Moments, Arms, & Moment Arms

In a perspective article on scapular stabilization, the concepts of moments and moment arms came up. My fuzziest understanding is that they are related to rotation around a joint. And angles. And math. Usually, I ignore such words and cleave to the bigger picture. But scapulae are enticing black boxes to me and in the case of this article, moments and their arms seemed crucial to an understanding of the author’s theory of departure. This was the sentence that tossed me over the cliff: “Therefore, equal muscle forces are not mandatory – and could be clinically undesirable – because the muscles have different moment arms and thus different mechanical advantages for causing angular rotation in the joint.” I knew I needed help.

Historically, when I’ve tried to educate myself about biomechanical stuff (moments, arms, angles, etc.), my eyes glaze over and I hear this sound. Its hard to find someone writing about these biomechanical concepts in language that I can apply to my own understanding of yoga postures. So I reached out to my friend Christine McSween to help me understand. And that’s revisionist. Actually, Christine engaged with me in a Facebook group around this topic and we agreed to turn it into an educational interview for our group and the world.

Christine was drawn to the spiritual and mindfulness aspects of yoga in the beginning, but with further study she learned how amazing the physical body is along with a realization of the need for more education. With increased fervor, in 2015, she began pursuing a kinesiology degree at the University of Calgary with a focus in biomechanics. She teaches yin yoga, gentle yoga and Restorative Exercise.

Here is our conversation.

MM: I have a hazy understanding of a moment arm, but could not verbalize it well enough to get off the island. Can you give me the words?

CM: Can you let me know your definition first? I want to see what you’re working with!

MMI can’t! I don’t have my own words. My understanding is hazier than I thought. Sigh.

CM: I want to work through this a bit. Do you have a clearer understanding of a “moment” than the “moment arm”?

MM: Sadly, no. I clearly need a biomechanics lesson.

CM: Ok, I know where to start then!

CM: I’m going to draw a picture.


CM: As you can see in the picture, we have isolated the bicep as the force that will lift the forearm (of course we know this is super simplified).

The force in the bicep creates a moment – or rotation about the elbow joint (or axis of rotation). Because the bicep is only 5 cm down the forearm, it needs to create a LOT of force to lift the forearm. This is because the mass of the forearm is also creating a moment about the elbow joint due to gravity.

MM: (interrupting): Could you say a moment is any rotation about a joint? Does that mean there are an infinite number of moments for a given joint?


CM: Often in biomechanics we talk about “resultant moments” which is the resultant effect of all the moments about a joint. If the resultant moment is not zero (can be negative or positive), then we have a rotation or movement. I will say though, that the center of mass (COM) is a resultant force, since we know gravity impacts the whole arm

MM: First things first. Can you give me an example of a resultant moment being negative or zero with no rotation/movement? And what is the significance of COM being a resultant force.

CM: When a resultant moment is zero, you have an isometric contraction. There are moment’s occurring, but because they cancel out, the resultant moment is zero. This is how we first learn to calculate forces from moments in physics and biomechanics classes. We assume static equilibrium (no movement) to simplify the calculations.

In our case the system of interest is the forearm. If the forearm rotates towards the upper arm (counterclockwise), this is a positive moment. If the forearm rotates clockwise (extending the elbow), this is a negative moment. Of course, if we flipped our picture around, it would be the opposite.

We use a resultant force for the COM because otherwise we would have to calculate every cell’s mass and every cell’s moment arm, which would have us calculating for days, or weeks, or years. Not ideal! Instead, we can actually measure the weight of the whole forearm, and measure one moment arm to the COM of the forearm. Yay! Only one calculation.

MM: Let’s move on to moment arms.

CM: Now a moment arm is the perpendicular distance from the line of force application to the axis of rotation. Or…the moment arm is the distance from the elbow joint, to the attachment of the bicep, as it relates to the angle of the bicep.

MM: I prefer the latter. And would another moment arm be the distance from the elbow to the hand to account for the mass of the forearm?

CM: No, usually the moment arm is to the center of mass. So probably somewhere in the middle of the forearm. If the hand is holding a weight, then there is another moment arm to the hand.

MM: Let me get this straight. Using the picture above, one moment arm is from the elbow joint to where the bicep attaches on the forearm. Another moment arm is from the elbow joint to the center of mass of the forearm, which is likely near the center of the forearm – but this is only if nothing is being held in hand, I assume. Yet another moment arm would be from the elbow joint to a dumbbell, if one were being held. Eh?

