How to Do: Chaturanga Dandasana

Also Known As: Low Plank Or Four-Limbed Staff Pose.

Targets: Shoulders, Upper Body And Core

Level: Beginner

Pose Type: Arm Balance

Chaturanga Dandasana is one of the most challenging postures in yoga and an easy one to do with improper form. It is an integral part of Surya Namaskar A and B (Sun Salutation A&B) and many other Vinyasa flows. So, it is important to do it properly.

Chaturanga is such a vital pose, but it’s an exceptionally difficult pose to pull off with skill and precision, especially for beginners.

Most of the alignment mistakes that we make in Chaturanga Dandasana are because we don’t have enough strength to do the posture.

Understanding how to do the pose well and keep your shoulders safe should be a beginners first step to learning Chaturanga Pose. Improper form can cause some shoulder issues, but when you do it right, you’re sure to notice improvements in your strength and yoga practice overall.

You can use Chaturanga Dandasana to build the power to perform challenging poses that require a lot of arm strength. This includes Crow, Handstand, and Headstand.

How To Do Chaturanga Dandasana: Step-By-Step

Come into a high plank by positioning your wrists directly under your shoulders and maintaining a slight bend in your elbows.
Engage your legs, pulling the kneecaps up. The core is engaged, the hips are inline forming one straight line from your head to your heels.
On an exhale, bend your elbows and lower your shoulders so they’re at the same height as your elbows.
Tightly squeeze your elbows in toward your body.
Keep your upper body and legs a few inches above the floor.
Gaze down or lift your head slightly.
Broaden across your chest and upper back.
Stay here and hold. You will eventually build up the amount of time you can hold the pose.
On an exhale, press back up into a plank or Downward-Facing Dog. Or drop your knees down and rest in Child’s Pose.

Modifications:

While this pose requires a certain amount of strength and skill to perform correctly, you can modify it very easily to suit many fitness levels.

Practicing Chaturanga helps you build power, even if you’re unable to do the full expression of the pose.

Use your knees:

From a plank, lower your knees to the floor.
Exhale and shift your weight forward until your shoulders move past your wrists.
Then practice lowering your upper body so it’s a few inches above the floor.
Focus on keeping your elbows drawn in toward your sides and notice which upper body muscles you engage.
Gradually increase the duration of the pose. You can also practice lifting yourself back up to a plank or flowing into Cobra Pose.
Even if you just lower your torso a few inches down from plank, that is a perfectly valid version of the pose.

How To Use Props For Chaturanga Dandasana:

Train your arms with a strap.Loop a yoga strap so it’s as wide as your shoulders. Place it just above your elbows. As you lower into Chaturanga from a plank, the strap will support your arms and prevent your elbows from splaying out to the sides. It will also prevent you from lowering your shoulders too far down.

Use a block to help you physically understand how low to go. Don’t release your weight into the support of the block, try to just lightly touch it.

There are two different ways to you can use blocks in Chaturanga to help you build strength depending on your main problem area:

Place two blocks near your shoulders when first starting out to give you more support in your shoulders if you lack upper body strength.
Or place a block underneath your core if you have a hard time keeping your core engaged and your back in constantly arching.

Building Up To The Pose: Preparatory Poses For Chaturanga Dandasana

To build into Chaturanga you should practice these postures and their modified versions that require joint stacking and core strength. Chaturanga is just as much about whole body strength as it is about the upper body, so work in some holds that teach you how to strengthen your leg muscles and rotate them inwards.

These poses include:

Plank Pose
Side Plank
Downward-Facing Dog
Sphinx
Cobra
Upward-Facing Dog
Dolphin Pose
Puppy
Forearm Plank
Locust Pose

Preventing Injury:

Be mindful if you have any shoulder injuries as chaturanga can put pressure on the shoulders when done incorrectly.

As you lower down, hug your elbows in toward the body, maintaining contact with your ribs. This will help strengthen your arms and prevent shoulder injury.

Another Tip For Total Beginners: Use A Wall.

If you’re a complete beginner, get the hang of how this pose feels by doing it upright, standing against a wall.

To do this:

Stand a few inches from a wall.
Press your palms into the wall, just below your shoulders and keep your elbows tucked against your sides.
Engage your muscles as though you’re pushing yourself away from the wall.
At the same time, engage your shoulder and chest muscles to counter the movement.
Tuck your pelvis down and under slightly.
Raise your upper chest slightly.
Hold this position for up to 1 minute.

