The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › The Hot Yoga Poses › Salabhasana › Elbow pain
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Hi, I am having trouble with a few things in locust pose.
I injured the inside of my elbow doing locust pose with 2 legs up. From what I can tell my inner arms weren’t completely flat on the mat and a nerve or something got pulled when I lifted my legs in the air. I did some research online and I believe it was the ulnar nerve “funny bone”. my elbow was swollen for a week or so.
It seems when I lift, most of my weight goes into my elbows, some in my hands and none in my shoulders.
So I guess my first questions is how do I get the weight into my shoulders?
And how close are my forearms supposed to be to each other?
ThanksHi Christina,
As one of the graduates form Gabrielle’s Teacher training program, she gave me permission to respond to forum posts.
I hope you don’t mind if I reply to yours? =)Locust pose is a challenging pose for most of us, but it becomes much simpler when you understand what to do with those arms!
Let me ask you a few questions first:
– Can you please describe me what your outcome is when you bring your arms underneath your body in Locust pose? Where are you aiming to get them?
– You said your elbows were bent underneath you before the injury. Are they still bent or did you somehow modify the pose?If you get back to me with your answers, I can offer you something more specific to do! =)
Have a nice day!
Namaste,
Andrea
Hi Christina
Can you tell me too, if you have a large bust?
Is it that as you try to get those legs off the ground that you aren’t specifically thinking of doing anything with your arms (except get them into position)?
OR …
Perhaps are you pushing through those elbows, or trying to push into your shoulders, the hands, or the whole arm? Please let me know.
Andrea is asking you if you’re trying to get your arms or hands or fingers (or whatever aim you have) to TOUCH under your body. That along with the answers to the questions above will help!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi gals!
No worries Andrea, I am totally okay with you answering my ques!Initially, my main objective was to just get my legs off the floor, so I was un-mindful in how I positioned my arms. I just put them under me and pushed off of my elbows.
But since the strain I realize that that’s not the complete objective, and I have to pay more attention to the rest of my body.
So, now I am aware that I am pushing off and maintaining all the weight on my inner elbows. I don’t know how to distribute it anywhere else.The dialogue says to put the weight on your shoulders, I just have no idea how to do that.
I can get my arms straight under me, with very little space between my forearms. If I tried I can get my forearms to touch. I’m just not exactly sure if they should be touching or not.
And no, I do not have a large bust. At all. Lol
Moving the weight into the shoulders is pretty subtle…at least for me. I got that correction in a class one time, and was able to shift forward a bit (maybe with the hands? I’m not even sure), and it was like a lightbulb went off. The instructor could see the change (since she said “Good!”) and I felt it, but I doubt it was a huge shift. I just know it was easier to get my legs off the ground.
Now, before I ever lift my legs off the ground I try to get set up with the weight forward into the shoulders. Its hard to explain, but almost like a lengthening of the arms, shoulders coming down away from the ears….You may have to play with it a few times to feel it.
I hope this incredibly vague description helps in some way. 🙂
-Kristin
Thanks Kristin. That was helpful. It makes huge sense to get the weight in my shoulders in the set up. I will definitely try that in class the next time.
And I just realized that when I think “weight in my shoulders” I’m assuming that my shoulders should be touching the floor. Is that true? Do yours? Because mine don’t.
Christina
Hm, I’m not really sure. As I think about it, lengthening my arms brings my shoulders back (away from my ears) and it may be that they also are off the floor. I don’t recall having any pressure on my shoulders. But I will pay attention to that in the next class and see.
I’ll also think more about exactly how I move the weight forward, and if I come up with any insights I’ll pass them along!
– Kristin
Thanks Kristin. That was super quick!
And do you have much weight in your hands? Are you pushing off with them or grabbing onto the floor?
Let me know what you come up with. Hope your practice goes well.I’m definitely pushing my hands onto the floor, fingers are spread out….pinky fingers are touching, but my elbows are not. I move my arms closer together for the two-legged part of this posture (per the dialog) but only go as far as seems reasonably comfortable. So all the rotation is in the shoulder, not in the elbows, if that makes sense. I think that at the same time I am pushing down on the floor, I am also pushing my hands against the floor and back (toward my feet), which helps move the weight into my upper body.
Its funny how you do these things sort of naturally but its hard to think it through! I’ll definitely be more conscious of it next class….Monday probably.
