Yoga Alignment: why it matters so much.
What is Yoga Alignment?
Alignment is the term we use in yoga to describe the ideal way to do any pose to maximize its benefits and minimize the risk of injury.
Alignment is the HOW to do the pose:
- WHERE to put your hands and feet, and your parts of the body in relation to each other
- WHICH muscles engage end, which one relaxes, and in which priority.
Yoga is a practice toward balance, and each pose should open/stretch specific body parts and strengthen others.
It doesn't matter what the pose looks like, but what you feel is important.
Alignment is DO IT RIGHT! It encourages the use of props and modifications.
Doing it right is more important than going deeper and being fancy.
When you understand alignment, you have the tools to make almost any yoga pose work for you.
Why is Alignment so important?
Because by practicing without alignment, you can injure yourself!
Alignment is intended to create a stable foundation for safe practice, to allow your body to open in new ways, and to reduce your risk of injury.
While you might not feel a sudden, sharp pain from doing a pose out of alignment, many yoga injuries are cumulative, accruing little by little.
Wear and tear on joints and supporting tissues happens over time, so many yoga students find themselves with repetitive use ailments years into their practices and have to break long-established patterns to remake their poses in healthier ways.
Also, practicing with the right alignment makes you engage all the muscles you should, without compensation, and prepare your body for the next step, the following variation or advanced pose.
Establishing optimal alignment (for your own body) as early in your practice as possible is important, which often means using props liberally.
Using props, like a yoga block, straps, and a grippy supportive mat, maybe with alignment signs, is not a sign of inadequacy.
These props are intended to help yoga students practice with good alignment right from their first day instead of compromising their form.
And even if the teacher says what to do, understanding the cues with your mind and being able to do it with your body takes time!
The mind needs time to connect with your body, and the body needs time to get educated.
At first, alignment is not necessarily intuitive. It takes some experience to cultivate an awareness of where your body is in space throughout a practice session. And after time, especially if moving in faster Vinyasa, it's easier to get the bad habits.
Your first alignment input will probably be a spoken cue from your teacher or a visual demonstration. They might say, 'open your legs, a leg distance apart" but what is this distance exactly? or "bring your foot back, keeping the other knee above your ankle," but how much back?
At first, you might need help to understand what that means and how to implement it in your body.
The teacher may then offer a manual adjustment by touching you to steer your body in the right direction.
However, manual adjustments are becoming less common, especially in large classes where teachers can't get to everyone's mat. And impossible if you practice online. And even if you are physically adjusted, sometimes it's hard to remember what to do the next time you're in each particular pose.
That's why you need this alignment mat!
The benefits of an Alignment yoga mat.
This is where Yodiscover's unique system comes in, putting another tool at your disposal.
It's like having a private teacher manually adjust the position of hands and feet, squaring your hips, and much more!
Why Yodiscover Mat.
There are other alignment mats o the market, yes, and they still have a couple of universal lines, like the middle line, the center of the mat, and maybe a line in the front of the mat, but how can the symbols be played properly in the same spot for everyone?
Think about a man 6 feet tall and a lady 5 feet tall.
Can they use the same distance between their feet? Or between hand and feet? Obviously not!
That is why we created this mat calculating the distances between symbols in proportion to your body size and height.
You now have a basic framework upon which to hang your alignment. You don't have to be finicky about it, placing your feet precisely on the lines. But they will give you a direction toward where to go.
It will be easy to glance down and quickly make the adjustments that will bring your body into better balance.
You don't want to build your pose on a shaky foundation.
If you use a Yodiscover mat in class, you're more likely to remember how to set up your poses the next time you practice them.
The Alignment graphic helps you see patterns, so you'll understand which poses are variations on a theme, making new poses feel more accessible.
Over time, you'll find that glancing at the lines on your mat as you flow from pose to pose has become second nature.
As your practice evolves and your body changes, you'll use the lines also in different ways.
They will always be there, symmetrical and accurate.
It isn't easy to draw a straight line across a blank page, so we use lined paper to guide us. You can choose to write all over the page if you want, but the lines are there if you want them.
Using our Align Signs guide on the mat is like writing on lined paper. It makes sense, is simple and intuitive, and doesn't hinder your natural flow… it helps it because you don't get any more frustrated, have more balance, and can focus more on your breath and feelings.
Alignment is power.
Focusing on alignment fosters your growing sense of body awareness and boosts your self-confidence.
A lot of people feel pretty disconnected from their physical bodies.
Yoga works to reintegrate the body and mind with alignment as one of its primary tools.
Poses that feel unfamiliar and shaky at first soon become intuitive and steady with the help of good instruction and the right tools.
Namaste, Dany