How to Make Yin Yoga Accessible

How to Make Yin Yoga Accessible
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Audio Only – All Participants: [00:00:00] Welcome to a Y Yoga podcast. Is Yen Yoga accessible? Well, you know, the way that it’s often taught, the answer might be no. , As teachers, we’re not really leveling up, not stepping up to the challenge of making this practice accessible. So today what we’re gonna talk about in this episode is how are some of the ways that we can make Yin Yoga more accessible to a wide range of students?

Stay tuned for that.

Welcome to a Yinny Yoga podcast. I’m your host, Nick Denu, certified yoga therapist, mentor of yoga teachers, yinny yoga teacher trainer, and total yin yoga geek. If you have a crush on yin yoga and are ready to [00:01:00] dive deep, then you’re in the right place. Here, myself and my guests will discuss all things in yoga, including anatomy, philosophy, traditional Chinese medicine, meditation, Taoism, teaching tips, and so much more.

You can expect these conversations to be long format, informal, lo-fi, and delightfully imperfect. So whether you are a yoga teacher or a yin yoga student, I welcome you to the inside.

Audio Only – All Participants: Welcome to a Yin Yoga podcast. If you are new around these parts, welcome. If you are a return listener, welcome back friends. So today we’re gonna talk about something very near and dear to my heart, which is, how in the world do we make, well all yoga, but we’re gonna [00:02:00] talk about it from a yin perspective, more accessible.

If you’re a teacher and you have ever been in your room and something’s come up and we’ve all been there where your student is like, I can’t do this because of. Who knows what it is. Injuries, body proportions, bone structure, we don’t know. And you’ve gone, oh shit, I have no idea what to do with this. Then this episode is definitely for you.

I wanted to mention, I say it every episode, but dear teacher, if you’ve been listening to these episodes. For quite a while and you found them helpful and you at some point wanna study with me, make sure you were on the wait list.

If you’re not on the wait list, you’re missing out on sequences, music, poetry, , practice videos. You’ll also get these podcasts emailed to you. You’ll get all of that before the wait list even opens. And then when the wait list opens, you get first crack, you get first chance to register. I don’t even [00:03:00] put it public.

You get a secret link to sign up first and you get access to the first five discount code first five students. At the time of this recording, I’m still doing the first five people to sign up. Get a discount code. So all of that is only available in the wait list. So I cannot tell you how many times someone reaches out to me in the comment somewhere in a DM and asks me questions about it.

And they’re not on the wait list. So get on the wait list, even if it’s not for the next round, just get on there. ’cause you’re gonna get all this good stuff in between. So that’s your reminder. The other thing to remind you about dear teachers. Is that, , although I do have the soul of a mermaid, I also have the mouth of a sailor.

And so if you, have little ones around, take a moment to grab some headphones now. Okay. I wanna share a podcast review. This is by Jane m. And some of these [00:04:00] y’all, sorry I’m getting to them a little late, but, uh, apple doesn’t show all the reviews from all the countries around the world in one place, you actually have to go click through every country to see them all.

So silly. Apple, what are you thinking? Anyways, , this is from Jane MA , the yin answer to my punk rock heart. This podcast has helped me understand yin on a much deeper level. I recently got a 20 hour yin certification, but it only left me with more, questions and even more unprepared to teach.

This podcast has left me with such a more rounded understanding of yin, and I’m taking what I’ve learned here and adding it to my home yin practice, and hopefully in a month or two I’ll feel more confident about teaching this style of yoga. Thank you for a yin. Podcast that speaks to my punk rock heart.

Aw, it’s a girl after my own heart. Thank you, Jane. Yeah, it’s not, , not unusual, [00:05:00] for. People to take a shorter training, like a 20 or a 30 or even a 50 sometimes, and then leave feeling like I’m totally unprepared to do this, actually., I often say that like a 20 or 30 hour training kind of gives you just enough that you might be able to sub a yin class.

But if you really want to teach in on a regular basis, you’re gonna wanna do much more in depth training. It’s funny because I always laugh that teachers don’t hesitate to take two or 500 hours in their sort of hor and yasa styles, but in Yin and they want to teach yin, they take 20 or 30 and think that’s enough.

And as Jane so elegantly put, pointed out in her review, , 20 hours often just leaves you with more questions than answers. So I’m super grateful that this podcast has become kind of a supplement. For many of you who’ve taken these shorter trainings, um, ’cause , Jane expressed it, but I hear that a lot actually, that people have learned more from the podcast than they did in their training.

So thank you Jane and [00:06:00] friends, if you’ve been listening for a long time and you have first of all ways to support the show, number one, follow or subscribe. If you haven’t done that in your Apple or your Spotify or wherever, follow or subscribe to the show. Number two, if you’ve already done that, . Then take a moment, to leave me a review on Apple.

