When to say “no” to a yoga job

Still from "Office Space," very funny movie involving spectacularly bad management.
Still from “Office Space,” very funny movie involving spectacularly bad management.

I recently received  an email from a former student.  As a newer teacher, we are obviously excited about teaching and eager to take advantage of opportunities when they arrive.  However, they may not always be the right opportunities!  Here’s what she wrote:

“I do hope you are well! I need some advice, and I was hoping you could offer some.

I have been subbing for a fantastic yoga teacher who has offered me a couple permanent classes. Unfortunately the subbing has not been going well and the management is a real drag to get a long with. They don’t answer e-mails, classes have been canceled and I don’t find up until I get up there, room changes that I am unaware of and doors locked that don’t get opened until half way through the class…

Although the money is great and I don’t want to disappoint the teacher, I feel like I need to pass on the classes. However, I am concerned that I should just suck it up and take the money and experience…. If you have the time to offer any advice it would be greatly appreciated.” What an amazing question!  When we’re just starting off, we often feel pressured to take experience – any experience! – because we love yoga and want to dive in.  My response:

“Trust your instincts.
Express gratitude for the opportunity, but politely decline.  You are not disappointing her (and if you are, then that is her challenge and not yours)..she is offering you something that would need to benefit both of you in order to be a win/win.  And given the situation, it would not.  As much as they audition US, we are also auditioning THEM.
Depending on your relationship (or her inquiries), you could choose to be honest.
“I admire your teaching and am very grateful for the opportunities that have been given to me.  I would love to find a situation that works for both of us.  I have had a few experiences that are a little unsettling and are giving me pause from accepting the classes. (Detail the issues – specifically and non-judgmentally.)  When these communication issues occurred, I felt unimportant and ill-at-ease – especially because I have to travel such a distance to get to the studio.  If I were to join your community, I would want to feel confident that we could communicate earlier about studio changes.  What are your thoughts/ feelings around that?”
If it’s just too far and not worth discussing, then a polite “thank you for the opportunity, but it’s not the right opportunity given my other obligations right now” will suffice.”
Subjecting ourselves to unprofessional management isn’t part of a karmic debt. Evaluate each opportunity as it comes, and consider the proposition in view of the greater tapestry of your life.
  • Will this experience elevate or diminish me?  
  • Am I holding them to the same professional standards that I hold myself?
  • Do I truly feel good about accepting the management limitations because of the experience I will be gaining?
  • What are my instincts?
When we’re starting out, we don’t always have access to the teaching options we desire.  But we do have the power to say “No” to situations that will not serve us.  Being a newer teacher isn’t carte blanche for inappropriate managerial behaviour.  Make your decision clearly weighing your options.  And remember – other teaching opportunities will arise.  Keep your eyes on the studios and management that feel like your community, and focus your efforts there.
Happy teaching!

How to choose your perfect mentor

mentorIn my role as the Director of the YYoga Teachers’ College, I have frequently been asked by recent training graduates, “Now, how do I choose my mentor?”  For yoga students, this is akin to asking the question, “How do I choose my teacher?”

First, it’s important define exactly a mentor is.  From Greek mythology, “Mentor” was the name of the Odysseus’s trusted friend who was charged with the responsibility of raising his son while Odysseus was away on his travels.  A mentor is therefore a trusted guide, whose role is to teach from the light of his or her own experience.  Not only does a mentor advise, but he or she is also expected to model ideal behaviour.

In looking for a mentor, we are not trying to find someone who will simply tell us what to do.  As yoga students, we come to the learning table with the substantial weight of our personal practice and life experience.  As yoga teachers, we can add our teacher training to our list of resources.  At the same time, we want our mentor to have more experience than us, so that they can advise us as one who has already “traveled the path.”  Entering into a mentorship is entering into a partnership, where each party values the others strengths and contributions.

When looking for a mentor or teacher, it is important to find someone with whom you can develop a relationship of trust, communication, and mutual respect.

Ask yourself:

  • Which teachers model the behaviour or teaching that I wish to cultivate within myself?
  • Who inspires me?
  • With whom do I feel that I can communicate honestly and effectively?
  • Who do I feel comfortable asking questions of?  And sharing my own point of view?
  • With whom do I feel mutual respect as a teacher and person?

