Chaturanga Dandasana Explained
How to do it safely, step by step {and why it keeps feeling hard}
If you’ve ever been halfway down in Chaturanga, arms shaking, shoulders burning, thinking, “This feels wrong,” you’re probably right.
Chaturanga shows up constantly in vinyasa classes. Sometimes multiple times in one class.
And yet, most people are never actually taught how to do it.
What usually happens instead is this:
🚫 you’re expected to follow along at pace, copy what you see, and keep moving, even when your body is already tired.
There’s rarely time to stop, set up, or understand what the pose is asking of you.
So when your shoulders start aching, your wrists feel irritated, or your low back doesn’t feel great afterward, it’s easy to assume the problem is you.
It’s not.
Chaturanga is a demanding movement.
Doing it repeatedly without enough preparatory work, strength, or explanation is going to feel hard, and often painful, no matter how long you’ve been practicing.
This post is here to slow things down and make it clear.
We’re going to look at what Chaturanga actually is, why it tends to break down, and what you can do differently so it feels more stable and less stressful in your body. 💡💡
First things first: what Chaturanga actually is
At its core, Chaturanga is a low plank under load.
You usually move into it from high plank and out of it toward cobra, upward-facing dog, or the floor. It often looks like a yoga push-up, but that comparison only goes so far.
In Chaturanga, your arms are supporting your full bodyweight while they bend. At the same time, your shoulders are stabilizing close to their end range, and your core and legs are supposed to be helping more than most people realize.
That’s a lot of moving parts to manage, especially when it shows up back to back in class.
This is why Chaturanga feels hard in very specific places.
Shoulders. Wrists. Sometimes the low back. Those areas end up doing more work than they should when the rest of the body isn’t set up to help.
Soooooo, IF Chaturanga has always felt like the hardest part of your practice, that makes sense. It asks for strength, control, and coordination, all at once.
And when any one of those pieces is missing, something else has to compensate. That’s usually where things start to go sideways. 🤷♀️😳
Why Chaturanga so often turns into a problem
The problem is that Chaturanga is usually treated like a quick pass-through. There’s no setup, no pause, just lower, move on, repeat.
And in a typical vinyasa flow class, things move super fast. You go from plank straight into Chaturanga, maybe multiple times, without much pause to reset your shoulders, your core, or your legs.
The expectation is to keep “flowing”.
When that happens, a few patterns show up again and again.
👉 Shoulders dip lower than elbows.
👉 Elbows either flare out or grip in too hard.
👉 Hips sag, or they lift to escape the load.
👉 Weight dumps into the wrists, shoulders or lower back.
None of this is surprising. When the body doesn’t have enough strength or “know how” to support the movement, it looks for shortcuts.
Over time, those shortcuts start to look like red flegs ⚠️
Achy shoulders, cranky wrists, a low back that doesn’t love this pose, or just the sense that Chaturanga never quite works for you.
That’s not a failure on your part. It’s what happens when a demanding movement gets repeated without enough preparation.
The problem is, most people try to fix Chaturanga while they’re already halfway down. And at that point?
It’s usually too late.
By the time you’re lowering down, your body has already picked a strategy, whether it’s a good one or not.
That’s why this pose so often feels hit-or-miss. That’s why the work has to start earlier, waaaaay BEFORE the elbows bend.
Before Chaturanga: get the plank right
If Chaturanga feels unstable, it’s usually because the setup wasn’t there.
Many people lower from a plank that’s already collapsing; shoulders sinking, core disengaged, legs doing very little.
So when you bend the elbows, the load dumps straight into the shoulders… and the whole thing falls apart.
In high plank, pause for a second and actually look at what’s happening.
🧐 Are your shoulders stacked over your wrists or already drifting forward or sinking down?
🧐 Can you press the floor away without rounding your upper back or locking your elbows?
🧐 Do your legs feel active, or are your shoulders doing most of the work?
If your shoulders are already collapsing or your core isn’t supporting you in plank, lowering into Chaturanga is only going to amplify that.
This is why I don’t start with full plank right away!
I start with tabletop.
Tabletop takes enough weight off your arms to let you actually feel what’s going on.
You can practice shoulder position, arm engagement, and pressing the floor away, without fighting your full bodyweight at the same time.
That matters, because whatever your body does here is exactly what it’ll try to do once you’re in plank and lowering down.
Tabletop isn’t a step back. It’s where you figure out how to support yourself before the load gets heavier.
This is the part most people skip, and it’s usually the part that makes the biggest difference.
How to lower into Chaturanga {without wrecking your shoulders}
Once your plank feels steady, then you lower. Not before.
From plank, shift your body slightly forward so your shoulders move just past your wrists. {That small shift matters. It keeps the shoulders supported as your elbows bend}.
Then bend your elbows only as far as you can control. {This isn’t about how low you go. It’s about whether you’re still holding yourself up.}
As you lower, notice what your elbows are doing. They should track back alongside your ribs, not flare out to the sides and not clamp in so hard that your shoulders tense up. Think contained, not forced.
Your shoulders stay level with your elbows , or slightly above them. If they drop lower, that’s usually where shoulder irritation starts.