You can do five stars, which would be so amazing. And you can also leave a written review on Spotify. You can do five stars, and you can leave me a comment under this episode. If you’re on YouTube, make sure you’ve subscribed to the channel and also leave me a like for this and leave me a comment. Let me know your thoughts after you’ve watched it.

All of these things really help the podcast grow so that the algorithms start to know that, oh, hey, people are paying attention to this podcast. It’s helpful, and then they show it more often. Now, if you’ve only done all of that, there’s two other ways that you could support the show. You could take a screenshot of you li in your app of you listening to this [00:07:00] and share it in your Instagram stories and tag me at Nu Yoga or yin at Yin Yoga podcast.

Or I also, for those of you who want to contribute financially, if you look down in the show notes, there is a link that says, support my work. And that just goes right to PayPal. So if you wanna buy me a coffee or a tea or a lunch or whatever,, you can do that as well. So thank you for those of you that have been coming back week to week.

If you haven’t done some of these, those are some ways that you can help to support the show. And for those of you that are brand new, welcome. All right.

Let’s get into it, shall we? I

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Audio Only – All Participants: do have some notes as always. Some of you that are regulars know I have a d, d, and , if I don’t have some notes to keep me on track, I get on tangents and I forget to circle back. So notes to keep me on track. So if you’re watching this on YouTube, you may see my, . Eyes moving around a bit because I’m looking at my notes, trying to make sure I get all of the things [00:08:00] covered.

How do we make our yny yoga practice more accessible? Before we talk about the how? I wanna talk about the why, because I’ve seen a couple things pop up recently in a group that, , kind of shocked me a little bit. , So truth bomb to your dear teacher, you may not like to hear this, but actually it’s your job as a teacher to help your students find a version that works for their body.

That’s your job, whether it’s one student or 10 students. Your job is to do your best to find versions of the poses that work for them. There was a comment recently in the group about, you know, somebody trying to accommodate. A student and managing to accommodate them. , But feeling like that student was always doing the same things, the same poses.

So not a lot of variety. We’ll talk about that in a moment. But then said, , I’m not sure how much I should [00:09:00] bother to accommodate for just one student. And I gotta tell you, I kind of gasped a little bit. Your room is made up of just one students. There will be a pose. Every, for everybody that they can’t do.

And so it is your job as a teacher to do your best to learn how to accommodate as many people as possible. And when you can’t accommodate them, then that’s an opportunity for growth, not an opportunity to just shrug and go, well, I mean, it’s just one person. So that came up. And then there was another one that came up with somebody who had, a.

Physical condition, which I won’t mention ’cause I don’t wanna really call out the person who made the comment, who said that they’re, , they’re doing an okay job of accommodating this person, but that they’re worried that the person is,, always getting the same shapes and will get bored.

So, we’ll talk about that in a little bit, i’ve wanted to do this episode for a long [00:10:00] time. But sometimes, things just come to a head, so to speak. So let’s get into it. The first thing I want to talk about, so that’s the why, why should you be trying to teach accessibly?

Um, in my opinion, that’s your job, friends? Yeah. Sorry. I’m gonna hold you to a high standard. As a yoga professional, are you a yoga instructor or are you a yoga teacher? If you’re just an instructor, me, maybe you don’t care. You know, if your students are doing okay in their poses. Maybe, you know, you’re not concerned about making it accessible ’cause you’re just up there to bark out some cues and some commands and go home at the end of the day.

But for those of us that call ourselves teachers, those of us that want to be teachers, we are gonna do our damnedest and learn along the way and treat ourselves with grace and humility. To make these practices as [00:11:00] accessible for as many people as we can. Now, I do wanna just say too, that I realize as I go through this list of tips with you that some of you won’t be able to do all of these things in all of your classes due to the limitations of the space that you teach in, and that’s, there’s not much you can do about that, right?

Unless you own the studio. You can’t necessarily choose how many props are available, if there are walls available, et cetera, et cetera. But I’m gonna go through a bunch of these and do the best that you can, , and learn when you can’t do it, and then, and reach out for help. Okay? So that, I wanna mention that first of all, the question of why should we care?

Well, I’m hoping you got into yoga to help people.

Long pause, so that will sink in. My hope is you’re teaching yoga because you wanna help people. If not, you might wanna find a more lucrative [00:12:00] career. Alright. Um, so the first thing I wanna say about the how, let’s talk about functional yoga. When we look at yoga from a functional perspective, meaning. You know why you’re doing the pose and what its intention is, then it makes it so much easier to find alternative versions of shapes for a wide range of students.

