Whether you are a teacher, or a student, you should try modified Yoga poses. Some people don’t bother with them, until they experience a physical injury. In such a case, learning how to modify a posture becomes a crash course. The following information is intended to help teachers and students grasp more material about modified Yoga poses and to be able to help those who desperately need this knowledge and a compassion teacher.
Have you ever wondered how straps can be effective for practice, beyond seated or supine (lying down) stretching? Straps are sturdy, malleable, long, and thin as a snake – therefore offering unique possibilities apart from blocks, blankets, and bolsters. They can be shaped and bent, but not ripped.
Straps are most often used to aid stretching and holding modified Yoga poses, such as in forward folding or lying Hand-to-Big-Toe pose. Yet, these props can offer much beyond that usage. Read on for ways to use straps that you might not yet have tried. Enjoy, and Om Shanti!
This can be done seated or standing. It helps to get into sticky spots in the shoulder girdle, as well as to gain clearer awareness of its movement and range of motion. It’s best done with students at least moderately warmed-up. Have students have a firm (but not tense) grasp on the strap, shoulder-distance apart with the tails falling as they will.
Cue them to lift the straps to up overhead, then back behind the head – but only to the point before it causes them to pop their chests forward. Then have them bring the strap back up overhead and forward, coming out horizontally from the shoulder. Have students do this 3-5 times. Be sure to be clear with them that they might get further each time, as the shoulder girdle opens up bit-by-bit – but not to push modified Yoga poses, because it’s not helpful for anything or anyone.
2) Hand-To-Big-Toe Balance Assist
This is helpful for students who are having trouble with this balance, either because of insufficient flexibility, strength, or kinesthetic awareness of how to use both or either. For anyone, modified Yoga poses can help lengthen the spine. In any case, the version of this pose with a bent knee (leg forming a 90-degree angle) is certainly “enough”, still with its own level of challenge and multiple benefits.
A tiny curve in the upper back is okay, but if it’s anything more pronounced, have them give a little slack on their strap holds – until they’re mainly vertical through the spine. It’s also helpful to hold the other hand on the opposite hip, to get a sense of hip squareness and levelness (or lack thereof). A next step, if students feel stable and want to try it, is to take the “B” externally rotated version of the pose (the leg out to the side). Guide them to keep the knee and toes of the extended leg facing the sky.
Knees falling wider than hips-distance in Bridge Pose is an unsafe and unstable alignment, one that’s unfortunately rather common. It helps some students avoid doing this to think of engaging the inner thighs and pushing down through big toe mounds more, and using the glute muscles less. Others, however, simply need to feel the muscular activation necessary to maintain knees not wider than hips – and the only way to do that is with is the help of a strap.
If you’re at a teaching location where physical cueing is acceptable, then you can strap students yourself. If not, guide them to do modified Yoga poses themselves. Loop the non-buckle end of the strap through the buckle, so that you can create a loop that will hold. Before going up into Bridge, with feet at hips’-distance, place the loop around mid-thigh and tighten it to the point that it’s secure, but not uncomfortable (we’re certainly not looking to create bruises or cut off circulation).
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