There are a few cues floating around in yoga classrooms everywhere that, due to their complete lack of clarity, cause a great deal of confusion. Chief among them is: āfree your heart.” Its cousins are ālift your heartā and āopen your heart.ā Hmmm, well I donāt know about you, but my heart is pretty happy tucked away exactly where it belongs inside of my chest wall. I donāt want that sucker going anywhere! āSure, sure Brooke. But you know what they mean! They mean…ā and hereās where it gets confusing.
I think this cue is intended as an āopen the chestā cue. But what for? Are our actual sternums sinking into our back body and giving us all a freakish hunchback Quasimodo style? Because in my many years as a RolfingĀ® practitioner Iāve only really seen that condition a couple of times in people who have the form of scoliosis that creates kyphosis, or a bending forward of the spine, rather than a true scoliosis which is a side to side deformity of spinal curvature. In other words, itās pretty rare. And itās not that this rare condition is simply the extreme version, and the rest of us are walking around with a more minor version of the same thing. In fact, after 12 years in practice and the thousands of RolfingĀ® sessions Iāve given in that time, I can say unequivocally that if thereā s a trend about what weāre up to with our mid-thoracic spines, itās that weāre flattening rather than rounding them.
So why do we all feel like we need to āopen our heartsā? Because if thereās another trend I can call out, itās that we want those oh so compelling open and lifted āheartsā! We want them like crazy! Ā I think what weāre really yearning for when we strive for more āopen heartsā is actually appropriate shoulder position.
Since we live in a culture where we are constantly in internal rotation of the shoulders (but only 98% of the time…) due to typing at keyboards and grabbing onto steering wheels, we wind up with short pec minor muscles which pull our scapula, and therefore our whole shoulder girdle, out of alignment and drag it towards our front body. In order to combat this feeling that our shoulders are encroaching on the heartās turf, and giving us slumped posture, people usually effort to retract their scapula, pulling them back and pinning them close to the spine. This often has the side effect of dragging the mid thoracic spine forward. The trouble with this, besides the obvious distortion to normal spinal curvature and therefore support, is that itās a heck of a lot of work!
If you look at a skeleton, you will see that the shoulder is designed to hang. It is the glorious bony architecture of the clavicle into the scapula that allows for this āhangā to happen. And when it hangs in place, as one would find on the conveniently muscle-free plastic skeleton, youāll notice, hmmm, what a nice open chest they have there! Ā Without shoving the chest forward as if performing the musical number āWe Must Increase Our Bustā from Grease, the sternum just sits there happily with the clavicle above it and the scapula behind it, doing their shoulder girdle thing.
What I am proposing is that whatās needed is just a little excavation of chronically shortened pectoralis minor, and a whole lot less efforting in the direction of āpinningā our shoulders on our backs. Try this pose to lengthen that persnickety pec minor, and to, ahem, āopen your heartsā!
REALLY liked this pose. I warmed up with propeller arms and a quick roll of the pec major/minor, and I was able to get a much deeper static stretch than I expected. Open Sesame!!
I never really paid too much attention to my pecs when I first began rolling with YTU balls. I could not believe the amount of tension I found there – I no longer neglect my pecs! Thanks for the video.
I prefer my cues literal. My other favorite is widen your collar bones to counter act the internal rotation caused by too much time at desks, driving, etc. as opposed to externally rotate your shoulders to neutral. In my experience that usually works well to create the space across the front chest…. and I love this Open Sesame stretch š
Yoga Tune Up has basically made me think all clichĆ© Yoga queues like “Lead with your heart” to be completely ridiculous and comical. As teachers I believe that we should have a firm understanding of how our bodies move and what a neutral body position feels like in the body so the we can understand the desired affect. Open sesame is a great example of how we can open up the chest region by stretching the Pec muscles with out puffing out the ribs which is what the queue “open your heart” leads people to do. Excellent post.
I love your point about unclear and esoteric yoga lingo! As teachers I agree that we will have far more success getting our students alignment set up properly in a pose using clear, specific language. Thank you for this great explanation on what most of us really need to active and release through the shoulders!