Finding a mentor with knowledge is only part of the journey; we also need to choose a mentor with the ability to provide us with communicable resources to develop our own skills.

Finally, when looking for a mentor, remember that you are not asking for a favor.  In its best incarnation, the mentorship process is a two-way street, where your mentor will benefit and learn as much – if not more – than you by the partnership.   A good mentor will cherish the opportunity to be a humble student as well as a knowledgeable guide.

Happy learning!

Cirque de Soleil. And your yoga teacher.

In the furor to “get noticed” and have street cred, yoga instructors are often expected to display Cirque de Soleil like physical prowess. Can you do a crazy pose? Do you have mad, unusual flexibility? Then I am impressed and you are suitable to be my teacher!

While I have great respect for dedicated yogis who have developed mastery as a result of their commitment, I do feel obliged to point out that gymnastics and yoga – though they bear some resemblance and have apparently some shared heritage – do not have the same goal.

Because it is challenging to measure someone’s “inner peace” or kindness, the easier landmark becomes what we can see. Can they get their foot behind their head? Do a crazy backbend? Surely physical skill translates to spiritual evolution. Doesn’t it?

A good check in: What is the purpose of your yoga practice? Is it about physical mobility and joint range of motion? Is it about kindness? Awareness? Getting into the “flow?”

We all gravitate to our yoga teachers for different reasons. Perhaps you are seeking a teacher who pushes your physical limits. But if you are NOT seeking that experience, then why become overly infatuated by the foot behind the head thing?

A story: one of my favourite teachers offered to give a student a ride home after her class. At this unexpected expression of generosity, the student said, “Wow, that’s so nice of you!” My teacher paused for a moment, and then replied just a bit tartly, “Well, if yoga doesn’t make you kinder, then what’s the point?”

 

Sauca: transcending body image

A little context

About two thousand years ago, a guy named Patanjali compiled a series of pithy aphorisms called the yoga sutras.  These cryptic sayings contain clues on how to escape suffering and ultimately reach samadhi (meditation/ bliss).  In his compilation, he describes a series of steps called ashtanga yoga, where he offers some helpful practices to practitioners to help them on their path in meditation.

One of these aphorisms asks practitioners to practice something called “sauca” – or “cleanliness.”

Sauca

Most translations of sauca are a bit daunting, and hint that through the practice of “purity,” practitioners will ultimately find that there arises a natural disgust and disregard for their own bodies or the bodies of others.  Disgust? Disregard?  These words are off-putting to the modern reader.   At the very least, they reflect a time where our bodies, emotions, and thoughts were seen as impediments to the realization of our True Self.  Taken at its most extreme, the sutra implies that the wise will eventually feel a natural repulsion towards their physical form.

Recently in teacher training, the students offered a remarkable view on this sutra:

“We’re obsessed with our bodies, with our physical presentations.  Like Facebook, it’s all about our image.  This sutra reminds us that we’re more than our bodies, our clothes.”

“Especially for women,” another added.  “Women have been struggling with body image for a long time.”

I paused to consider their points: every woman I know is challenged by body image.  Every.  Last.  One.

Over the course of our lives, we’ve been taught that the way we look is not enough.  While we can never be too thin or too fit, we’re also not allowed to be caught dieting (ummm, but somehow “cleansing” and “fasting” are okay?).  Effortless beauty.  And god forbid you get old.

One of the most healing offerings of yoga is its capacity to offer a non-judgmental space for self-connection.  According to Yoga Journal’s 2012 survey, 82.2% of practitioners are women.  With so many women on the mat, the yoga space has the potential to be become a supportive forum for radical self-acceptance; a place where we value ourselves for how we feel on the inside rather than how we appear on the outside.

However, as marketing catches up with yoga, we are being encouraged away from the “cleanliness” of a healthy disregard for image and instead being encouraged to look like the cover of yoga Journal or purchase the right yoga outfit.  Lululemon markets its Groove pants for their ability to “create a snug gluteal enclosure of almost perfect globularity, like a drop of water” (“The Science of Yoga,” Broad, p.4).  In other words,  our yoga clothes are designed and sold to us on the premise that they should make our ass look good.  Now, I love my ass to look good on a Saturday night, but do I really want to be worried about this in yoga class?