CM: You bet! Just remember the moment arm is in relation to the angle of the applied force. If the forearm is at 90 degrees (like in our picture), then the moment arm would be length from the elbow to the dumbbell. However; this will not be the case if the forearm is at an angle. The applied force is no longer perpendicular.

CM: An example of how awesome our body is with creating more efficiency is our beautiful patella!

MM: What is/are the moment arms in this animation?

CM: When there is no rock, there is a very tiny angle between the elastic and the stick, which leads to a very tiny moment arm. So more force is needed for rotation. When there is a rock, the angle is much larger, leading to a larger moment arm, so less force is needed for the same amount of rotation.

MM: We are looking at the angle between the “femur” and the “patella,” yes?

CM: No, the patella and the tibia. The femur isn’t within our “system of interest” in this case.

MM: Dammit.

MM: Ok, so we have the force of the muscle and an external force like gravity or a weight creating individual moment arms. Are these opposing forces? Are there others?

CM: They aren’t quite opposing forces, as they are opposing moments. The bicep is creating a positive moment, while the COM, and a weight in the hand would be producing negative moments. This concept might be more simple if you think about a balanced teeter totter. On either side of the fulcrum you have equal forces in the same direction. BUT the moment arms are opposing, creating opposite moments. Does that make sense? Because our bodies are so wonderfully complex, you could add as many forces as you like, or make it is complicated as you like. And this is why resultant moments are used so frequently. When you add everything together, all the moments and forces, what will happen?

MM: I’m hoping that is a rhetorical question! I suppose it would determine if and how movement happens around a given joint or all joints….

MM: I’m guessing that moment arms are more straightforward, when we are talking about hinge joints like elbows, right? But more complex if we are talking about, say, the scapula?

CM: It would still be the same process, but yes, more difficult to quantify merely because the moment arm would be so small, because of the angles involved.

MM: Wouldn’t there be multiple forces applied to a scapula since it has multiple muscular attachments, moves in multiple planes, and is involved in multiple joints? What is the relationship ship between multiple moment arms and movement in a joint as complex as the shoulder complex?

CM: Simply, this complex structure allows for almost infinite variability in movement. Which logically, makes sense. If our shoulders are “less stable” to allow for more movement, it would make sense to have a variety of options in order to make those movements happen.

MM: So what? Who cares? How is this useful information for a movement practitioner?

CM: Understanding moments and forces allows us to be creative with our cueing and provides a greater understanding of alignment. Plus, we can see how anatomy impacts our biomechanics. In my 21 Day Biomechanics Challenge , I will be using my friend and I as an example. 

MM: I thought it might be illuminating to bring in a yoga pose for you to identify forces and moment arms. I give a shout out to this Yoga Stick Figure from Justine Aldersey-Williams. I’ve been using her clever illustrations in my teaching materials for several years now. You can download over 200 images from her Etsy store for just $5.


Image: Justine Aldersey-Williams

MM: Let’s take one of these arrows that you’ve drawn on the figure and tell me what’s going on.

CM: Consider this a static triangle, so the sum of all the moments equals zero. And we want to know the effect of placing the hand on the ground/leg or block vs. having it hover. To remain static, how would the resultant forces of the back leg and obliques change? If the hand is hovering, the resultant forces in the leg and obliques would have to increase to prevent the torso from rotating clockwise towards the ground. When the hand is pressing against something, it provides an opposing force that will rotate the torso counterclockwise, and the resultant forces in the back leg will be smaller. You can try this yourself by practicing both situations. What takes more effort?

MM: That’s fantastic!

MM: I have one final question. If we are biotensegrity systems (and not lever systems) with fascia deeply and exquisitely  investing our connective tissues, how should this interconnectivity influence how we think about moments and moment arms in movement?

CM: This is a question I have been struggling with for a couple years now, trying to put my thoughts to words. I must emphasize that my answer to this question will probably evolve over time as I learn more.

Although yes, we are not built like traditional buildings, and are amazingly adaptable tension systems made for mobility, this does not negate the importance of traditional biomechanics. Neither system is wrong, they are just different models, or filters by which we can understand the physical world.

And I think you can combine these models. If you take a tensegrity structure, and expose it to an external force, a moment may still be created. That entire structure might rotate. Or deform. Or translate. There are a number of options.

