If you have been a student of hatha yoga in the U.S. for some time, you’ve probably become familiar with a number of directives, like:
“Lift your sit bones toward the sky! (in downward facing dog)”
“To find your seat in dandasana (staff pose), pull the flesh of your buttocks away.”
“Reach your tail up to lengthen!”
Most of these reminders are intended to encourage students to find length in their spines. The confusing truth, though, is that many U.S. yoga students have actually taken these directive too far. As earnest, hardworking yoga students, we’ve frequently gone past length to extension and often to an unintegrated spine that loses its integrity at the solar plexus or junction of the thoracic and lumbar spines.
Here’s why I think this happens. Most yoga practitioners in the U.S. are women. In general, women tend to show a greater lumbar curve than men. Some of this is physiological, but it is also cultural. U.S. ideals of femininity include an embrace of high heels, which tend to encourage the chest to be thrust forward and the tail to be flipped up behind the body. This also promotes an exaggerated lumbar curve. So many women yoga practitioners continue this pattern in their asana practice.
The habit of “breaking” the spine near the solar plexus can also be seen with how we often interpret the order to “stand up straight.” As a nation of chest breathers, we may think that thrusting the chest forward and puffing it up counts as being upright. In fact, it is a very unsupported position that is hard on the spine (and makes it hard to breathe).
Yet, isn’t there some value to the adage “lift your sitbones to the sky?” Well, it depends. What is complicated is that most classes include people of very different body types and patterns. For students with the habit of tucking the tail deeply and curling the lumbar spine under themselves, the reminder to lift the sit bones up or reach the tail up can be very helpful. Yet, for students who already have a tail that tends to lift up beyond neutral position, it is more important to allow the tail to feel weighted and even rooted. These students already have lift; they need more grounding and usually more support from their core.
As a teacher, I try to explain these contradictions but I know they are confusing. It can help to make short-hand reminders for different students (“more tail drop into the heels”, “more belly knitting in” or “more flippy, free tail”), but it’s important to realize that the group as a whole might take your very individual suggestions as the cardinal rule. Part of our task as teachers of integrated movement is to help our students learn where their own balance and challenges lie. It is complex to teach a group and to practice in a group class. Teachers have a responsibility to put their movement suggestions into context (such as “Our goal in reaching the sitbones is to feel a long, integrated quiet spine with natural curves.”). Students have a responsibility to consider teacher guidance in light of their own bodies and to ask questions of their teachers (such as “Is that suggestion for me?” “Am I doing this movement enough? Too much?”).
