Tone your arms and dominate chaturanga with this yoga routine

If you want to define, tone and strengthen your arms, yoga can be the best discipline to achieve it, both for men and women. By working in calisthenics, that is, with your own body weight,the practice of yoga exercises the whole body, especially the arms, especially when it comes to yoga styles in motion or perform postures such as chaturanga dandasana or balances on arms.

Styles such as Vinyasa, Power Yoga, Ashtanga or Rocket are the best choices if your goal is to tone the whole body, especially the arms, as vinyasas or smooth transitions between postures in these styles almost always involve going through ashtanga namaskar (eight-point pose) or chaturanga. Both, the former with knee support, involve triceps flexion and tone the upper body, especially the arms.

In this post we tell you both the benefits and the correct technique to do chaturanga dandasana and avoid injuries, and we share with you the sequence of toning arms that Gemma Casserras (@gemmyoga), Power Yoga teacher, has prepared for us. If you think that yoga is too soft for you or that it won't help you to tone your arms, we challenge you to do the practice... to the end!

Chaturanga, the 10 posture to tone arms

If there is a 10 pose in yoga practice for toning arms and upper body, it is chaturanga, which is actually a powerful triceps push-up. The beginner's version, or the previous pose you can do if you are not strong enough, would be ashtanga namaskar, with knees supported. Whenever you do yoga, except in more leisurely styles such as Yin Yoga, Restorative or Therapeutic Yoga, you will at some point do these postures, as they are one of the steps of the Sun Salutations, the typical warm-up in most yoga practices, especially in Hatha Yoga.

To be more precise, chaturanga is not really a posture but a step in the vinyasas. Chaturanga means "the posture of the four supports" and is done from the plank position, lowering as if we were doing a triceps flexion, with the elbows glued to the ribs. It is a posture that requires strength and technique and can be challenging at first.

Chaturanga tones arms, shoulders and wrists, but also core and legs, as the body must be aligned and active when lowering, raising and holding the posture. To perform it correctly, it is important that you take into account the following steps:

1. Stand in a plank position, with your hands shoulder-width apart, fingers spread wide looking forward, and your body aligned from heels to crown of head (look down forming a triangle between your hands and your gaze, in front of them).

1. Spread your legs hip-width apart without letting them fall or rise. To avoid blocking your shoulders, move away from your wrists and gently round your upper back. Activate your core, legs, glutes and shoulder blades. Do not sink the body, maintain alignment.
   
   
2. Lower slowly keeping your elbows parallel to your ribs at all times (one of the most common mistakes is to open them). The whole body should come down at the same time, in block and parallel to the floor.
   
   
3. Once down, support the instep, keep the elbows closed and lift the torso into bhujangasana or cobra pose. If from chaturanga you are going to flow into urdhva mukha svanasana or downward facing dog, do not go all the way down: when your arms are at about 70/90º support the insteps, drop the hips and push from the hands to keep the body elevated.
   
   
4. If you are not going to do the cobra or downward facing dog, you don't need to go too low (your arms should be at 70/90º). Come back up with your body fully aligned and active, always parallel to the ground.
   
   

These are the most common mistakes when doing chaturanga:

-          Opening your arms when lowering or raising.

-          Raising or lowering the hips.

-          Tensing shoulders and neck.

-          Look up.

-          Do not spread your fingers apart.

-          Do not activate the abdomen, legs or shoulder blades.

To avoid all these faults, it is very important to keep your elbows close to your torso, keep your shoulders away from your ears, activate your shoulder blades, core (feeling from your navel to your back), legs and glutes (if you can't do this, it is because your hips are too high). Remember that your body should be parallel to the floor at all times.

Yoga routine to tone arms

Here is the sequence of toning arms that Gemma Casserras has prepared for us and that is also perfect to gain strength progressively and master the technique of chaturanga.

In this small yoga routine you will find different series to tone arms that will progressively increase in difficulty and intensity. By involving both upper and lower body muscles, these yoga series will tone the whole body, especially arms and core. The practice will end with a challenging series of push-ups in chaturanga.

You can do this practice anytime and anywhere, all you need is a yoga mat and comfortable clothes.

By doing this yoga practice regularly you will gain strength, tone and definition in your arms, and improve strength and endurance throughout your body. Go for it!