Build your own Yoga pose

Something that has definitely changed in the way I teach Yoga since I first started is that I ask what the student is feeling in a Yoga pose. I want them to know they are in charge of building their own pose.

I used to take Yoga classes and loved being instructed by the teacher exactly how to move my body. I have a naturally flexible body and it felt good to be able to do what I was told and get the teacher’s approval. I wouldn’t speak because I assumed the teacher knew best.

But this changed after Paul Grilley asked me how I felt in a Yoga pose and instructed me to build my own pose. It became interesting to pay attention to what I was ACTUALLY feeling. Where am I feeling a stretch? A compression? Is the intensity mild, medium, spicy? Am I at my edge or can I go a little further? Is one side different from the other? and so on.

After finding out how interesting and valuable it was to practice in this functional way, I slowly started to change the way I teach.

I am only teaching privates on Zoom right now, and I saw my weekly student Gary do Dragon pose. This pose is meant to stretch the hip flexors of the back leg. I wondered if he was feeling that. His pelvis was right above his back knee and it looked like there was no stretch happening. but I wasn’t sure. The only person that knew was Gary. So I asked. Gary told me he didn’t feel much so I gave him permission to explore and build his own Dragon pose.

Gary has very limited hip flexion, but has great knee flexion, so he figured out that if he allows his front knee to bend deeply with his heel lifted off the floor, it pulls his pelvis forward and down giving him an effective hip flexor stretch! Hooray!

When you practice in this way, you not only get a more effective stretch, it makes you pay attention. Not on your instructor telling you what to do, but inwardly, into your body. This introspection is what makes Yoga so valuable.

Gary’s dragon pose might not look like the example in a Yoga book, and that’s okay.