Quit Worrying About Alignment.
For a long time, most styles of postural (or asana) yoga practice have focused heavily on alignment. For example, the obsession with 90 degree angled knee joints in standing poses. The direction of middle fingers and second toes. That's not news.
But what if I told you that there is no such thing as "correct alignment"?
Don't get me wrong--I'm not about completely tossing out the notion of alignment in your practice. There's value in understanding a basic alignment-based framework for your poses.
What I am saying is that there is often WAY too much emphasis on the aesthetics of a pose in comparison to focusing on the actions occurring and how it feels.
We get lost in the lines--the "perfect" hip hinge, knees behind toes, perfectly "open" shoulders, 90 and 45 degrees all over the place. But, in terms of physical safety and sustainability, traditional alignment doesn't work for all bodies. I would even say “a lot” of bodies.
Let me say that again, in bold and all caps: TRADITIONAL ALIGNMENT DOESN'T WORK FOR ALL BODIES.
In fact, depending on your skeleton, traditional alignment can completely JACK YOU UP! Trust me—it’s happened to me, and many others. That 60-90 degree angle at your back foot in Warrior II might wreak havoc on your back knee or hip over time. And the world won’t end if your knees go past your toes in Chair Pose.
So why does any alignment matter, then? And how do you know what works for YOU?
Traditional alignment matters as a general starting point, so we understand the general goals of the posture and what it looks like. It’s also helpful for newer yogis who need to build strength and break unhealthy movement patterns as they begin practicing.
Pretty soon, though, it’s important that you understand the functional movement and biomechanical goals of the posture—what muscles and joints are you trying to strengthen and stress, and why?
The teacher you learn from is super important when it comes to that understanding. Ideally, your teacher will want for you to be empowered in knowing how to make alignment decisions for yourself that might detract from what’s traditional. It’s absolutely what I want for you.
One example from my own practice:
In Warrior II with my right foot forward, my back leg feels the strongest and most grounded (read: supportive) when my back foot is turned out somewhere between 60-90 degrees, which is traditional.
However, with my left foot forward, my back foot prefers a bit more turn out—something like 100-110 degrees, which really goes again traditional alignment, but because my right hip and knee feel strained and less supported otherwise, this is what feels best for me. That’s where I find the active work of the pose.
First off, it’s pretty common that your right limb will need something different than your left. Accommodating that difference is important and it’s not going to imbalance you the way you’ve been taught. Be open to that concept in your active postures as much as in your passive/stretchy ones.
Second, the takeaway here is: the best alignment is the one that helps you achieve the goals of the pose while stressing your muscles and joints in a healthy, sustainable way. It’s not about what the yoga model looks like in the magazine, or Instagram, or what your 70-year-old Ashtanga teacher tells you (sorry, Ashtanga teacher).
The goal of any pose is to find stability in the shape, and create space out of that stability.
Continuing with the Warrior II example, the point of the pose is to strengthen the arms and legs, particularly in external rotation on the legs, to be rooted through your legs and use that action to find more space in your spine as you tone your arm muscles.
So if your feet and knees are “perfectly” aligned, traditionally-speaking, but you’re toppling over or unable to fully ENGAGE and root through both legs and feet into the mat so you can grow tall, then that alignment isn’t for you.
Make sense?
There’s so much more to say on this, like what variations you might explore from the general shape of Warrior II to find what works (this is how you empower yourself). But, this blog is long enough! Another time, or you can start by practicing with me online through my membership courses and livestream classes. I also offer in-person and virtual 1:1 private sessions to really help you figure it out.
To summarize: how grounded and stable you feel in your postures will determine your ability to focus your mind and really FEEL all the engagement cued in the pose.
That action of FEELING is the yoga practice—it’s where self-inquiry begins—and it’s far more important than what your pose looks like on the outside, no matter what your aesthetics-obsessed yoga teacher tells you.
And PS: if you are ever corrected but it doesn’t feel helpful, ask them why after class. If their reasoning is something along the lines of “because it’s traditional” and/or they don’t have a good evidence-based reason for it, move along to another teacher or kindly ignore them next time. The Yoga Police won’t take you away. ;)