I think people can assume that this model will destroy the old, but there is not much evidence for that at this time. Biomechanics researchers understand that the body is not a bunch of simple levers. Load is distributed throughout the structure – like tensegrity! But this doesn’t mean that classical biomechanics has no place. Especially when we are starting to learn these concepts. As you study further into biomechanics, you must take into account our biology – how biological tissues respond to forces.

Muscles DO produce force to cause rotation. So we need both models to understand what’s happening in the body as we move. Levers exist, and yet we are this system of tension and compression. As we lift the forearm, not only the muscles such as the bicep, and brachialis lift the forearm, but the triceps create tension and can also contribute eccentric forces, while muscles in the shoulder and chest create stability.

The biotensegrity model informs classical biomechanics, and helps us question our assumptions, but it does not negate the model. If I may quote Jules Mitchell, “Such theories provide a foundation for forward and radical thinking, but are prone to become “buzzwords” which dilute scientific understanding among the mainstream.”

So, why does this stuff matter? The article that started this conversation shows a fantastic combination of questioning classical biomechanics, and informing it with the biotensegrity model. But the basic elements of moments and forces don’t disappear. We still need to understand these concepts to help us move forward.

“The key point is that stability is context specific, depending on the system and the task being performed.” I think this statement could be applicable to many other areas of the body.

And there you have it. A big thank you to Christine for her generous time in taking complex biomechanical concepts and explaining them in the concept of yoga.

Foot Love Workshop Exercises – October 2015



Standing Exercises


Toe Spreading


Short Foot Exercise




Exploratory feet


Top of foot stretch


Top of foot stretch

Top of foot stretch

Calf Elevator


Calf stretch



Calf Stretch/Elevator Combination


Hamstring stretch


Ball rolling massage



Floor Exercises

Plantar Fascia Stretch – kneeling/squatting


Barbie foot


Bridge with marble


Ankle circles, point/flex, invert, evert


Exploratory feet


Toe spreaders


Namaste, Michele

Strong At Any Length




I have read and recommend the following books by Ray Long.

The Key Muscles of Yoga: Scientific Keys, Volume I

The Key Poses of Yoga: Scientific Keys, Volume II

Yoga Mat Companion 1: Anatomy for Vinyasa Flow and Standing Poses

Yoga Mat Companion 2: Anatomy for Hip Openers and Forward Bends

Yoga Mat Companion 3: Anatomy for Backbends and Twists

Yoga Mat Companion 4: Anatomy for Arm Balances and Inversions







  1. Train active range of motion
  2. Strengthen at your end ranges of motion via muscle contraction





P1030104 (1)













Namaste, Michele

In reply to a dead but long living king

I received quite a few comments, on my personal Facebook page, to my article on headstand. Below are my clarifying responses. While I don’t include the original comments from my FB friends, they are fairly obvious within the context of my replies.

Reply to W.

Fan or not, Hector’s study is hugely important to biomechanics literature as it relates to yoga and to yoga literature as it relates to mechanical considerations of asana. There is very little out there that looks at the mechanics of yoga postures and their mechanical consequences. Hector was not trying to prove that loading the neck was bad. She set out to determine how much load is happening, rate of loading, center of pressure, and neck angle; contextualize these findings within what we already know about spine mechanics (lots); and apply this to an increasingly popular and controversial yoga posture. It’s through this extrapolation that one might conclude (me in this case) that unnaturally loading the neck is not good and that sirsasana provides the type of loading known to cause chronic and acute injuries.

You make a great point about loading of the neck not being limited to compressive forces. There are indeed tensile forces loading our cervical spine via our musculature. Buried within the 100+ pages of Hector’s thesis, she references studies that look at the minimal forces shown to cause cervical failure. These force studies, in humans, must be done in cadavers for obvious reasons. So, to account for the activity of surrounding musculature that would be found in a living person, cadavers’ skeletons were anatomically restrained in order to simulate the stabilizing properties of neck musculature. What they found, surprisingly I assume, is that larger fractures and forces were generated. This indicates that muscular stability or restraint may not increase tolerance for higher loads. Other researchers found that age, gender, disease, endocrine function, congenital factors and arthritis all affect tolerance values for cervical failure. Coincidentally, she does discuss African wood bearers, who are practiced at carrying large loads on their heads. In one small study, 90% of male wood bearers exhibited cervical degeneration compared to 23% of the control group. Elimination of natural cervical lordosis was seen, which puts the spine into pre-flexion – a known condition for cervical failure under axial loading. In other studies, females carrying large loads of wood had more prolapsed discs, herniations, and listhesis than those with moderate loads.