So what I mean by this is if you just throw yin poses in a sequence, ’cause you like them because you need to do a class, but you don’t actually know the point of that pose, that’s problematic. Functional yoga. Means that you’re aware of what Paul calls the target area. I call the intended area. So I’m putting this pose in here because I wanna access their hip butt it ben zone, or I’m putting this pose in here because I want them to feel this in their hamstrings.

I’m putting this pose in here for [00:13:00] their quads. You get the idea when you know that, when you know why you’ve put the pose in the sequence. Then if somebody can’t do that version. Then you should have, if you’ve had a good training, a bunch of other poses in your little toolkit that you could pull out instead.

Right. . I am gonna talk about props and how to offer different versions with props. But also just know that sometimes no matter how much you prop somebody, that particular shape just isn’t for them. If you know the function of the shape, then you can give them a different shape that’s gonna access the same area.

So if you are not teaching from a functional perspective, then check over your yin training notes and see what, the points of the poses were. And if that wasn’t in your yin training, if you didn’t learn a functional approach, , as you went through your yin training, then I would say you might wanna look into doing a second yin training.

Because this [00:14:00] is very important, right? So when I say, okay, I’m gonna do this pose for their hamstrings. If somebody’s not feeling it in their hamstrings or they can’t do a particular pose because of an injury or a physical limitation or something, then there’s a couple of options. I can a, give them some props and often that will work and it’ll be enough, but sometimes it’s not.

And then in that case, I can give them a different shape. It’s gonna address the same area of the body so that we’re not attached to which particular pose we’re doing or which particular shape, but we’re focusing on what is the intention of this shape in the sequence. So that’s number one. Teach from a functional perspective.

I’ve already mentioned this whole just one person thing that hurt my heart when I read that. .

Let go of this full pose idea, right? Let go of this idea that there’s a right way to do the pose. That there’s a [00:15:00] full pose, that there’s the pose, and then the rest of these are just modifications. Okay? Let’s let go of that idea all together. The full pose is the version of the pose that that person can do for their body today.

There’s no goal pose. There’s no full pose. I’m doing a lot of air quotes for those of you can’t see me. Um, on, on YouTube. I’m air quoting the crap out of this one that is not part of the yin teaching. We do not do air quotes full poses. We don’t do air quotes goal poses because we acknowledge that everybody is different.

Everybody has different bone structure and what might be a. A goalpost for somebody is completely impossible for someone else and vice versa. And that what might be a full pose for one person is very different than a full pose in another body. So first of all, let go of this idea of the goalpost and the full pose, and instead wrap your head around the fact that all versions are welcome.

All versions [00:16:00] are welcome. Next tip. Can we talk about props? Now, I realize that some of you may teach places where there aren’t a lot of props, and you’re gonna have to get extra creative, um, in order to accommodate people. Sometimes I recommend to teachers that if you drive to your class and you can invest in some props, you can fill your trunk of your car with some extra props and bring those in for classes.

So I know, for example, I’ve, I have a lot of people that I train that work at Hot Studios. If they don’t have things like blankets and bolsters, now I know that’s a big investment for you to be investing in a trunk full of bolsters., But maybe you could do blankets or towels. I mean, all hot studios have towels, so you might have to get more creative to use props if you don’t have a lot of props available.

Do your best and, you know, try to talk the owner into buying. More prompts there are, I know because I have them. There are places that [00:17:00] sell Wipeable, vinyl Bolsters. The one in Canada, and I think they shipped to the States as well, is called, , love My Mat. I believe I will put a link in the episode notes to them, but I bought a bunch of Wipeable bolsters, so they’re just a soft vinyl and you can just spray it and wipe it down.

So those are fantastic for heated spaces. I didn’t wanna be stripping down all the blankets and stripping down all the bolster covers to put them in the washing machine.

So I got those wipeable vinyl ones so that we can just wipe ’em down after class and then they’re clean for the next person. So those are available again. I’ll put a link to love my Matt. . To the Wipeable, vinyl bolsters, . I think they also shipped to the states for sure in Canada.

If those of you are in Europe, I’m sorry, I have no idea. It’s too far for me to have resources on that. But even if you know someone who’s crafty and can sew, that could work too. So those might be an option if your studio has the funds to [00:18:00] invest. But it’s a heated studio, so they don’t wanna get bolsters because hot, sweaty bodies laying on fabric, not so great.

Just know there is an option. So if you had blocks and a strap and a wipeable bolster and a towel, you’re set. For those of you who do have props, , don’t ever let your students or you forget how, what a blessing that is to have all these props. Let’s also talk about the stigma around props. So props aren’t just for people who can’t do the full pose.

I’m doing air quotes again. Props aren’t just for people who need to modify and props are not turning a yin practice into a restorative practice. I did a whole episode on that. Yin versus restorative. I also did another episode with my friend Addie d Hilter on props. And if you’re ever looking for the episodes that I mention, inside of your show notes, there’s a link that says, see all episodes at a glance.

