pose

As a student and teacher of yoga and practitioner of the Gokhale Method, I choose yoga poses that make good use of my time. “Chair pose” is well worth the time investment. In fact, it has become one of my favorite strength-building postures. It is useful for cultivating a J-shaped spine. It helps increase gluteal tone. It helps to pattern healthy hip movement. It is strengthening for the legs and spinal stabilizers. And, last but not least, it allows a yoga practitioner to smoothly transition between a standing forward fold and mountain pose — without compression of the intervertebral discs.

Cecily Frederick in chair pose with J-spine visible, overlaid with SpineTracker™ snapshot.

   
Detail of Cecily Frederick’s spinal shape in chair pose, overlaid with SpineTracker snapshot.

SpineTracker snapshot of Cecily Frederick’s spinal shape in chair pose.

Chair pose is also Esther Gokhale's favorite way to cultivate strength in all the muscles needed to tallstand well. She recommends it to students who tend to park in their joints (locking the knees and groin, flattening the feet, arching the back and introducing extra curves throughout the spine). After practicing chair pose, the small amount of muscular effort it takes to stand well becomes easy to access.

To practice chair pose, stand with your feet about hip-width apart and kidney bean shape your feet. Reach your arms forward and up as you simultaneously bend your knees, hips and ankles as if you were sitting down and back into a chair. Hold for a few seconds and then press down through your feet (and especially through your heels) to come back to standing while lowering your arms.  

A couple of practice sequences you could consider: 

• Transition from tallstanding (“mountain pose” or Tadasana) to chair pose and back to tallstanding 4-6 times.

• Transition from tallstanding to chair pose to an upward forward fold (Urdhva Uttanasana) to chair pose (Utkatasana) to tallstanding 4-6 times.

Cecily Frederick in upward forward fold (Urdhva Uttanasana or hip-hinge).

Five refinement tips

1. Strengthen your butt / spare your knees
To help develop gluteal strength and avoid knee strain, don’t let your knees come forward over your toes as your knees bend. Think about pulling your butt back behind you. Consider using a stool that you position in front of your shins while standing, and don’t let yourself push it forward as you move into chair pose.

Cecily Frederick using a stool to cue chair pose, with help from a friend.

2. Save your discs
To help avoid swaying the back and compressing upper lumbar discs, don’t reach your arms up vertically. Instead let them reach forward. 

3. Settle your pelvis
To help the pelvis to settle well, you might not want the feet and knees too close together. Experiment with different widths between your feet. Remember what you learned in the Foundations Course or Pop-up Course about hip-hinging.

4. Less is more
Don’t force yourself into a deep knee, hip, or ankle bend. Allow your chair pose to begin where it begins. Less is often more in a yoga practice. 

5. Break it down
If you have an injured shoulder you can lower your arms, bring them to your hips or press the palms together in prayer position in front of the sternum.

Studying and teaching yoga has been part of my life for several years. However, after learning the Gokhale Method, I approached the well-known yoga posture “downward-facing dog” (Adho Mukha Svanasana) in a new way.
 

Hip-hinging with my even spinal groove visible — GOOD! Image courtesy Cecily Frederick.

In the Gokhale Method Foundations Course, I learned how to hip-hinge and keep my spine from flexing when bending. I wanted to maintain about the same spinal shape in my “downward-facing dog” pose as I had learned when hip-hinging. This spinal shape, with an even spinal groove from the lower to the upper back, meant that my intervertebral discs, nerve roots and spinal ligaments would be protected during bends, and my hip joints would be used in a healthy way.

Also informing the adjustments I made to my downward-facing dog was receiving detailed feedback about my spinal shape from the new SpineTracker wearable device developed by the Gokhale Method Institute. This technology is available to participants of the new Pop-up Course and in private lessons with participating teachers.
 

Here, I’m wearing a set of SpineTracker sensors on my back to determine my lumbar spinal shape. Image courtesy Cecily Frederick.

Here is an example of the SpineTracker feedback for a hip-hinge. To contextualize, each dot is the location of a sensor.

SpineTracker snapshot of my spinal shape while hip-hinging — GOOD!

Although many yoga practitioners hip-hinge in their “downward-facing dog” posture, I had a habit of slightly flexing my lumbar spine in this pose.
 

The practitioner in this version of "downward-facing dog" pose shows a slightly flexed lumbar spine, putting the lumbar discs under strain. Image courtesy Form on Unsplash.

After many years of spinal flexion occurring with most hip flexion, I had developed chronic low back pain. Not all spinal flexion is easy to see (or feel internally), as my former downward-facing dog form, demonstrated below, shows.
 

Here I am in downward-facing dog with some lumbar spine flexion and hip flexion (knees straight, heels down) — BAD! Image courtesy Cecily Frederick.

To heal my irritated back, I began revisiting the way I approached this yoga posture. It was a worthy project since this pose shows up frequently in my yoga practice and yoga teaching sessions.

First, I needed to learn how to stabilize my overly mobile lower back and ease into deeper flexion in my hips. Luckily, hip-hinging practice had helped me learn how to achieve both of these goals. Then I needed to transfer this skill to one common yoga pose: downward-facing dog.
 

In this photo, I’m in downward-facing dog with my spinal groove visible (knees bent, heels up) — GOOD! Image courtesy Cecily Frederick.

Here’s another view of my downward-facing dog, wearing the SpineTracker sensors on my back (knees bent, heels up) — GOOD! Image courtesy Cecily Frederick.

The upgraded downward-facing dog pose creates an even spinal groove which I’m able to feel with my fingertips — GOOD! Image courtesy Cecily Frederick.

A great way to capture the shape of the spine in a complex yoga pose is to take an image with the SpineTracker device. The SpineTracker sensors stick directly to the skin over the spine and are able to give detailed information about the spine’s shape (and your hands can stay on the floor).

SpineTracker snapshot of my spinal shape in upgraded downward-facing dog (knees bent, heels up), more spinal extension — GOOD!

For comparison, this SpineTracker snapshot of my spinal shape in unmodified downward-facing dog (knees straight, heels down) reveals noticeably more spinal flexion than in the upgraded form — BAD!

In my upgraded downward-facing dog pose: no spinal flexion, heels up, knees bent — GOOD! Image courtesy Cecily Frederick.

To refine my downward-facing dog pose, I needed to:

1. Learn how to hip-hinge from a Gokhale Method teacher
2. Come to a hands and knees position (“dog pose”) with a J-spine
3. Lift hips into downward-facing dog position without changing spinal shape and gently pull hips back, away from hands

Things that might also help if you have shortened hamstrings and calf muscles and/or internally rotated femurs:

1. Keep knees softly bent and kidney bean shape the feet to allow the pelvis to settle well
2. De-emphasize dropping heels to the floor
3. Allow the pose to feel awkward at first (but not painful)

One additional advantage to structuring a downward-facing dog this way is that the pose becomes a great way to lengthen the entire spine, which can make other yoga poses healthier and more accessible. Yoga is one of many topics addressed in the Online University content for alumni.

Is there a yoga pose that causes you some back discomfort?