Stop Forcing the Pose: The Power of Functional Yoga
You might have seen the term functional yoga and thought ‘Oh here we go some other random style or blend of yoga that nobody knows about!’
Or maybe something about the term ‘functional yoga’ interests you and sparks your curiousity! 🤔
Yes, the term Functional yoga is being thrown about a bit more lately and I think for good reason. Functional Yoga approaches yoga with real humans and real life at it’s centre, it meets you where you are at and asks you gently to stop forcing the pose, shape, breath or experience.
This is why a functional approach to yoga can feel so much more effective, beneficial and empowering for you and your unique needs.
But did you know that Functional yoga is not actually new?
Historically, Yoga asana (poses/postures) were always just one part of a complete yoga practice and the purpose of a yoga practice was never meant to be about aesthetics!
Asana has always been a part of yoga, however just one part of the practice and it had a functional purpose, beyond the physical and aesthetic. Asana were there to support the body on a physical level, regulate energy, improve our focus and vitality, and prepare the body and mind for meditation and cultivating inner awareness. In yoga philosophy, this deeper purpose or function of asana is connected to citta vritti nirodha, or quietening the fluctuations of the mind. The poses always have served purpose beyond how they looked, they are a tool to help us live off the mat with greater ease, presence and connection. The goal was never the shape itself.
Somewhere in the 20th century yoga was adopted by western cultures and we began to see a blending of physical/gymnastics/ fitness with yoga, resulting in alignment focused, aesthetic styles of practice which is when yoga boomed across the globe 🌎
I’m grateful for the evolution of the practice every day, and grateful that yoga has been shared with the world.
Yet, along the way the goal became the ‘correct performance’ of the asana and we got a little lost in yoga looking pretty!
As a lifetime yogini who practiced at home, I didn’t know that yoga studios were a thing until my late teens and early 20’s, it was about this time yoga became a bit confusing for me. In my personal practice, something always felt a bit off when it came to forcing my body into aesthetic shapes instructed with a bunch of alignment ‘rules’. Yoga teachers would physically adjust my body into positions that that caused pain or resulted in injury or provide verbal cues to place my body in positions it just did not want to go and would point out that I was not it the correct ‘alignment’ which made me feel deflated.
It always left me wondering…How could a practice where Ahimsa (do no harm or non violence) as a guiding principle that’s central to its philosophy, allow so many people to get physically hurt and sometimes experience emotional harm? What was the point of this? How on earth is this approach supportive of our unique human experience?
In fact, this aspect of yoga is one of the key reasons that I hesitated to undertake teacher training for many years, and after my first teacher training I wondered if I was a terrible teacher because I couldn’t bring myself to ‘correct’ a pose without having a good reason. And granted there are good reasons to provide additional guidance, functional reasons…
But for the life of me I still can not find a reasonable explanation for the benefit to instructing yoga students to ensure their knees do not go over their toes!
Knees are designed to bend and travel forward, I mean how do we squat down to pick something of the floor or climb stairs…your knees will track over your toes and in fact preventing this can be problematic for your hips and back!
When I began to study with my yoga teacher Jo Phee, a yin yoga teacher with a wealth of knowledge on the functional approach; and then undertook further studies in functional anatomy and yoga therapy I started to feel a sense of relief. Teaching from a functional approach felt natural for me.
Functional Yoga allows for nuance, it allows for uniqueness and it fully embraces yoga philosophy especially the principle of Ahimsa!
The functional approach allows you to stop forcing the body into a shape and instead adapt the pose for you and your unique anatomy and emotional needs.
It supports you to explore sensation, how the shape feels and let go of chasing how it your yoga looks.
My yoga teachers, yoga teacher (it’s a thing!) Paul Grilley is a pioneer of the functional approach in a more modern day yoga sense, he explains it kinda like this: It is your bones that determine your ultimate limit to your range of motion, the shape, length, orientation, size of your bones are entirely unique to you. No two people have the exact same skeletal variation and these differences impact how your body moves and feels in different shapes…so what’s easy for one skeleton can be difficult or even impossible for another.
This approach is exactly how all classes at Glimmer Yoga are curated, but wjhat does this actually look like:
Options and variations - approaching practice with a sense of curiosity and freedom to explore your options.
Education and explanations - supporting you to build your own knowledge base and understanding so you can practice anywhere at anytime confidently.
Guidance and support - not distinct instruction.
Permission to adjust, rest, go a little rogue, play and honour your unique body - meeting yourself where you are at.
Inclusion - every (unique) body is welcome here, we respect your individuality.
Transparency - yoga has always carried an element of evolution and change, you are always welcome to provide feedback, make suggestions, ask questions and share your experiences at Glimmer Yoga. And we will always aim to share education as science evolves (or as I like to sya, science catches up!).
At Glimmer yoga a functional approach is woven into to every class, workshop and yoga therapy session. It’s not sexy or instagramable, it’s not designed to make you ‘good at yoga’ in fact here, there is no such thing - it is real, it does support you to have your own experience and it could be exactly what your body and mind need.
Come try a functional flow, myoyin, myoyin yang, yin and yoga nidra or beginner class at Glimmer Yoga.
Join us in the month of May and you can access some fabulously good opening offers with memberships and passes starting form $11 per class.
If you have specific health concerns or are seeking a more personalised approach, Yoga Therapy appointments are available in our Glimmer Yoga space, Bunbury WA or online.
Kerry x.