And [00:19:00] that’s like an ongoing chronological list of all of the episodes I’ve done. So you can always just go in there and find them and it, the link takes you right to my website where there’s a YouTube video and a Spotify player you can watch and listen right from there. , If you’re still in the camp of, you’re like, I think props are for restorative yoga, or, I think props are only for people who air quotes need them or can’t do the full pose.

No, props are not just for people who can’t do a pose, sometimes props. Actually make the pose a better version of the pose. So for example, laying on my back with one leg straight, hugging one knee into my chest with some support under my pelvis. This is known as sometimes called lazy dragon. I call it baby dragon.

So this is a good alternative for people who cannot kneel and do dragon, flip them on their back, give them a little bolster or folded blanket under their butt. Or make [00:20:00] a little bench of your yoga blocks, get them to hug one knee into their chest and extend their other leg out straight. And guess what?

You got an upside down dragon or a baby dragon. Now in Baby Dragon, I’ll often say to my students, , you could hug your knee in with your hands on top of your knee or behind your knee. You could also grab a strap on top of your knee or behind your knee. And I will always say, because people are so reluctant and probably because it’s our fault, their teachers, ’cause we keep teaching them that props are for people who can’t do the full pose.

For people who need modifications, air quote, air quotes, air quotes. , No wonder they think this. And , I will say to my students, I use a strap in this pose even though I can comfortably reach my knee because it allows my elbows to rest on the floor, which means my neck and shoulders and upper back get to relax in a deeper way.

You could try it and see if that’s true for you as well. See how I just normalized using a prop? I didn’t say, for those of you [00:21:00] who can’t reach your knee, grab a prop. If you can’t grab your leg, grab a strap. Right? I invited everybody to explore using a strap and to see is it a better fit for their body or not.

We don’t know. This is called invitational language, right? You’re giving people lots of options and then you’re giving them the agency to choose the version that feels the best for them. So we have to let go of the idea that props are just for people who can’t do the air quotes full pose, or for people who need a air quotes modification.

In fact, a lot of the poses I do in my in classes, you can’t even do without props. Nobody can period, full stop. So let’s take the stigma out of props. Props are our friends. Props not only help make. Our yin classes accessible. They help make our yin classes deeper and they help make our yin classes more fun ’cause there’s more variety.

So props could be, , bolsters [00:22:00] bricks, straps, blankets, et cetera. But don’t forget, dear friends that we also have walls that can be a prop. That’s right. So story time, a few years ago in the before, times before the big bad COVID, I. I was teaching at a studio and there was one woman that used to come and she had like a chronic pulmonary condition.

So she had a constant cough where she was coughing stuff up, but she wasn’t sick, meaning she wasn’t sick in a contagious way. This was a lung condition she had. And so she would come to my yin class and then she would cough and cough and cough, and this is before COVID. I can’t even imagine the dirty looks she would’ve gotten during COVID, but she would cough and cough.

Then somebody of course, inevitably in the room would stare DERs at her because they thought she was sick. And you know, I mentioned to her, well, you know, if laying down isn’t so good for you, like we do a lot of laying down in yin, you might wanna try like a haa class or something. And she said, no, she really liked the yin class.

So [00:23:00] I could have just let it go and been like, well, whatever. I mean, I tried to give you a different style of yoga. You didn’t want to suffer on your own there, little student. But no, did I do that? No, I did not. Because it is my job as a yoga teacher to try to help as much as I can, as best as I can, and to learn and to be curious, and to do better next time.

So I started looking at her and thinking, how could I give her these poses, but in a way where she didn’t have to lay down? And obviously we can’t do standing ’cause it’s a yin practice. So what I did was I turned the wall into her floor. So anything we were doing laying against the floor, I gave her a version using the wall as the floor so that she was upright for 99% of the poses including her final stillness practice.

So I ended up creating a whole sequence for her where she [00:24:00] could lean against the wall or use the wall as a prop so that she didn’t have to lay down and then start coughing and then have people giving her dirty looks. And now she feels bad and they think she’s inconsiderate and I’m uncomfortable ’cause everyone’s uncomfortable in the room.

I just took that a whole problem out of there by giving her a wall instead of the floor. And then this student started going to, , I recommended actually that she check out classes at the local yoga therapy college, which is where I took my yoga therapy training. I said, you’re probably gonna find a bunch more different classes there that you can do, um, and they’ll be really good at helping you modify for your lung condition, you know, for this pulmonary condition.

Uh, she started going there and I ran into her on the street. I mean, she still came to my class every week as well. Uh, but she started going there in addition. And I ran, ran into her on the street and she thanked me and she said, I went to that yoga therapy school and I got out my bolster and I started doing all my poses against the wall.

