The verse and its meaning · Yoga in Practice · Yoga in Practice — Asanas as Taught Today

Chaturanga Dandasana — four-limbed staff

Asanas as Taught Today 11

चतुरंग दण्डासन

Meaning · English

Chaturanga Dandasana, the four-limbed staff: chatur is four, anga is limb, danda is a staff or rod, asana is a seat or posture. The common English name is low plank, or four-limbed staff pose.

Take the name apart first. Chatur means four. Anga means limb. Danda means a staff, a straight rod. Asana is a posture. So the name reads 'the four-limbed staff posture'. The four limbs are usually counted as the two hands and the two feet, the four points that meet the floor, while the body between them stays as straight and rigid as a rod. Some teachers count the limbs differently, and the name does not settle it. This posture is not described in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the Gheranda Samhita or the Shiva Samhita. It is modern postural yoga, codified in the twentieth century in the Mysore line of Krishnamacharya and the schools that grew from it. The old texts have no verse to quote here, so nothing below is the old texts' teaching. Its frame in the old tradition is Yoga Sutras 2.46 to 2.48. The Sutras ask for a seat that is steady and easy, for the loosening of effort, and for the mind resting on the infinite. A pose held off the floor on the arms is not a seat in the old sense. It asks for effort. It becomes a yoga posture only to the degree that the effort is held without strain, with an even breath and a quiet mind. That is what the practitioner is asked to bring: a straight line, held lightly.

1. Come into a plank. Place your hands on the floor directly under your shoulders, fingers spread. Stretch your legs back so that the body makes one straight line from the head to the heels. 2. Breathe out. Bend your elbows close to your body, hugging the ribs, and lower the whole body as one straight staff. The head, back, hips and legs go down together. 3. Stop when you hover just above the floor. The elbows are bent, pointing back, and the upper arms are about level with your ribs. Keep the belly firm and the hips in line with the shoulders and heels. Breathe, slowly and evenly, for a few breaths. Look at the floor a little ahead of your hands, so the back of the neck stays long. 4. If this is too much, make it easier by lowering the knees to the floor first, before you bend the elbows. The line is then from the head to the knees. 5. Breathe in. Press the floor away and push up again into the plank, again as one piece. 6. Lower the knees to the floor, and rest. Sit back on the heels or lie on the belly for a few breaths. Fine points: the lowering is slow and the elbows stay close. Do not let them flare out to the sides. The shoulders stay level with the elbows at the lowest point and do not sink below them. The hips are neither raised like a roof nor dropped like a hammock. If the line breaks, come up or lower the knees.

The body does the work here. The arms, chest and shoulders hold the weight. The triceps at the back of the upper arm control the bend of the elbows, and the muscles around the shoulder blades keep them flat against the ribs. The belly and the muscles at the front of the hips and thighs stop the middle from sagging. The legs stay straight and active. Nothing in the pose is a stretch. It is a hold, and the muscles shorten and brace more than they lengthen. The wrists carry load too, bent back at a right angle. The breath goes out as you lower and in as you rise. The out-breath suits the lowering because the belly is firm and the ribs draw in a little. In the hover the breath stays small and even. Holding it would tighten the neck and shoulders. For the mind, the shape is demanding. The hover leaves no room for drifting. Attention gathers on the line from head to heels, and on the breath that keeps the effort from turning into strain. That is the Sutras' loosening of effort in practice, shown by a pose that needs effort. The old texts' account of prana and the nadis does not mention this pose, so it is not described here.

The old texts say nothing about this posture, so there is no verse claim to give. The modern schools that teach it, in the line of Krishnamacharya, say it builds strength in the arms, shoulders, chest and belly, and that it teaches a firm, straight alignment of the whole body. They teach it as a hinge in the flowing sequences: the controlled way down from plank before the chest rises forward and the body is carried on to the next posture. They say it trains steadiness, patience and an even breath under effort. These are the schools' own claims about what the practice gives, not claims of this page.

A man in his sixties has joined a class because his shoulders feel stiff. He stands in a plank, trembles and lowers his knees. This is the common first meeting with the pose, and it is a fair one. Today's mainstream understanding agrees that it is a bodyweight strength exercise much like a slow press-up. Its effects are those of such work: the muscles of the arms, chest, shoulders and trunk are loaded and tire. Strength training of this kind is well understood to help the muscles and the joints do their work, and a family doctor would say so in general terms. What is agreed is also what is risky. The pose puts weight on the wrists and shoulders, and the shoulder is easily strained if the elbows drop too low. The hold is a physical effort, not a form of calm. The idea that it carries any special effect on prana or the nadis is the tradition's account, and it has no modern equivalent. The pose belongs to modern fitness-style yoga, not to the old manuals.

This is not medical advice. A page cannot correct your line, and Chaturanga is learnt with a teacher, not from a page. Stop at any pain, and never force the lowering. Take particular care with sore or injured wrists, elbows or shoulders, and with a neck problem. Take care too with a back problem, since a sagging middle loads the lower back. Leave it out, or take a gentler form, with high blood pressure that is not settled, after recent surgery, and in pregnancy, when the belly should not be pressed toward the floor. Where there is any doubt, ask a teacher or doctor first. If you cannot lower with control, stay in plank or keep the knees down. Dropping the last part of the way onto sore shoulders is the commonest hurt.

Gentler: lower the knees to the floor first, as the lesson shows, and keep the line from head to knees. You can also stay in plank and bend the elbows only a little, or lower the whole body onto the floor from the knees. Practise by a wall: stand an arm's length away, place the hands on it and bend the elbows. As strength grows, take the knees away, then hold the hover for longer breaths. A strap looped above the elbows keeps them from flaring. Fuller forms exist, but the lesson's form is enough for the intermediate student.

1. Letting the hips sag, so the lower back arches: draw the belly firm and lengthen the tailbone toward the heels. 2. Raising the hips high: bring them level, in line with the shoulders and heels. 3. Flaring the elbows out to the sides: hug them close to the ribs, pointing back. 4. Dropping the shoulders below the elbows: stop when the upper arms are level with the ribs. 5. Collapsing the chest and letting the head hang: look at the floor ahead and keep the neck long. 6. Holding the breath: breathe out on the way down, breathe in on the way up, and breathe evenly in the hover.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana — standing big-toe hold · Asanas as Taught Today 10
• Next: Urdhva Mukha Svanasana — upward-facing dog · Asanas as Taught Today 12
• All of Yoga in Practice · Ask Krishna about it

Sacred Sargam

The sacred texts with their meaning, read aloud, with Ask Krishna, a Panchang and bhajans. Free, on the web and as an app. Open Sacred Sargam