Some years in the past, I led some yoga college students by a fairly prolonged collection of leg-stretching asanas primarily based on Supta Padanghustasana (Supine Huge Toe Pose). At the moment, I had all the time ended the collection with a one-legged model of Yoganidrasana (ankles behind the pinnacle). After all, most individuals in my lessons really feel fairly versatile if their foot finally ends up inside just a few inches of their faces. And actually, that’s actually fairly versatile in comparison with the typical particular person on the road. Some would possibly even suppose that’s a sign of being a complicated yogi.

The orientation and depth of many individuals’s hip sockets won’t ever enable an Instagram star expression of the pose. I’m one of many few individuals whose hip joints are amenable to Yoganidrasana, and to poses comparable to Padmasana (Lotus Pose). I don’t take specific pleasure on this; it’s not one thing I earned by exhausting work. It’s merely a genetic variation I inherited from my gymnast father.

Yoganidrasana and the SI Joint

The directions for shifting into Yoganidrasana may be complicated to college students, most likely as a result of the pose has nothing in widespread with on a regular basis motion. After I demonstrated Yoganidrasana, it was for readability. It was, the truth is, useful to display the model that most individuals can accomplish. This entails bending one knee towards the chest, putting the ankle within the bend of the alternative elbow and drawing the leg in towards the chest. As I provided the choice—considerably jokingly—of slipping the ankle behind the pinnacle, it occurred to me to do what I’ve typically finished: Show.

For per week previous to this class, I’d been battling sacroiliac (SI) ache and sciatica. I attribute this to my genetically free joints, together with years of training alignment directions that I later discovered to be inappropriate. As well as, youthful enthusiasm impressed me to attempt each “superior” pose I might pressure myself into again within the Nineteen Eighties. Consequently, my SI joint has develop into fragile and unstable.

Trashing Your SI Joint Does Not Make Anybody an Superior Yogi

My SI joint is the proverbial canary within the coal mine for me. On one hand, it’s fairly helpful; it offers me speedy suggestions when my alignment is ever-so-slightly unhealthy. I’ve realized volumes about wholesome SI-joint alignment from residing with this extraordinarily delicate and communicative joint. Then again, my SI joint misaligns simply and turns excruciatingly painful on the slightest provocation.

So this time, once I had the choice to display Yoganidrasana, I selected the prudent path and opted out. By opting out, I saved myself SI bother. However extra essential, I walked my speak. I might by no means encourage a pupil to push previous SI and sciatica ache. The one motivation I can consider for sliding my foot behind my head could be to show that I might do it, to point out my college students what an “superior yogi” I’m.

Why Class Ranges Don’t Work for Yoga

I’ve lengthy advocated for a distinct definition of the “superior” yogi. Outlined class ranges (Stage 1, 2, 3 and 4) appear synthetic, limiting and inaccurate to me. Some individuals come to yoga with our bodies that may do virtually each pose on the primary day. For instance, some individuals can push up into Urdva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow) with straight arms (the requirement for getting into some Stage 3 lessons) with no restrictions. Then again, a yogi with 30 years’ expertise might have been born with extra steady joints. Extra steady joints will typically not enable arms to be straight in Upward Bow. This particular person wouldn’t be capable to attend an “superior” class. These parameters don’t appear helpful to me.

What Is an Superior Yogi?

For me, a complicated yogi is one who has a two-way communication along with his/her physique—talking and listening. A sophisticated yogi has the expertise to know when he/she is just too exhausted, injured or fragile to apply a specific pose. An skilled yogi is aware of that the diploma to which you’ll stretch, the variety of Chaturangas (yoga push-ups) you are able to do, the size of time you’ll be able to keep in Headstand, or having straight arms in Urdva Dhanurasana doesn’t matter within the grand scheme. A sophisticated yogi’s ego is in verify sufficient to know that what your physique can or can’t do will not be a measure of your dedication to yoga. The mature yoga practitioner is aware of that simply since you can do a specific pose doesn’t imply that you just ought to.

Donna Farhi teaches that superior yogis might select to choose out of doing probably the most “superior” variations of poses, fairly than push themselves to the purpose of harm. Superior yogis are the individuals who know that yoga will not be about efficiency, however about freedom from the necessity to carry out. I’ve to agree. My determination to choose out of Yoganidrasana tastes way more of freedom than wedging my ankle behind my head ever might.

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and commenced educating in 1986. Charlotte is the creator of Conscious Yoga, Conscious Life: A Information for On a regular basis Apply and Yoga for Meditators, each revealed by Rodmell Press. Her third e-book is titled Hip-Wholesome Asana: The Yoga Practitioner’s Information to Defending the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Ache (Shambhala Publications). She writes a month-to-month column for CATALYST Journal and serves as editor for Yoga U On-line. Charlotte is a founding board member for GreenTREE Yoga, a non-profit that brings yoga to underserved populations. A lifelong musician, Charlotte performs oboe and English horn within the Salt Lake Symphony and people sextet Pink Rock Rondo, whose DVD gained two Emmy awards in 2010.