Brought into a modern context, “sauca” could be a way of cleansing ourselves of our projections and expectations about our physical form.  Consider the following:

  • Are you self-conscious in yoga class about the way you look?
  • Do you dress to impress when you go to practice?
  • Do you worry what other people think of you in class?
  • Is there any space in which you feel comfortable to look exactly as you do?
  • How does this relate to your use of:
    • Food
    • Alcohol
    • Clothes (Lulu Groove pants included)
    • Makeup

We deserve to have a space for practice that is safe from body image judgment.  Where we can feel, and breathe, and move without worrying about who is looking.  Yoginis, we are the voice of North American yoga.  And ladies, it’s high time to reclaim the yoga studio as a safe haven for the expression of our bodies, our voices, and our spirits.

 

 

How to Audition for a Yoga Studio. Includes: the worst piece of advice you’ll get.

AuditionsThe yoga industry has finally made it.  Auditioning has arrived.

The very word “audition” conjures up the image of nervous and leotard-clad showgirls warming for A Chorus Line while singing, “Got I hope I get it/ I hope I get it/ Please God I need this job.”  But whether we call it a “practical interview” or “Karmic Casting,” the yoga audition is becoming a mortifying necessity as the marketplace becomes saturated with skilled teachers.  So while we may cringe at the process, let’s look at the bright side and take heart in the growing popularity of our cherished practice.

The worst advice you’ll get

Ask a studio owner or manager for advice on the yoga audition, and here are some of the pearls of auditioning wisdom that you’ll hear:

  • “Just be yourself.”
  • “Don’t be nervous.  Just show us who you are.”
  • “Have fun.”
  • “Relax.”

Poppycock.

As a veteran of the stage, I can assure you that this advice is absolutely useless because:

  1. It’s impossible to do.
  2. When you can’t do it (because of point #1) you will feel as if there is something wrong with you, which will make you feel more nervous, incompetent and freaked out.

So let’s just be candid.

You will not feel relaxed.  You will not feel like “yourself”.  You will not feel comfortable.

You will feel nervous.  You will feel giddy.  You may even feel nauseous or slightly ill.

Here’s the truth: you are undergoing this icky audition process because you want to be a yoga teacher.  And when you want something badly, you will feel nervous when you put yourself on the line. You are invested. You care. Not feeling nervous would be inhuman – or indicate that you didn’t really want the gig.  So let’s let go of that sweet little fantasy of “just relax” and get real about what you actually can control.

Preparation

Prepare, prepare, prepare.

Every audition is different in its specifications, but usually you’ll know which poses you are going to teach.

 

Review:

  • Your alignment points
  • Breath work
  • Transition cuing
  • Use of imagery
  • Use of effective language
  • Thematic moment

Then:

  • Practice early (as in, a week before the audition) so that your unconscious has a chance to cement all your work into your body and mind.
  • Practice on your friends until you can get them in and out of the pose in your sleep.
  • Practice it until you can do it easefully.
  • Practice teaching the pose in several ways.
  • Don’t script yourself.  Give yourself room to improvise.

Find out: 

  • Everything you can about the studio
  • Who will be in the room, who else will be there (how many participants)
  • The audition format.
  • Know as much as you can so that you can have a good picture in your mind of what to expect.
  • If you can, go to the audition location prior to your appointment so that you can get a feel for the space.  The audition will be different from your expectations, but familiarize yourself as much as possible.

Also find out what kind of teacher is the studio looking for?

While we want to “be ourselves” (more on that later), it’s good to be clear what the tone of the studio is so that you can play in their parameters.  For example, auditioning for a gym is different than auditioning for a traditional shala, and how you teach should adjust accordingly.  An obvious example: if you’re auditioning for a gym, you’ll want to limit your use of Sanskrit, philosophy, and enthusiastic use of the harmonium.

Visualization

As part of your preparation, visualize your teaching before you go to sleep at night.  Visualize it going just as you wish.

