“If you keep the hips abducted…”

“if you keep the hips abducted…”

Comment on the previous blog post: “technically not the same. If you keep the hips abducted (blog admin’s translation: Hip abductors are the muscles of the outer thigh; they move the leg away from the body; “if you keep the hips abducted at the same angle” probably means if you keep your thigh and leg “moved out” or away from your body)

“at the same angle and keep it fixed, moving the right shoulder closer to the right knee will take the left shoulder away from the left knee (blog admin’s translation: moving your right shoulder laterally to come close to your right knee will also move your left shoulder away from your left knee; because….they’re connected! your right and left shoulders cannot stretch in opposite directions laterally!)

“You can bring the shoulders down either by protraction or spinal extension (blog admin’s translation: you can bring your shoulders down either by a forward movement, that is, by moving your torso forward; or by bending your torso while keeping your back all the way to your neck and chin flat and straight, don’t bend your neck too much).

“Protraction will create compression in the scapular area which can restrict breathing, (blog admin’s translation: over-extending your torso with a forward movement will tense-up your shoulder-blade area, which will make it difficult for you to breathe) thus the correct movement is to extend the spine [blog admin’s translation: thus, the correct movement is to slowly bend while keeping your back all the way to your neck and chin (your spine all the way up) flat and straight, don’t bend your neck too much].

“In doing so, we can flatten the front of the body into the floor bringing the shoulders down. (no translation required). Spinal extension (blog admin’s translation: bending or folding slowly with your back straight, as i described) will not bring the knees closer to the shoulders because a different set of muscles (i.e., hip adductors) have to do this work (blog admin’s translation: will not bring your knees closer to your shoulders because…you have to move your knees and that happens — only when you move your thighs and legs! Thus, bringing them closer to your shoulders.)

“I’m practising my anatomy and movement analysis. 😀 (blog admin’s translation: marichu shut up and stop putting words in my mouth when it comes to yoga and anatomy.)