Assisting Part III: The Conscious Adjuster

In Part I, I discussed the benefits of adjusting. In Part II, the disadvantages. So what is the balance? It is what I call the “Conscious Adjuster”. In conscious adjusting, we don’t just mindlessly walk around the class adjusting every student as we teach. We take a moment (and it only takes a moment the better you get at it) and assess whether the adjustment is necessary and whether it will truly help the student understand the point you are teaching. We don’t adjust for something we aren’t teaching, even if it might be useful. There is nothing more confusing for a student than adjusting the arms when you have been focusing on the feet all night.

The conscious adjuster also uses all three adjusting techniques (voice, light touch, and physical manipulation) with more emphasis on voice and light touch. Voice is telling the student what you want to see and is the best adjustment technique. It takes a great teacher to be able to use their voice that well. Voice is best because the adjustment is then entirely the student’s. She made the movement in her own body and has a better opportunity to be able to replicate it.

Light touch is another good adjustment technique. In light touch, you use one or two fingers, at most a flat palm. Light touch is good because it will bring attention for the student where you want her attention without adding too much of your own energy. A light touch often wakes up the brain to be able to identify the correct muscle to engage to create the movement so the action is almost entirely the student’s.

Last, but certainly not least, is physical manipulation, when you, the teacher, actually move your student into the position she needs. Although this technique may be all yours, it can get a student out of stuck consciousness place (See Part I) so it is definitely useful sometimes.

Assisting Part II: Not All It’s Cracked Up To Be

In my last post, I discussed the benefits of adjusting. So, here is the downside of adjusting: the change is yours and not your student’s. What I mean is, when you make an adjustment, it is something you have done to the student, the student has not done it for herself. Then often times the student cannot replicate what you did. The newer your student is to yoga, the truer this idea is. I once had a beginning student who, after straightening her arm, said she could not feel a difference in her pose! Many to most beginners just don’t have a strong enough connection to their bodies to feel the benefits of our changes. Even advanced students often struggle with replicating an adjustment once they are home on their own mats. It is often better for a student to figure it out, sometimes over years, by herself. (I have a few corrections that I still remember, for whatever reason, that I finally “get” years later!)

So, what’s the answer? Stay tuned for Part III.

Assisting Part I: What’s the Point?

Assisting refers to whenever we suggest an adjustment, by words, touch or physical manipulation. Of course we tend to view an adjustment merely in terms of physical manipulation, but whenever we suggest to a student to change their position with words or a light touch, we are also adjusting them. Over the years I have heard many arguments for and against adjusting students (especially with physical manipulation) so over a few different posts, I am going to explore a few sides to assisting.

Remember that the point of yoga is to shift our consciousness; to evolve. In yoga we do it through our bodies. We take our bodies to new places that then takes our consciousness to new places. Who among us has never experienced being stuck? We all get stuck in our illusions and that stuck consciousness shows up in our body as doing the same thing with our body over and over. Often we are sure we are doing what our teacher is asking of us, only to be shocked when she comes over and manually adjusts us into the correct position. And surprised when we realize we can’t yet replicate the adjustment without outside assistance. (How many times have you adjusted student, again and again and again, for the same pose! My rule of thumb is three adjustments and then I let it go. I realize that they aren’t ready for what that position has to teach them and their body is resisting the change.)

My main support of adjusting is because it can get our students out of their ruts; to wake them up and take them where they haven’t been before.

Stay tuned to find out what my hesitations are for adjusting!

Paschimottanasana: Part III

In the final installation of this series, we look at aligning energetically in Paschimottanasana. Aligning energetically begins with being precise in your physical alignment, fully engaging the body and, well, getting the bones aligned well. Once you are there, you can feel your energy more fully.

Once you have found the alignment and physical work I discussed in Part III, have a yoga partner aid you in these variations to help you tap into the energetic support of the pose. These variations are for the full engagement of the legs in Dandasana that will then take you into a well-supported full pose.

The first variation is subtler than the second one. Begin here and if you don’t feel anything, move to the second one.

