Judith Lasater, author of “Relax & Renew: Restful Yoga for Stressful Times” was in Dallas in late January for a 5-day Yoga Therapeutics workshop and Master Class on the hip joint (hosted by Living Yoga Dallas. Thank you Kendall!).
My 2009 is about keeping my 200-hour certification which means I need to attend workshops and earn CEUs (Continuing Education Units).
As a yoga teacher I earn very little money, and $75 just for the Sunday Master Class hit my AMEX pretty hard after the holidays. But that $75 was money well-spent. As a Yoga Therapist Judith Lasater knows anatomy and physiology. (With a PhD in East-West Psychology she obviously knows a lot more.) She explained not only the gender differences but also the cultural differences in the anatomy of the hip joint, differences which turn out to be East-West. In cultures where most of us sit in chairs all day, our hip joints assume a movement and stasis that becomes fairly patterned and is different from that of cultures where many folks squat or sit on the floor (or just walk a lot more). Judith explained how when she was a girl, her family sat on the floor all the time, so sitting in padmasana or lotus pose has always been quite easy for her. Many Western yoga students will never sit comfortably in lotus pose because our hips are habituated (read “tight and underdeveloped”) to sit in chairs.
She pulled out a handy 3-D scale model of the human spine and pelvis (gets her in trouble in airports), together with a model of the top end of the human thigh bone or femur. Are you a visual learner? Me too. Getting to see how the femur sits in the hip socket (or acetabulum to be anatomically correct) made the results of our asana or posture work much more immediate and valuable. Knowing the relative angle (and it differs between men and women) at which that thigh bone inserts into the hip, and then being able to visualize that insertion as we moved in and out of seated and standing poses, brought my understanding as a teacher to a new level. You know when you grasp the essence of a piece of knowledge almost immediately, understand its value and can then repeat and share that essence with full confidence? That’s what I got.
How many times do I tell my students to “broaden your hips”? This, I learned (or was reminded?) is anatomically impossible. Or how about “tuck your pelvis under”? Judith explained why she thinks the latter instruction is unhelpful, particularly if you are also instructing your students to flatten their lower backs at the same time. True, we don’t want to over-arch the lumbar spine, but we also don’t want to “under arch” it. There is a neutral position for the spine that keeps the natural curve in the lower back intact and we do a disservice by instructing our students to flatten that arch. When we point the tailbone down, tucking the pelvis, we restrict movement in the thigh/hip joint when what we want is more movement, more freedom there.
Which doesn’t mean I can’t continue to give these instructions if they are helpful visualizations for some students. But the additional lesson seemed to be to become more aware of each student’s unique anatomy. Only a handful will have the tendency to overarch the lumbar spine, just as only a few will hyper-extend the limbs. Give those instructions only to those who will benefit and at the same time, encourage the neutral, natural curve of the spine.