And the [00:25:00] teacher remarked on what a creative practice I had about using the wall. And she said, and I told her, well, that’s what Nick taught me to do. So. Dear teacher, the moral of this story is I could have left her floundering because I felt uncomfortable about what to do about this. But instead, I got curious.

I looked at this like a challenge, like a puzzle. A puzzle to be solved. The puzzle of the yogi who cannot lie down in yin. How could we solve this puzzle? And because I stayed calm and I was open and curious about it. I was able to figure something else out. So please do not forget. Props are great and a wall is a fantastic prop.

That brings me to the next one, and so are chairs. Now I realize we don’t all have chairs, but if you have chairs in your studio, there’s a whole [00:26:00] bunch of versions of these poses that can be done on chairs. Again, this could probably be a whole training on its own. , And I don’t have a chair training, so I can’t offer that to you.

But you may wanna check out something like, the accessible yoga organization, they have a ton of stuff on how to use chairs, right? So can we normalize using walls and chairs as well? So if you’re looking for some more accessible training, check out Accessible Yoga. I don’t know if it’s dot com or.org.

I’ll put a link in the show notes. They have great courses as well, and they’re not yin specific, but so much of whatever they teach you is gonna of course go over into yin. So don’t forget that a wall and a chair is also a great yoga prop. Here’s the other one. This one is really important. Teach the most accessible version first.

Most of us were taught do this pose, and if [00:27:00] you can’t do it, grab a block, try this, and if you can’t do this, grab a strap. I’m suggesting you reverse that and you start with teaching the most accessible version, and then you add on from there if needed by looking at your students. There’s no one in the room capable of doing what you’ve learned as the air quotes.

Again, full pose. Then you don’t need to show it ’cause it’s not relevant. So instead of here’s the sparkly showboat version of the pose that only people that are on the cover of Yoga Journal can do. Oh, but if you can’t do that, oh, grab a block or a strap, reverse that. Start with the simplest version and then add on from there.

So. That is a great way to make yourselves more accessible as a teacher. Everybody starts with a simple version. If this isn’t working for you, if you don’t feel this, add this. If it’s still not [00:28:00] working for you, add this and then pause and actually look at your room. Does anybody need the full pose? Nine times outta 10?

The air quotes full pose. Nine times outta 10, they don’t. So that’s another way to make your classes more accessible. The one person who you know, had made the just one person comment. I was glad to see that. I wasn’t the only one in the comments that said, Hey, what if you actually taught the class just for that person in mind and what they could do, and everyone else got to do that too.

What if we shifted from, well, here’s the strong version of the practice and now I need to modify for people to, here’s a very. Attainable version of this practice, a very accessible version. And then if people need more, this is how you could do more. This is really interesting when you start looking at your classes this way.

And again, if you don’t have training that actually taught you a wide range of these poses and how to make them more [00:29:00] accessible and different versions and different variations and ways to use props, then you might wanna invest in some more training. Whether it’s studying with a yin teacher who does do a bunch of accessible and prop versions of things.

Things, or whether it’s through accessible yoga or something like that. Okay, so this is something that you know is room for continued study. Okay, so teach the most accessible version First, watch your language. Notice if you’re saying, if you can’t do this, blah, blah, blah, if you can’t do this mm-hmm.

That’s not great language., Or this is a modification. So how I would swap that out is if this version isn’t working for you, you could try. You see the difference between if you can’t do this, which now makes them feel like there’s something wrong with them, if this [00:30:00] version isn’t working for you, you could try this, this, or this.

Right? I’m just giving them the buffet of options or instead of modification, I like to use the word variation. This isn’t a modification from the air quotes, full pose. This is a variation that many people with different skeletal structures and injuries and issues and body proportions in life may do that.

There might be 10 to 20 versions of these poses in your class, and that’s okay. In fact, I love that. I love looking out at a room and seeing that everyone’s doing something slightly different. Okay, so now we’ve talked a lot about, , props. And the last one I wanna say that’s really simple, that I, , that people often don’t know when they’re not used to teaching with props.

Anytime your student’s body part can’t reach the floor, bring the floor up to them, blocks, blankets, bolsters. [00:31:00] So if their knee can’t reach the floor, put something under it. If their back can’t reach the floor, like in saddle or something, put something under it. Anytime that they cannot reach the floor with their body part, put something under to bring the floor up to them anytime.

They can’t reach their foot or hand or leg or whatever it is that you’re trying to get them to reach for, extend their reach with a strap. Those two simple swaps, ring the floor up to them and extend their reach. Might give you a whole boatload of things to play with. So that’s kind of the last thing I wanna say on how can we do propping?