I completely agree that the tendency is to flatten the thoracic curve and true sternum collapse is rare. I do cue around the sternum quite often, though, as so many people habitually stand looking less than confident. I like your “open sesame.” I do a similar release but I tend to roll on the side and grab the top foot with my bottom – opposite – hand. I put a block under my head for support, and then work the whole shoulder in circumduction for greater range or movement. As the next step, I will get rid of the block and fully roll onto my back over the one bent and bound leg.
I very much agree with your comment about flattening the thoracic curve as a result of the effort to open the chest. I tend to say “lift the sternum” or “stand proud” when see people hunching their shoulders – many are so used to it that it’s a real effort to actually stand with confidence, a reflexion on their psychological state just as nuch as their physical. I liked your “open sesame” – my version of this is getting hold of the top foot with the bottom hand to get a quad and psoas stretch, too, and adding arm circles for more range of movement. I also pad the head with a block for more neck support.
Brooke, thanks for this great video – I just heard a new cue this week “shine your collarbones” Really? No they don’t shine, (at least I don’t think so) they are inside my body so I can’t see them.
Sometimes in the interest of waxing poetic, some instructors lose their ability to communicate effectively. You are spot on, thank you.
Open sesame is one of my all time favorite poses for all of the reasons your mention here! I agree 100% with your premise. Thank you for myth busting the common and utterly vague cue “open your heart.”
“Open sesame” is a nice way to target the pec minor. The clarification and explanation about cuing this pose/movement is helpful because “open your heart” can cause folks to thrust their ribs and some folks have no idea what that means, how to do it or if they even want to.
Great video! Iāll be using this pose shortly to open up my pec minor muscles. Iāve also questioned the āopen your heartā cue as I doubt the desired affect is for my heart to end up out of my rib cage (lovely visual!). Thanks again!
AWESOME! Many thanks Brooke for directing this blog to me
I am exactly the person who tries to ‘open her heart’ with scapular retraction. I never linked my flattened thoracic spine with this accommodation. I am adding open sesame to my daily routine and client work…as I am not alone!
Thank you Brooke! Many students have the tendency to thrust the ribs forward and retract the shoulders, and I feel strongly that we need to address this with more precision in classes. This pose is a great way for people to gain proprioception and length in their over-shortened pec minor.
Thank for the post. I just did this stretch today and the cue of mirroring your top arm with bottom as it extends was great. I felt gravity do it’s job during this static stretch as I “opened my heart”.
Great post! As I’m completing the YTU Level 1 training, I’m discovering that many of the traditional yoga cues do not necessarily follow proper biomechanics and natural alignment of the body. The cue “open your heart” can lead students to tuck their pelvis and extend their lumbar spine beyond what is biomechanically sound. Instead, it’s important to remind students to drop their ribs to maintain alignment of the xiphoid process with the pubic bone.
Yoga is full of classes named heart openers hip openers. A good portion of the people that attend probably might not even know what a heart opening class is all about. A teacher needs to remember to mention that the heart opening portion of the class is more about compassion, maybe the Fourth Chakra a spiritual theme of sorts. A teacher can begin with some of the eight limbs to talk about an open heart (Niyamas , contentment spiritual Austerities, Svadhayaya, Isvara Pranidhana, even limbs 5 through 8. I find no problem separating No. 3 Asana in my yoga classes . I love Brookās description of Open and Lifted Hearts, āappropriate shoulder positionā, freeing up our Pec Minor with a little ball work so our shoulders can hang in harmony with the scapular and the clavicle. I want to address the 4th Limb Pranayama (our Breath). One definition states ādesigned to gain mastery over the respiratory processā No shoving the chest forward. This lets the shoulder girdle do its thing and our very significant muscle of respiration, the Diaphragm.
I am in the middle of a YTU level 1 training and my eyes and ears are opening to a much more honest and clear way of communicating with the people that come to class. We did the open sesame yesterday and the benefits are felt tingling right away!
Nice blog post Brooke. When I’ve cued ‘open your heart’ the energy in the room shifts…students smile and there’s a lightness of energy in the room. As long as I provide an anatomical cue as well, for the most part the students sternum, clavicle and scapula are “doing their shoulder girdle thing”….with just a little more of an open heart.
