Functional Alignment in Yoga

If you are a yoga practitioner and have attended a class in the past tenyears, it is likely you will have been taught ‘traditional’ alignment.Utkatasanawith feet glued together, Warrior I with hips squared forward and heel-to-heel alignment, or Anjaneasana with hands together, arms straight, and shoulders away from the ears.If you have attended a class that enforces cuessuch as this, it is likely at one time or another, there has been a pose or twothat hasn’t felt so great. While this may be due to a lack of mobility or strength,there is another explanation that may be why you’ve been struggling to‘achieve’ the poses prompted by these cookie-cutter cues. While we have sooften been taught that ‘practice makes perfect’, and told by some teachersthat if we keep coming back we will eventually be able to access a pose we’vebeen struggling with, this may not be the case. What’s holding you back couldbe due to anatomical variation.

What is anatomical variation and why does it matter? Anatomical variation refers to thedifferent shapes and sizes within the human bodyand the variety of waysthat the inferential parts of the body fit together. Every human being has aslightly different bone structure, and therefore how every skeleton is piecedtogether is unique. While we all have a femur bone (thigh bone) and pelvis,how the head of your femur bone fits into the pelvis varies from person toperson and sometimes even from side to side within the same person! If you just look at the photo from this blog it shows the difference in internal rotation between two people. One can’t internally rotate her femur enough to be able to sit between her feet, she can only sit on them, while the other student is the opposite extreme. Whenteaching yoga, it is essential to take this variation of bone shape and size fromperson to person into account.

When our bone structures are all unique, how is it that we’ve beentaught yoga poses are one size fits all? Due to the rapid rise and interest in yoga alliance certification in the West during the 90’s there weren’t enough teachers to meet demand. The quickest way to have more teachers was to produce them en mass through 200-hour yoga teacher trainings. In this setting, it’s easy to get everyone to learn the same cues soastandardized alignment andconsistent approach to teaching asanas in yoga was developed. The problemis, no two bodies are the same, and teaching yoga in a way that only caters toone anatomical structure has the potential to be harmful and cause injury toothers. If you’ve been practicing yoga consistently for a while, you mighthave noticed that no matter how much you practice, some poses just aren’taccessible. Rather than a lack of strength or flexibility, this could actually bebecause your bones are hitting bone when you are trying to make your wayinto an asana. This is known as compression.

There are two reasons that you will not be able to access a pose – either compression or tension. Compression can either be bone-hitting bone or bone-hitting soft tissue. It’s that feeling of being stuck and you just can’t go any further into a pose. Tension occurs on the opposite of the body from compression and generally relates to how flexible your muscles are. Tension is the familiar sensation of the muscles and fascia beingstretched. If it’s tension that you are feeling rather than compression you will have a sense that you’re able to go a bit further but it feels “tight”. The blind spot with the majority of yoga teachers (and what you see on Instagram) is an assumption that someone can’t do a pose because they are tight and don’t have the flexibility. This is a very narrow view and doesn’t take into consideration someone’s compression points and their unique bone structure.

It’s important to understand whether you are experiencing tension or compression in different poses. If, over time, you try to push beyond your compression points to do the “perfect pose” this can lead to injury. If you try to square your hips in certain poses but your bone structure doesn’t allow for it you can injure your knee. So how do weknow whether not being able to get into a pose is due to a lack of practice orour bone structure? The best way to learn the difference is by attending a yoga teacher training in Bali hosted by Inner Yoga Training. As part of both their 200-hour yoga teacher training and100-hour yin yoga teacher training, you will learn not only about compression and tensionbut also, a wide array of range of motion tests and movements to practice to determinewhether what is stopping you from going deeper into a pose or accessing apose at all is because of tension or compression.

While a wide-legged forward fold may be hard forsome people due to a lack of flexibility in their adductors or hamstrings, somepeople may have a particular femur or pelvis shape that only allows them togo so far into a pose. Trying to push past the body’s natural anatomy can beharmful and ultimately cause injury. Paying attention to compression andtension is fundamental to any yoga practice whether it’s vinyasa yoga or yin yoga. Taking anatomical variation intoaccount during anyyin or yang practice is important. The sensation experienced in cases of tension andcompression are different, and there is also a variety of tests and practicesyou can partake in that can determine whether or not the inability to access aparticular yoga pose is due to tension or compression.

As a yoga teacher, how canyou teach a yoga class that takes anatomical variation intoaccount? Giving cues that speak to the sensation and target area of the poserather than the specific placement of different body parts is essential. While itmay be tempting to teach more standardized cues, teaching with anatomicalvariation in mind is essential to teaching a yoga class that will most benefityour students and their needs, in both the short and long term. Both the yinand yin yang yoga teacher training in Bali hosted by Inner Yoga Training willeducate you in anatomical variation and help you practice and teach saferyoga classes. Because after all, as yoga teachers we have a responsibility to do no harm.

Source Article: https://inneryogatraining.com/functional-alignment-inyoga/