Ethically, a clinical study that seeks to prove that neck injuries are caused by certain loads can’t and won’t be performed on living humans, so we have to rely on research studies with cadavers or retrospective studies like those with wood bearers – which may be the closest thing we have to proving cervical loads do indeed cause injuries. When I put all of this together – case studies,  biomechanical studies, anthropological studies with wood carriers, clinical studies  done on glaucoma & blood pressure, and all the anecdotal studies from yoga teachers and practitioners, the evidence is clear, if not overwhelming, that supporting more than 8% of your body weight on your neck is dumb. Even if you do strengthen your cervical bones and other tissues by loading, I can’t imagine you strengthen it over five fold. But, again, the studies have not been done, which is why Hector’s study is so important.

Reply to M.

Iyengar taught, in his books anyway, that the full weight of your body should be on your head in sirsasana. Fortunately, many good teachers, like you, instruct students to place little to no weight on their heads. This better protects the neck, but then you have to consider that most people have meager compressive and tensile loading histories in their shoulders and arms, outside of some planks and possibly pull-ups in the gym/studio. I suspect that loads produced in the shoulders & arms from headstand or handstand far exceed most peoples’ loading histories and capacities. Nobody has studied this that I’m aware of.

The context of fear and empowerment is so important to this discussion. In my early 20’s, I was diagnosed with panic disorder, which was layered on top of a history of generalized anxiety. At age 26, I began rock climbing and that was the beginning of the end of my battle with anxiety. Climbing for me was terrifying, but I persevered (main motivator being I was totally in love with the guy who was taking me climbing:) and through overcoming my fears of heights, hanging belays, run outs, and dynos, I overcame my fear of life. Climbing is inherently dangerous, but 99% of the danger can be mitigated by good choices. What I’m learning about headstand (and shoulder stand) is that even the best choices (alignment, good instruction, acquiring strength, etc.) may not protect you from accumulated damage from putting 50% or more of your body’s weight onto your cervical spine, unless you are levitating your head, which I suspect most people aren’t. Listening to your body and doing what is right for you, while in most cases is sound advice, may not override the truth of biomechanics when it comes to standing on your head.

Reply to J.

I applaud you for recognizing your “youth” as a teacher and putting your student’s before your ego. I wish I had showed the same restraint. It took me a while before I realized that just because I can do a headstand, arm balance, etc., it doesn’t mean I have the maturity in my practice to teach it. And, for what is now paramount to me, it does not mean that I understand their impact on biomechanics well enough to be teaching them to students, whose movement and loading histories I don’t know well. I’m not sure, though, if “feeling good” is always a good marker for the safety of a posture like sirsasana. Much of what I’ve read in the case studies and in the personal stories of long term yoga practitioners discusses cervical spine injuries as more chronic or cumulative in nature – not of the burst fracture type – but of accumulated damage from unnatural loading on insidiously degenerating discs and bone density-compromised vertebra. Most of these practitioners “felt good” for those years they were doing sirsasana, until they didn’t.

Reply to H.

You are right; the Hector study did not look at duration in headstand as a risk factor for cervical injury. However, earlier studies of headstand related to glaucoma found that duration positively correlates to increased intraocular pressure. I would posit that greater duration would be associated with fatigue, thus disrupting ecological balance between arm/shoulder forces and head forces. Your advice to students not to kick their legs up in sirsasana, and to work on having the strength to weight ratio to lift them in a controlled, symmetrical manner, certainly aligns with Hector’s study. As for shoulder stand…. it is another posture that has not fared well in the medical literature…more to come.

Reply to a different M

Hector’s study showed repeated loading of the head and neck due to intrinsic bouncing and weight shifts between the arms and head. Unless you were completely levitating your head from the ground (were you?), it seems like you would be unable to completely remove loading forces from your neck. I  would love to hear your technique.

Reply to R**

I edited my post to say the following: “I’ve been in many yoga classes, where headstand was cued, but few of them came with warnings about headstand’s potential effects on glaucoma, detached retina’s, neck issues, or uncontrolled blood pressure.” I appreciate the feedback that helps me to clarify what I really mean.

