feels really good.
Not allowing your shoulders to lift.
We have all heard the cue from a yoga teacher in downward facing dog (and other yoga poses where our arms are above the head) “pull your shoulders away from your ears.” We understand why this is said - teachers and students believe that in pulling their shoulders down they are stopping the upper trapezius muscles (the muscles at the bottom of the neck) from getting so sore (and we hate to be the bearer of bad news if this is something you have been doing) but this is just not true!
There is something called Scapulo Humeral Rhythm which is the kinematic interaction between the scapula and the humerus. For those of you not so clued up on the anatomy and biomechanics of this it basically means that as the arm bone moves upwards the scapula has to also lift upwards. If we instead pull the shoulders down, we are putting compression on the tissues of the joint and can cause something called impingement in the shoulder. This is a very common yoga injury and feels like a pinching at the shoulder joint.
So when you lift your shoulders in Downdog and poses like high lunge, allow the shoulder blades to lift naturally upwards. We want to be able to have full range of motion in our shoulders so stopping our shoulders from moving up is stopping us from improving our full range of mobility! A good cue instead in downward facing dog would be “rotate your outer upper arms inwards, allowing the shoulder blades to spread across the back…” This cue helps you externally rotate the shoulders in downward facing dog. It’s a good cue because it brings more stability and strength to the shoulders, and the shoulders, being the most mobile joints of the body, are prone to injury.
2. Chicken Head!
In relation to the first point above, the action that is causing us pain in the upper trapezius muscles, is our heads jutting out like a chicken! We get into bad habits with our postures due to looking at mobile phones and sitting slouched at a desk looking at a laptop. Think hunchback of Notre Dame! The muscles at the bottom of the neck (upper trapezius muscles) are clinging onto our heavy heads to try to keep it in position which means they have become overworked and it’s why most of us feel particularly sore in this area. So to combat this we have to look at strengthening the muscles at the front of the neck to put our head back into position - these are called the deep neck flexors and they are important stability muscles.
A good way to practice this is to stick your head out like a chicken and then draw the head backwards lengthening the back of the neck. Top tip: try this out standing with your back against a wall and pull your head backwards so it touches the wall. You may feel like you are creating a double chin - and that’s exactly the way to do it (even if it doesn’t feel too sexy!) Repeat 10 times and feel the muscles at the front of the neck start to work. You can practice this in every pose in your yoga practice & meditation too! Chaturanga is a pose we often see people drop their heads in, sticking them forwards like a chicken - imagine you have a plank of wood balancing on your back in high plank and pull your head back to touch the plank of wood. (Try not to tuck the chin!) Also anytime you bring your arms above your head, check your head is in a good position. The video below is going to visually explain these first two points so check it out!
Click above to watch this video which explains more about scapula humeral rhythm and the shoulders.
Sloppy Upward Facing Dog
Another classic mistake we see time and time again is a sloppy and lazy upward facing dog pose. The purpose of upward facing dog is to find extension through the muscles of the mid and upper back. If you think of the bad habits we have got into once again by being glued to our digital devices, the mid and upper back is often in a rounded position. This isn’t a bad thing as the upper back has a natural curve of the spine, but it’s good for us to find mobility through extension as this curve is getting more and more like our friend the hunchback. So how can you get the most out of this pose?
Push hands down and traction them back towards you - this will help broaden your chest and bring more extension into the upper back.
Think about squeezing the shoulder blades together - we often see students allowing their shoulders to round forwards which again doesn’t help us get the full benefits of this pose.
Think about creating a double chin rather than throwing your head back - this gets those deep neck flexors working.
Push through the tops of the feet and keep the legs lifted off the ground - this will help keep the extension towards the upper back. Letting the legs go floppy will create more of an arch in the lower back instead.
Squeeze the bum - the bum needs to be active here for hip extension and to provide stability in your back bend.
4. Really Fast Chaturanga
We often see in our yoga classes that our students are rushing through their yoga practice like a tiger chasing it’s prey! Incredibly fast! In a culture where speed is celebrated in daily life, it seems natural for students to try and do everything as quick as possible. However one of the incredible benefits of yoga is it allows us to slow things down and pay attention to the details - both on and off the mat. Speed also stops us from connecting to the breath - and a beautiful benefit of our yoga practice is to deeply connect to the breath. In every day life we take short shallow breaths into the chest and during our practice we aim to take slower, longer breaths all the way down into our diaphragm and tummy - using the full capacity of the breath which has numerous health benefits.
When we speed up our chaturanga practice we are stopping ourselves from building strength and also we are more likely to injure ourselves. If we take it slow and connect with the breath we should be using the exhale to go from high plank to low plank, then the inhale to go from low plank to cobra or upward facing dog. This means there are two separate parts of the breath and two separate movements. It’s so easy to get into bad habits with our chaturanga practice and chaturanga really is a foundational building block pose that will help build strength for arm balances and inversions. We want to slow things down in order to move by engaging the muscles rather than gravity and momentum taking control. Watch the video below and have a go at sharpening up your chaturanga pose.
5. Harder is not always better.
When we start yoga, our egos often get the better of us and we want to practice the most advanced and difficult pose after just a few classes! As great as this may be for an instagram pic it really isn’t a smart way to practice. We see yogis time and time again pushing themselves into the hardest pose, aiming to get their foot behind their head and balancing on one hand. These poses are not necessarily good for our bodies and injuries are becoming more and more common in the yoga world. So listen to your body and remember that the harder pose is not always the best pose for you. Ask yourself why are you trying to do something if it doesn’t feel good? Are you building strength and a good range of mobility? Or are you just trying to push yourself to be “better” to look “better”or to keep up with other students in the room. The real yoga is in dropping the ego & staying true to a balanced and integral practice that builds us up to feel super strong as we grow older and older.
We wish you luck!
We hope these tips are going to help you correct some of these common yoga mistakes and over time get you feeling stronger in your yoga practice. So go ahead, jump back on your yoga mat, try out these tips yourself to start to feel more fluid, strong & bad-ass when you are practicing yoga.
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