The Albatross looks majestic in flight. But yogis are not birds and should not have wings.
Alice is reading a book about bird flight. All of the birds have wings of course but the wings were very different. Some wings, like the Albatross, are very large and come out from their body at right angles. Other birds, like chickadees, have smaller wings that come out from their body at 45 degrees or less. Regardless of the type of wings that the bird had they can all fly with ease.
Alice’s yoga teacher told her just the other day that yogis are not birds and should not have wings. In particular you should not have bird wings in Sun Salutes. You are not trying to fly and these wings can cause injury.
What is a Sun Salute
A Sun Salute is a series of yoga poses that are done to the breath one after the other. Traditionally the Sun Salutes are done at sunrise, hence the name, while you face the rising sun. The Sun Salute series is usually done at the beginning of your yoga practice. It helps to warm your muscles up, establish your breathing, focus your mind and prepare you for the full yoga practice that is to follow.
How to do a Sun Salute
You start in Tadasana with your toes touching and your arms resting at your sides.
- From here you inhale and bring your arms up overhead looking at your thumbs.
- Exhale and you bend forward at the hips bringing your hands to the floor beside your feet and you look back through your legs.
- Next you inhale lifting your torso, keeping your hands on the floor and gaze down your nose.
- Exhale you jump your legs back into high plank. Your arms are straight with your hands under your shoulders and your body is straight as well with your hips in line with your shoulders and ankles. Now lower down to low plank hovering just above the floor.
- From here you inhale and lift your shoulders up straightening your arms and gaze to the horizon in upward facing dog.
- Exhale and lift your hips into downward facing dog. Bring your gaze towards your navel and hold here for 5 breaths.
- After the five breaths inhale and bring your feet up between hands, lifting your torso and gaze down your nose.
- Exhale and lower your torso towards your thighs and gaze through your legs.
- Inhale, come to standing with your arms up over your head and gaze once again towards your thumbs.
- Exhale and lower your arms to sides returning to Tadasana gazing towards the horizon.
Where do the wings happen in a Sun Salute
The wings show up in the Sun Salute when you jump your feet back and your body is in high plank. Next you lower down to low plank holding your body just above the floor on your hands and toes. It is this movement from high plank to low plank that is the problem.
There is a tendency for a lot people to let their elbows drift away from the sides of their body as they lower down into plank. This is when the wings appear. As you lower down the arms drift away from the body and they look the wings of a bird. These wings are a problem and can cause injury to your elbows
Why are bird wings a problem
While the wings look innocent enough there is a problem here. The elbow joint is out of alignment and after many repetitions of the Sun Salutes you will develop tendinitis or tennis elbow as it is commonly caused. With the elbows out to the side in the wing formation you are putting an unbalanced strain on the elbow joint and the tendons will suffer as a result.
There is a simple change you can make to avoid the wings and save your elbows.
How to avoid the wings of a bird
There is small change that you can make that will save your elbows and it is easy to do. As you lower down from high plank to low plank bend your elbows straight back and press them against your ribs as you lower your body down towards the floor.
This alignment of the elbows next to the ribs puts a balanced stress on the tendons of the elbow joint and prevents the development of tendinitis.
Is it okay to have small wings like a chickadee
You can have a lot of wing like an Albatross when your elbows are far away from your sides almost at 90 degrees. Or you can go all the way down to a little bit of wing like a chickadee where your elbows are only a little bit away from your sides.
Even with chickadee wings you can develop tendinitis in your elbows. The stress in the elbow joint is unbalanced even with a small distance between the elbows and the ribs.
Summary
To avoid injury to your elbows you need to keep them tucked in next to your body as your lower down from high plank to low plank. No Albatross wings and even no Chickadee wings are allowed in a Sun Salute.
Next Steps
A lot of times you are not even aware that you have wings when you are doing a Sun Salute. To avoid injury to your elbows ask your teacher to check to see if you have the wings of a bird the next time that you are doing a Sun Salute.
Your teacher will be able to help your correct the alignment of your elbows and save you from developing tendinitis.
one word – injury free
