How to modify a yoga pose without losing the lesson

Giang Hoang · For people learning to teach yoga

At the start of an online class, a student was sitting on a block for meditation. Her posture looked good.

I asked whether she felt relaxed. Not yet, she said. The area around her hips was still tense.

I could have told her to relax again. And again. But she was not tense because she had failed to hear me. She was working to hold herself up.

This article is about that moment when a student cannot manage a pose: what can change, and what needs to stay?

1. Repeat the cue, or change the seat?

Someone sits on the mat with their knees above their hips and nothing supporting their legs. They use the muscles around their hips and buttocks to hold the position.

You ask them to relax. They release for a few seconds, then tighten again because they feel themselves tipping.

Raise the seat and place a cushion under the legs in front, and the support takes over some of that work. Now the instruction to relax has a practical way to happen.

Later in that class, the student suggested another way to sit. She said it was more comfortable. I did not reject it. I asked whether she felt tension anywhere. She did not. So we used it.

Then she asked whether she was leaning forward a little. I looked: only slightly, and her knees had support. That was fine.

2. How can you make Dolphin less demanding?

Later in the same class, we prepared for Dolphin: forearms on the mat, hips high, legs straight.

At first, her knees were bent and her shoulders were making small movements. It looked like the pose, but I could not see the work I wanted her to practise.

I asked her not to move the shoulders forward yet. First, work on the legs: lift the heels, straighten the knees and raise the hips.

She did that, and it became much harder. I could see that straightening behind the knees was difficult, that her arms were not yet strong enough for this version, and that her feet were too close to her hands.

I chose B. Once she is stronger, she can bring her feet closer again. I asked whether it felt better. She said it did.

We could change the number of repetitions too. The target that day was 30. Twenty-five or 20 was fine. I wanted the action to be clear before worrying about the number.

3. Push-ups: how far down, and what stays?

Next came push-ups. She placed her palms on blocks and supported herself on her knees. Her hands were wide, near the edges of the mat, to make it easier.

I asked which parts were supporting her. Looking at the screen, was the line from her hips to her knees upright, or were her hips moving back?

I used the image of a house: the supports should be like its pillars. Upright, at right angles to the floor.

She asked whether she could let her elbows point outwards. I said that was fine for now, as long as the supports stayed upright. This was new and demanding for her.

After a while, her wrists were very tired. I told her that understanding the alignment came first. Strength would take time.

4. What if the wrists cannot take more?

When we reached Plank, she said her wrists could not take any more.

I changed it to a forearm plank. The target was one minute. While she held it, I kept watching her hips and back, asking her to lift through the lower back and adjust her pelvis.

I counted 30 seconds, 40, then 50. She came down at points.

I am not telling this as a success story. It was a tiring class. She had already done more than twenty rounds of Sun Salutations. I reminded her not to push too hard. Some days are different from others.

The decision matters here: when one point of support cannot manage more, change the support. Her hips and back were still what I was watching.

5. One class: what changed, what stayed?

In that class, I made adjustments in five parts of the practice. None of them removed what we were trying to learn.

Look at the Change lines. A few things come up again: support, distance, contact point, depth, how far the arms or legs reach, and repetitions.

The Keep lines are about alignment. If you do not yet understand the alignment of a pose, it is hard to know what can change. I explain this separately in what alignment means in yoga.

6. Three questions before you modify

I do not have a fixed formula. Those blocks were for that student on that day. Someone else might need fewer blocks, or a chair.

But I often ask myself three questions:

1. What am I teaching in this pose today? That is the part to keep.
2. What is making this person tense or work beyond what they can manage? A low seat, feet too close, a painful point of support. That is something to change.
3. What does the student say after the change? Better, the same, or uncomfortable somewhere else? The answer helps decide what comes next.

7. When should you reduce the effort or stop?

• Muscle fatigueThis is normal. Take your time and rest when needed.
• Shaking, holding the breath, tensing the neck to stay upReduce the demand. Change one of the things in section 5.
• Pain in the wrists, shoulders, back or knees; numbness; spreading pain; dizzinessStop. Do not wait for sharp pain. If pain persists or keeps returning, seek medical advice.

If you have a medical condition, are pregnant or have recently had surgery, speak to a qualified healthcare professional first. I cannot diagnose you through an article.

I practise to get stronger, not to wear myself out. I am not competing.

8. What changes when you learn to teach?

When you practise, you choose a variation for yourself. When you teach, you choose for another body. That body is not yours.

The difficult part is doing three things together: seeing the focus of the exercise, listening to the student and finding something useful to change. Online, there is no hands-on guidance. You have the screen and your questions.

Sometimes a student may feel disappointed about being given an easier version. You need to explain why the important part of the task is still there.

I used to wobble all over the place in Crow Pose. So I do not assume that someone who cannot manage a pose is lazy.

In the 200H Online Yoga Teacher Training, we work on this in live sessions: you practise guiding, I watch, and we look at what needs adjusting. If you are considering the course, you can read how the teaching practice works, then talk to me about what you want to learn.

Common questions

A final thought

That day, she did not complete thirty perfect Dolphin repetitions. But the repetitions she worked on kept the knees straight and the heels up.

Easier. Still the same lesson.

Giang Hoang

Yoga teacher, E-RYT 500 & YACEP (Yoga Alliance)
Giang Metta Academy: RYS 200 & RYS 500 (YA ID 442630)
Based in Da Lat, Vietnam. Teaching online worldwide.

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