Ask a Yoga Teacher: Four Pointed Staff Pose/Chaturanga Dandasana

A monthly series to explore individual yoga poses to make them doable in the body that you have.

Many people who used to practice yoga often blame their shoulders for giving it up. Yogis who practice Vinyasa or Ashtanga Yoga styles flow through many poses that can be taxing on the shoulders. One in particular is Chaturanga Dandasana, or Four Pointed Staff pose.

Over my decades of teaching yoga, I have made it my mission to ensure all of my students practice this pose properly. When it’s done well, it’s an incredibly powerful pose that builds strength in the core, legs, arms, shoulders and back. It is also a foundational pose for other types of poses, like inversions.

Unfortunately, many teachers call out this pose in class without going into detail about the mechanics. As is human nature, when you don’t know what you are doing, you make it up. You might try to match the pose that you see without fully understanding how it works.

This can lead to “variations” that cause more harm than good. Most shoulder injuries in yoga are due to practicing this particular pose incorrectly, putting unnecessary strain on the rotator cuff and shoulder joint.

Hopefully after reading this post you will have a better understanding of this pose and how to practice it with the body that you have. In general when practicing yoga, or doing any physical activity, do so with mindfulness, attention, and intention. Momentum and gravity are not your friends here. Go slowly and listen to your body. If you find yourself struggling or straining, stop, back off, and do less.

Chaturanga Dandasana

In both Vinyasa and Ashtanga practices, you move through Chaturanga Dandasana multiple times per yoga session as part of the Vinyasa Flow: Plank, Chaturanga, Upward Dog, and Downward Dog.

I jokingly say that “Chaturanga Dandasana” does not translate to “collapse to the floor before Upward Dog.” I have seen this “variation” in classes many times over the years. The actual translation is “Four-Pointed Staff pose.” This pose is a version of Plank pose/Phalakasana that moves closer to the floor, which is why it is often called Low Push Up, or Low Plank pose.

Chaturanga requires upper body, lower body, and core strength, but there are many ways to modify this pose and make it accessible to anyone. If you can’t get down on the floor, you can do it against a wall or with your hands on the seat of a chair. The wall and chair allow you to build strength while modifying how much weight you put into your hands.

Alignment

Ideally when you practice this pose, the whole body forms a straight line from your head to your feet, just like with Plank pose. It’s the same alignment you would have if you were standing vertically. The only difference is you are facing the floor instead of standing on it.

At your lowest point, your neck, torso, legs, and upper arms are all parallel to the floor, with your elbows bent to 90 degrees. Your elbows are directly over your wrists, with your shoulder joint directly in front of your elbow joint.

How to get there

In a typical flow sequence, Chaturanga comes after Plank pose. In Plank, the shoulders are stacked over the wrists, with the balls of your feet on the floor. Your body makes a straight live from your head to your heels.

Plank pose requires full-body engagement:

• Your abdominals are pulled in while maintaining your natural lumbar curve
• Your quads, inner thighs, and glutes all engage
• Press your palms into the floor without rounding your upper back
• Your shoulder blades slide toward your waist, while keeping the chest open
• Your head is in line with your spine. Focus your eyes on the floor about 6” or so in front of your fingertips.

From here, the transition to Chaturanga involves moving both forward and toward the floor, but your shoulder blades move backward. This is the key to staying out of your shoulder joints. When you can employ the Lats (Latissimus Dorsi) and Lower Trapezius muscles instead of the rotator cuff muscles, you will experience a strong and stable pose.

Bigger muscles are typically stronger muscles. When you can support yourself using bigger muscles (like the Lats) there is less struggle and strain. When you force smaller muscles to do the job of bigger muscles (especially with repetition), they can’t handle the exertion, and over time it can lead to injury.

Common mistakes

There are many ways to “cheat” in this pose that can lead to injury. With a pose like this, that you repeat over and over, you want to have integrity in your alignment. If you get tired while practicing this pose during your yoga practice, you are better off resting by going directly to Downward Dog or even Child’s pose.

Here are common mistakes to avoid when you practice this pose:

Lack of core or leg engagement

This pose is much harder when rely on your upper body alone. When your lower body and core sag toward the floor, the body feels heavier and this pose becomes harder.

Engaging the abdominals, quads, glutes, and adductors (inner thighs) actually makes this pose easier. Using more muscles to hold you up requires less effort overall. Play with putting a yoga block or rolled towel between your thighs to help you feel that engagement.

Shoulders over wrists instead of elbows

Although you start in this alignment in Plank pose, at your lowest point, your shoulder joint should be in front of the wrist joint. Eventually your shoulders are level with the elbows, but you may never go that low.

