by Susi Davies 

Chaturanga Dandasana  - Four Limbed Stick Pose or Low Push Up Position belongs to intermediate level arm support poses and unfortunately creates a lot of frustration to a lot of students.

Our biggest challenge in this pose - is GRAVITY. Whenever we lie our body horizontally against the earth and try to elevate ourselves - we will have a bit of a battle with earth's pull of gravity! In order to stabilize the spine, varies muscles have to get into action: Obliques (on the side of your trunk), rectus abdominis, (abdominals) and the psoas minor (which is funny, because some people don't even have one!) and the actual spinal muscles.

In the legs we need the hamstrings, some inner thigh muscles, the quads, the calves and the Tibialis anterior (front of the shin) and all the foot muscles.
The arms require strength in the Serratus anterior (the ribbed looking muscles on the upper side of your trunk - to prevent winging of the shoulderblades - yours may not look so ribbed if they are very weak or totally dormant!), the rotator cuff muscle group - to avoid collapsing the shoulders down, in case the chest muscles are stronger or tighter and of course the triceps and all the little muscles in the hands.

So you can see, that a lot of muscles are working together to fight gravity.
How to practice towards the full pose: If you are in a flowing style practice you can simply place the knees to the ground and bend the elbows just halfway slowly, until the shoulders are at elbow height or a bit higher but never lower. Hold for a couple of breaths before lying down all the way to the floor. Push yourself back up again to the same position, but pull in the lower abdomen first and lift up from your core. Practice a few times.

Next step is, to do the same but keep one knee on the floor whilst the other is completely straight and off the floor. Always making sure that the shoulders stay at elbow level and never drop below the elbows to avoid rotator cuff strain. Keep changing the leg on the ground so you stay balanced throughout.

The actual High Plank  Pose is a pre-requisite for the above though - where both arms are straight and shoulders directly over wrists. Lower belly drawn in, and leg muscles engaged - with shins and thighs pressing upwards against gravity! Also here, if this is too intense - keep one knee on the ground.

If all of the above is still too much or you may be recovering from shoulder problems -take it a step further back and simply STAND UP facing a WALL - place your hands shoulder level onto the wall at shoulder width apart and step back one or 2 steps (try varies distances to see what feels right for you!). Standing upright won't interfere with Gravity as much and you can learn to do the elbow and shoulderblade action without having to worry about strength so much.

Anyway, once you are in position - bend the elbows downwards, keep them close to the body, pull the shoulders away from the ears and widen the shoulderblades,  then keep your feet where they are and lean forward towards the wall - until you feel some strength and contractions in arms and chest muscles. Don't forget you still draw in belly and exhale as you move towards the wall and push yourself back again from the wall. Do a few repetitions and practice it every day at home and see the difference within a month!
susi.