Yoga Adjustments: The Power of Touch
Who doesn’t love a yoga adjustment? Being touched in a safe environment makes us feel good. Especially when you are in an asana and you get a hand placed on your lower back that helps you go a little deeper into that forward fold. Feeling supported, you experience that deeper stretch at the whole back of your body, and then the deep relaxation when you come out of the pose.
At the same time, adjustments are also a controversial topic in the yoga community. Touch can bring out trauma in some people. It can be seen as inappropriate or even harmful to a student’s body.
Therefore, you need to be very clear about what you can and cannot do, and how to do it. That’s why we share this blog with you to receive a better understanding of what adjustments are, and to give you some tips to apply in your own classes if you have completed Yoga Teacher Training and are teaching yoga classes.
Adjustment vs. Alignment
As you walk through your class, you notice that someone has space to go deeper. What they lack is strength or body awareness, and this is where the yoga adjustment comes in. With awareness of the body’s limitations, you walk towards the student and apply pressure with your hands on the body to move it deeper. In this way, the student can really experience the depth of the pose. At the same time, the body remembers for the next time, and so a person can grow in their asana practice.
Alignment is used for safety, to increase energy flow, and to maximise the benefit of an asana. With proper alignment, you build strength and flexibility to prepare your body for more advanced poses. At the same time, it helps you create a stronger connection with your body, and so to be more present. Adjustments can help to create a better alignment.
Let’s go a bit deeper…
The use of touch, if used properly, is a powerful tool in yoga. By only placing your hands gently on the shoulders, it can help a person release stress in this area and relax deeply.
It may be a light touch to bring the heels into alignment in Adho Mukha Svanasana, or to align the arms in Virabhadrasana 2. In other situations, you assist someone into a deep forward fold by using your body weight in a pose like Paschimottanasana. And so, any kind of touch, whether short or gentle, strong or long, can be seen as an adjustment.
Adjustments help a person understand a posture better. It allows one to explore new spaces and create greater awareness of the body. Getting deeper into a pose can help release built-up tension and stress.
The 7 key elements of yoga adjustments
These 7 key elements give you a guideline for applying safe and correct adjustments. We would like to start with a basic rule, which is that you only make adjustments if you are in control of your class and feel confident enough.
1. Ask for permission
The most important thing is to ask your students if they want an adjustment. You can do this at the beginning of class. But if you have the opportunity, it is even better to ask this in person, where you can directly ask if they have any injuries that you need to consider.
Once your lesson has started and you want to apply an adjustment, you can ask for permission again. A student may change their mind or be uncomfortable with certain poses.
2. Safety
Important is your own posture to avoid injury, and that you stand firmly on the ground. You also want to avoid putting your hands on someone’s bare body because sweat will leave you with no grip.
3. Entrance and exit
- Before you start, you should know what your intention is and what you are going to do. If you are not sure, skip it.
- You are sure there is enough space to give a safe adjustment.
- Start by gently placing the hands on the body, watching and feeling how they react, before going deeper. If you feel resistance, be it physical or energetic, you may want to stop the adjustment. Don’t be afraid to walk away.
- At the end of the adjustment, release slowly, making sure your student is in balance before you let go.
4. Breath rhythm
Give the adjustment to both sides. If the student has already done one side without adjustment, do not give an adjustment on the other side.
5. Both sides
Listen and feel the rhythm of their breathing. If you can’t hear it, ask to make it louder. At the same time, breathe with the same rhythm and pace. On the inhale you help to create space, on the exhale you give pressure.
6. Stay in contact
Communication is essential. What is normal for you may be uncomfortable for the other.
- Ask your student if it feels right where you touch.
- Does the adjustment itself feel good?
- Give them little cues of the adjustment you are giving, and so helping them with their alignment.
- Ask if they like it or want to go deeper.
With the feedback you get, you can make the best and safest adjustments.
7. Your own body placement
Think about the placement of your body in relation to your student, especially if you are a man. Pay attention to where you place your hands, as some places may be perceived as an assault. For example, if you as a man give an adjustment close to a woman’s chest, it may be received as unwanted. If, as a woman, you press your chest against a man’s back, this may be perceived as uncomfortable.
Nice, I would like to learn more about this!
We have you covered… here at the Yoga Academy, we offer yoga adjustment courses that help you develop your teaching skills. Here, you will gain a better understanding of how the body works and be able to see where someone can improve in their pose. You will understand physical limitations and thus be able to give effective adaptations to any body type. Our next course is schedule 20th to 24th May at Yogacita.