** R is a former teacher of mine and has reached the Intermediate Junior I level in her Iyengar teacher training, which is frankly badass in the exquisitely rigorous training curriculum and testing process that is Iyengar (don’t let “intermediate” and “junior” fool you, this is a remarkable accomplishment). Originally, I said that I had never had a teacher give contraindications for glaucoma, when instructing sirsasana. R challenged me on this. I have taken classes/workshops from a handful or formally trained Iyengar teachers but it has been some years and I don’t recall these contraindications, but I don’t trust my memory either. However, in recent memory, in local and regional studios in the last year or so, I can remember specific times when the warning was not given, because I was listening for it. That is a more fair statement.

General reply to all

I wrote this article from a teacher’s perspective. But as a student/practitioner, I have a different relationship with the King. Ironically, I used sirsasana as a therapeutic exercise (protocol of Loren Fishman that I referenced in my article) after I tore my labrum from the bone and partially tore my supraspinatus showing off  in downward dog. I credit sirsasana with my near miraculous, almost full recovery.

Namaste, Michele

The King is dead. Long live the king.




Adverse events attributable to headstand included:






Three ways to enter/exit headstand

Three ways to enter/exit headstand


Highlights of the study revealed:




The 10 [so called] Medical Benefits of Headstand

  2. Increases focus [definitely]







Recommendations for practicing Sirsasana:

B.K.S. Iyengar in Sirsasana

B.K.S. Iyengar entering sirsasana


The king is dead. Long live the king.

Namaste, Michele

When alignment points are biomechanical






Namaste, Michele

Back Up Your Hips to Cure Your Feet

I’m reblogging my favorite feet posts from January before my Foot Love Workshop tomorrow. Enjoy.

Michele McGinnis

Alignment Habits

In an earlier post, I suggested that you have three habits that are critical for the health of your feet. And you have control over the outcomes of each habit. Total control!

  1. The shoes you (choose to) wear
  2. How you move your feet
  3. How you align yourself

Every time I consider this list, I am tempted to declare that one is more important than the others. But, I never do, because they are equally culpable in impacting the tissues of your feet. An entangled lot they are.

Take alignment. Last week, I wrote about how to position your feet, when standing and walking, with the outside edges in a straight line. Feet that do not point straight ahead, but instead point out laterally or diagonally are one of the most effective alignment habits you can have for building a bunion. But there is another alignment habit that…

View original post 817 more words

What is Squatting Good For?


I instructed variations of Malasana or full squatting in my yoga class last night. We followed these with what is often described as a supine squat aka Ananda Balasana aka Happy Baby pose. A student asked me to remind her why squatting is good and why in that supine variation. I replied with just one of many reasons why frequent squatting is not only good, but necessary – it keeps your pelvic floor appropriately toned and at its optimal length to support the weight of your pelvic and abdominal organs; and to efficiently regulate the opening and closing of your elimination and sex muscles. When these functions are malfunctioning, incontinence and organ prolapse occur.

Picture the muscles of your pelvic floor like a hammock between your pubis (pubic bone) and sacrum (lowest section of spine). That hammock needs a certain amount of tautness to serve its functions. Such tautness is achieved when the sacrum is a certain length from the pubis. We do many things in life that shorten the distance between the pubis and sacrum, causing slack in the pelvic floor hammock. The human body will not allow  muscles to remain slack, but instead will take up this slack by contracting or shortening the slacking muscles. A hypertonic pelvic floor muscle is a weak muscle.  If you, like many people, habitually tuck your tailbone under as a conscious or subconscious postural choice; if you are a butt squeezer/clencher for “fitness” reasons; if you’re a yogi who drops your tailbone at the drop of a cue; if you sit more on your tailbone than your sitting bones in your car or on cushioned furniture – couches, love seats, easy chairs, recliners, futons, etc. – then you are moving your sacrum/coccyx forward into your pelvic area and shortening its length from your pubis. Over time, the result of this positioning of your sacrum in relation to your pubis will cause your pelvic floor to malfunction.

There are two simple but not necessarily easy ways to bring your pelvic floor back to the right length. First, change how you position your skeleton by creating a neutral pelvis, using bony markers as guidance. Line up your pubic symphysis (the prominent bony center of your pubis where the two halves of your pelvis meet) with your pelvic bones aka anterior superior iliac spines (ASIS) evenly in the frontal plane. I describe how it looks in three orientations:

  • When standing with these bones even in the frontal plane, if you pressed your pelvis against a wall, your pubis and ASIS would both be touching the wall. If your pubis touched first, then you are posteriorly tilting your pelvis and moving your sacrum deeper into the pelvic cavity. You are butt tucking.
  • When supine, you could lay a board on your pelvis and, assuming your could move the flesh out of the way, all three bony markers would be flush to the board. If only your pubis is touching, then you are tucking your butt and will also notice that this results in a flattening of your lower spine against the floor.
  • When prone, the three bony markers will be pressing evenly into the floor. If your pubis is pressing more than your pelvic bones, then you have moved your sacrum/coccyx forward.


