Garudasana is a whole-body approach to joint health, offering flexibility through deep, expansive stretches while at the same time increasing stability by strengthening supporting muscles and increasing proprioception.
Shoulders and Upper Back: The unusual arm wrap deeply stretches rotator cuff muscles, rhomboids, and lats. This movement greatly opens the shoulder joint and upper back and is especially useful for those who develop “desk posture” or rounded shoulders.
Hips: Crossing the legs stretches the outside hips, glutes, and IT band intensely, which directly enhances hip motion and range of motion.
Ankles and Calves: Standing on one leg and scooping the foot behind the calf stretches the frequently tight ankles and calves, adding more flexibility to these critical areas.
Increased Range of Motion
By moving these joints through their entire (or almost entire) range of movement under control, Garudasana strongly assists in preserving and enhancing the natural looseness of the joint capsules and ligaments. Regular daily practice stops the joints from hardening and promotes the freedom of movement during everyday functioning.
How Garudasana Maintains Joint Stability
In addition to flexibility, Garudasana is also a great joint stability developer.
Strengthens Stabilising Muscles
It requires tremendous work from an army of stabilising muscles to sustain balance in Garudasana. Muscles in the standing leg’s ankle, knee, and hip toil incessantly to support you. Likewise, the shoulder and elbow joints’ nearby muscles toil hard to maintain your arm’s bend. All such isolated strengthening of obscure and easy-to-ignore stabilising muscles is essential to avoid injury and sustain joint integrity.
Ankles and Knees: Remaining on one leg forces the muscles and ligaments of the knee and ankle to work harder, strengthening their capacity to resist external stresses and keep themselves in proper position.
Hips and Core: The position demands considerable core activation to keep your posture upright and stable, and this secondarily helps stabilise your hip and spinal joints.
Improve Proprioception
Proprioception is your body’s natural sense of where it is in space. Garudasana, as a demanding balancing pose, greatly enhances proprioception in your hips, ankles, knees, and feet. Better proprioception results in a better sense of body joint positions, enabling faster and more precise adjustments to avoid imbalances and falls, thus increasing overall joint stability.
Encourages Proper Alignment
To perform Garudasana properly, alignment is critical. Deliberate attention to alignment loads your joints evenly, minimising excessive loading and effective joint mechanisms. Firm repetition solidifies such effective patterns of alignment, and more stable and durable joints are the final outcomes.
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