How to Advance Your Asana Practice - Pose Repetition vs Targeted Mobility

As yoga practitioners, there is SO much information out there -- much of it conflicting -- about how to advance in our asana practices. More specifically, I want to address the debate between devotees of traditional systems like Ashtanga and those coming from the mobility and biomechanics world.

I've done teacher trainings in both and spent time immersed in both worlds. Although in the US I think there is less polarization and many teachers have come to integrate techniques from many disciplines, I've noticed that in Spain the divide (and sometimes even animosity) between camps is quite glaring.

I’m going to share a broad overview according to my understanding of the issue here, and I’d love to hear more from other movers and yogis.

THE ASHTANGA APPROACH

Ashtanga and other similar systems teach us to practice the same poses over and over again, learning and refining them over time. With patience and discipline, according to this perspective, we will eventually master even the poses that once seem so illusive. Certainly this way of thinking and practicing has been effective for many, many people. Beginners can espouse that postures that were completely unattainable when they were first introduced to yoga can become doable or even easy after a period of devoted practice. There are also plenty of highly skilled and advanced yogis who have followed the Ashtanga system and have successfully trained their bodies to perform astonishing poses and transitions. See Kino MacGregor, Laruga Glaser, Mark Robberds... Also, this way of thinking is backed by thousands of years of tradition, so there's that.

Through this work we advance the poses by working on them as a whole, as integrated shapes. In each pose, the individual actions, contractions, stretches, sensations all work together symbiotically to create the magic that is the fully expressed pose. I know I, like most other yogis, have experienced something in act of practicing these poses, of creating these shapes, that is indescribable, something that happens on an energetic level. The sensation is ineffable; it's simultaneously frustrating and beautiful that it is so difficult to explain.

My first yoga teacher and mentor, Denise Bonnaig, is not an Ashtanga teacher, but her power vinyasa method pulls from this approach. One of her many inspirational quotes is: “I am constantly doing that which I cannot do, so that I may learn how to do it.”

However, from a more negative perspective, some would call this methodology antiquated, dogmatic, and potentially injurious. Guru culture has proven to be dangerous in the modern yoga landscape; top-down power structures and rigid rules inevitably cause harm on many levels. When we try to force our bodies into shapes over and over again, often with the outside force of an instructor's assist, compensations and injuries occur. How many chaturangas or vinyasas have you done completely mindlessly? I know I’ve done quite a few… Repetitive strain injuries are real.

We overwork certain structures, underwork others, and end up in acute or chronic pain and frustrated. Then the advice we receive is to "learn from the injury," rest a bit, and then return to practicing in the same way. Here the emphasis is on discipline and trusting the wisdom of the system, rather than on cultivating an inner listening.

THE MODERN MOBILITY APPROACH

On the other side, more modern approaches that espouse targeted mobility work would advise us to work on individual components of a yoga posture before trying to put all the parts together and create the shape. Schools like FRC have brought CARS, RAILS, PAILS into the yoga lexicon. Eldoa has contributed ideas around myo-fascial stretching and joint mobility. Many others teachers pull from the dance world, the strength-training world, Body-Mind Centering, Feldenkrais, etc etc etc.

From these systems, we learn to create awareness and activations within smaller movements or areas of the body. We build strength and create mobility in more isolated and targeted ways. We learn to identify our body's capabilities and limitations not on a general scale (i.e. I can't do wheel pose) but in a more conscientious way that (i.e. my shoulder flexion is currently too limited to get into wheel pose). We work specifically, and yes, sometimes more tediously, on subtle actions. However, when we put all those actions together, getting into the full yoga pose often becomes easier and happens in a more balanced way.

There is valid criticism to this approach as well. This work can feel very mental, lacking the energetic and spiritual components which make the asana practice something more than just a type of exercise. We are losing tradition and the bridge to the other limbs of yoga. The other argument, which to me is more valid, is the issue of cultural appropriation. We (the western world of modern postural yoga) have appropriated an ancient science with religious and cultural ties, changed the elements that we don't like, and arrogantly create our own "improved" systems built upon the work of a culture that isn't ours. This is a topic for another post, but it bears mentioning here.

THE MIDDLE PATH

We live in the age of instagram yoga, where we want clear right and wrongs. "Do this, not that" posts which simplify poses and cues into good or bad. But there is so much nuance, and in the same way I don't believe asanas should be taught in absolutes, on the question of repetitive asana versus targeted mobility work I also believe the middle path is the wisest one. When I first discovered biomechanics and FRC and mobility training, it threw me into an existential crisis about my teaching philosophy. It’s tempting to throw everything old out the window when we learn new information that goes against what we previously believed to be right, but perhaps we can integrate rather than jump between extremes.

The approaches of both sides clearly have value, and I believe there is a respectful way to learn from and adapt yogic traditions to our growing understanding of human biomechanics. "Practice and all is coming," is a beautiful concept, but perhaps we can add some flexibility and critical thinking and compromise on "Practice intelligently and all is coming."

Yours in exploration and reflection,

Grace

These reflections are a labor of love and an expression of my life's study and work. I would love to hear if they resonate with you; I want this to be a conversation. Please also feel free to share with anyone else with a curiosity for movement and spirituality.