Ep 81: Yoga Poses: Teaching Full Expression vs Functional Variations

We’re talking about the widely used phrase “full expression of the pose” what it means, how it’s used, and why it can unintentionally create harm or hierarchy in your classes. 

If you’re using this phrase now, don't you worry, in this episode, I’ll walk you through why you’d want to shift your language and how to start!

Strategy Call: Schedule HERE

Transcript

Monica: 0:00

In today's episode, we're talking about the widely used phrase, full expression of the pose, what it means, how it's used, and why it can unintentionally create harm or hierarchy in your classes. If you're using this phrase now, don't worry. In this episode, I'll walk you through why you'd want to shift your language and how to start. Welcome to the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers Podcast with me. I'm Monica Bright and I've been teaching yoga and running my yoga business for over a decade. This is the podcast for you. If you are a yoga teacher, you're looking for support. You love to be in conversation, and you're a lifelong student. In this podcast, I'll share with you. My life as a yoga teacher, the lessons I've learned, my process for building my business and helpful ideas, tools, strategies and systems I use and you can use so that your business thrives. We'll cover a diverse range of topics that will help you, whether you're just starting out or you've got years under your belt and you wanna dive deep and set yourself up for success. I am so glad you're here. Listen, I don't take myself too seriously, so expect to hear some laughs along the way. Now let's do this together. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Monica, and I'm so glad you're here. Here is where we get real about yoga's role in helping students with conditions and injuries and pain, and what you can do to help them find relief while they're in your classes. Today I wanna lean into a topic that might change how you cue and how your students feel about their practice. We're talking about the widely used phrase, full expression of the pose, what it means, how it's used, and why it can unintentionally create harm or hierarchy in your classes. You know, I wouldn't just leave you there. I'll also share one of the options for language that I use in my own classes. Instead, it's functional variation. It's a concept that respects the uniqueness of everybody and everybody's nervous system. Now you can use that exact verbiage, functional variation, or you could allude to it, which is also what I do a lot in my queuing. I have to add that because as I've shifted my focus to functional variation, it has changed the way I sequence as well. So whether you're teaching all levels vinyasa, restorative yoga, or working with students recovering from injury, this conversation will apply to you. Let's start by naming the phrase full expression of the pose. You've likely heard it. You may have said it. I used it too. I won't tell a lie. And honestly, it often comes from a good place. It's typically used to indicate the most complex version of a posture. The end range of motion or the version where all the pieces come together. For example, in extended side angle or a side angle pose, it might mean reaching the arm overhead and taking a bind, or with the bottom hand reaching to touch the mat. In pigeon pose, it could mean shimming the front shin forward to make it parallel with the top of the mat, or progressing the pose to king pigeon in wheel pose. It's lifting fully TVA donya asana, rather than staying in bridge, pose The phrase, full expression is often used to represent progress, depth, or completion. But here's the issue. That phrase implies that any other version is incomplete. And I'll ask you. Do you want your students to feel incomplete in your classes? Now, I know that you don't, even if you want to encourage students to push to their edge, it's important to unpack the unintended consequences of using the phrase full expression. It creates hierarchy by calling one version the full expression. We create a value system where simpler, supported or modified versions are lesser than for students with injuries, disabilities, chronic pain, or anatomical limitations. This can reinforce the harmful idea that their bodies are not capable. Or that they are somehow failing at yoga. It also disconnects form from function. We can get so caught up in shapes that we forget the why behind them. Does taking a bind mean that the student is deeper in the pose? Not necessarily. Does lifting into wheel mean the pose is more beneficial than bridge? Not for every student. You see, depth of movement does not always equal depth of practice. It also reinforces ableism using full expression as a goal or ideal centers. The bodies who have the flexibility, the mobility, the time to practice frequently, and bodies that lack injury, and it leaves everyone else feeling like they're doing yoga wrong. This isn't what the yoga practice is intended to be. So let's talk about the alternative functional variation. Whether you use the exact verbiage or you share the concept of it, neither is right or wrong. It's just up to you and your comfortability with your language in your classes. Is, this is the approach that I advocate for in my teaching, especially when I'm working with students, managing pain, healing from injury or navigating aging bodies, trauma or structural variation. My teaching and my language is centered around student awareness of themselves, how their body feels, how their breath flows, and how their nervous system shifts between up and down regulation. Functional variation means. Choosing a version of a pose that serves the purpose of the pose for that student's body. We know that a pose will look differently between students and I truly believe we have the responsibility to help students understand that too. Functional variation means we have to help students honor function over form, find what feels appropriate in their body in this moment, and shape their practice around this only, and not attempting to force