If your shoulders stay over your wrists when you lower down, you will either need to shrug your shoulders or lift your hips up to compensate. Moving your chest forward allows you keep the body straight. Keeping the shoulder blades pressing toward your waist prevents you from shrugging.

Shoulders shrugging

When you shrug your shoulders, you use the Upper Trapezius instead of the Lower Trapezius and Lats. This causes neck tension and disengages you from your bigger, stronger upper back muscles. Pressing the shoulder blades toward your waist gives you access to the bigger muscles and prevents injury caused by shoulder collapse.

When you collapse or shrug into this pose over and over, you are more likely to strain the rotator cuff muscles. This mistake is the most common cause oft yoga related shoulder injuries. It’s better to rest or modify this pose than risk shoulder injury.

Dropping the hips and head

This is common with beginner yogis who don’t yet know how to do this pose. It feels like you are moving closer to the floor, but you’re only creating neck and lower back strain. Keep your head and hips in a straight line and simply “hinge” at the balls of the feet or knees.

Often with this mistake the arms stay straight. Make sure you bend your elbows to lower your chest toward the floor.

Gazing toward your feet

Similar to to dropping the head, if you can see your feet, your body is not straight. Your gaze (drishti) should be directly below your eyes. I often cue having the gaze slightly forward to prevent the drop of the head.

Placing a block 6-10” in front of your fingertips can give you something to aim for. Think about moving your chest toward the block as your shoulder blades press toward your waist.

Dropping the chest

When you collapse the shoulders and drop the chest, this often causes the hips to go up. You are letting gravity win and are going to injure yourself. Chaturanga is a strengthening pose and should be done mindfully; there is no “collapse” in mindfulness. You want to lower toward the floor with control and intention.

Building up to the full pose

The beauty of practicing yoga is that there is no one-size-fits-all way to practice. Depending on your body and it’s needs, there is always a way to practice that builds strength, and leaves you feeling better than when you got on your mat.

With any of these variations, or even with the full pose, you can decide how low you go, or how much you bend your elbows. It’s more important to keep the body in a straight line than it is to get your shoulders level with your elbows. You might only bend your elbow half an inch. As long as you keep your shoulder blades moving toward your waist and avoid the above common mistakes, it’s all good.

Chaturanga against the wall

If you are just starting out with this pose, practicing against a wall takes most of your body weight (and gravity) out of the equation. This way you can focus on your alignment and building your strength slowly over time.

When you practice against the wall, place your hands on the wall level with your elbows and have your feet on the floor a little away from the wall. The further back you move your feet, the more challenging it will be.

Press your shoulder blades toward your waist and bend your elbows to move your chest toward the wall. Keep the body straight and hinge at your feet. Your heels will come off the floor as you move toward the wall.

Chaturanga using a chair

Once you feel comfortable practicing the pose against the wall, you can up the challenge by practicing with a chair. The more horizontal your body gets, the more strength you’ll require/build to create this pose in your body.

Start in Plank pose with your hands on the seat of a sturdy chair and the balls of your feet on the floor behind you. You can place the back of the chair against a wall to keep it from sliding.

Press the shoulder blades toward your waist and bend your elbows, lowering your chest toward the seat of the chair. Keep your abdominals, glutes, inner thighs, and quads engaged.

Half Chaturanga

Once you’ve mastered the wall and chair, you can make your way to your mat for Half Chaturanga, where your knees are on the floor. This changes the lever of the “hinge” so there is less body weight to move and control.

Again, the overall movement of the pose is the same, forward and downward, with the shoulder blades moving toward your waist. Keep your thighs off the floor, while engaging your abdominals, quads, adductors, and glutes. Hinge at the knees and lower your body in one piece.

Like with the other variations, you decide how low you go. Maybe you only bend the elbows half an inch, while engaging the Lats and Lower Traps, to start building the strength you need to support yourself. At your lowest point, your shoulder joint is level with your elbow joint, but you don’t have to go that low. As I said numerous times (trying to get this message across!) it’s more important to use the correct muscles than have your upper arms parallel to the floor.

Thanks for reading Ask a Yoga Teacher! I write this monthly series to help you understand certain yoga poses and be able to practice them with the body that you have. As you age, your yoga practice might change as you do. Learning to adjust and modify common poses helps you keep practicing yoga for the long term.

If you have questions about yoga poses that you struggle with, reach out! Ask in the comments below, or email me directly. There are no “stupid” or insignificant questions, all questions are welcome!