The real anatomy behind ‘inflexible’ people.

First up, stop telling yourself that you’re too inflexible to do yoga. This is a common barrier that many potential yogis need to overcome. Accept that each body has different skeletal limitations and tensions that can limit range of movement; not everyone can achieve a textbook posture. Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t copy everyone else in class but do try and understand what might be happening in your body.

Be aware that there’s no such thing as perfect. When I first started practicing yoga I got really frustrated that my hips were preventing me from doing the ‘perfect’ forward fold, pigeon pose and yogic squats. This hip flexion/abduction challenge made me feel embarrassed in class and an imposter when I started my teacher training. It wasn’t until I listened to the expertise of Paul Grilley and took on the advice of my wonderful teacher Antonina that I began to understand the real anatomy influencing my hip-based postures.

Forward fold (Uttanasana) deconstructed.

Let’s take a deeper look at this forward fold, a posture I’ve always struggled to find perfection in.

In the classic text book version my legs would be straight, my belly and nose would touch

my legs and my palms would be adjacent to my feet. It requires the body to bend forward

from the hip crease with a straight back to bring the torso to the thighs with the pelvis

tilted towards the sky. To achieve this fold, over half of the flexion comes from tilting the

pelvis forward, then the lumbar spine (the part above the hips and below the ribs)

accounts for the rest.

For me it was a massive revelation to understand that not all pelvis’ are made equally:

• The ball and socket joint on some of us can be quite a tight fit, meaning that a 90

degree forward fold is anatomically impossible as your bones simply won’t allow for a full

range of movement.

• Tight external hip rotators, the muscles that join the femur to the hip, can also be responsible. If they are too tight it means that there is less room for movement between the femur and the pelvis and can actually cause the pelvis to tilt backwards and not forwards when you try and fold. They also cause the thighs to roll outward, thus blocking the pelvis from rotating forward.

• Another cause could be tight hamstrings, or areas of tightness in the whole of the back body. In order to bring the front body together, the fascia of the back body (which runs from the bottom of the feet up the legs and back, over the head and to above the eyebrows), needs to release.

If I were to try and force myself into the perfect stance it would create a great deal of tension in the hamstrings and lumbar spine that could potentially tear muscles, ligaments, or worse, herniate a disc. It would also compress my internal organs, the opposite of what the pose is trying to achieve. The idea is to create space and reduce compression in the spine with the aid of gravity. By adapting my posture to my known limitations, I can practice in a safe way without fear of injury.

I know from my own experiences that it’s very difficult to find this depth of knowledge in a standard class. Even if every teacher had time, not all are experts in anatomy and can make a personal assessment on the spot. You know your body best; don’t let the ego push you into a posture that could cause pain or injury just because you see others doing it. Notice what your body is telling you, don’t try to reach a pose but bring the pose to you:

• Always start in a neutral back position and notice the natural curves in your spine. Soften the knees slightly to release the tension on the hamstrings.

• Practice tilting the pelvis and note how far it goes; the tail bone should be pointing back and the pubic bone down, accentuating the curve in the lower back.

• As you tilt, exhale and fold forward keeping the back straight paying careful attention to any tension in the lower back or hamstrings; as soon as you feel this, then bend the knees more to bring the belly closer to the thighs. This is your perfect.

I hope this article has helped deconstruct some of your own insecurities. Perhaps some of the links below will also be useful to you but most importantly, be kind to yourself and accept your individuality.

Resources:

Paul Grilley, the functional aproach