Thanks Brooke for offering more exercises for developing my pec minors. I’m going work on new verbiage for opening the heart too!
Nice blog! How right you are about the common cues to “open the heart,” which I think yes, is meant to bring the shoulders into correct position, yet it sounds “yoga pretty!” I always get a smile and a laugh out of students when I call this out in class. I do like the use of several different references in class, as you never know which will “speak” to someone. Depending on the pose, the use of the heart opening cue is sometimes more appropriate than other cues, and heart opening is especialy appropriate In reference to living your yoga — it’s not just about working your asana! :). A good opportunity of blending yoga philosophy into class.
I like what Georgia has to say about this post and I do agree with you that this opening of the heart can be potentially confusing, but I would argue that, to me, the bigger issue is how overused the phrase is. Just like in any form of speech we become comfortable with certain patterns of language and end up repeating and repeating. I am just as guilty as the next teacher. When I was trying to stop using common active verbs like “reach” the only word I could think of was “reach.” I think the more that we become aware of our habits and try to change the conversation- just as you do here with “open sesame.” In this way if Georgia wants to focus on the emotional and mental understanding of “opening the heart” she can find new and interesting ways to evoke the same sentiment. I say this with love to Georgia š because I see where you’re coming from!
Thank you for helping refine my concept of heart-opening. I’ve been letting the shoulders get lost lately in favor of straight-up thoracic extension. I do love this type of extension as a way of creating space for more, easier breath in the body, but I think it will be much healthier and a practice after some smart pec stretching like open sesame.
Do we have to lose the concept of an open heart entirely, though, as long as it’s not substituted for good anatomical info? I think it’s such a mentally and emotionally important concept to have be part of class. I often tell my students that stretching open the torso creates room for breath, that room for breath means we breath ourselves into a calmer state, and that in turn allows us to approach the world with more of a metaphorically open heart, helping us find grace and gratitude in tough situations.
The overuse of certain cues actually inhibit movement in students and ourselves rather than empower them. Thank you for noting that here.
I also love your articulation of how the majority of the population are flattening their thoracic spine. That part of the back body can often be a “dead zone” for me and accessing it’s natural curve can be challenging.
Thank you for this important and critical conversation starter. I completely agree that the image of “opening the heart” generally causes most people to puff of the chest and squeeze the back body closed, closing off the back door to the heart! I like to use imagery I learned from Alexander technique of deepening the chest in all directions–front, back, and sides–kind of like the preparation to the Tubular Core exercise, and also appreciate the pec stretch you shared here as well as the pec minor therapy ball release you shared in a different video.
I’m also curious if you’ve heard of the Gokhale method and what your thoughts are on that, because that method proposes that most ancient, indigenous cultures do appear to have longer, straighter spines in the upper back and neck, while still maintaining the lumbar curve…
Thanks Brooke. I have certainly been guilty of this action in my own body for years, and I am now working to unravel the habit – which is keeping the arms internally rotated at the shoulder and squeezing the shoulder blades and/or pushing the ribs forward to compenaste and achieve lift and presence of posture. While this sometimes can achieve the desired aesthetic from the front view, it feels pretty awful and looks pretty awful from the side and back view as well. Remembering that we are 3D beings, ESPECIALLY, when we are teaching in front of a class I think is very important here.
TrĆØs intĆ©ressant comme Ć©tirement profond des Ć©paules! Parfait pour mes Ć©lĆØves en pilates! Merci
I love the floor stretch you demo and, though I’d recognized it as a shoulder stretch hadn’t previously thought of it as key to achieving the ‘heart opening’ instructors often speak of. Will definitely be more mindful of using this cue, and certain to tie the forward hunch to pec minor rather than a lack of heart openness. Thanks for adding some context to this posture!
Great post – have never liked the ‘open your heart’ cue. Much prefer the nuts and bolts explanation of what is actually needed.
After just completing the YTU training, we all had a good laugh over some of the esoteric and hard to define yoga cues we’ve heard (and that many of us have spoken!). “Open your heart” is probably the most pervasive of them all. I’m always amazed at how much tension I carry in the pec minor, discovered through simple rolling with the Yoga Tune Up balls. It doesn’t take much and I immediately feel so much relief in my shoulders, as if they are positioned exactly where they should be.
