It’s Ten O’clock. Do you know where your feet are?

The original question, “It’s 10:00 pm, do you know where your children are”, somberly intoned just prior to the local news, was eventually parodied by a multitude of stand-up comedians, novelty song artists, and horror movie posters. But the original intent of the line was very serious. The phrase shows up in lots of places.  I have to admit I like to use it in my yoga classes, particularly to draw a student’s attention to a leg that is raised behind them or some other body part they cannot see.  Often the body part is hanging out behind them kid of lifelessly.

In yoga poses, the whole body should be participating.  Yoga means union of mind body and spirit.  We do our yoga poses with our whole bodies.

Often beginners can only pay attention to one body part at a time, but as we progress, and our practice becomes more integrated, we can cast our attention over our whole body.  While this is relevant in all poses, this week I will talk about having your attention on your feet while we are doing planks.

While most planks are felt in the arms or the core, the more the legs and feet work, the easier the postures are to hold.  When the feet and legs are strong, it is easier to keep the core engaged.  One of your core muscles, the psoas, attaches to your lumbar spine and to the upper inner aspect of your thigh bone.  If the legs aren’t activated, this muscle is not activated.  In my Yoga Teacher Training Program, we study the muscles one at a time as if you could activate one muscle and not the one next to it.  But the body doesn’t work that way.  The muscles are often affected by the surrounding muscles.  If you activate the feet and legs in plank, they help to hold the whole body up.  Imagine the difference in picking up a sleeping child as opposed to a child who is actively participating in being picked up.  One is a limp pile succumbing to gravity and the other one helps you.

Here is an example of what I often see student’s feet doing in Side Plank:

Here is what they could be doing:

Here is what I often see from behind when students are in Plank:

Here is a picture of feet and legs actively participating in Plank Pose:

Do you know what your feet are doing in these poses?  Working your feet and keeping your legs engaged will help you in your plank.

Come to class.  I’d be happy to help you.

Vinyasa Pose of the Month for January – Planks

Yoga is a balance of strength and flexibility.  We need to be strong but not rigid.  Being strong gives us a firm foundation and clear boundaries.  Being rigid keeps us stuck, frozen in one place.  In being flexible, we need to be resilient, able to change and go with the flow, but not so flexible that we can be pushed over.  This is as true in our yoga postures as it is in life.

We will begin this year by developing our strength by working our core in the various forms of Plank Pose.  Our core connects our upper body and lower body together, protecting our spine and integrating our postures. Think of Plank Pose as Tadasana in alternate relationships to gravity using different arm positions.   Tadasana is the first version of Plank.  Use this posture to check your alignment for each of the other versions.  Each version of Plank should still look like Tadasana.

There is Plank pose with the arms held straight out in front of the body.  You can do Plank pose on your hands or on your forearms.  The forearm version is not just for people who have wrist issues.  When practicing Forearm Plank, make sure that you keep your forearms parallel.  In either version of Plank, make sure your hips are in line with your body, not high like a tent and not low like a hammock.  There is also a moving version of Plank called “walking plank”.  This is where you transition back and forth from Plank on your hands to Plank on your forearms, one arm at a time.

Caturanga Dandasana, or Low Plank is a harder version of Plank and relies more on upper body strength than just core.  Make sure that your elbows are stacked over your wrists and your shoulders are kept in line with your elbows as you hold this pose.

The next version of Plank Pose is with the arms straight out from the shoulders in the side plane.  This is Side Plank or Vasisthasana. It works your oblique muscles, or the abdominal muscles that wrap around the side of your body.  Even though the body is tipped over sideways, it should still look like you are holding Tadasana.  Don’t sag or arch!

You may have never thought of Handstand as a version of Plank, but it is Plank with the arms overhead.  Again the body should look the same way it does in Tadasana.  It should not look like a banana.  If the ribs flare out you have lost your core.  Of course, there is a Scorpion version of Handstand that is more difficult.

Reverse Plank is the last version, with the arms in the back plane of the body.  This works the muscles in the back plane of the body including your hamstrings and glutes.  People often think of core as just abs, but the posterior chain muscles are just as important to keeping our spine stabilized, supported and our posture well integrated.

Working our core in these versions of Plank Pose will set us up for a great beginning to a New Year!

I’ll see you in class!

Karin