The Yin Yoga Way: Function VS Form | Teachers

Why Function Beats Form Every Single Time (And How It Changed My Teaching Forever)

I’ll be honest with you. I used to be one of those teachers who would spend five minutes getting everyone into pigeon pose. You know the type. “Bring your knee to align with this wrist, foot to that wrist, square your hips, look at the top of your mat…” and on and on.

Then I went to a Yin Yoga class recently, and watching another teacher do exactly what I used to do made me cringe. Not because she was a bad teacher (she was lovely, actually), but because I realized how much unnecessary talking we do when we don’t understand the real point of what we’re teaching.

Here’s the thing: I was trained to teach Iyengar Yoga. The “alignment police” school of thought. There was a right way and a wrong way to do every pose. If your body didn’t look like the picture, we’d just pile props under you until it did.

But then, I studied with Paul Grilley and watched his Anatomy for Yoga presentation, and everything I thought I knew got turned upside down.

We’re Not All Built the Same (Duh)

This seems obvious, right? We can all look around a room and see that people have different heights, body frames, proportions, and features. But, somehow, we think that once you get inside the body, everyone’s bones are identical.

Spoiler alert: they’re not.

Some people’s hip sockets face more forward. Some face more to the side. Some people have large hip sockets with small femur heads. Others have the opposite. And all of this affects how your body moves in Yoga poses.

I learned this the hard way. In my early training, teachers would tell us to internally rotate our thighs in a wide-legged forward fold (Dragonfly in Yin) so our toes would point to the ceiling. But when I did that, my toes pointed down and forward. I kept thinking I was doing it wrong.

Turns out, I wasn’t wrong. My bones are just different. I have a fair bit of internal rotation naturally, so that cue had the opposite effect on my body.

The Pigeon Pose Problem

Let’s talk about pigeon (or Sleeping Swan in Yin Yoga). So many teachers are obsessed with getting that front shin parallel to the top of the mat at a 90-degree angle. They think everyone should be able to do this.

Here’s the truth: most people can’t. And they shouldn’t try to force it.

That 90-degree angle requires a specific type of hip structure with lots of external rotation. If you don’t have that bone structure, you’re either going to feel frustrated that you “can’t do Yoga,” or you’re going to hurt your knee trying to force your body into a shape it’s not built for.

Neither of those outcomes is why we became Yoga teachers, right?

What Function Over Form Actually Means

When I first learned about functional Yoga, I had a mini crisis. I thought, “Well, if I’m not telling people where to put their feet, how wide to stand, which way their toes should point, or how to stack their joints… what the hell am I even saying anymore?”

So I started slow. I took one pose per week and dissected it. I asked myself: What is the actual point of this pose? What am I trying to help people feel or access in their body?

Take Mountain Pose (Tadasana). I used to say: “Bring the mounds of your big toes together. Feet pointing straight. Pull your kneecaps up. Broaden the chest. Lift the collarbones…”

Now I say: “Come to the top of your mat. Find a distance for your feet that feels stable to you. Tadasana means mountain. How far apart would your feet need to be for you to feel sturdy like a mountain?”

Completely different experience. And guess what? Some people need their feet together to feel stable. Others need them wider apart. Some people’s toes naturally turn out. Others point straight. None of these are wrong.

The Dragonfly Example

Back to that wide-legged forward fold. If the point of the pose is to stretch the inner thighs and open the inner lines of the legs, does it really matter which direction your toes are pointing?

No. It doesn’t.

So instead of giving a blanket cue about rotating thighs and positioning toes (which works for some bodies and not others), I focus on the sensation. “Find a leg position where you feel a stretch along your inner thighs.”

Done. Simple. Effective. And it works.

Why This Matters for Your Teaching

When you teach functionally instead of focusing on form, three things happen:

You talk less. Way less. And the words you do use actually matter.
Your students have more freedom to find their version of the pose. The one that works for their unique body.
Your injury rate goes down. Because you’re not asking people to force their bodies into shapes they’re not built for.

The Homework

If you’re a teacher and you’re reading this thinking, “Oh crap, I probably say a lot of unnecessary stuff in my classes,” here’s what I want you to do:

Record yourself teaching. Just audio is fine. Then listen back to it.

I know. It’s equally enlightening and horrifying. But you’ll start to notice your patterns. The filler words. The alignment cues that don’t actually serve the function of the pose. The unnecessary chatter.

For me, it’s the word “just.” I’m always saying “just put your foot here” or “we’re just gonna grab a strap.” I’m working on removing that.

Where to Learn More

If you haven’t watched Paul Grilley’s Anatomy for Yoga, stop what you’re doing and go watch it. I’m serious. It used to be a DVD, now it’s available for streaming. It will change everything about how you teach.

This isn’t just for Yin Yoga teachers. This is for anyone who teaches any style of Yoga. Paul demonstrates on real students with different body types, and you’ll see clearly how bone structure varies from person to person.

Once you understand that everyone’s skeleton is different, you can’t unsee it. And you’ll never teach the same way again.

The Bottom Line

We inherited a lot of so-called “alignment rules” from well-meaning teachers who learned them from their well-meaning teachers. But many of these rules don’t actually work for everyone’s body.

When you focus on function (what is the point of this pose?) instead of form (what should this pose look like?), you become a better teacher. You give clearer cues. You include more people. You prevent injuries.

And honestly? Your classes get quieter. Which, in Yin Yoga, is kind of the whole point.

So next time you’re about to teach a pose, ask yourself: Why am I putting this pose here? What is the function? What am I hoping my students will feel or access?

If you can answer that, you’re teaching functionally. If you can’t, you might just be teaching a pose because it’s pretty or because you learned it in your training.

And trust me, your students will feel the difference