"Be careful of your knees!" 😱⁣
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I love you, Linda, but....⁣
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"My knees are strong because I train them to sustain shit like this!" 💪🏼 ⁣
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Consider this : If you treat your body like it's fragile, then that's EXACTLY what it will be. Fragility will be your reality. 🥴⁣
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If you only move in neutral spine, or have your joints perfectly aligned (whatever that means) then be prepared to move that way all the time (good luck with that.) 😬
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News flash! You're constantly moving "out of alignment." Every day your body is faced with a myriad of movement situations and you figure it out, your body and nervous system are a wise and self organizing system. 🧠 ⁣
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As a yoga educator, this means that I sometimes color outside of the lines. I ask my students to explore the positions and ranges they may not visit all the time in yoga classes. They might let their knees go past their toes in a lunge or Warrior (gasp!) or let their knees move valgus in a lunge or a squat (double gasp!) This also means they will be more prepared if this happens in a real life situation. Their nervous systems will recognize this position as a safely mapped territory, and their tissues are familiar with this landscape. 🗺 ⁣
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Before anyone gets their undies in a bunch, I'm not "anti-yoga" or a contrarian. I'm not against having good alignment in yoga poses. But who decides what good alignment is? What is arbitrary alignment really good for and how does it serve us as dynamically moving humans? Do you want a body that performs well under conditions of “perfect” alignment, or a body that responds naturally to the imperfect conditions that exist in the real world?