Your body stays in one line from head to heels. No sagging through the hips. No hiking them up to get out of the work. Your legs and core are helping here, even if it doesn’t feel dramatic. This part should feel steady. Almost slow.
If you can’t pause halfway down without collapsing, that’s not a sign to push harder or try again tomorrow. It’s a sign to shorten the range, slow the movement, or change the setup.
About modifications {and why some of them don’t actually help} 🙋♀️
Let’s talk about modifications, because this is where a lot of confusion lives.
You’ve probably heard the cue: “Drop to knees, chest, and chin.” And look, that shape has a place. But it’s not a scaled-down Chaturanga. It’s a different pose with different demands.
The issue isn’t that knees-chest-chin is “wrong.” It’s that it doesn’t teach you what Chaturanga is asking for.
Chaturanga is about supporting your body while your elbows bend under load. Knees-chest-chin skips that part. The chest drops first, the elbows straighten differently, and the shoulders never learn how to hold that mid-range position.
So if your goal is to build strength for Chaturanga, it’s not the most helpful option.
What usually works better is keeping the shape, but reducing the load.
➝ That might look like lowering from your knees instead of your toes, still bending the elbows, still keeping the shoulders above the elbows, still using your core and legs. You’re practicing the same pattern, just with less weight.
➝ Or it might mean lowering only a few inches instead of halfway. Treat it like a very small push-up, where the goal is control, not depth.
And some days? The smartest choice is to skip Chaturanga entirely.
🙋♀️ High plank, then straight to Down Dog.
🙋♀️ Plank to the floor, then a low cobra.
🙋♀️ Knees-chest-chin if your shoulders need a break.
That’s not quitting. That’s responding to what your body is telling you that day.
Modifications aren’t about doing less. They’re about choosing the version that lets you stay steady instead of strained.
When Chaturanga needs to be skipped {at least for now}
Let’s go on record about this, because it matters. There’s a difference between effort and warning signs. And Chaturanga has a way of blurring that line if you’ve been taught to just push through.
If you feel a general sense of work, arms shaking, muscles getting tired, breath getting challenged, that’s normal. That’s strength-building.
BUT.
If you feel sharp pain, pinching, catching, or a sudden loss of strength in your shoulder?
That’s not something to “work with.” That’s a STOP sign.
Same thing if your wrists ache during the pose or your low back feels compressed the moment you lower.
That’s not your body being dramatic. It’s giving you information.
On days like that, full Chaturanga isn’t helping you build anything useful. It’s just adding stress to joints that already feel overloaded.
And here’s the important part: skipping Chaturanga doesn’t mean skipping the practice.
⚡ You can hold a strong plank for the same breath count.
⚡ You can lower all the way to the floor with control.
⚡ You can use knees-chest-chin to keep the rhythm without aggravating your shoulders.
Those options keep you moving, breathing, and engaged, without asking your body to tolerate something it’s clearly not ready for.
This isn’t about being cautious for the sake of it. It’s about giving your shoulders the conditions they need to actually get stronger over time.
Because when pain becomes part of the pattern, progress usually stalls. However, when clarity replaces guessing, things start to shift.
The real benefit of learning Chaturanga properly
Chaturanga isn’t just a pose you pass through on the way to something else.
It’s one of the places where your body either feels supported… or slowly worn down.
When it’s practiced with some care, a few quiet things start to change.
Your shoulders stop bracing for impact.
Your core knows when to help.
Your legs stop checking out.
And that steadiness carries.
Transitions feel less rushed. Arm balances don’t feel quite so intimidating, and you’re not guessing halfway down anymore.
Chaturanga suddenly stops being a weak point, and starts feeling like solid ground.
Final thoughts: Chaturanga isn’t just a transition
Chaturanga has a reputation for being hard, and honestly, that’s fair.
But when it’s taught and practiced with care, it becomes useful instead of punishing.
🙌 It teaches patience.
🙌 It teaches precision.
🙌 And it teaches you how to trust what you’re feeling in your body.
When you stop rushing through it and start understanding it, things change.
Transitions feel smoother because you’re no longer scrambling at the bottom of the pose. Your practice feels stronger because your body is supported, not strained. And your body feels safer because you’re working with it, instead of pushing past what it’s telling you.
So no. It’s NOT JUST a yoga push-up. And you don’t have to figure it out on your own.
Want Chaturanga to feel more solid?
If Chaturanga still feels like a bit of a question mark for you, you’re not alone.
Most people aren’t struggling because they’re doing something “wrong.”
They’re struggling because they’re trying to figure out a fairly demanding movement in the middle of a fast class, while tired, and with very little context.
That’s not exactly a recipe for confidence, or happy shoulders.
What actually helps is having a clear way to practice Chaturanga; one that shows you HOW TO set it up, BUILD the strength it needs, and lower with CONTROL, without pushing through discomfort or hoping it magically fixes itself.
That’s what Chaturanga Dandasana: Build Stage is for.
It breaks the pose down so it makes sense in your body, then builds it back up so it feels steadier and more predictable in class. No rushing. No forcing. Just a shoulder-safe way to practice.
If Chaturanga has felt shaky or unreliable, and you want it to feel more consistent, this is the work.
