One thing I like about Bikram Yoga

One of the things I most wonder about in yoga as we practice it here in the US is all the emphasis that teachers place on keeping the shoulders down in all poses. I've written about this before.
It doesn't make sense to me. When reaching overhead, the shoulders naturally come up. Reach for something on a high shelf, the shoulder comes up. It seems to me this is the way the shoulder is meant to work when reaching overhead. This is our natural range of motion. Everywhere else in yoga we try to maximize our range of motion, but by keeping the shoulders down when we reach overhead, we're limiting the range of motion in the shoulders and arms.

Anyway, in Bikram yoga, there are a few poses where you keep the arms raised overhead, fingers interlaced. And they say shoulders up, arms straight, squeeze your ears with your arms. Mind you, I think they do lots and lots of things wrong in Bikram, but this is one thing that I really they do right.