I was taking an online yoga class today. We were kneeling in vajrasana (thunderbolt pose) with our hands on our laps, and the teacher instructed me to turn my palms up near my hips and straighten my arms.
What the what? Impossible. When my hands are resting in my lap near my hips, my elbows are bent to nearly 90 degrees. I looked at her closely: indeed, her arms were straight and her shoulders were still more or less in place.
To straighten my arms, I had two options: tuck my shoulders uncomfortably and inappropriately up by my ears, or place my hands on the floor.
This is one of those cases where it’s easy to tell it’s not a matter of flexibility, practice, or experience. My legs are big. My arms are long. No matter how much I practice, I will not be taking that position in the way she was demonstrating it.
This is important to remember: your body type affects your yoga practice. Not for better or worse. But it will make a difference in your movements and your poses.
All body types can participate in yoga, but we can’t all do the poses in the same way.
The length of your arms and legs, the girth of your waist and thighs and rib cage (or breasts), and even the particular structure of your pelvis and shoulders will affect how you experience a pose. You can lose the weight, but you can’t redesign your hips.
And it’s okay, because the pose is not the answer, anyway. Even if my proportions prevent me from doing a certain pose a certain way, I can continue to work on it and improve in the way my body will allow. Maybe I’ll discover it really was just a matter of strength and flexibility. Or maybe I’ll say, “Yep, arm’s too long, this is as far as I’m going.” Win-win, really.
It’s natural for a teacher to teach from the perspective of her own body. It’s the only one we have any experience living in. We remember that every body is different, but we can only feel what we feel and sometimes that comes out of our mouths, even though we make an effort not to let it.
It comes down to doing what we should be doing anyway: listening to our bodies, going as far as they allow, and enjoying the journey. Maybe that will lead to a pose as pictured on the cover of a magazine. Maybe it won’t. But you’re on the mat, and that’s what matters.