Part 10: Arms
21 Yoga Practices For Body Flexibility
Arms are the extensions of the neck and are of immense importance to a person for performing many activities. Strong arms in co-ordination with the legs are a great asset to sports persons. Any activity whether it is cooking or writing, wrestling or boxing, for luggage lifting or construction work, the strength in arms is quintessential. The arm can be divided into upper arm (shoulder to elbow), elbow joint, forearm (elbow to wrist), wrist and hand (palm and fingers).
The upper arm has the ability to perform movements of flexion, extension, abduction (movement of the body part away from the main body) and adduction (movement of the body part closer to the main body).
With the help of the collar bone (clavicle), the upper arm distributes any force it receives, all along the skeleton downwards. The strength of the upper arm is essential to carry out activities involving the forearm and hand. Again, here to strengthen the upper body i.e arm, the legs should be strong.
As emotions influence functioning of body parts, any tension, fear or self pity will weaken the body part in performing any action.
I have observed this happening to a significant number of breast cancer patients to whom I have taught Yoga therapy, post surgery. Though there are modern medications to completely treat this disease, the social stigma about breast cancer affects the patients psychologically. If we converse with these people, they will express pain even to keep their hands on the ground. Here, the physical pain contributes only partially to the pain they experience; the rest is due to psychological issues of the mind.
Apart from this, arm pain can be due to strains, sprains, trauma or work demands (like artists who do paintings in ceiling). It can also be felt as a referred pain of cardiac issues. The pain may be due to pinched nerve at C3, C4 of the spine. For any type of pain, giving rest to the body part is the first remedy.
Yoga with breathing can enhance the strength of any body part. Watch the demo given here to keep the arms strong.
In Indian puppet shows called Bommalattam (usually conducted in villages during festivals), puppets (dolls) made out of cloth, wood or leather would be used and decorated colorfully. The performers of the show stand behind the screen and the puppets are held in front. The puppeteers show their prowess in the craft by putting up a realistic puppet show, holding one end of a string which is connected to the dolls on the other end.
The topic of the show would generally be from epics, folklore or of any social issue. The creative force of the performer is exhibited through their arms and it travels through the forearms to make a suitable movement of the string held in his hands to make the dolls perform for the audience suitable to the story.
This practice was developed in accordance with Yoga Therapy, a branch of yoga that requires the ailing person to perform a set of asanas to cure prevailing health issues. Read more about Yoga Therapy here.
Read the previous title in this article series. Part 9: Neck
Read the next title in this article series. Part 11: Head
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