form. Ultimately functional variation supports choice agency, nervous system regulation, and consciousness around current injury and injury prevention. Functional variation allows us to give students permission to ask themselves, what am I trying to accomplish in this pose? Which version gets me there without causing excessive stress, compression, or fear. Quick side note here, you may be thinking fear. Why fear? It's because the feeling of fear will affect the nervous system, and when the nervous system detects fear, it immediately goes into protection mode and it's supposed to. That's the way it's designed. And finally, functional variation helps students ask, what choice can I make that will align with how my body is feeling right now? So what does this look like in your yoga class? Here are a couple of examples. If we look at specific poses in downward facing dog, instead of queuing heels to the floor or straight legs, help your students focus on noticing where their heels are relative to their mat. Not trying to change it, but just notice it. Are there differences between the right and left heel or shoulder stability? Oftentimes teachers cue students to press their chest towards the mat or towards their thighs. I've experienced both when I'm taking classes, but by doing this, the shoulder joint becomes less and less stable. Think about backing off of what the chest should be doing and focus on a sense of stability in the shoulder joints. And finally, help your students shift their awareness to their breath in this pose. Are they holding it? Are they breathing fast? Can they create a sense of ease in the breath cycle while they're in downward facing dogs? Functional variation might look like a wall version, a bent knee version, or even skipping downward facing dog altogether. In triangle pose, rather than pushing towards the floor or reaching with a hand, you ask, notice what your spine is doing. Do you feel like you're in a side bend? Can you lengthen your spine and create more space in the waist? On the bottom side? You can also ask, can you ground your feet into your mat? Notice if you feel light, and can you create more connection, or, one of my favorite ways to engage the legs is to ask students to lift their kneecaps towards their thighs. It's just a sneaky way to engage the muscles of the legs a little bit more. And finally. Ask, how's your breath cycle? Can you smooth it out a little bit more? Functional variation in triangle pose may look like hands on the hips or the pelvis slightly turned down towards the mat, or even gazing towards the mat to help with balance the version that meets these conditions. Is the full expression for each student, and it quite possibly will look different because it needs to for students to find their own functional variation. If you work with students in pain or injury recovery, remember your language is everything. Students might arrive with the feelings of shame. Fear or frustration around their bodies if you say full expression and they can't access it, the nervous system interprets that as failure, danger, or exclusion. Functional variation helps shift that narrative. It helps students understand that they're not a problem to fix. They're a person to support. And this version is a wise choice for me, not that I'm weaker or less than, or not good enough, and it helps students advocate for themselves. They get to choose what works for their body. When you cue with this lens, your students will feel empowered instead of overwhelmed. Seen. Instead of measured and successful for showing up and not for performing a shape. if you're wondering how to shift your language, here are some phrases you can play with using instead of full expression. Find the version that feels most functional for your body today, or here are some variations. Choose the option that feels right in this moment. Right now, you could say this version builds strength. While this version builds stability, you get to choose which feels appropriate for your body. think of saying instead of working toward a specific pose idea, feel that you're already in the pose right now that works for you. And finally you could say, honor your body's ranges and needs right now without believing that there's one ideal form that you have to master. It's so important that you understand why language is so important. I get it. If you're new to teaching. Just getting through the class is sometimes enough and all you can do, eventually you'll get more comfortable and you'll think about using your language strategically and to help you build trust with your students. I. As yoga teachers, our job isn't to guide students into the deepest, fanciest version of a pose. Instead, it's to create space for agency adaptation and awareness. Let's think differently when we say full expression and realize it may be doing more harm than you think to your students. Teach more function, not form. And in doing so, offer yoga that is actually inclusive. Trauma informed and healing. And if you're ready to learn more about adapting your language, sequencing and queuing for students with injuries or pain, remember this is the work that I do with yoga teachers all the time. Understanding anatomy, biomechanics, and the effects yoga Asana have on the body helps you understand your students. It's so important for us to have this conversation so that you remember that students of all shapes. Sizes, alignment and abilities come to your classes and you can serve all of them. You know that my goal is for you to love the yoga teaching life. It's important to understand movement and the issues students come to your classes with. If you want to inquire about working with me, let's jump on a strategy, call and discuss your current needs and ways I might be able to help you right now. In the meantime, subscribe to the podcast so you're always in the know when a new episode drops, and share it with another yoga teacher who you think would love to be in on these conversations. And finally. Thank you for helping to spread the word about this podcast. Alright, that's it for now. Bye.