Is Chaturanga a "Shoulder Shredder" or are You Just Impatient? | Yoga Anatomy Lesson

Chaturanga dandasana, also commonly called a yoga pushup, is commonly thought to be a "shoulder shredder". People blame this pose all the time for causing injury because it places such a huge demand on the shoulder joint.
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Is chaturanga REALLY a "shoulder shredder"? Is it safe? Is it dangerous?
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The truth is that the common belief is probably correct that chaturanga causes a lot of yoga injuries, but not for the reasons that most people think! The position itself is perfectly fine, it's just really damn hard. You need to work up to it!
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Yoga teachers are not taught about simple things like the principle of progressive overload or the principle of specific adaptation to imposed demand. If they were, maybe they wouldn't be forcing people into things that are too hard for them.
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[@evecunardyoga6362]

Thanks for reminding everyone that yoga is about self awareness. And the anatomy is explained in a friendly and accessible way. Great!

[@LaurieEMiller]

You're making me feel grateful for the teachers I had when I took yoga classes -- they said I had to learn to do movement without mentally pushing myself first and foremost. It was months of learning to just do what was easy, but do it well and do it every day (which unsuprisingly gained me a lot of strength).

[@ymmm-yogamovementmeditatio9507]

Excellent video Anthony. Most of my students are women and most of them do not have the strength to do Chaturanga safely. Yoga teachers often do not know about progressive overload and so do not offer alternatives. I would add even before your step 1, just a plank with the knees on the floor with straight arms, progressing to straight legs, ie. holding plank. I also tell many students to go to a gym and work on their pulling strength. Keep posting these, they are great tutorials!

[@ShapeshiftWellness]

Very true, there are even more basic and essential regressions from here, and they all have value! No need to jump to the hard stuff too quick, yoga isn't a race!

[@luizalouyoga]

Man, I loooove the way you explain and organize your content. You know, you do it in a simple and straight forward manner, but at the same time going through the nuances and complexities of the subject. Way to go! Keep up the good work! 👏🏼🙏🏻

[@ShapeshiftWellness]

Thank you so much for the feedback! It's tricky and I hope to continually improve as a teacher!

[@gloriaineshidalgo7894]

HELO David: I work as a Viniyoga teacher with people with many conditions as for ex: Pronator or supinator foot, herniated disk, stenosis, multiple sclerosis, etc Your videos help to understand simple things to understand the biomechanic of the body movement.Thanks a lot. Gloria I Hidalgo (Colombia)

[@ShapeshiftWellness]

Thanks for sharing! I'm very glad I can help you to help other people! Take care.

[@sweetensour2011]

Cannot agree more to ladder progression sequencing! I actually did injure my shoulder due to repetitive chaturangas in ashtanga class, when i was still a beginner in yoga 🙄

[@ShapeshiftWellness]

That is so common, especially in ashtanga. I mean seriously there's zero warm up and then BOOM! Four breaths in at 6am and we're doing chaturangas! Too much, too fast, too forcefully.

[@fugaku1343]

Hi Anthony. As I suffer from a labral tear and my left rotator cuff is weak, your video helped a lot in saving me another shoulder injury. I applied your advice to push ups as well and it worked a charm. Slow and steady.

[@ShapeshiftWellness]

AnalogueOverlap Good luck healing up that shoulder! I have a labral tear that was really irritated for a while but as long as we stay active and stay patient in progressively adding new and more difficult things, our body is great at recovering function over time. This is actually how I rehabbed my own shoulder labrum. I started by doing wall pushups which are super easy and I would do like 100/day. I gradually kept doing slightly harder variations, but still easy enough that I could do like 100 reps over the course of a day with little to no pain. Now I’m back to a full, standard strength training program!

[@yogaconsusana]

LOVE your videos!!! Thank You for sharing this knowledge, as a Yoga teacher I find it very helpful!!!

[@ShapeshiftWellness]

I’m so glad you enjoy it!

[@DebbieKSmith76]

I appreciate your knowledge and willingness to share it sooo much, thank you.

[@ShapeshiftWellness]

My pleasure! Thank you for watching!

[@cristinalattuada5322]

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼thank you

[@eeba4538]

Thank you ❤❤

[@ShapeshiftWellness]

Welcome!

[@robbinhallfordyogallc6431]

I just love your videos!! "Doing arm balances and shit" 😄💙 Forrealtho'! Keep busting the myths brother!!!

[@ShapeshiftWellness]

Hahah, Will do. Thank you for watching! I'm happy you enjoy it.

[@arielliu9965]

Thank you for the helpful yoga anatomy videos! I'm in a 200hr training right now and wondering about lowering the belly to the mat. Usually I see teachers cuing knees-chest-chin to cobra or lowering all the way down from chaturanga. Does the chaturanga progression mean that it would be better not to slowly lower to the mat first? I.e. does that mean knees-chest-chin should be cued to come to the mat rather than some chaturanga progression?

[@ShapeshiftWellness]

Hey Ariel! I hope you’re loving your YTT journey! I always thought this cue was weird. The reason it works and it’s easier than normal chaturanga is that (obviously) the knees are on the ground, and also that you end up keeping the hips higher than the shoulders so the weight of the hips stays almost stacked over the knees so the shoulders don’t have to manage that weight. That said, it’s not my favorite option for training chaturanga because it doesn’t actually teach you how to get core engagement and stiffness needed for a full chaturanga. The progression I suggested here is much better to actually prepare you over months or years to be able to gain enough strength and control to eventually nail a full chaturanga. Knees chest chin doesn’t really help you get to that point. I break these things down in much greater depth in my online anatomy courses! Check them out: www.shapeshiftwellness.com/bundles/all-access-membership

[@iarasarlinmart6144]

How do I back off? Im already on the knees :( or is it because my shoulders are hypermobile, according to other of your videos I've seen

[@Megh2D]

One of the things I was thinking when looking at the 4 part progression (esp. Knees up) was that the head looked more dropped than I have been taught is "okay." Clearly in the winging shoulder image, the head is very dropped, but would you say the head drop on the 4 part progression is sustainable, or should one aim for more of an all aligned position when moving from one "level" to the next? (Hope that makes sense...)

[@ShapeshiftWellness]

Yea I noticed that after I made the images. I could have raised the head a bit for those to be more "ideal", but it's not a huge deal. The main thing is just that a person takes plenty of time to work one level at a time and get nice and strong before progressing to a more difficult version. If you are truly super strong, then having the head hang isn't actually a bad thing. It's a bad thing if you're not in control of it. If you are physically unable to change it, then it's bad.

[@Megh2D]

@@ShapeshiftWellnesskeeping in control of it... copy that. In these days of increased screen time, I'm trying to be more mindful of that head position whilst erect, as well. Okay to choose to push the chin forward to reach a mindful end, but creepy when I've found it has crept forward on its own. I see my s- curve future flash before mine eyes....

[@ShapeshiftWellness]

Don't worry too much about posture, there are tons of studies showing that people can have "bad" posture and still have zero pain. Just make sure to move your body frequently, in lots of different ways, every day, probably at least once per hour. In other words, as long as we stay active we are good to go!