As a yoga student and yoga teacher, the āopen your heartā cue is one that I hear a lot, and have probably used one time too many when teaching myself. Brooke makes a really valid point that itās a pretty vague cue from an anatomical perspective, and probably not really a very practical one, either! Getting students out of the internally rotated, slump-shouldered position brought on by all the texting and keyboarding we do in todayās day and age is probably better accomplished with direction of motion cues. In a pose like Warrior I, where the āopen your heartā cue is heard a lot, an instructor might instead tell students to āexternally rotate your shoulders, flex your shoulders so that your hands reach overhead, and slightly extend your spine.ā This kind of cuing would help students achieve āopen heartsā in a more anatomically correct, and practical, way.
Love your sense of humour Brooke. Love Open Sesame too, though the depth of that love varies depending on my pec minor!
This looks like it would be inaccessible, but it is not! After adding “the crazy stretch” to my routine, I feel much more fluid.
This is a wonderful clarification of what we are attempting to do with the cue “open the heart.” I so often see this “overcorrecting” from one extreme to the other, and the rib thrusting/shoulder blade pinching in order to avoid thoracic flexion is no exception. I love the combination of anatomical education and subtle adjustment.
This is a great article, very informative and a flattened thoracic is something I see often in my massage practice and also something I have myself so will definitely be trying out the variation in the video often.
I laughed out loud at this and at myself…as I probably say “open your heart” at some point in every class. #forshame
I’ll start giving more attention to external shoulder rotation instead…although the heart stuff my still slip out. I love “open sesame”. Where does the name come from? PS Brooke, love you on Liberated Body.
This is a great way to roll the shoulders back and open the chest. I can see the immediate change when I’m moving into upward facing dog position. I will incorporate the technique into my practice.
Thank you for the video and for clarifying what we are really trying to do when we are “opening our hearts”. I’ve used this as a cue in my class and I agree that it can be vague and even confusing. Although it sounds nice to say “open your heart,” I think it is more valuable to be able to be more specific. I see many students whose shortened pecs are tugging their scapula forward and out of place. And I do see them trying to squeeze and retract their scapula to create openess in asanas like cobra or updog. However, it makes so much sense that working overtime in the back of the body won’t really help to impact longterm change in the front! It’s just more work that doesn’t need to happen. I will definitely be using open seasame to help students work on bringing the original length back to their pectoralis minors, so that their shoulders can rest naturally in the way they were designed.
Hurray for stretching the Pec Minor!! I love how you clarify that we do not need to open our chests but rather allow the scapula and arms to hang in correct alignment. I love the Open Sesame stretch! This Yoga Tune UpĀ® Pose can also be done against a wall for those who cannot do it on the floor.
Great idea for trying to return proper alignment to the shoulders and taking away the forward rounding. Refreshing idea to open our hearts, and take a break from the poor posture driven by our computers and other devices.
Loved the anatomical detail in this blog and the video, Brooke. In digging my anatomy books over the years and throughout the YTU training, I am reminded that the heart is attached by ligaments to the sternum in the front and to the spine bones in the back, and it kind of dangles there in between the front and back of the body. Seems like any “opening” or rather space making that could occur would be to expand the rib cage, pulling these two insertion points apart from one another, and not very far. Push the heart too far to the front, and it squishes into the back of the sternum, to the back, it squishes up against the spine! An awareness of this dangling heart in the chest makes me want to be kind to it, and take care of it’s tenderness. Reminds me of the chorus from the Kina Grannis song, Message From Your Heart:
“This is a message from your heart
Your most devoted body part
Taking blood and making art
This is a message from your heart
Pounding away into the dark
You could thank me for a start
This is a message from your heart”
Thanks for the article and video Brooke! I’ve found that most stiff guys get quite frustrated in Open Sesame on the floor, and find greater success on the wall or partners. I’ll definitely be more aware of my language the next time “Open your heart” wants to pop out of my mouth in class, and actually note what direction of movement I am looking for without compromising the thoracic curve.
