Yoga posture workshops: Helpful or harmful?
If you have attended classes at a yoga studio in the last 20 years the chances are pretty good that you've seen posture workshops offered. Titles like "Highway to Handstand", "Advanced Arm Balances" and "Backbends for beginners" advertise that in just 90 mins you'll learn how to do something new. And perhaps you thought "hmmm that might be cool, I'd like to learn something new" and so you sign up.
Maybe you did learn something new, advanced your asana practice or made some personal connections. Perhaps you had a breakthrough, a deeper understanding of how to move your body. You found the workshop helpful because there was a cue that the teacher gave you that clicked and now you return to that for the posture as well as other movements. Maybe you felt the joy of reaching a goal you had been working on. Heck yes!
Truthfully, I have never felt aligned with these offerings. It felt weird AF that the clinics / workshops / events were based around the more acrobatic postures. Asanas that feel more like gymnastics. Are these postures being offered because they are "harder?" But harder for who? Why are some poses put on a pedestal as "better?" I'm not seeing a "Shortcut to Savasana" or "Longshot to Lizard” workshop. What about "Ta-Da, it's Triangle?" (are you giggling, because I am) But really, have you ever seen a workshop, a full 90 mins devoted to lizard or triangle? Nope? Welllll neither have I. But I've seen a whole lotta workshops about handstands, arm balances and other postures that one must be able-bodied to do. The postures that are labeled “advanced” are what teachers and studios focus on for workshop.
I think these pose-focused workshops popped up in the 00's and 10's when yoga capitalism was at its height (maybe it's still at the height?). The teachers are nearly always young, attractive white women.
The message is clear: if you do this "advanced" posture then you are "good at yoga" and if you're good at yoga then you're a good human. Let me break that proposed equation down into more simple terms: advanced asana = better human.
But that's just not true...plenty of jerks can touch their toes (I literally say these words in my yoga classes) and some fantastic humans might never be able to do crow poses. The posture doesn't dictate your worth. So to focus on only one acrobatic posture feels like we're missing a wholllleeee lot of yoga.
Listen, I love working towards a goal. I've run 2 marathons, 9 half marathons, played college lacrosse and I'm working on being a business owner and a writer. I love having a far out goal and then working towards it over time. But damn, if that doesn't cut off some of the joy of exploration. And for me, sometimes Savasana is the hardest posture because just laying my ass down is tough (reallllll tough)
Let's say you spend $40 on the "Highway to Handstand" workshop and you get hurt halfway through. So you try to power on only to feel awful the next day. Or you're not up for the class that morning because you just got your period or were up late with a sick kiddo? Then what? The actual practice of yoga, the non-attachment (aparigraha) is to not go to the workshop. The practice of yoga is far more than the posture, it's the yamas and niyamas of living life off the mat.
Find a posture that nourishes you, not one that is going to get the most likes on social media. Nailing the arm balance or hitting the handstand doesn't make you a good person. And going to a workshop to learn acrobatics isn't the point of yoga. A consistent, mindful practice exploring a range of postures, without a hierarchy, that's what I'm about.
So I'd love to hear from you: do you attend posture workshops? If you're a teacher, is this something you offer to students? What has your experience been and would you attend (or offer) this again?