I’ve been breaking down Chatarunga Dandasana in my classes and workshops a lot recently, mostly because I always see students doing it wrong. In a class with multiple students, it’s sometimes hard for the teacher to give the individual attention needed to ensure each student is doing the pose the right way.
That’s what inspired me to break down Chatarunga in this week’s video.
Chatarunga Dandasana, also known as the series of poses use to transition from one sequence of standing poses to the next, includes high plank, low plank, upward facing dog or cobra, and downward facing dog. Chatarunga itself is the low plank pose while the entire series is referred to as a Vinyasa. Flowing from one pose to the next with grace takes a lot of strength and honesty.
It’s important to me that you know how to do the yoga poses the right way so that you can continue practicing yoga poses until the day you die. If you do not have proper alignment and do the yoga poses over and over again the wrong way, over time you will suffer from a repetitive stress injury. These injuries are long-term, hard to heal and no fun. We don’t want that to happen!
Some teachers spend a lot of time just talking about the poses and how to do them correctly, and that is very important. As a teacher, I want to help you understand your body better by doing the poses correctly. I want to help you build strength of body so that you can build strength of character. I want you to treat your physical body as the foundation of your yoga practice so that we can build from there into the aspects of yoga that deal with the mind and the soul.
So we start with the body. With physical strength, compassion and nurture.
Here’s my breakdown on Chatarunga Dandasana. It might be difficult for you, not because you aren’t strong enough, but because the only way to progress is to be honest with yourself and take the modified version so that you can build up the strength over time to get you where you want to be. Be patient. You’ll soon have the strength to stand on your hands!
Enjoy!
Did you like this video? Please let me know in the comments below. As always, if you ever have any questions about yoga, you know where to find me. I’d love to help you along your journey.
