Options and variations are not dirty words, I promise!
Sometimes it feels like the attitude is push, push push. “Feel the burn” (remember that little gem?!).
Most forms of movement, including yoga, have many ways they can be performed but for some reason, there is a lot of pressure to go big or go home.
But there is a lot more to it than that.
You doing you, for you
Ultimately, most of us want to make fitness, health, and wellness a part of our lives for the rest of our lives. Sure, we may have short-term goals: lose 10 pounds for that upcoming reunion, carve out some abs for your vacation, or even train for a specific event.
Goals like these are a great way to keep you motivated – we humans like to have something to work toward!
Underlying all that is the way we feel when we move our bodies. Yoga in particular, as a moving meditation, is a way of using our bodies and minds together for our enhanced health.
The benefits of yoga are many: improved flexibility, mobility, and strength, better balance, and support for stress and anxiety. For some it takes on a spiritual undertone as well.
But what happens when you are all psyched up to get into yoga and reap all those benefits and the class you go to has movements you do not like, are uncomfortable performing, and it seems like there are no alternatives?
Variations
The good news is that there are other things you can do – lots of them! Some teachers make a point of including variations of postures to make sure you have something that works for you.
A variation is simply an alternate way to do something. Like the image of the planks above. Maybe you do them on your hands and toes. Or forearms and toes. Maybe your knees are down. All these versions of planks are valid and can be considered viable. Sometimes you may need to change up a transition to get in or out of them but that is all part of the variation adventure!
The tricky part may be that you are in a class where those variations are not taught or even mentioned. Or, far worse, mentioned but in a way that makes you feel “less than” if you take them.
You can approach your teacher after class and ask for some other ways of doing the postures in question. Most teachers are happy to give you some ideas on how else to move through an asana.
And for those that tend to look down their nose at your wish for another way to do something? Go to a different teacher! Yes, yoga teachers should be all love and light, but they are also human. As such, they follow the bell curve just like any other group of people. Some are amazing, some, well, not so much. Or maybe they are amazing for someone else, just not for you.
Options
Similar to variations, options give you something else to do other than the exact posture being shown. The primary difference between an option and a variation is that variations are basically the same movement, done differently. Options, on the other hand, are things you can do in place of the movement being performed.
Using our plank example, you may choose to put table in place of plank. While similar in nature to a plank – you are on all fours – the workload is different. If plank is problematic for you because of a back issue, table may work since there is little stress on the back.
Different but equal
The biggest takeaway here is that your practice is yours alone. Each one of us have little differences in our bodies that make some postures difficult to get into. You may have injuries to work with. Maybe you’re just tired today!
Each day you need to assess how you are feeling and what will work best for you. One day you may be ready for plankapalooza! Then the next day you are secretly hoping for an hour-long savasana.
Having options and variations in your arsenal will allow you to adapt to where you are mentally and physically every time you get on your mat. Which in turn will help you maintain your yoga habit. And that my friends is how you make fitness, health, and wellness a part of your life for the rest of your life.
It’s time to get away from ideas about advanced yoga or beginner yoga, progressions and regressions, and other terminology that puts a box around movement. Health is health, and we need to do all we can to enhance it!
Want to see some of these movement patterns in action? Check out my series on Instagram!
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