By Kathryn Boland
Have you noticed how many different people often execute the same common yoga student misalignments? As time goes by, you get conditioned to notice students who need help. Do you wonder about the best ways to help any students correct these pose misalignments?
Finding Balance
It’s a tricky balance because we, of course, want to help students grow, learn, feel strong and successful in practice, and avoid injury. Yet we don’t want to sound corrective in the sense of telling students they’ve done something wrong.
Many yoga students already come to the practice with a low level of confidence – so the confidence that they do have is something we want to build up, not bring down.
Clear and Concise
Suppose we keep our cueing detailed (yet clear and concise). In that case, we can keep things focused on the intriguing nuances of practice and not on the capabilities of students themselves (which, as mentioned, about which they might already feel sensitive).
For some students, verbal and demonstrated cueing works well. Still, physical cueing is more helpful for others (especially for more novice students and those with spatial, kinesthetic, or other such challenges).
Examples of Adjustments
Let’s look at a couple of adjustments for a few common yoga student misalignments, which offer the tools to help most students learn desired placement in Asana.
*Note: for cues involving physical cueing or light manipulation, ensure that you are teaching in a context (students and setting) wherein physical cueing is welcome.
Even so, ask students if cueing is all right, or pre-instruct (such as at the beginning of class) them to please let you know if they would rather not receive physical cueing today if you come over to assist them physically.
1) Warrior back foot at 90, rather than 45 degrees
Why it matters – That placement can cause strain on the hip, knee, and ankle joints if joints “compensate” or make up for lack of degrees of motion elsewhere. If joints do not do that, students can feel less stable and strong in a pose.
Verbal cue – “Point your back toes to the front (right or left) corner of the room rather than the side wall.” (Saying “45 degrees” might not translate as smoothly for some students)
Physical cue – Point on the ground where a student should place the toes of his/her back foot and say, “Toes here, please.” If that doesn’t translate, gently pick up the ball of the foot and move it to a better placement.
2) Triceps/pinkey edges forward, biceps/thumb edges back
Why it matters – This alignment ensures that the shoulders stay safe and strong in the sockets – very important for weight-bearing poses, from Tabletop to Downward-Facing Dog to more advanced arm balances. This prevents injury as well as longer-term strain.
Verbal cue – in an Urdhva Hastasana shape, “Face your palms into one another,” “Make a number 11 around your head, your pinky edges spinning forward; in a weight-bearing shape, “Spin your biceps forward and triceps back, allowing your hands to angle just slightly out if necessary for that action to happen.”
Physical cue – gently (and that is key – keep your grip as soft and light as possible) spin the biceps forward and triceps back, holding from the arm’s lateral (side) edge.
3) Feet too wide in Bridge Pose
Why it matters – This alignment can seriously strain the sacroiliac, knee, and ankle joints, especially if done repeatedly in practice. It also results in the pose feeling much less stable and less effective.
Verbal Cue
These are best given before students raise their spines off their mats. “Place your feet hip-distance apart so you can draw a straight line from your sitting bones to your heels.”
*Note: ensure that students know where their sitting bones are before offering this cue, which is good education anyways – perhaps a note for some point prior in class!
Physical Cue
Have students lower their backs down, and lift their heads slightly up to see you point to where it’s best for them to place their feet (similar to the Warrior back foot cue previously described).
If that doesn’t translate, gently (again, key quality there) move feet to where best for the pose (ensuring that the feet are parallel; many students with natural external rotation and/or lack of adductor engagement tend to have their toes slightly turned out in this pose).
This is a good start for correcting common yoga student misalignments. Once these are adjusted, we will cover more.
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The Top Five Yoga Techniques Commonly Misaligned
An Interview with Candace Morano
Yoga techniques have been known to improve flexibility, strengthen muscles, and enhance balance. However, if practiced incorrectly yoga can do more damage to the body than good.
Misaligned poses can lead to injuries ranging from aching joints to pulled muscles. “Yoga injuries are often a result of not knowing or realizing your body’s limitations,” says yoga instructor and educational kinesiologist Candace Morano.
“This goes for beginners and advanced students, as some beginners underestimate how strenuous yoga techniques can be, and some who are more advanced overestimate their strength and flexibility,” says Candace.
Below, Candace highlights the dos and don’ts of the top five yoga techniques commonly misaligned. Images are available upon request to illustrate each pose. Please let me know if you want to learn more or coordinate an upcoming segment.
#1 Seated Pose with Pranayama:
Don’t: Sit in a slumped position. It decreases the ability to breathe into a straight, long spine. “Not breathing fully into the torso and body can also lead to anxiety and low energy,” says Candace.
Do: Sit in a comfortable cross-legged position on the floor or on a blanket. Loop a yoga belt or one of your own comfortably around your lower ribs. The belt will serve as a boundary for feeling the connection between your diaphragm and your breath.
