Lets Talk about Alignment! By Alison King tigges

I love to teach alignment-based yoga.  I always have.  I also LOVE how it feels in my own body when I practice.  As a studio, One Tree Yoga really believes in it as well.  I think alignment gets a bad rap, because it is often sold as “this is right” (or safe) and “this is wrong: (or unsafe).  That definition of alignment does us a disservice because, in my opinion alignment is not about right and wrong ways to do a pose. 

Alignment is helpful because it helps students get closer to the shape.  For better or worse, most yoga classes are structured and sequenced around certain poses.  These poses have been around for a long time and have certain anatomical principles. Is the leg internally or externally rotated?  Is our spine in a backbend or a twist?  Is our shoulder externally rotated?  Is our arm straight or bent?  Depending on the pose we are doing, we can answer these questions.  I repeat: alignment helps us get CLOSER to the shape.  Notice I said closer.  It is not about doing it exactly a certain way!  

As a teacher, I love teaching alignment from this lens, because when teaching a group of people, there is the expectation that you will say something and tell them to do something.  If I got up in front of a room and just said “Do Warrior 2”, some people would maybe sort of know the shape to make, but many would not.  And most of the time, who cares, right?!  Maybe a small percentage of the time, that lack of knowledge would lead to an injury.  However, even if no injury occurs, the body might not be adequately stretched and strengthened to safely do what is coming later.  So much of what happens in a class is about adequately preparing the body for what is to come—and these requests usually get harder as the class continues.  

As stated earlier, alignment often gives the impression of right and wrong, which is why I think as helpful as it can be, it needs some tweaking in the yoga world. The beauty of alignment cues is, there is so much more to say!  Alignment is the starting point.  But from there, we can instruct awareness to the yoga student—how does the pose feel?  Or we can gives ways to modify and deepen if needed.  We can even find ways to tie a philosophical lessons in if it makes sense!  It’s a great starting point, but there is so much more that can unfold from it.  

The longer I practice, teach and learn about yoga, the more aware I am how different every body is.  Some people have long torsos, some people have super short femurs, some people have long arms, some are more narrow in the hips or broad in the shoulders, some have more of a natural turn out, some are recovering from a surgery/injury, some are stronger, some are more naturally flexible etc.  Our bones aren’t shaped the same, our muscles are not built the same, and even the muscle fibers have different densities! You get the point.  NO BODY IS THE SAME!  This is precisely why we just can’t stop at alignment as bible for teaching yoga.  Through my recent anatomy studies, we saw a demonstration of how someone with longer femurs (thigh bones) anatomically HAS TO lean forward more when squatting (in yoga, think utkatasana).  Now if I went with precise, Iyengar-alignment as the only way to teach poses, there would be a lot of long-femured students who would struggle with the “keep your chest up” cue.  They can’t!  This is simply one of many examples.  Some bodies, for a million reasons, cannot make the shape, no matter how anatomically sound my cues are.   We can all benefit from yoga, so there should be no excluding.  Let’s find more ways to include! 

For the yoga teachers out there, let us remember this.  I do not think this means no more alignment cues. Phew!  I think it means we need to hold it more loosely, and have more tools in our tool box to help modify. AND!  We say the thing, then let it go and allow space for people figure it out in their own bodies.  Yoga students, this means DO YOU!  Of course listen to alignment cues and do what you can.  You might like what some of the cues offer!  But know that most of these poses were originally designed for teenage boys.  Last I checked, my classes have very few of those! This means for most of us, doing every pose with exact alignment won’t always be in the cards.  PERFECT.  Alignment can still get you close to the shape, and your own internal awareness can make the pose feel good in your body.  Ultimately, yoga is an exploration to find what works for us. Alignment is just a helpful way to start the conversation.