“Alignment doesn’t matter in yoga.”
“Don’t call your yoga classes ‘alignment-based’.”
“Stop teaching alignment in your yoga classes.”
Have you heard language like this? If you have, I’m not surprised!
There’s a bit of a paradigm shift taking place around “alignment” in the yoga world as of late. As a community, we’re beginning to realize that practicing and teaching our yoga poses with the exact same “correct” alignment all the time isn’t necessarily protective against injury.
And this has led to the growing message that “alignment doesn’t matter in yoga” and we should throw it out the window.
(Are you new to the notion that alignment in yoga doesn’t prevent injuries? Here are two quick write-ups that expand on this: Do “Misalignments” in Our Body Cause Wear and Tear? and Top 5 Movement Science Insights for Yoga Teachers.)
This “Backlash” Against Alignment is Understandable…
Now I definitely think this “let’s free ourselves from the tyranny of alignment” 🙂 approach is understandable! For far too long in the yoga world, many of us were inundated with alignment-based cueing along these lines:
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“Align your front knee exactly over your front heel. If your knee reaches forward one inch, it will explode. If your knee reaches inward one inch, it will explode. Knee over heel is the singular correct and safe way.”
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“Make sure to bisect your back arch with your front heel. If your feet are aligned heel-to-heel instead, this is disastrous for your pose and you should just give up now.”
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“Definitely do not let your tailbone tuck 1° under or lift 1° upward. It must be at exaaactly neutral, or you will cause back pain, hip pain, knee pain, and all the other pains.”
These are obviously exaggerations to get the point across :), but still… Toned-down versions of these examples were formerly everywhere in the yoga world! (And truth be told, they’re still around in many corners of the yoga world today!)
As much of the yoga community is now realizing, teaching alignment for injury prevention purposes in this way is simply not evidence-based.
And therefore, “alignment doesn’t matter” messaging is becoming quite commonplace!
