Why Do My Elbows Point Out In Kapotasana?

Transcript of: Why do my elbows point out in kapotasana?

Alright, we’ve got another great question of the month. This one is from Pelin, and it’s about why her elbows point out in kapotasana.

The Question:

Hello. When I try to catch, it can be very hard to turn my elbows in. [DK: When she says catch, for those of you who are not speaking the Ashtanga language, I’m assuming she’s talking about catching her ankles when she’s in a backbend. This is because she then says it’s the same with her elbows in kapotasana.] So when I try to catch, it can be very hard to turn my elbows in. Same at kapo. But some students can turn very easily. How can I work, and what is the reason? Is it possible that it’s because of different types of shoulder joints? Thank you very much.

The Answer:

Is it the shoulder joint type?

Absolutely, there can be different types of shoulder joints. There are three types. You know, there’s one that’s a little bit hooked, but that typically blocks flexion. Maybe a little bit of rotation.

Take a look at the triceps tension

But here’s the bigger issue going on with where the elbows end up pointing in kapotasana. One is, in a recent question of the month, I talked about serratus anterior. I always talk about serratus because it’s such an important muscle. Of course, you need serratus there. But what happens is when you go to take your arm back, your triceps, which is bending, is increasing tension here at the shoulder joint. Okay. When I go like this, tension increases through this muscle, especially as I’m pulling it behind me. It’s a lot like the quadriceps.

The triceps in backbends

If you’ve ever done a workshop with me on backbends, you know, I talk about quadriceps quite a bit and their resistance to the pelvis. It’s the same thing here with where the elbows end up pointing in kapotasana. If not, come to a workshop when I do backbends, and you’ll learn all about that. So your body—it’s like when you go like this, you’re—the way I say it is, you’re avoiding tension in your triceps. That means your body is—it’ll be harder to take your arm back with your elbow close to your head, than wide. That’s true unless you’re very flexible and you have very open shoulders, which can be related back to bone shape.

Balancing strength and flexibility

So if you kind of sneak around it and you go like this, when you try to pull back like this, it’s going to be difficult. That’s because you’re going to run into the tension of your triceps, which doesn’t have enough length, potentially—I mean, again, this is a guess—to then, you know, be pulled back at the same time. This is partially because we do a lot of chaturangas and a lot of strength work that tightens our triceps.

So with where the elbows point in kapotasana, it’s about the balance between those two things, quite often. There are other possibilities. Serratus, take it back, is always important. Having the triceps sufficiently open is also important so that you can pull the arms back into that route, into that line where maximum tension is generated from them. Alright, I hope that helped.

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