Have a partner sit squarely to you at your feet. It is important that your partner be square to you when you are adjusting, especially when you are working on the energetic level. Once you have found your strong Dandasana pose, have your partner take her index fingers and lightly touch your heals. Can you feel your legs engage on a deeper level?



If not, here is your second variation. Have your partner place her hands on lightly on your ankles. If you still don’t feel anything, have her press harder. See if you begin to extend your legs from a level deeper than the physical.

More Alignment

In yesterday’s post, I talked about encouraging students who hyper-extend their knees or elbows to feel both sides of their joint equally to sense correct alignment. This idea can be used in sensing alignment of the body as well in seated poses and in Tadasana. Sitting where you are now, extend from the sit bones up and out the top of your head. Now, if you exaggerate the ribs coming forward (thereby lengthening the front of the body more than the back) do you feel more of the front body than the back? Reverse the action and round through the back (while still lengthening and not collapsing). You feel your back body more.

Now come back to the center and lift through the middle. We can lose the alignment of the torso in the lower back, chest, and head so make sure you have an equal awareness on the front and back of all of those areas. Can you feel it? When you have it while you are sitting, do it in Tadasana.

Help with Hyper-Extension

Here is a tough one – how can you help students who hyper-extend knees and elbows to feel alignment? Here is an idea that works for those who are already quite aware of their bodies (and sometimes beginners too). Tell your students they should be able to feel both sides of their joint equally. Try it. Fully straighten your leg right now and then press back on the knee. Even if you don’t hyper-extend, you probably feel the back of the knee more than the front. You definitely feel the back more if you are hyper-extending. (This action should produce pain, but if you have hyper-extending the joint long enough, the pain receptors basically wear out). Now slightly bend the knee just until that point when you feel the front as much as the back – you are now aligned. Do it for you elbow too. I love to use this one for myself in Tadasana – I hyper-extend my elbows. When I stretch my “elbow pit”, I can feel it strongly, but then I lose my elbow (the other side). When I release the joint so I feel both sides equally, my hand just lights up because the energy can get to it.

Aligning pelvis in Savasana:

Here is a quickie adjustment you can make in Savasana to help some of your students find a more comfortable position and a more relaxing Savasana. Have you noticed that when you lie down flat to move into Savasana your pelvis wants to tip anteriorly, creating a stronger lower back arch? In Savasana you need to consciously tuck the tail a bit to be in the neutral position the lower back needs to release fully.

For about 20% of your students (my guess based on my experience), their psoas, the deep hip flexor muscle, is too tight to be able get a good enough tuck to release the back. When you watch, they can keep their pelvis neutral/level with the floor until their legs are almost fully straight. As they take their legs that last little bit, the pelvis tips and the lower back pops up. (I am in that 20% of people). With the lower back over-arched, tension creeps in, whether or not they are aware of it. I still don’t feel tension – which is why I never noticed for the first decade of my practice. What I do feel now is that the energy flow isn’t there when my back is arched.

All you need to do to help them is to place a folded blanket under their thighs. Ahhh…heaven.

Learning When to Adjust

Each pose we do should leave us feeling complete and wonderful. If we come out of a pose craving another pose, then something was amiss in the first pose. If you need a Balasana (Child’s Pose) after Ustrasana (Camel Pose) to release your lower back, there is something that needs fixing in your Ustrasana. If you need to lie flat on your back after Salambha Sarvangasana (Shoulder Balance Pose) to release your neck and upper back, your Salambha Sarvangasana isn’t aligned perfectly. If you need to arch your back backwards after Uttanasana, it is your Uttanasana that needs work.

Now, let me add a caveat, this is not to say your body may not need balancing after certain poses. It is infinitely wise to do some forward folding after back bending to elongate the hamstrings which are contracted in back bends. It is also helpful to calm the energy. But, my point here is, while balancing is helpful, if you need a pose after another one to help you release tight areas, or just crave it to feel more complete, you know you need to align the pose better, there is someplace to work.

So, watch your students when they come out of poses. If you need to help half the class release their backs after doing a backbend, know you have work to do in that pose to help them learn to get the pose out of their backs. If you find one student holding her lower back after Uttanasana and leaning back, help her to get her pose into her hamstrings and out of her back.