April Yoga Challenge, Day 22: Chaturanga Dandasana or just Chaturanga

Little video to show you guys a few variations of Chaturanga Push Ups – I LOVE Chaturanga Push ups! They are such an awesome, effective exercise to strengthen the upper body – shoulders, chest, triceps & core. These push ups can be much harder than your standard push up given the more narrow hand placement. You need to shift more weight forward allowing your elbows to wrap back and hug tightly into your sides which gets the triceps involved/firing even more.

Video Shows: 1) High Plank Chaturanga Push Ups 2) Modified on kness 3) Baby Cheetah/3-point Chaturanga Push Up

Please, Please, Please do not do these in high plank if you don’t have the upper body strength to do them correctly. There is no shame in dropping to your knees. Performing exercises incorrectly creates bad habits and patterns in the body – you do not want to do this! ;) I even drop to knees depending on what else I’ve done that day/week in workouts. Some days, I walk into class not realizing how fatigued my upper body may be from lifting, boxing or whatever.. and find myself modifying or just skipping chaturanga all together, simply pushing back to down dog. Always listen to your body – it will tell you what it needs. #3 is one of my favorite little baby flows to get the body warmed up – gets every inch of the body working…core when tucking knee to forehead, kick back gets the glutes & hams involved and of course, chaturanga push up for the upper body. Whatever you do, always have fun with your yoga practice! xx

Chaturanga Push Ups