I have mentioned before that my teaching style doesn't include a lot of hands on adjustments.  Since I teach in a gym, I usually just use verbal cues to get students to adjust themselves.  The only time I physically adjust is when the student just doesn't get it at all and looks like they are going to hurt themselves.

Touching people just makes me uncomfortable.  And, in the gym environment, it just isn't expected.

I recently watched the y yoga movie.  The interviews with sean corne and kathryn budig really struck me.

Sean was talking about teaching yoga to young girls who were recovering from traumatic abuse.  The directors of the program told her "no touching!"  Sean assured them that she wouldn't touch the girls without asking first.  And then she talked about how her touch (adjustments) was exactly what the girls needed.  A loving, well intentioned connection.  She then had to take ten minutes at the beginning and end of the class for the girls to hug her.

Kathryn spoke about the first adjustment done to her.  She kinda freaked out about it!  She thought it was totally inappropriate and uncomfortable.  She then overcame that feeling.  The movie showed her giving the most intimate looking adjustments using her ENTIRE body!

In my private sessions with my cousin, I am working on making physical adjustments.  I know her.  I am comfortable.  She is comfortable.  She is my personal yoga teaching experiment!

In my morning gym class, I only have a few students.  I'm slowly starting to expand my teaching and making adjustments on them.  ALWAYS asking first.  Telling them EXACTLY what I am going to do.  Simple things like pressing the hips to the heels in bhaktasana.  Last week I made an adjustment to a student's thigh, rotating it down...which for me was a HUGE step.

I have been spending a lot of time studying anatomy.  And, I have been working with my teacher to understand what is happening in each pose anatomically and in depth anatomically.  So, the more I learn about anatomy and the way the muscles are supposed to engage, the planes of movement to make each pose the most efficient, the movement of the joints...the more comfortable I am making adjustments and touching my students.  I have a better understanding of what is happening in their bodies and how to adjust to accommodate all of their quirkiness.  Cause we are not all built the same.  

As a student do you like adjustments in your yoga classes?  Are you comfortable making adjustments on your students?  Do you have any advice for me?

(image credit: andrea wilde via flickr)

I have done two private sessions with my preggers cousin.

She called me a few weeks ago and asked me about yoga.  She said from all the research she had been doing, that yoga was often cited as making labor easier (for lack of a better word).  After the birth of her first child, she really wanted to be prepared for the second.

We have settled on a twice a week schedule.  Plus, I have left all my props at her house.  That way she can practice a little here and there when she has time.  And, I don't have to haul all of that stuff around with me.

Our sessions are right around an hour.  

One of the first things we discovered was that my brand new huggermugger mat is super slippery.  So, I use that one and she uses my beloved Jade mat.  Cushion and non slip.  Perfect.  (For the record, my very first yoga mat was a huggermugger mat and once i got it broke in it was perfectly sticky.  i've had the mat for 10 years and i still use it, mostly when i travel because it is light and easy to carry around.)

There are many positives in this yoga exchange.  First, I get to practice private sessions and making adjustments and planning classes for one person.  Second, as per our agreement, I get to practice teaching pre natal yoga with someone who will be very open and honest with me.  That feels horrible on my belly, that is hard to do, etc.  So, this is a great learning opportunity for me and with her permission I would like to turn our sessions into a series for this blog.

As she is new to yoga, our first two sessions were on the how tos of yoga.  Like the breath.  And, because she wants to see how yoga effects her birth experience, hopefully making it better, I place a lot of emphasis on the breath.  We did a lot of pranayama and I will increase that with the practice.  We've been doing a very basic pranayama, just finding a deep even breath.  And, because I know her, I know that she has a tendency to hold her breath, especially while exercising.  So, we have something to work on.

I introduced her to the basic standing poses:  warrior I, warrior II, triangle, extended side angle, wide legged forward bend.  And to some balancing poses:  warrior III, half moon, and tree.  We also experimented with downward dog.

We did some basic cat and cow and some simple cat/cow/bhaktasana flows.

For savasana I propped her up in a yummy supta badha konasana with an eye bag and everything.  I loved watching her rest there with her hands on her belly.  She said the baby girl was really kicking there!

She told me that yoga is not at all what she expected and she likes it way more than she thought she would.