Whenever a fear-based thought comes to your head, practice pratipaksah bhavanam and cultivate the opposite thought.  Replace it with a positive thought, such as, “I am going to rock this audition.”  “I am going to be calm, steady, and kind.” Choose a  phrase that resonates with you.  Remember: this is a practice.  You will naturally have fearful thoughts occasionally and it’s not a big deal.  But when you find it happening, deliberately replace them with a positive mantra.

Seem normal. 

“Don’t be a crazy hippie,” as my friend Chris Brandt likes to say.  Studio owners want to work with responsible, punctual, friendly, safe teachers who play well with others and understand professional standards.  This is not the ideal time to burn incense and perform 15 minutes of Vedic chanting (unless that really defines you as a teacher and is appropriate for the studio, in which case, rock on with your Veda chanting self).

  • Arrive at least 10 minutes early.
  • Smile.
  • Be nice to the people who work there.  Especially the desk staff, as they will relay their impressions to the owners.  (Since you’re a yoga teacher, being kind should go without saying.  But.  Just saying.)
  • Dress professionally.
  • Your audition starts as soon as you enter the building.  Be your best from the moment you arrive.

 

How to control your nerves

Your thorough preparation will help you to control your nerves, because you will have confidence in what you are doing.  However, adrenaline is normal.  To take the edge off of this natural response:

  1. Breathe.  Use your pranayama. Controlled breathing regulates your nervous system.  Lengthen your exhale to control your breath and the crazy butterflies will calm down.
  2. Slow Down.  When we are nervous, most of us turn into speed machines.  You have time.  Breathe and think before you speak.
  3. Feel your feet.  Stay connected to the earth.
  4. Power Pose for 2 minutes to reduce your cortisol and increase your testosterone.  (See this amazing Amy Cuddy video).

What they want.  What you want.

Okay, so here’s the trick.  They want to see “you.”  They want you to seem relaxed and confident and yourself.  (Hence, their terrible advice.)   But we generally only allow ourselves to be relaxed when we are, well, relaxed. Which you won’t be.

So, before you go to this audition, do a little research on YOU.  Ask your regular students, “What’s my best quality as a teacher?”  Find out why they come to your class.  If you aren’t teaching yet, then as your 200-hour classmates what they perceive as your strengths. Also, do a little self-reflection: why do you teach yoga?  What do you want to bring to the classroom?  What makes you excited about sharing your passion with others?  And how does this manifest tangibly in your teaching?

When you prepare for the audition, brainstorm and practice different ways that you can create opportunities to share your strength or your passion with your students.  How can you reveal your strength and unique passion through your teaching?  Keep your larger mission in mind during the audition.  Remembering your larger purpose will help to anchor you in a broader and more meaningful context than the audition.

Easy Brownie Points.

Naturally do your research, but I’d wager these actions will be appropriate for most studios you’ll audition for:

  • Make eye contact
  • Smile
  • Stand up straight
  • Be audible
  • Match your vocal tone to what you’re teaching
  • Keep it simple
  • Plan how you want to walk around in the space so you’re not stuck pacing at the front of the room like a caged tiger.  No wandering.
  • Plan a time to give a verbal or hands on assist to a student (they want to know that you can see your students; work an opportunity to display that into your actual teaching plan so you make sure it happens)
  • Don’t sit down or squat, unless you’re teaching the beginning or end of the class
  • Be kind, not casual.
  • Plan one simple and short thematic moment (if you like theming)

And hey, if fun just starts to happen, then go with it.   🙂

Happy teaching.

Psssst: You might like this video 🙂

Squeeze your Ass-ana

 buttsqueeze2

Okay, okay, we’ve all heard it in yoga class:

“Don’t squeeze your glutes,” or “Relax your buttocks,” or something poetic like, “Allow the tissue of your ahem, buttocks flesh, to melt and soften…”

However you’ve heard it, the message is the same: don’t squeeze your ass.

 

Where “don’t squeeze your butt” started

Now this pithy bit of wisdom has very well intentioned beginnings.

First let’s take a closer look at the muscle in question.

