yogabook / functional exercises / rhomboid stretching with dumbbells

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last update: 30.12.2018
Name: Dog headstand
Level: A

• Classification: A
• Contraindication
• Effects of
• Preparation
• follow-up
• derived asanas
• similar asanas
• diagnostics
• Instruction
• details
• Variants

Classification

classic: inverted pose

Contraindication

Due to the occuring flexion of the cervical spine, disc disease in the cervical spine is a contraindication.

Effects

Preparation

Follow-up

Derived asanas:

Similar asanas:

Diagnostics (No.)

Instructions

1. Sit on a chair and lean your upper body forwards to rest it on your thighs, holding two dumbbells in your hands.
2. Let the shoulder blades pull into protraction according to gravity. If the dumbbells threaten to hit the floor, bend your arms enough to prevent this from happening.

Details

1. Instead of bending your arms to prevent the dumbbells from touching the floor and reducing or eliminating the effectiveness of the exercise, you can rest your upper body on a thick, comfortable object, which in turn rests on your thighs. This could be one to three shoulder plates.
2. Sometimes it is not easy to completely release the shoulder blades and they are held somewhat in place with the help of the retractors, which is contrary to the purpose of the posture.
3. The flatter the upper thoracic spine lies in space, the more effective the pose. Very inflexible hip extensors can reduce the effectiveness of the posture because the thoracic spine is steeper in space.
4. Make sure that the shoulder blades do not begin to elevate, as this would reduce the stretching of the rhomboids pulling from lateral-caudal to medial-cranial.