Do you notice that certain yoga poses feel different on one side compared to the other? Maybe it’s relatively easy for you to reach your hand toward the floor when you practice Utthita Trikonasana on the right side, but much more of a struggle when you practice on the left. It might be easy for you to bring your left arm behind you in Marichyasana I, but almost impossible to find the bind with your right arm. Or maybe you have noticed in photos that one of your shoulders tends to sit higher than the other.

The fact is that our bodies are not symmetrical—and they aren’t meant to be.

Firstly, our internal organs aren’t symmetrical or positioned symmetrically. The heart is positioned to the left of the chest. The right lung has three lobes while the left has two. The right lung is also larger and weighs more than the left lung. The left lung has an indentation called the cardiac impression to accommodate the heart. Each of us has a larger, more domed diaphragm on the right with stronger crural fibres attaching to the spine. On the left we see a smaller, flatter dome, compressed by the heart above. The liver is positioned to the right of the abdomen while the stomach is positioned to the left. The list goes on and on.

Fun fact - situs inversus is a rare genetic condition in which the organs are positioned in a mirror image of normal human anatomy.

Our thoracic spines are not symmetrical. Asymmetry in facet orientation is a normal characteristic in the thoracic spine with the right thoracic facets being more vertically and frontally oriented than the left ones (Masharawi et al 2004). This is probably due to the asymmetry of the underlying heart and lungs. We all have some degree of three-dimensional curvature of our spine too. Therefore, we will never be able to rotate or laterally flex the same degree to the right and the left.

Our pelvis is not symmetrical in any plane. This is demonstrated beautifully by the image below of two pelvises provided by Paul Grilley. No one has a right hip joint that is architecturally identical to their left hip joint. This means that our right hip joint will always have a different range of movement compared to the left. The same goes for every joint in our body! Psoas minor is absent in a large percentage of the population (Farias et al 2012). It’s quite possible that you have a psoas minor on one side but not the other!

We all have a dominant hand and foot. This will naturally lead to different muscle imbalances throughout the body. Most people have a dominant eye that corresponds to their dominant hand and most people are either right or left eared too!

The asymmetrical poses we practice will always feel somewhat different on one side compared to the other. And in the symmetrical poses, such as Downward Facing Dog, we will always notice differences between the right and left side of our bodies. Knowing this helps us to move away from the unachievable idea of perfecting a yoga pose. Rather, practicing yoga gives us a great opportunity to spend time getting to know our unique body in all its perfect asymmetrical glory!

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References:

Farias, M., Oliveira, B., Rocha, T. and Caiaffo, V. (2012) ‘Morphological and morphometric analysis of Psoas Minor Muscle in cadavers.’ J. Morphol. Sci 29, 4, 202-205.

Masharawi, Y., Rothschild, B., Dar, G., Peleg, S. et al. (2004) ‘Facet orientation in the thoracolumbar spine: three-dimensional anatomic and biomechanical analysis.’ Spine 29, 16, 1755-63.