Here’s the thing. Sometimes no matter how much you prop something that poses just not gonna be a good fit for that person, even if you have a bunch of prop tricks in your back pocket. When you know how to teach functionally, meaning you know that the point of this pose [00:32:00] is to get a quad stretch, for example, let’s just use saddle as an example.

Somebody requested a whole saddle episode and I thought, oh yes, we’re gonna do that. So that will be coming shortly soon. Hopefully this season, if not early next season, we’re gonna do a whole saddle breakdown because that pose is a bloody nightmare to teach. So let’s just say saddle pose and you’ve tried all the things.

You’ve tried blankets and bolsters and blocks and blah, blah, blah, all the things, and the person just cannot do saddle because their knees are not capable of it. Well, if you know that the point of your saddle pose. Was to stretch their quad, if that was the reason you put it in the sequence, was their quad.

Just give them something else that they can do to stretch their quad. So rather than spend the, you know, 10 minutes of the five minutes you had allotted for saddle to get this person comfortable or these people comfortable, just give everybody plan B. So how I approach saddle is I’ll [00:33:00] show a few versions, but the very beginning, I’ll say.

Some of you will not be able to do saddle based on something going on with your knees or your feet or your ankles, if that’s you. When you see me do these, if it just hurts you to watch me hang tough, I have plan B for you. So those people are gonna stay upright. I’m gonna show some saddle variations. I’m gonna get those that can do saddle into saddle.

Then I’m gonna give them the plan. So sometimes it just makes more sense to address it preemptively that this pose is not very accessible to anyone who’s got foot, ankle, or knee things going on. But don’t worry, I have a plan for you. Just hang tough and I’m gonna show you in a moment. So now you’ve given two different poses that are gonna access the exact same area, but if you don’t know, oh, I’m putting saddle pose in because I want them to open their quad.

Then you can, which is called functional yoga. If you don’t know the function of why you’ve put that pose there, then you will scramble and [00:34:00] be confused when it comes to how do I help someone who can’t do this? So I would, dear teacher, start getting used to every time you write out a lesson plan, putting a little f.dot for function and writing the function of the pose.

And then also put an alternative right beside it so that if these things come up. In class. You get used to thinking of this way. It’s like, ah, right. The point of this pose was this. If they can’t do this, I’ll give them this instead. Okay. So sometimes no matter how many props we do, how many fun prop variations, it just isn’t a good fit for that person’s body due to their bone structure or an injury.

So just give ’em something else to do. That access is the same area.

, The next thing I wanna address is that in, in one of these comments that I saw recently, the teacher was really actually doing a really good job of helping this person who had a specific medical condition and could only do. Or on medical condition, body proportion. [00:35:00] I don’t know how you’d describe it, but, she was doing a really good job actually, of accommodating the student, but she was worried that student was gonna get bored because they couldn’t do all the poses.

Trust me, that student is not bored. That student is so grateful that you have taken the time and been curious and open enough to try to explore and find a practice that works for them. They’re not bored. They know their body can’t do all the things. That’s not what they’re there for. They’re not there for a fancy sequence that’s different each time.

They’re not looking for the sparkly showboat poses. They’re just looking for a simple, functional practice that works for their body, and they know their limitations. They know that they aren’t gonna be able to do things. They’re very used to that. So the fact that you are going out of your way to help them out to find versions that are gonna work for their body, they’re just gonna be grateful to show up and practice in community and a way that works for their body.

So please let this boredom idea go. If somebody’s [00:36:00] got physical limitations, they’re not bored, they’re grateful. , So that I wanted to mention, . The last couple of things, that I wanna reemphasize, I’ve said it already, is that if you can be curious, so if you can, as a teacher, try not to get worked up.

When you don’t know an answer, try to look at this as a puzzle, huh? Okay, that’s not working for you. Tell me what you’re feeling. Can you describe it? You may not find a solution right there in that moment, but if the person come, but if you try a few things and then time’s up, well then when the person comes, next time, you may have more ideas, right?

So just be curious , and do your best and try a few things and see what works and communicate with them. How does this feel? What about this? Does this make a difference? How does this feel in your body? Students are often so grateful that you’re trying. It doesn’t need to be perfect. You don’t need to have the perfect answer.

You don’t need to have a brand new pose for them every [00:37:00] week. They just want you. They just are so grateful that you’re trying and that you’re trying to help find a practice that works for their body. So please don’t forget to just pause and be curious. Look at this like a little science experiment. How could you figure this out?

Again, that story I told about the woman who couldn’t lay down. If I had gotten all panicked about it and just wished that she didn’t come back to my class, I would’ve missed out on that huge learning opportunity for me as a teacher to go, oh, of course the wall could be their floor. How simple? But if I’d been all like nervous about it, I wouldn’t have been calm enough to have that come to mind.

