Yoga Alignment Principles For Better Feeling Yoga Poses.

I come from a yoga background where the school of thought is that there is one perfect alignment for every yoga pose. In this mindset, if I want the best feeling yoga pose, my job as a practitioner is to embody that alignment as precisely as possible. If I don’t obey the rules of pose alignment, then I’m opening myself up to injury. 

The problem with this model of thinking is that those promises don’t come true. After many years of obeying alignment rules, my poses actually started to feel worse (not better), and injuries still happened despite my best attempts at achieving some one-size-fits-all alignment. 

Cue maddening frustration, confusion and discouragement. 

And it’s not just me. Most of my current yoga mentors also went through the disillusionment that comes with believing in a promise that doesn’t come true. Motivated by pain, they sought different answers that had the potential to deliver on the promise that yoga can make our bodies feel good and move in amazing ways. 

Following in their footsteps, I’m now realizing that the best yoga alignment principles are ones that both keep us safe and have us adapting to new challenges. This is, of course, if our goal for our yoga practice is to live pain-free and capable of movement for our whole life. 

And because we want principles that hold universally true for all people and include an entire spectrum of life experiences, we need to be general enough to not exclude anyone. This is why I’m selecting the following alignment principles to share with you in this article--not just because they are universally applicable, but also because these are the most effective strategies I’ve found to address pain and progress into more challenging movements. 

Joint Positioning

If we want to learn how to be safe movers, we need to know how to position our joints. Joints are the mobile parts of our bodies, which means that in order to have safe mobility, we need to know how they work. 

This includes understanding the possible joint actions of each major joint. We need to know that our ankles are capable of dorsiflexion, plantar flexion, inversion and eversion. We need to know that our knees are capable of flexion and extension, that our hips can move in 6 directions, that our spine flexes, extends, rotates and bends sideways, and so on up the chain of the body. 

We also need to be able to assess our own joint positioning in any given moment. For instance, I’ve been noticing recently that when I reach my arm up to grab my coffee mug in the mornings, I’m mostly bending sideways from my spine to reach up and get the cup rather than truly flexing my shoulder to bring my arm overhead. Both of these physical variations are fine to do, but the point is that being able to discern where my movement is coming from at any given time allows me to notice my blind spots, my tendencies and my underdeveloped bits so that I might make more intelligent movement choices. 

There are a few benefits to knowing how to position our joints well in every yoga pose. The most obvious benefit is safety. But well-positioned joints also help our tissues adapt faster and more optimally. Here’s how: tissues adapt through repetition, and when we know how to position our joints we are more likely to be consistent in our repetitions, which gives our tissues time to adapt. Not only that, but our tissues are adapting more optimally because they are developing to support well-positioned joints. 

Once we know how to position our joints (check out our article on range of motion for a complete breakdown of joint positions for the major joints in the body), we can use our yoga practice to play. 

Preparation

It’s not just that our joints need to be well positioned in order for us to succeed at a movement. We also need our muscles to be well-adapted for whatever movement we’re asking our joints to do.

This is where preparation comes into play. 

Preparation often means progressive loading. Progressive loading is a movement strategy that allows muscles to adapt gradually to new challenges that are slightly more challenging than whatever we did last time. 

Let’s use everyone’s favorite yoga pose as an example: Chaturanga (or for any non-yogis reading this article: your classic push-up). Because yoga is a body-weight exercise, everytime we do a chaturanga, we have our pose loaded with ~150 pounds. If we’ve never done a push-up before, this is going to be extreme and will likely overwhelm us to the point that we just drop to the ground like a raindrop without any precision or control. 

If we don’t take the time to de-load this movement and learn how to control the push-up with less load, we are likely not going to make any real progress in this area. This is because we have not prepared for this movement progressively and we aren’t consistent with our joint positioning so our tissues are not adapting to take on more load. 

How can we progressively load chaturanga? For one thing, we can practice the pose on an incline like having the hands on a bench or countertop. This will de-load most of the body weight so that we can focus on the key joint actions: bending the elbows and retracting the shoulder blades while keeping enough tension in the rest of the body to remain still through those actions. With repetition and consistent joint positioning, our tissues will adapt and we can progress slowly down to the floor. 

Chaturanga is one example, but this applies to all movements equally. If you find yourself inadequately prepared for a movement, ask yourself what an effective progressive loading strategy might be. Look at the joint actions you’re looking to strengthen. How might you prepare yourself for the movement you’re trying to do?  

Progressive loading means making certain movements easier and certain movements harder, all depending on our current adaptations. We can de-load movements by using props or practicing in a different orientation to gravity. We can add load into movements with props, resistance bands, kettlebells and free weights and among other things. 

There’s lots of ways to take advantage of progressive loading, and the best news is: Well adapted tissues are often the best remedy for injuries, surgeries, rehabilitation, or just straight up reaching our movement goals. If we want a pain-free body, we have to progressively load our tissues!

Understand the Why 

There is always a why behind the movement, even if we’re not clued into it. We’re trying to do something specific. Maybe it’s improving our hip flexion or maintaining stability or strengthening different chains of movement. 

When we’re in a group yoga class, our teacher may clue us into their why--their reasons for teaching a pose in a certain way or at a certain moment. But it’s also important to understand our own goals and what we’re trying to achieve. This will help us direct our practice towards better-feeling movement rather than just copying our teacher or whatever the person beside us is doing on their mat. 

When we understand what we are trying to get from a movement experience, we can optimize our decision-making to be in line with that goal. 

For example, if we are doing a Warrior 2 pose and the yoga teacher is emphasizing the front hip’s ability to externally rotate, I now have a barometer for what I’m trying to experience. I can adjust, add to or subtract from my pose in order to work on this joint positioning. Suddenly I have more options. I can practice bending and straightening my externally rotated leg to vary the load and train the muscles to maintain a joint position throughout an entire chain of movement. I can vary my arm movements while trying to maintain stability through my externally rotated hip. I can lift and lower my front heel to and from the ground to add some instability and challenge my balance. 

When I understand why I’m doing something, I make smarter choices. 

Takeaways

I wish I could tell you, always keep your shoulders externally rotated in this pose or don’t ever let your knees go past your toes (hint: our knees should actually be able to do this), but anything I say along these lines is not true for 100% of people and is therefore not true. 

Instead, I want to give you something that applies universally to all bodies across the board. I want to give you something that makes you feel empowered, like you have new tools in your arsenal. 

When it comes to yoga alignment principles, this is what I recommend: 

• Learn and be deliberate with your joint positions

• Prepare your tissues with progressive loading

• Understand why you’re doing a movement a certain way 

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