This image, borrowed from my teacher Katy Bowman, shows a side view of the pelvis. The orange line represents the wall, board, or floor in the above examples. You can see how the pelvic bone and the pubis are positioned in relationship to each other in the frontal plane. You can also imagine how a butt tuck would send the tailbone deeper into pelvic space, causing the pubis to push forward of the ASIS. This would shorten the pelvic hammock.


In this image, also borrowed from KB by way of Leonardo da Vinci, shows a neutral pelvis in relation of the rest of the lower skeleton. Note how the lower of the orange dots at the front of the pelvis would come forward if this skeleton were to tuck its butt, taking these bone markers out of neutral alignment.

The second way to optimize the length of your pelvic floor muscles is the increase the strength of your gluteal muscles. Because of how/where your glutes attach to your pelvis, these muscles, when they are strong and fully innervated, will keep your sacrum pulled back out of your pelvis maintaining proper pelvic floor muscle tone and length – provided you are not undermining them by tucking your butt or posteriorly tilting your pelvis.

Frequent squatting – multiple times per day, throughout your day – will train your sacrum to stay where it belongs and will strengthen your gluteal muscles. How can you add more squatting to your day?

  • The best way I know is to build or install a squatting platform over your toilet. I installed Nature’s Platform in my bathroom and now I squat  a minimum of how many times per day that I eliminate.

    Nature's Platform

    Nature’s Platform

  • I use a standing work station to write & study and take frequent squatting breaks, in addition to my bathroom squatting breaks
  • Squat to perform household tasks – even if it’s just for a minute. I bring the cutting board onto the kitchen floor and squat when I chop veggies; I squat  when folding clothes; I squat when pulling weeds; I squat when I’m sitting on the floor reading.
  • Add squats to your yoga practice or fitness routine

There are lots of variations in squatting and i do them all. If I am going into malasana or full bathrooming-type squat (not on my squatting platform because the back of the toilet inhibits this), I try to keep my shins vertical to the ground, my spine in neutral, and my tail untucked for as long as I can, but at some point as I get lower to the ground, my tail will tuck. If I am not going into a full squat, I work on the vertical shins, neutral spine, and really use my gluts to power lowering into and rising out of the squat.

Malasana or bathrooming squat

Malasana or bathrooming squat

Butt building squat

Butt building squat


Back to my student last night and Happy Baby, which appears like a supine squat, but is technically not a squat at all. Most yogis get it wrong in terms of the bony markers discussed above. Most posteriorly tilt their pelves, tuck their coccyges – which in the supine orientation would present as lifting the tailbone off of the ground, and flatten their lower backs. To achieve some of the benefits of the squat and as a good way to train your body away from this malalignment in prone postures, try to keep your tailbone down and your pubis and ASIS even in the frontal plane. I find it is easier to achieve this one leg at a time as in half happy baby pose.

Namaste, Michele

Modifying Utkatasana with Smart Alignment

In yoga, in exercise, in athletic training, we’ve always been told – and if we are teachers, trainers, or coaches – we’ve always instructed to keep your knees from going beyond your toes in lunge-type positions. It’s conventional wisdom. A knee that shoots out over your toes is no longer supported vertically by the bones of your lower leg and in this  compromised position, it is being asked to hold the weight of your pelvis, torso, and head. Your knee joint is not designed for this type of load. Yet. Yet, what do we do in Utkatasana aka chair pose? We send both knees out over the toes and amass the weight of our pelvis, trunk, and head onto not one but two unsupported knees. Two bad knees are better than one, I suppose.

With Smart Alignment in Utkatasana, your knees don’t shift forward when they bend, but instead, your lower legs remain near vertical and your untucked butt moves back. Thus, the weight of your hips, torso, and head is held not by your knees but by your hamstrings and gluteus maximus – the big guns.

The  functional benefit of engaging your hams and gluts is the role that they play in pelvic floor health. Who cares? You should. Symptoms of a weak pelvic floor can present at any age and include urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence, and organs prolapsing out of your vagina or anus.  Known as pelvic floor disorders, they effect both men and women, regardless of reproductive status.