 

Your gluteus maximus is a noble muscle, a large muscle, a power muscle.  It’s like a huge and happy dog: it loves to work and get things done.  The glute moves your thigh at the hip in two ways:

  1. Extension of the thigh at the hip.
    1. This means that your glute will move your thighbone (femur) backwards at the hip.  Example: you’re standing and you lift your leg back behind you.
    2. And it also means that it will bring your thigh from a position forward from the hip (flexion) back to neutral.  Think walking up the stairs.  Your glute is what you use to get from having one foot on the stair in front of you to actually stepping up.  It’s also what helps gets you from squatting to standing.
    3. Rotation of the thigh at the hip.
      1. The fibers of your glute run diagonally from your sacrum to your thighbone.  That directionality means that the glute also has the capacity to externally rotate your thigh at the hip.
      2. Try it:  You can easily feel this if you stand up and  – again –  lift your leg back behind you.  Now squeeze your butt.  A lot.  Do you notice that your lifted foot turns out?  This is because when your glute is fully working, it will rotate your thigh.

So, here’s the problem.

When your thigh is rotating outwardly, it can make your lower back feel…well…crunchy.  There’s less space in there now to lengthen your lumbar spine (ie: lengthen your tailbone down, which you may have heard before as a yoga cue) because the muscles around the hip are so engaged.

 

Try it:

You can feel this by comparing how easy it is to lengthen your lower back with your legs neutral versus externally rotated.

  1. First, stand with your heels together and your feet turned out like a ballerina.  Squeeze your butt.  Now try to lengthen your tailbone to the floor.
  2. Now, try the same action with your feet parallel, or even turned in.
  3. Which was more spacious?

 

Most of us will find that it’s more challenging to find length through the lower back when you stand like a ballerina and squeeze your butt.  As a general rule, it has made a lot of sense to not have ballerina legs when we do backbends in order to avoid over-compression in the lower back.  And because the glute muscle is the primary culprit behind the external rotation, yoga teachers started emphasizing a relaxation of the glutes during backbends.  They figured that if we cued everyone to keep the glutes relaxed, the thighs wouldn’t turn out, we wouldn’t get lower back compression, and everyone would be happy.  Presto!  Problem solved.

 

Problem not solved

As you may have guessed, this did not solve the problem.

Instead, over time and years of practice doing this, we’ve actually created another problem.

 

Flabby butts.horrors!

 

That’s right.  Yogis have flabby butts.

See, it’s not just the turning off of the glutes that’s the problem.  As you’ve probably noticed, yoga is all about the forward bends.  You can’t get 5 minutes into a yoga class without doing a forward fold (uttanasana) or downward dog (adho mukha svanasana).  Yogis are just slightly obsessed with opening their hamstrings and – you guessed it – their glutes.  And there aren’t many opportunities to strengthen the glutes in yoga – especially now that we’re cuing everyone to keep them “soft.”.  We don’t have that many movements in yoga that ask the glutes to turn on to their full potential.

So now we’ve been obsessively lengthening this muscle (via forward folds) as well as simultaneously not strengthening it.  And when you ignore them and stretch then for a long time, they’re going to get tired of being ignored.  So they check out and forget how to turn on effectively – even when you need them. 

 

How do I solve my flabby yogi butt problem?

If you’re cross-training – that is, you are doing other activities where your glutes get loads of work – then flabby yogi butt syndrome likely isn’t a problem for you.    So if you’re a power lifter or a marathon runner, then read no further.  Enjoy your glute stretches in yoga class and go forth in happy butt balanced health.

But if you’re a “full-on-love-my-yoga-what’s-cross-training?” kind of person, then you’ll want to take a look at giving your glutes more work during your asana practice.  Let’s look at some poses.

 

Backbends

Most obviously, you can use your glutes more in backbends. Yay!  The curse is lifted!

 

So, for example, Locust pose (salabhasana).

When lifting the legs up from the floor in this pose, we generally keep the thighs neutral (teachers use cues such as, “lift from your inner thighs,” or “keep your thighs parallel to the floor”).   As an exploration, see what happens if you ….squeeze your ass.

Yes, your feet will turn out.  Yes, your butt will become slightly pumpkinish and round.  Yes, your legs will lift higher.  And it might be glorious!   Your gluteus maximus may sing a song of joy!  Like a Burmese Mountain Dog that is finally allowed to run around free through the Alps and do its work.