PS – Thanks a ton for recommending YTU Level 1 Training, I’m in it now and it’s Ahhhh-mazing š
I had always found the “open your heart” cue quite confusing and vague so it was nice to read your account on this.
As for open sesame, I feel the stretch is much more specific to the pec minor if I flex my elbow (on the floor) to 90 degrees.
So many people (including myself) work in front of a computer all day, internally rotate and depress the shoulders all day and that becomes our new normal, which makes this pose so important to teach.
Good on you for spending time with this.
Nikola
I love shoulder openers “heart openers” and I I had to just dash away from this blog and go get on my yoga mat to give this a try. I think this will be a great opener for my students. I think it would be a good stretch to counter Reversed Crucifix. Just shoulder work in general always feels so rewarding afterwards! Thanks for the great article/video!
i love this stretch and will offer it to the floor or the wall for some tight body. I also like to cue to “keep the back of the heart open” keeping the shoulder blades apart , the rhomboids not completely contracted and therefore avoiding full winging of the scapula so that the back of the torso keep it,s integrity but the front still get a full stretch!
I have done this pose without really realizing that it is amied at shoulder/collar bone position through working and lengthening the pec minor muscle. This pose opens the front body and the verbage is much more clear than opening the heart.
Thanks for pointing out how important language can be, along with intention.
Over a period of time in my practice, being instructed to open the chest, I have created tightness in my rhomboids & teres minor/major, with the idea of moving the thoracic spine in or forward toward the chest. All the while my pec minor has not changed.
Perhaps we should take the phrase “open your heart” not as an immediate cue but rather to go home and do the ‘open sesame’ work.
I use open your heart a lot as well. I can definitely see how that is not a very sound direction, as the action that needs to happen is really more subtle.
I would always think to keep my shoulders back when I noticed my posture was slouching, and I agree it is taxing to keep the traps and rhomboids consciously engaged to such a degree. Initiating the movement from the sternum is definitely easier and less tiring.
I am definitely guilty of saying “open your heart” and even “open your chest” while teaching yoga classes but I never really thought about why I am cueing it and it’s purpose. I guess I heard it in a class once and decided that I liked it; however, as I cue “open your heart towards the sky” lets say in Trikonasana (triangle pose) it normally opens up and aligns the students shoulders which then makes the chest appear more open. Now when I think “open your heart” I will remember the pose Open Sesame, thanks!
Hi Brooke!
Love this, thank you for the detailed description of how we can help our students lengthen their pec minors. I am not familiar with the ‘open your heart’ cue but now it makes perfect sense what we’re trying to accomplish. Thank you for posting the link to your fantastic demo on You Tube.
This exercise will be yummy after a vinyasa flow full of chatarangas š
Cheers,
Nicolette
For my students where this pose is a challenge on the floor, I would ask them to do it on the wall. They can control the amount of stretch without having to fight too much with gravity. Now to find people terms for , “keep a natural kyphosis by protracting and depressing the scapula and externally rotate the shoulders.”
I bet lots of people have difficulty to get into this pose. As Brooke mentioned, many people use staring at computer as their occupation. On top of that if their posture has been slouching your pectolaris muscles are shortening all day long!!
Open Sesame is a great stretch for the anterior upper shoulder and chest! Not to mention of proprioception!
Love the demo of this pose. After doing Open Sesame, I also noticed stretch through the Teres major and minor as well. It was pretty big opening that had very little to do with opening a heart and more with freeing the position of the shoulder.
Similar to your video demoing how to roll out your pec minor – this video is super clear and your demo is great. I was taught in a yoga style that featured āopen your heartā and there were a lot of folks over extending in their thoracic spine and lower ribs. Like you I see many clients in my structural integration practice who have been āpulling their shoulders down and backā to the detriment of their upper spine. Itās an art and relief to see people let their arms hang, restore the volume of their upper ribs and allow movement through their shoulder girdle and upper spine. Thank you for the work you do!