Healthy gluteal muscles are what provide optimal length to your pelvic floor muscles, which run between your sacrum (lowest section of your spine) and your pubis aka “pubic bone.” Your pelvic floor muscles, when they are at  optimal force generating length, are long, taut, yet supple; and are in the perfect condition to help hold up your pelvic organs and allow you to open and close your bathrooming muscles. Your gluteal muscles keep your pelvic floor muscles at this optimal length by keeping your sacrum from counternutating, or moving your tailbone anteriorly toward your pubis. Unless, that is, you are not using them. If your tailbone moves forward – think butt tuck – it creates slack in the pelvic floor muscles, which signals them to contract to create tension to hold everything up and in. Your pelvic floor is not meant for long term force generation aka constant contracting. When it is constantly contracting, it does not become stronger, it becomes weaker. A contracted pelvic floor pulls your sacrum even more forward – a negative loop you want to avoid. Utkatasana aligned with the knees shooting over the toes is suboptimal alignment for using your butt muscles, thus suboptimal for your pelvic floor.

If you are regularly practicing Utkatasana, begin to use your posterior leg muscles as I’ve described. This will result in you essentially squatting each time, which is about the best thing you can do to ensure the long term health of your pelvic floor, because it is the best thing you can do build your butt. I can’t say it any better that Jonathan FitzGordon at CoreWalking Blog, when he wondered about disappearing butts “The butt, gluteus maximus needs to be big and strong. It should fill in your pants. That is the simplest way to describe it. The space between the belt and the hamstring in your pants should be full to exploding with a supple gluteus maximus.”

Classic Utkatasana

Classic Utkatasana

This is classic Utkatasana with the phantom yogini’s knees shooting forward. I tried to pose for this picture, but was not willing to sacrifice my knees for the cause. I won’t mention the rib thrust that is happening here. Nope, I won’t.

Utkatasana with Smart Alignment

Utkatasana with Smart Alignment

This is a smarter alignment for Utkatasana. Knee saving, butt firing, pelvic floor lengthening happiness. Note my neutral spine – it did not change shape from Tadasana, but retained its natural curvature. Note my lower legs – shins & calves are darn near vertical.

Utkatasana with lordosis and rib thrust.

Utkatasana with lordosis and rib thrust.

Sometimes, I see this presentation – knees forward, hyper lordodic spine, and rib thrust. If this were my student (actually she is) I would place my hands on her hips and guide her back until her shins are vertical. I would place my hands on her lower ribs and help her to rotate then down and in. That would likely resolve the lordodic lumber spine.

Utkatasana with butt tuck

Utkatasana with butt tuck

More often, however, i see this presentation – knees forward, butt tucked, flat lower back. Yoga teachers, this is what often happens when you cue to “drop your tailbone down.” This is a pelvic floor killa.

Utkatasana without external hip rotation

Utkatasana without external hip rotation

In this presentation, my external hip rotators are not firing, thus my knees knock together resulting in improper tracking which causes heat, friction, and eventual pain and degeneration of my knee joints. Ouch. This is fixed by externally rotating my hips so that my knees track forward in the same channels as my anterior superior iliac spines (ASIS) aka pelvic bones.

Utkatasana internal rotation of hips

Utkatasana internal rotation of hips

By bringing my feet together, it might appear that I have fixed my knees, but its a lie. If I introduced a proper external rotation in my hips, I would likely have a small space between my knees. As soon as my knees touch, the tendency to press into each other for support is there and that will take my knees into poor tracking, albeit less severe than the previous image.

Utkatasana with smart alignment

Utkatasana with smart alignment

Here I present knees that are safely tracking in the same channels as my pelvic bones due to the engagement of my external hip rotating muscles.

Utkatasana with smart alignment

Utkatasana with smart alignment

Namaste, Michele

Modifying Tadasana with Smart Alignment






Tadasana Alignment

How far apart should my feet be from each other?

How should I point my feet?

How do I distribute my weight?
Smart Alignment: Shift all of your weight back into your heels

Do I squeeze or relax my quadriceps?
Common cues: Squeeze your quads; lift your kneecaps


What about my abs?

Palms forward or not?
Common cues: turn your palms out
Smart Alignment: Externally rotate your shoulders

How did this string get on my head?
Smart Alignment: Ramp your head up/back.


Namaste, Michele