Or, for example, in bridge pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana).   Explore turning your feet out (just slightly!) as you lift your hips up.  And yes, squeeze your butt!  See what happens!  If your lower back doesn’t like the way that this feels, then by all means back out, return to neutral, and make the lower back your priority.  But if it feels good, then maybe consider walking on the butt squeezing wild side occasionally?

Butt Stabilizing

We can bring the glutes back into the fold by recruiting them as stabilizers.   Take Mountain Pose (Tadasana) as an example.  Yogis have also been a little obsessed with “hugging in” for the last ten years, which engages the inner legs (adductors).  How about pressing your heels out away from each other instead?  (Go on, try it.)  Then you’ll feel your outer hips engage, which is turning on Gluteus Medius and mimimus – Maximus’s little pals!

 

Or – how about this – when we do our (many) forward folds in yoga, engage your glutes and your hamstrings rather than just hanging out in the stretch?   Rather than stretching the sitting bones forever to the ceiling, in a forward fold, instead keep the length of your legs but draw your sitting bones towards each other or towards your thighs to take your hamstrings out of hteir end range of motion.  As a recovering Flabby-Assed-Yogi, let me personally attest that there is a connection between flaccid glutes and torn hamstring attachments.  So protect your tendons by keeping your glutes eccentrically engaged (eccentrically in this context meaning “engaged while lengthening” rather than “bizarre”) as you practice forward folds.

 

Here are some cues to think about when you’re forward folding to keep your muscles engaged as they stretch:

  • Draw your sitting bones slightly towards each other
  • Magnetize your sitting bones to the backs of your legs
  • Hug your outer hips in
  • Root your tailbone down the backs of your legs

 

grainsaltGrain of Salt

Now, as a recovering FAY, I get very excited about all this squeezing of the butt, and it’s been very therapeutic for me to explore it in my personal practice.  However, we must keep in mind that our bodies are happiest when they are in balance.  By encouraging us to lift the ban on engaging the glutes, I am endeavoring to invite the pendulum back to center – not drive it into over-engaged, pumpkin butt dysfunction.  There is intelligence to keeping the lower back lengthened and stable in backbends, and for some of us engaging the glutes is not going to be the best route to stability.

Your relationship to your ass is, ultimately, a personal one.  So let this be a call to personal ass-engaging exploration!  Squeeze your bum in your yoga class and notice the corresponding effect in your hips and your lower backs.  Feel what happens in the backs of your legs when you’re forward folding: are you so tight that you need all the stretch that you can get?  Or are you at risk of going too far with too little stability?

Go on:  explore the full range of your bum’s potential.  Let the ass-ana adventures begin.

How to: Wheel – strapping for shoulder stability

A good – if slightly claustrophobic way – of keeping the arms from splaying out in the ascent to Wheel (Urdhva Dhanurasana).

Tips:

  • I’d be less likely to use this on a really tight guy (who may need a little extra room to find full flexion of the arms) than on a flexible but instable person who needs more support.
  • Work to make the strap loose – not to hang out in it.
  • The key to the backbend is in the upper back – thoracic extension.  For maximum stability, set the shoulder girdle before you become weight bearing and press all the way up.
  • However, this pose is particularly challenging because it also demands full flexion of the arm at the shoulder.
  • For tighter folks, have them place their hands a little further away from their ears and turn their hands out (creates more space)
  • Less stable and weaker folks (more flexible) can move their hands closer to their ears before fully coming up in order to facilitate the press up.

Wheel: Strap assist for spinal traction yumminess

Here is a two person partner assist for Full Wheel (Urdhva Dhanurasana).  This assist is perfect for those needing more space and stability through their lower back.

Tips:

  • place the straps at the bra line and sacrum line
  • guard your own body position (hinge at your hips, not your low back)
  • pull the straps diagonally rather than straight up
  • use your own body weight to pull the straps – not your arm strength
  • stay in communication with both partners
  • To see this with a tighter partner, click here.