When these people come into your class and there’s something coming up and you don’t know how to deal with it, pause. Take a deep breath and be curious. Hmm, what are you experiencing? How could I change this? Could I try this prop? How does that feel now? Hmm. What about this? How does that feel?

And if you don’t get it right away, that’s okay. They’re just gonna be so grateful that you’re trying [00:38:00] to help them. So doesn’t need to be perfect. Just be curious. Just be open and think of it as a collaborative effort with the student. To find out what works for them. How does this feel? How does this feel?

What if you tried this? Is that better? Worse, makes no difference, right? Be curious. The next thing I wanna say is do not be afraid to reach out to a mentor if you don’t have a mentor. Maybe find one, find , a senior teacher in your area who has a lot of experience and teaches in an accessible way, and ask them if they do mentorship.

, I do mentorship, with, , with my teacher trainees that have graduated my program. I also do business mentorship with teachers. So reach out and find a mentor. Somebody that you know, teaches in a really accessible way, or maybe it’s a teacher friend, maybe you’ve got, hopefully you’ve got some yoga teacher friends and you can say, Hey, um, have any of you come up against this?

How do you do this? Now, I will say that sometimes Facebook groups are good for this. Like if you’re [00:39:00] just like. I need a variation of saddle or a replacement for, say, saddle for people who have knee issues that will get posted in Y yoga network. But asking for specific medical advice for a student who has an injury that will not get posted because that’s beyond the scope of a yoga teacher’s practice.

So if you say, for example, my student has herniated disc, blah, blah, blah. What poses can I give them that will not be accepted because that’s. Specific medical advice, but if you’re just like, Hey, I need an alternative to saddle, or I need an alternative to this pose for people who this pose isn’t working for, host it in the group now.

You know, just know you’re gonna have answers from everybody qualified or not experienced in this or not. So you’re gonna have to sift through and try to find an answer that works for you, it’s an option. Better, probably a mentor or a teacher, friend or two. , Might be a better option.

So don’t forget to reach out to a mentor or a teacher [00:40:00] friend, or if you need an alternative pose, maybe in a yin yoga network group, which by the way, I should clarify. ’cause some people think that’s my group. That’s not my group. That group was around long before me. I am one of the admins of the group.

I’d started doing that. I don’t know if it was like maybe just over a year ago. I’m not sure. I started helping out with admitting the group and I’m very active in the group, but it’s not my group. I didn’t create that group just for the record, but it’s a great place to get answers to things and help and ideas.

So, um, again, though, if it’s for specific medical condition, that will not get approved in that group because that’s beyond the scope of a Facebook group and a yoga teacher. To give you me medical advice, either for yourself or for your students, but if it’s just something as simple as. My students can’t do saddle.

What else could I do? Or my student can’t do this pose because of a this. What else could I do? You’re gonna get those, will get approved. And then the final thing that I will [00:41:00] say is, dear yoga teacher, if you’re still struggling, get more training. Get more training. If that means you take another yin training where they really focus heavily on props and variations and accessibility, then get more yin training or again, I mentioned accessible yoga.

That might be a good option because you could take a lot of what they talk about, even though it’s more for half the forms of yoga. But you could take a lot of that and translate it into a yin way, especially their, a lot of their chair stuff. Can be quite good. So if you’re still really struggling with this, , and it’s making, you just wanna quit teaching yoga altogether because you don’t know how to help these people, then get some more training so that you have some tools and skills and confidence, to give people different versions of things using props or just a different pose altogether if no matter what.

That version isn’t just not gonna work for their body. All right. I think that’s enough of that. [00:42:00] I hope that this is helpful. How do we make our yin more accessible? I’m just gonna quickly review everything we’ve gone over. First of all, focus on functional yoga. When you know the point of the pose, it’s easier to give them a different pose that accesses the same area.

Don’t think about the fact that you’re modifying air quotes again for just one person. It is your job as a yoga professional. If you are a yoga teacher, not a yoga instructor, to learn these things to help your students, whether it’s one person or 10, that’s your job. Let go of this full pose or goal pose idea.

All versions are welcome. Props, props, prop. We love props. Don’t forget, props are not just for people who can’t do the air quotes full version. They’re not just a air quotes modification. Sometimes they give you a better version, a deeper version even. So start introducing more and more props if [00:43:00] you have them.

Use as many as you have and then try to convince if you, those of you who work in hot studios, try to convince the owner to buy some wipeable vinyl bolsters. It’ll make everybody happy. . Also, don’t forget that walls and chairs are props. You may not have chairs where you teach. It’s very rare that places do have chairs.