12 Tips For Improving Your Chaturanga:

Stack Your Joints – Yoga is about stacking joints for support. In the Warrior poeses we stack the knee over the ankle, in standing postures we stack the hip over the ankle, and in all the plank variations we stack the shoulder over the wrist. In Chaturanga we stack the elbows over the wrists, and the ankles over the toes.
Squeeze The Elbows – Always squeeze your elbows into your ribs. It supports your shoulders and activates your triceps for more control.
Suck Navel To Spine – Your abdominal muscles must stay pulled in to keep you lighter in your wrists and to stop your spine from curving. Your abdominals support your spine.
Distribute Weight Evenly – Distribute your weight evenly between your right and your left sides.
Shoulders Back – Pull your shoulders away from your head and neck to avoid holding a shrugged-shoulders posture.
Broaden Across Chest – Prevent your chest from collapsing by broadening across your chest and shoulders.
Shoulder Position – Don’t allow your shoulders to drop below the height of your elbows.
Hips And Shoulders Aligned – In the lowered position, keep your hips and shoulders at the same height.
Don’t Drop Too Low – If you can’t lower your shoulders to elbow height, you can keep them slightly higher than your elbows.
Elbows Pointing Back – Your elbows should point straight back instead of to the sides.
Upper Arms Parallel To Floor – Keep your upper arms parallel to the floor. Lengthen your leg muscles by pressing back through your heels.

7 Common Mistakes In Chaturanga And How To Fix Them:

Don’t Let Your Hips Sag Or Elbows Stick Out – Focus on the basic alignment points. If your hips are sagging, it’s an indication that you should drop your knees to the floor. You must build the core strength to support your plank throughout the pose.
Don’t Let Your Butt Stick Into The Air – You want your hips to be at shoulder height. So, drop your hips down, lift your abdomen, and keep working the upper back.
You’re Not Grounding Through Your Hands – Your hands and your toes are the only body parts supporting the rest of your body. Don’t lift your palms up, instead spread your hands out evenly. Spread your fingers and completely ground them into the mat. Incorrect hand placement causes more strain to be put on your wrists and arms for trying to maintain balance in a pose that does not have a steady base.
You’re Not Fully Engaging Your Core – You might feel like you’re engaging your core, but if your hips are not aligned with your spine and neck, you still have some work to do. When you fully engage your core, you take a lot of the stress off your shoulders, just like in Downward Facing Dog.
You’re Collapsing Through Your Chest – When you are practicing Chaturanga, you need to lift through your chest, like how you would in Cobra. When you don’t do this, your chest collapses and you are putting all your weight onto your elbows for support.
Your Shoulders Are Positioned Over Your Wrists – If you don’t shift forward from plank before lowering into Chaturanga, the shoulders will be positioned over the wrists. Pushing back through your heels also has the effect of moving the shoulders back instead of forward. As a result, when you lower down, your forearms will be on a diagonal. That angled position does not offer the support the shoulders need.

Why Is Chaturanga So Hard?

· It requires upper body strength.

During Chaturanga, you are engaging your arms and shoulders a lot, specifically your biceps, triceps, and upper back.

· It requires core engagement.

If you’ve ever done a push up, you know that it also works the core. Chaturanga is basically a yogi push-up and involves even more core strength than a regular push-up.

If your hips are lifting or dipping out of alignment, that means you’re not engaging these muscles enough to maintain correct alignment.

· It requires balance.

Chaturanga is actually considered a balancing pose. It is an arm balance pose, as you are balancing your entire body’s weight on just your hands and your toes.

The challenging part of Chaturanga is balancing your weight properly to maintain correct alignment and distribute your weight evenly.

Yoga challenge – Advanced

For a fast and effective full-body flow, try starting in a high plank, flowing through your chaturanga to upward-facing dog, then downward-dog, and flow back to your plank from there. Repeat as many times as you can, and you’ll target practically your entire body.

Yoga Challenge – Beginner

Hold your Chaturanga for an extra breath or two to work your muscles harder. Incorporate more chaturanga into your practice.

Benefits of Chaturanga:

It strengthens your arm, shoulder, and leg muscles. Chaturanga is especially useful in strengthening the wrists.
Develops core strength and stability
It prepares body for inversions and arm balances.
It strengthens the spine and improve posture.
Chaturanga helps you establish a mind-muscle connection and teaches proper weight distribution using the arms and legs. The pose is also known for deepening the one’s knowledge about body alignment, especially in the arms.
It also boosts energy, fights fatigue, and builds confidence and empowerment.

When To Avoid Chaturanga Dandasana?

It you suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome.
Have high blood pressure.
You are prone to headaches
If you have intense pain in your shoulders, back, or wrists during the pose.
You may also want to avoid this pose if you are pregnant.

The Takeaway

Chaturanga Dandasana is a wonderful addition to your yoga flow. It improves overall body strength, stability, and alignment.

Feel free to modify this asana to suit your individual needs and remember that it’s in no way necessary to any yoga practice.

Keep in mind that the true spirit of yoga is an inner stillness and peace that may not be flashy enough to be Instagram, but it will help you move through your daily life with strength, grace, and ease.