This is actually one of my better poses (its nice to have a couple where I don’t feel like I’m so far from the actual pose!). About half the time, I can feel my hips come off my arms. I believe I’m getting my legs about 45 degrees up. But this didn’t start to happen until after I began shifting the weight forward.
Hello Christina and Kristin
Ah, so much great conversation! 🙂
Yes, pushing your arms into the floor is paramount in this pose. Christina what you were doing before was just focusing on your legs and found your elbows were taking the strain.
Here’s my little ‘to do’ list:
>> Your shoulders are not to move toward each other (inward) to get them to touch the floor
>> Externally rotate the arms so that the shoulders move away from each other and form a platform across the chest (and so the shoulders move back away from the ears)
>> Your shoulders may or may not actually touch the floor. That actually varies greatly with STRENGTH, with bust size, with posture and so on
>> BUT what you want to do is IMAGINE that your heart is pressing into the floor
>> The ‘pinky fingers touching’ is not necessary. What is necessary is a symmetrical positioning of the arms under the body (if possible) where your hips are not jamming into and hurting your forearms because naturally you would want to adjust for that consciously or unconsciously
>> Activate the push into the floor with your arms. When you do that you’ll find you probably won’t often if ever be ‘trying’ to push your weight further forward but the mere positioning of your arms and shoulders and the use of your arms will automatically do this for you. (See the point about your heart)
>> And for the last tip, as this is actually a pose that is NOT just about the leg lift, start working your arms in EXACTLY THE SAME WAY for the single leg lift. Your pose will transformCome back and let me know, please!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi guys, so… I had class today and used the tips and my locust was so much better!
I did the whole “shoulders back away from my ears” straight away in the set up that you both had said to do and immediately it just felt right.
Gabrielle, the tips to form a platform with my chest and imagine heart on the floor just made the whole thing just work! I was so psyched! I even got a few inches higher.
I pushed off more with my hands as well, and I realize I have to work on that even more. But this was the first time I really worked my arms.
One more quick questions. Where exactly on my back am I working in the backbend? Is it lower or upper back?
I believe in the advanced extension of the pose some can get their feet onto their head. I’m nowhere near that but am just wondering where I should concentrate on?
Again, thank you so much for the best locust pose I’ve had. I can’t wait for class tomorrow!!!That’s awesome! Its so cool when a pose suddenly transforms to something else. I hadn’t thought about pressing the “heart” into the floor but will pay attention to that when I go tomorrow.
I’m not sure I ever really think about a back bend in this pose, but maybe Gabrielle will have a different take on it. My understanding, though, is that this posture targets the upper back.
Its funny, in my early days of this yoga I actually complained that the arms didn’t get a good enough work out. How silly that was….I just wasn’t using the arms correctly in most of the postures! And this was one of them. Hearing that this could help tone those triceps was all I needed for motivation. 😉
– Kristin
Just checking in after my class today. My shoulders do not touch the floor, and they seem to come up more off the floor during the two-legged part of this pose. I notice the more I push my hands against the floor, the shoulders seem to rise up.
Hope you are enjoying your new-found strength in this posture!
– Kristin
I noticed the same exact thing today. My shoulders do not touch the floor. But my posture has gotten so much better with since rotating my shoulders away from each other to form a platform. It feels so much stronger and solid.
I asked my teacher today about the backbend and she said that it wasn’t the main purpose of the posture and that it’ll come with time. So I’m just going to keep working on the arms and keeping my legs tight and straight. She also said that continuously working on the separate leg lift beforehand will make the double-leg lift much stronger. Which is the same thing Gabrielle had remarked upon.
Thanks for checking in Kristin.Hi Christina
I was just going through forum posts and noticed that there is one last thing we didn’t answer for you yet. You said:
Is it lower or upper back?
I believe in the advanced extension of the pose some can get their feet onto their head. I’m nowhere near that but am just wondering where I should concentrate on?The upper back is activated when you press your arms into the floor. Plus you are by default using your lower back when you even out your hips and raise the single and then double legs.
You have yourself proven that until you used your upper back by focusing on your arm use (and therefore activating the upper back), that the leg lifts were not nearly as effective nor satisfying.
The advanced pose is very impressive isn’t it?! 😉 It’s really not the same pose at all and uses the muscles in a completely different way.
Keep doing what you’re doing. It seems to be paying off very nicely!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂 -
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