They don’t have to be fancy, like yoga chairs, just any chair will do. But if you don’t have chairs, don’t forget a wall makes an excellent prop. A lot of things that people can’t do seated they could do with their back on the floor using the wall. They could use their the wall to support their back. So walls are great.

Teach the most accessible version first. The most accessible version first, and then add on from there rather than watch your language. If you can’t do this, this is a modification. So rather than starting with the strongest version of the pose, start with the simplest version, the most accessible, and then add on from there.[00:44:00]

And watch your language. Don’t say, if you can’t do this, or this is a modification, you could say something like, here are some versions you could explore. Because we’re all different. So here’s a few versions you could explore, or here’s a variation that might work for some of you. Okay. So remember we can say variation instead of modification.

We can say, here is a buffet of options that will work for different bodies, rather than, if you can’t do this, grab a block. If you can’t do this, grab a strap. Sometimes you just have to give a different pose sometimes, no matter how many props you use and how skillful you are with them. They just can’t do it.

And saddle is a perfect example. So rather than spending 15 minutes trying to get them comfortable in saddle, give them something else that’s also gonna stretch their quad. Because if you’re teaching functionally, you know the point maybe of saddle, it could be something else. You could also be doing saddle for their low back, but you can give them something else to do.

So don’t forget, rather than spend a whole bunch of [00:45:00] time with a gazillion prop options. Just give him something else. , Addie and I talk about that in our props episode, so make sure to check that one out about how long do we give it before we just give somebody something else to do. Um, so give a different pose.

Don’t worry that your student is getting bored. If your student has physical limitations and they know that regardless of why it is, body proportions, medical conditions, injuries, issues, they know they’re limited, it’s fine. They’re gonna be so happy that you’re being curious. They’re gonna be so grateful that you’re trying to give them a practice that works for their body.

It doesn’t need to be perfect, and it doesn’t need to be different each time. They are not bored. They’re grateful that you’re being curious, and that you’re helping them to take care of their body. Don’t forget to bring the floor up with props, so if you can’t reach the floor, grab a bolster, blanket or block.

If you can’t reach your foot or your hand, grab a strap. [00:46:00] Then lastly, reach out the last two, reach out to a mentor or teacher friend, or in, maybe in a yin yoga network group. Although that one, I would say would be my last resort only because you’re gonna get a bunch of answers, which may or may not be qualified.

And, um, also remember any medical conditions will not get posted in that group. So reach out to a, a mentor or a teacher friend and see if they’ve got. Ideas. Also, the accessible yoga community also has a Facebook page. That can be a great place too, to say, Hey, I have a person who can’t do blah, blah, blah.

What ver, what versions do y’all use for that? And then the last thing is get more training. If you’ve done all of these other things and you’re still really struggling, get some more training, study more yin with somebody who does teach in an accessible way. That gives tons of props and variations and different versions for different bodies.

Um, somebody that really teaches [00:47:00] functionally, if you wanna just focus on yin or you could again check out the accessible yoga community. I’ll put a link in the show notes to their website. Um, and you could take a training through them, which again, will all be transferable to yin, but also to your other styles of yoga.

So my friends, I hope that this was helpful for you. Remember, your students don’t expect you to be perfect. They just expect you to be helpful and curious and open. They don’t expect a brand new, shiny, sparkly, showboat practice every time. They’re just grateful to be there in community, practicing in the ways that work best for their body, and that if we can remember, that takes some deep breaths.

We’ll have all kinds of more ideas that come to mind than if we let the. So-called perceived limitation of the student. Trip us up and get us, stressed out. I hope you found this helpful. If you’re watching this on YouTube, let me know in the comments. If you’re on my blog, let me know on the comments if this was helpful.

[00:48:00] Also, uh, a saddle pose apparently is coming up ’cause somebody asked for it. And so if there’s other poses that you want me to troubleshoot, so to speak as much as I can in an audio. Format, which is tricky, but we’ll do what we can. , Please do not hesitate , to reach out in the comments and let me know.

You could also do comments on Spotify or you can just reach out to me on Instagram, at Nick Daniel Yoga or at y Yoga podcast. And until we meet again, bye for now.

For those of you who stick around until the very end, thank you. If you love this podcast, I’d be grateful if you gave it a review. It really helps other yin yoga lovers find it. If you’ve already given a review, would you consider sharing a screenshot in your Instagram stories? And don’t forget to tag me at Nick Danu Yoga or at Y Yoga podcast so I can share the love.

Before I sign off, some [00:49:00] gratitude first for you, the listener, for spending time with me today. Big gratitude and deep reverence for my teacher, Paul Grille. Thank you to Fred Westra for the Hang Drunk Samples. You can hear more of his music by clicking the link in the show notes. A big thank you to my beloved for mixing the intro and outro tracks, and until we meet again.

May you be well, may you be content. May you be at peace. May you be free.