GUIDE FOR YOGA TEACHERS
HANDS-ON ASSISTS
GUIDE FOR YOGA TEACHERS
HANDS-ON ASSISTS
Physical adjustments in yoga postures can be an incredible gift to your students. It helps them to get out of their heads and feel with their senses. Hands-on assists can give your students more access to the action in the posture, correct common misalignments, and promote relaxation by stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system. Beyond the explainable, the magic of conscious, loving touch is a powerful tool to use in a world where so many people feel lonely, isolated and simply don't get enough physical contact. All of that being said, before you try these manual adjustments in your yoga classes, it's important to ask for permission first. Some teachers prefer to ask their students at the beginning of class who is comfortable with adjustments, some teachers might ask a student as they're approaching them, some teachers might have students leave a card near their mat to indicate whether they prefer to be touched or not. However you do it, you MUST ask for permission before performing adjustments. As trauma-informed teachings become more mainstream and studied, we as yoga instructors must honor that many of our students will feel uncomfortable with touch and that's ok! Laura Martini
Savasana/Corpse Pose Assists 1) Kneel or squat near the head of your student. Gently cup the back of their head with your hands, left their head about half an inch off the floor, and use your fingers to massage/stroke the back of their neck. I like to shift the weight of their head into my right hand as I run the fingers of my left hand along the back of their neck and then switch. Use this adjustment to help your student relax deeply in savasana.
2) Kneel or squat near the head of your student. Place the heels of your hands on the heads of your student's shoulders. Gently ground their shoulders towards the floor. Hold for a few breaths. This assist helps to promote relaxation and helps to position their spine from flexion to gentle extension. In our modern western culture, most people spend their days with their shoulders rounded forward in activities like driving, working on a computer, and carrying babies and kids! This adjustment helps to counter this 'rounded-forward' alignment.
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Balasana/Child's Pose Assists 1) Stand behind your student and gently place your toes and the balls of your feet on the toes and balls of your student's feet. Shift your weight from side to side as you scrunch and release your toes, massaging their feet in the process. Be careful not to put all of your weight into their feet; keep the majority of your weight in your heels. This adjustment facilitates relaxation by essentially giving your students a foot massage.
2) Stand behind your student, bend over and place your hands on either side of your student's sacrum. Push their hips towards the floor using your hands. This adjustment helps to increase spinal flexion and increases the stretch in i n the hips. It can be comforting as it creates a greater feeling of groundedness.
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Bhujangasana/Cobra Pose Assist 1) Place your feet on either side of your student's hips facing the same direction as your student. Bend your knees to come into a squat and place your hands on the front of their shoulders. Now gently draw their shoulders back towards you as you place the crown of your head between their shoulder blades. You're moulding their upper back around your head. This adjustment prevents the student from over-stretching the lumbar spine and under-stretching the thoracic spine. It helps create more mobility through the spine between the shoulder blades and opens up the front facial line of the body.
Uttanasana/Standing Forward Fold Pose Assist 1) Stand behind your student in forward fold and place the heel of your hand on their sacrum with your fingers pointing up their spine. Slide your other hand up their spine towards their head while putting pressure on their back. The hand on the sacrum helps to ground their legs into the earth and the hand that slides down the spine helps them to round further through the spine and come deeper into this posture.
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Adho Mukha Svanasana/Downward Facing Dog Pose Assist 1) Stand in front of your student in a lunge with one foot between their hands and the other foot back. Bend the front knee and place one hand on their sacrum (the flat bone at the base of their spine). Push the heel of your hand into their sacrum to send their weight back into their legs. This assist helps the student get deeper into downward dog without having to do the work! By pushing on their sacrum, you're taking the pressure off your students hands and wrists and giving them a greater stretch throughout the entire body.
Baddha Konasana/Bound Angle Pose Assist 1) Stand behind your student and place the outer edge of one foot on the floor at the base of their spine. s pine. Gently lean your lower leg into their back to help them hinge further forward from the hips. At the same time, place your hands on the fronts of their shoulders to guide their upper back towards your leg. This adjustment encourages your students to focus on hingeing forward from the hips rather than rounding the spine to get further forward.
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Urdvha Dhanurasana/Wheel Pose Assist 1) Have your student lie on their back with their knees bent to prepare for wheel pose. Stand facing them with your feet about shoulder-width apart at the top edge of their mat where their head is. Your feet will be either side of their head. Have them grab on to your ankles with their hands, then push into their feet and hands to lift their hips and come up into wheel. This assist is a great variation on the pose and can help students get more grip through the hands. It also lessens the flexion of the wrist which can help students who struggle with wrist pain and less wrist mobility.
Virabhadrasana II/Warrior 2 Pose Assist 1) Squat down to the outside of your student's front knee, k nee, place your hand on the outside of their knee and say, s ay, "press into my touch". This assist prevents the student's knee from collapsing inwards which is a common misalignment in this posture. I LOVE THIS ASSIST because rather than physically manipulating our student, we're encouraging them to get into the posture on their own through a press point. These kinds of assists are so powerful!
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Utthita Trikonasana/Triangle Pose Assist: "The Kung Fu Chop" 1) Have your student place their feet like they would for triangle pose, then stand in front of their front foot, grab their front hand, place the outer edge of your foot closest to them in their hip crease, and ground through your standing leg. Pull their hand towards you as you use your foot on their hip to push their hips back at the same time. The purpose of this assist is to lengthen the side body (which will feel amazing for your student and they will be able to go deeper into the pose).
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Adho Mukha Vrksasana/Handstand Pose Assist 1) Have your student come into downward dog and raise one leg. Stand on the side of their raised leg and take a strong squat stance as you're about to lift them into the air! Have them lock out the raised leg and place your hands under their shin. Lift their raised leg up into the air so that it's straight up and down. Have them raise the other leg to match. Ensure you're only holding ONE LEG so they can get out of the posture quickly if they need to by dropping the leg that is not being held up. This is a safe way to help your students access handstand pose because it doesn't require 'jumping' into the posture. It provides them with a supported way to feel what it's like to totally invert.
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Parvritta Trikonasana/Revolved Triangle Pose Assist 1) Stand on the side of your student that is closest to their back foot. With one hand, brace their hips against your pelvis so their hips stay perfectly square. With your other hand help facilitate the rotation of their torso and shoulder. Use your shoulder to prevent their top arm from over-rotating and essentially having the 'tail wag the dog'. This adjustment corrects many misalignments including the twisting of the hips and the rotation coming from the arm/shoulder rather than the spine/trunk. Make sure to brace your student against you so they don't lose their balance! And take your hands off slowly for the same reason:)
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Dhanurasana/Bow Pose Assist 1) Have your student flex their feet, grab their ankles, and ensure their feet f eet and legs are hip-width apart so as to create a seat for your bum. Place your feet on either side of their waist facing in the same direction as they are. Come into a squat and place your bum on their feet while at the same time grabbing the fronts of their shoulders with your hands. Slowly place weight on their feet f eet while simultaneously pulling their shoulders back towards you. Check in with them to see how it feels and them you can choose to back off or sit down heavier and pull their shoulders closer to you. Just like the Downward Dog adjustment, this assist helps your student come deeper into the stretch of the posture without all the effort! A great way to give them access to the backbend without overworking.
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