As you begin to breathe feel your lower belly expand. Then feel your breath extend higher above the belt, into the mid-chest as you extend your breath further into your top chest. Follow this pattern as you begin to descend downward and start to exhale.
Using the belt will help you understand how to breathe into the lower and upper torso and preserve the space created within, even as you exhale with full attention.
#2 Standing Forward Bend:
DON’T: Hyper-extend knees.
DO: Slightly bend your knees and move your hips directly over your ankles. This will encourage the top of the shin forward and engage your front thighs and avoid hyperextension. “Yoga practice has a building block effect,” says Candace. “Remember to apply what you learn in every pose to the next.”
The Standing Forward Bend is the practice of grounding into the support right under our feet. Standing tall in mountain pose, inhale, lift your arms upward,, and extend your spine towards your toes. Inhale from the heels to the balls of the feet, keeping the toes relaxed and follow muscular attention upwards.
Feel your kneecaps lift towards your thighs, and thighs engage strongly toward the pelvis. This will help to bring the knees into alignment over the ankles.
On the exhalation, stay with the essence of strength in front of the legs as you practice releasing any tension in the back of the legs to the source under your feet; the earth. Practice this cycle of attention and breathe three times.
Feel the upward magnetism of energy into the pelvic floor as you lift and extend back down through the tailbone on the descent towards the earth.
#3 Warrior III Pose:
DON’T: Extend in one direction rather than feeling the polar attraction of opposites.
DO: From mountain pose, inhale, lift your left leg off the floor, reach your arms straight out in front of you, and, as best you can, bring both hips points level to encourage them to be even and square.
As you bring your torso forward, extend through your left leg, imagining a see-saw playfully finding a balance between the front and back body, using your arms and legs as anchors. Your head and chest stay lifted. Practice the other side and notice differences and imbalances on one side.
#4 Upward Facing Dog:
DON’T: Tense and compress neck and shoulders, hyper extend elbows, or put any strain on the wrists when practicing yoga techniques. “Tense shoulders cause problems in the wrists,” says Candace.
DO: Micro bend elbows or as much as needed until you can keep your shoulder blades engaged on the back as you lift your chest high.
Lie on your belly with your chin or forehead on the floor. Your palms are shoulder distance apart and next to your chest. Breathe into your hands, pressing evenly through the palms as if you were energetically pulling them back to your feet.
Grounding hip points, legs, and tops of feet down into the earth, lift the pubis, belly, chest, and head toward the sky, feeling the length you are creating from your waist to your armpits. Feel a soft bend in elbows as shoulder blades soften onto your back.
This muscular action encourages your chest to expand while feeling vulnerable in the heart. Exhale and slowly lower back to the support of the earth, allowing any stress, extra effort, or tension to release.
#5 Triangle Pose:
DON’T: Hyper-extend the front knee or lean weight into the bottom arm and front leg, shortening the bottom side of the front waist and allowing the torso to lean towards the center instead of lifting upward and away from the earth.
DO: Stand tall with your feet wide apart. Turn your right foot forward and your left foot 45 degrees toward the front, arms extending in a T position.
The instep of your back foot aligns with the heel of your front foot. Inhale, grounding into both feet, and exhale, tilting your hips towards your back leg and lifting your navel and chest as you extend your spine long and out over your front leg.
Inhale, lifting from the earth up through your body. Exhale with your right hand to your right ankle, a yoga block, or the floor on the outside of the right foot if you have found flexibility without compromising the extension of both sides of the waist and spine.
Inhale into the ball of the right toe mound as you reach down into the support of the earth to rise to extend upward to the expansion of the sky.
Practice taking your left arm forward towards the center on the inhale and then exhaling and extending your left arm back to the sky. This will give your body an exploration of its intelligence via the breath and repetition of movement.
Meet Candace Morano
Candace Morano is a certified yoga teacher & educational kinesiologist based in New York. For the past seven years, she has brought together yoga, kinesiology, psychotherapy, and aromatherapy teachings to transform the lives of the adult, children, and disabled clients with whom she works.
Combining her degree as a social worker with yoga and an educational kinesiologist, Candace began to work privately with children with Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, and Autism.
For three years, she taught the yoga program at the Cooke Center for Learning, working with many students with a wide range of special needs.
Candace also works with adults. She has taught programs to the parents and teachers of the Learning Spring School and the Rebecca School, both based in NYC, incorporating yoga, educational kinesiology, and stress reduction techniques.
Candace’s practice includes medicinal oils for injuries and aromatherapy in her private classes throughout New York City.
Yoga is very beneficial for human body and mind but if practiced incorrectly yoga can do more damage to the body than good.
Misaligned poses can lead to injuries ranging from aching joints to pulled muscles, so everybody who practices yoga regularly should read this article.