I also like “open your heart” as a metaphor and do not consider it a literal term. We use many metaphors in yoga and in life to attach an idea or feeling to a physical reality–fly, spin, soar, root, grow, burrow, wheel, helicopter and so on. Having poetic license to use metaphorical terms brings beauty to the practice. That said, I love this article about shoulder placement and the need for many of us to lengthen our contracted pecs due to too much desk sitting and laptop use. The demo is so useful–as are the YTU therapy balls for getting into those tight pecs. Thanks for sharing.
As always with YT very mindful & respective of limitations
Hi Brooke – Guilty! I do refer to the heart often but more from the chakra perspective or sometimes I say pull the heart through the gateway of the shoulders. I use the term more for imagery and visualization. I often do reference the muscles as well but I have glad to have your clear, crisp anatomical cues and language.
I think this is a terrific movement to include in any yoga warm up. So often in you we are thrown right into cobras and updogs without any prior attention to the front of the chest and shoulders. And since, as you mention, many of us are in a constant state of internal rotation, that puts us at an increased risk of injury. I will definitely be using Open Sesame to help my shoulders hang better, and be ready for all those traditional “heart opening” poses! š
Yes! Let’s get anatomically clear about the actions in the chest that we are trying to solicit! I see so many yoga peeps walking around in a permanent backbend from years of being cued to “open the heart” without any anatomical context for what it might be doing for their spine.
Andrey Lappas teaches this pose as a part of a shoulder opening series called Ukraineian shoulder openers.
There are 3 other variations that work different shoulder muscles.
Very nice demo. Thank you for posting this.
Brooke – Thanks again for an enlightening article. I think that referring to the “heart” brings someone who many not have a great deal of body awareness to that area of the body and begins a physical conversation. But for people who are have a tendency to literally, physically lead forward with there heart it begins to create the incorrect action in the body than intended. This article is rich with addressing the root of where that “open your heart” cue is coming from. Your description of the natural alignment and what is more likely the culprit of the hunch forward is creative and clear. I will never look at or feel those “heart opening” movements and postures the same.
we are just taking about this in our YTU class! I have never resonated with this common instruction either as physical or emotional
directive.. My ribs tend to stick out, but my pecs are very tight…plus on an emotional level I need to be more protective. I have found anatomy and kinneseology WAY more helpful in balancing postural shifts and meditation the way IN to feeling centered and real emotionally.
Hey Brooke. It’s interesting that one might use “open your heart” as a chest opener. Seems to be a real bias there that the heart is actually located much closer to the front of the body than the back of the body. So, if the heart is more centrally located, you could use the same phrase to get students to protract their shoulders….move those pesky scapula out of the way so your “heart can open” from the back body. I am guilty of using the phrase “lead from the heart” on occasion rather than “lead from the sternum” or something similar. I think I do this because I tend to teach very “technically” and this was my way to soften some of these terms. I am taking this blog “to heart” as I continue to evolve my teaching!
I am such a culprit of this! Thank you for the awareness! I know for a fact this postural situation comes from my grandmother pinning my shoulders back my whole life and also from being told to open my heart more and then repeating the same thing to my own students. I am just now learning more clearly how to externally rotate the shoulders without engaging the Rhomboids. And I do feel automatically the sensation of a more open heart without letting my ribcage take over. It is a very foreign feeling and feels like a lot of work in the core and I am working against the tightness in the pectorals, but hopefully if I can roll that out, it will be less intense of a sensation.
I have always been a little bit mystified by the instruction to open your chest / bring your heart forward. I like the clarity that this post provided about opening your chest and why it is important vs. dramatically pinning the shoulders back. It’s interesting that the video showed the open sesame pose which is on the floor whereas as I feel like the ‘open your heart’ instruction always comes when you are upright
Taking YTU this past weekend taught me that rather than pushing the shoulders back and down, you truly need to lift and rotate the shoulders black to get the real sensation. It’s such an amazing and addictive feeling and I make sure to incorporate it into my practice every day!
I look forward to reaching the point where i can try this on the floor — you made it look so easy and graceful. Since the YTU training, I’ve been doing a modification of this while standing and using the wall due to very tight shoulders. I still feel a great opening and still getting the benefits.
thank you for posting, i have always taught this pose as a shoulder stretch and never a heart opener. now that i too am hooked on YTU, i am revisiting this pose with a new attitude.