Wheel: for wrist issues and tight shoulders – great partner assist

Anyone with wrist issues or tight shoulders knows that Wheel (Urdhva Dharusasna) can be hard to do. Here’s a simple and easy partner assist that you can do (keep it simple by not using straps and just using the ankle hold) to help your tighter students find their way into this complex pose.  For a deeper look at positioning the straps, click here.

Tips:

  • Use just the ankle hold if you’re doing this as an in-class partner assist to help someone with wrist issues and shoulder tightness
  • If you’re using the straps, make sure to place them at the bra and sacrum line in order to facilitate maximum traction.
  • With straps, pull on a diagonal line rather than straight up.  Pulling straight up will overly compress the spine, whereas pulling diagonally will create more length through the lower back
  • You can use a good deal of strength through the straps to create support, so use your body weight (slowly) rather than rely on the strength of your arms
  • Stay in good communication with your partner at all times

 

How To: Forearm Stand

A marvelous doozy of a pose, Forearm Stand (pincha mayurasana) invites into a full inversion and a backbend a the same time. Here are clear and easy steps for safely instructing your students into the pose.

Tips:

  • finding the backbend in the upper back will help you to effectively balance in this pose
  • using props to prevent the shuffling of the elbows out  will help to create stability and open the shoulders
  • patience!  This pose asks for wicked shoulder and hamstring opening.  Take one step at a time.

 

How to: Headstand with a prop assist

Teach your students to find the necessary stability for their upper backs with this simple block assist in Headstand. By placing the block at the level of the shoulder blades, you will help them to find the necessary scapular stability to get move their hips over their shoulders, which will eventually lead them to a safe and slow ascent.

How To: Handstand

Step by step guide into handstand.

Here are some tips:

  • Straight arms: Keeping the arms straight will keep you and your students out of “nose to floor” danger
  • Midline: Hug the inner thighs together to maintain a neutral alignment in the hips
  • Straight legs: Keeping the legs straight makes your students safer, more supported, and more in control.  Resist bending the knee to get to the wall – it will only create instability for most students
  • Shoulder blades: Draw the shoulder blades onto the back strongly to keep the upper back from rounding.  The action of the thoracic spine keeps the upper body from shifting forward (avoiding that “nose-wall” relationship!)
  • Patience: Handstand is psychological as well as physical.  Allow the gradual and calm unfolding.

 

How to: Chaturanga!

Learn to do and teach an excellently positioned Chaturanga. Use props to find your best alignment and protect the delicate shoulder joint for repetitive stress injury. Check out as we do this is in the YYoga 200-hour Teacher Training.

How to: Chaturanga to Updog

This is a challenging transition for the best of us! Check out these options that you can use to help both do this transition – as well as teach it to your students. Avoid “cheating” and be kind to your rotator cuff 🙂

How To: Handstand Prep

Join and and the YYoga 200-hour teacher trainees as we look at how to do and teach Handstand Prep. The secret is in the bent knees and the shoulder blades…. 🙂

How To: Supta Hasta Padangustasana

An awesome way to teach Supta Hasta Padangustasana – the floor gives you great feedback for your spine and the wall allows you to feel the turn out that tends to happen as our leg takes the path of least resistance.

Using your hip stabilizers effectively in asana

 

In yoga asana, we often experience imbalance in our body, where certain muscles love to be powerful and to dominate – like our hip flexors – while others (our adductors and abductors) begin to soften, weaken, and become quiet.  By bringing our bodies into balance and allowing each muscle to truly step back fully into its functional role, the whole of our system becomes more expansive, powerful, and expressive.

Five minutes to Hip Functionality

I learned this marvelous and simple exercise from Susi Hately Aldous.  You’ll need a block and a strap.

  • Lay in semi-supine (lay down, knees bent)
  • Place your hands on your hip flexors (place your hands at the crease of your thighs and hips)
  • Lift one leg at a time
  • Feel your hip flexors fire under your hands
  • Now, place a block between your upper thighs (as high as it will go)
  • Squeeze the block and hold.  Release.  Repeat several times.
  • Notice what you feel beneath your hands.
  • Now, release the block and place a strap around your mid-thighs snugly
  • Press your thighs out into the strap firmly and hold.  Release.  Repeat several times.
  • Notice what you feel beneath your hands.

