Awkward Arms

My friend Louis said, "It is OK Angela, most women don't pay a lot of attention to their arms."  This was to encourage me to keep going in a workout we were doing from Body Rock (http://www.bodyrock.tv/).  I think we were doing 50 push-ups. . . or maybe it was walking push-ups.  Ugh!

He may have been generalizing when it comes to women but he was right when it comes to me.  With backbends being our focus for February I couldn't ignore the alignment of the arms any longer.   

On Saturday I introduced the Inner and Outer Spirals of the arms.  There was a full class with a variety of newer students and folks that have been practicing for years.  I was bubbling inside with all the information from my studies and the instruction seemed to be boiling over and causing the burner to steam and the contents that spilled out to burn.

The best, or worst, was when I found myself confused with which direction the upper arms were actually supposed to be rotating in Urdhva Dhanurasana(Full Wheel).  The good thing about making mistakes or questioning things is it often deepens the learning.

I had the students draw arrows on their arms so we wouldn't be confused once we were upside down.  This visual arrow that was supposed to ease confusion ended up confusing me.  Oops!  Lara and Elizabeth assured me my arrow was pointing the right direction.  I think some students left with more clarity and others with more confusion.  I promised two things.  I promised we would keep working on the spirals of the arms and that I would blog about it.

Today I attempted to simplify my instruction and keep the contents at a simmer so the instruction would be easier to digest.  The action of inner and outer spiral starts in the hands and moves all the way up into the shoulders.  Just to break it down a little though

• FOREARMS (Hug Into the Midline - emphasize inner rotation)
• UPPER ARMS (Focus on the outer rotation)

First we are going to acknowledge that there are five different planes of the arms.  We will dive more into that later.  For now, we are staying simple.  So we will say that in most poses you hug the forearms in first and then rotate the upper arms out.  This isn't true in poses where the arms are in an overhead plane.

A few poses where the arms are in an overhead plane are:  downward facing dog, handstand, forearm balance, and full wheel.  In this case, the upper arms spin out first in order to make space for the forearms to spin in.

If this is too much or you are still confused - fear not.  We will continue to work with the arms and as questions come up don't be afraid to ask.  It will facilitate learning for everyone involved!