I was certified in Vinyasa Yoga 2 years ago and one of the few cues that I can’t shake when teaching is “Open your heart” or “Shine your heart.” I know the issue is not being able to express it in my own body as I have very tight shoulders. I like how you said its all about appropriate shoulder positioning. I have chronically tight shoulders and have tried everything to drop them and release tension from them. My shoulders are my enemy, but after watching your video I will definitely be doing your “Open Sesame” stretch!
I always thought the “open your heart” phrase was a saying to be open mentally and physically to the practice. However, after reading this it makes total sense that this verbal cue makes us rotate our shoulders back thus opening the heart and lifting the chest. Through out the day I carry so much weight on my shoulders that they feel permanently attached to my ears and neck. By “opening the heart” and rotating the shoulders away from the ears and into alignment, I am able to feel where my shoulders SHOULD be at all times and not just during my vinyasa practice. Thanks for the video!
I just learned “open sesame” last week in a restorative yoga class and loved it. I showed it a fellow yoga teacher-trainee, and she also was hooked. I agree that last thing you want to do is over-compensate for bad posture. Practicing yoga, makes you much more aware and mindful of your daily stance and the importance of having good posture. Years, hunched over the computer have caused my shoulders to naturally round. But as you mentioned, with all the “heart openers” (actually, I think of them as shoulder openers) the goal is to have your shoulders to fall in alignment naturally and without having to force it. Thanks again for the video. I also have modified it against the wall which also feels great.
Such a wonderful perspective on the upper cross syndrome. We spend so much time and effort in the rhomboid area trying to pull the shoulder blades together. I love the thought of the shoulder girdle being freed by pec minor to come back to its home and giving the upperback a break. Thank you for shirting my view of the upperbody and the heart/chest.
As an older adult, I have years of “un-rounding” to do and daily issues with painful shoulders. Your article was a great start to help me understand not only what I need to work on, but also how to better explain to my students why doing the “open sesame” exercise is important to spinal health. After following your video, I see that I can only do the first part, and even that creates a lot of sensation. However, my days and my yoga practice are often impeded by intense shoulder sensation, so I am happy to start with part one. It will be easy to incorporate that stretch with a Baby Cobra and Pyramid series. I agree with the comments about open-heartedness referring to the spiritual aspect of yoga, but especially with instructing asanas, we need to be mindful of anatomically correct cues. Thank you so much!
“Open your heart” is a common phrase that you hear in a yoga class. I never really thought of it anatomically. I just always thought of it as being open to emotions and allowing yourself to love. This blog points out how there is a fine balance between being too forward in your posture with rounded shoulders and being too back and pinching your shoulders back. It’s a good thing to pay attention to.
The Deltoid, Pectoralis fibers, Biceps, Coracobrachialis, Latissimus Dorsi,Teres major & minor, and Infraspinatus, all get a wonderful stretch abd release with this sequence.
I do appreciate you saying that our laptop dependant life has so much to do with the misalignment of our shoulders. We can not reach to our hearts ignoring the shoulders and the fact is we do need to open our hearts to take our yoga practice to the highest level of spiritualism because the Anahata Chakra is right inside our heart. We should feel the Anahata Chakra radiating energy in every direction unobstructed to attain some sort of spiritual refinement in our day to day yoga practice. As we know yoga is one of the many paths for spiritualism , incorporating and awakening spiritual energy through the chakras while practicing different postures would be the poetic justice. Yoga without awakening of the chakras is yoga without prana or soul. Atleast that is my take on it and I think that’s where opening up of hearts come into the picture.
One of my major issues has been my tendency to round forward. I have worked on shoulders back for awhile now and while it helps, it does not seem natural to my stance. The article was enlightening to open my vision to another and perhaps more
achievable way to consistently keep in better alignment.
I like “open your heart” better than “open your chest” BUT both are certainly better than “pin your shoulder to your back” Great demo!
Thank you for this great article and the demonstration of stretching the pec minor, not an easy place to get to. The pinning the shoulders back comment is so true and really can reek havoc with the upper back. I like the “open your hearts” !