Did you notice your hip flexors firing when you squeezed the block or pressed out into the strap?  Most of us will.  However, we don’t need our hip flexors to fire when we’re doing either of these actions.  If your hip flexors fire, that is a sign of these big and overworked muscles are trying to take over for the adductors (inner thighs/ squeezing the block) or abductors (outer thighs/ pressing into the strap).   Your muscular relationships have become co-dependent.

  • Try the exercise again; this time keeping your hip flexors as settled and quiet as possible
  • Are you able to let them quiet down?  Even a little?
  • Once you’ve let them become silent, increase the force that you use against the block or strap.
  • In other words, once you’ve empowered your boundaries, you can increase your power  – functionally.  Sounds a lot like a relationship to me.

Application to Asana

Here are some ways to bring this functionality into your asana.  Empowering your boundaries will make your practice lighter, more functional, and more free.  Now, having great boundaries isn’t necessarily “easy” – in fact, at first it might be harder – but it creates the groundwork for more power and personal expression.

In Surya Namaskar:

  • Hug a block between your thighs through the whole cycle: how does this change your core connection?  The lightness of your spine?  How does this empower your plank?
  • Strap yourself snugly at your mid-thigh: how does this change your strength?  Your plank and chaturanga?  The freedom of your lower back?

In your externally rotated poses (Warrior II, Side Angle, Triangle, Half Moon):

  • From Warrior II, use your hands to actively externally rotate your front thigh in the socket and press your knee towards your pinkie toe
  • Feel the outer hip engage to support you
  • Keep this support so that your knee tracks over the center of your ankle as you transition to Side Angle, Trikonasana
  • In the transition to Half Moon, can you keep this integrity through the outer line of your hip as you move?  You can even place a hand to the outer thigh and actively press into your hand as you move.  This action will begin to imprint the support of your outer leg into the movement.
  • Once in Half Moon, use the stability of your outer hip to deepen your hip crease. As you stabilize the lower leg, then you will have the freedom and stability to open the pelvis and spine safely towards the side wall.

In Bakasana:

Crow pose is not only a balancing pose.  And trying to balance your knees in your armpits will disconnect your midline and your core – the very support that you need to realize this pose effectively.

  • Toes together, knees apart, come into a low squat
  • Bring your elbows underneath your knees so that your knees are hugging the outside of your arms, as high up as possible
  • From this low and tight position, squeeze your knees and connect to the inner lines of your legs
  • Now, stay low as you shift forward and lift the toes off the floor
  • If you’re feeling your inner thighs – you’re doing it!
  • Once your feet lift, squeeze your knees in to lift your upper back to the sky and straighten your arms
  • Use the connection of your inner thighs to squeeze in to send you up

In Handstand

To do this, we’ll play with lifting both legs at the same time.  If you have a regular handstand practice, add this into the mix to explore the connection of the inner and outer thighs.

Most of us know the importance of the inner thighs in handstand.  After all, we squeeze the legs together like crazy once we’re up.  Reinforce this action on the lift up by placing a block between the upper inner thighs as you hop up.

  • Downdog at the wall, block between your thighs
  • Bring your shoulders over your wrists and straighten you arms completely
  • Keeping your tailbone high, bend both knees and squeeze the block
  • Squeeze the block, keep your arms straight as you play with hopping the hips above your shoulders and bringing your legs into a pike position, then eventually straight up
  • Do the same with a strap at mid-thigh to bring the outer legs online.

What have you noticed in these explorations?

Do you feel more integrated, lighter? Is there more or less space for your own growth and expression here?

Final thoughts

Creating strength in our adductors and abductors will free your power muscles to do their job with greater functionality and grace.  Although waking them up may take a little effort and time, the greater result will be integration and ease.

I used to think that boundaries would make me hard, impermeable, rigid, un-loveable.  But in fact, cultivating boundaries and unsticking ourselves gives us space to grow.

Having clear boundaries lets us nourish our internal goodness so that we can shine our best self forward.  Then we have the strength to uphold others with compassion.  We can serve as an inspiration to those needing to find love in their own eyes rather than the eyes of others.

In the Upanishads, it is said, “The pleasant is one thing.  The good another.”

May we rise to the good.