Yoga is not designed for women
I’ve been a yoga teacher for 7 years and if there is one thing I can say unequivocally it’s that yoga asana was not designed for women.
Yoga asana was crafted as a sequence of postures for yogis to be able to sit comfortably in meditation. These yogis were men who wanted to learn how to cross their legs comfortably to sit for extended periods of time. The term asana that we now use to describe a yoga based movement practice actually means seat in Sanskrit.
Patanjali described it in their yoga sutras as one of the eight limbs of yoga and from there it was born. There are earlier recordings and cultural cross overs of spiritual movement practices building upon each other but this serves as its starting point for many yoga teachers today. Wherever it started it started in a time of patriarchy where women were often banned from practicing such things. And so it was designed by men for men for soemthing as simple as crossing legs. Don’t know about you but most women I know can cross their legs without having to build a billion dollar industry around it.
So much of the sequencing we know and love or hate today is build upon the concept of hip opening by stiff men in the 20th century. But women’s hips are naturally more open due to body shape and also as a biological precursor to enable child birth. We also have fluctuating hormones that change the elasticity of our ligaments and muscles throughout the month and our lives. A static practice that doesn’t account for this, designed around hip opening misses the needs of a female body entirely.
I took the same class for three years, three times a week. It was the same sequence again and again. And then one day my hip hurt so much I couldn’t walk. I had a bath and took a week off movement and then went back. It happened again, I went on a holiday to Portugal the next day and was in so much pain I bought cbd for the first time and spent most of the trip on the verge of vomitting. I thought this was a me thing.
The not so hidden truth is there is a relatively high rate of people in female bodies who have practiced yoga for long periods of time who have had or now need hip replacements. The deep hip opening and loading on repeat with yoga as a primary form of exercise can grind down at the ligaments and joints of the hip. And each time it happens to a yoga teacher they blame themselves. And sure you probably could have focussed on other movements or not pushed it so hard, but at what point do we question the design of the practice itself and admit that it wasn’t designed for all of us.
I’m not saying throw out your yoga practice or stop teaching what you know and love. But we have a collective responsibility as teachers and students to safeguard our bodies better.
If you are a teacher, ask yourself:
Does this sequence feel good in my own body?
If the sequence hurts you do not offer it to others
Is the sequence I am designing just focussed on opening the hips or strengthening them too?
Ensure you build balanced sequences e.g if you spent a lot of time loading the hip in standing sequence you need to stretch out the hip flexor after or if you spend a lot of time opening it, you need to offer asanas that close it too.
Counterposes are a requirement for the hips as much as they are for other parts of the body
Why am I offering a deep hip sequence if my class mostly hypermobile women?
We can be blinded by what we have been taught and what everyone is doing but if your class is filled with a lot of hyper mobile women they do not need to spend 25 minutes loading their hips in a deep standing sequence or stretches
They need to build strength in their glutes and quads and strengthen their soas muscles
Change up your sequence and feel free to reinvent the standing sequence
Do I know how to design a hip sequence that considers all bodies and keep them safe?
Ensure you know how to Que for hyper mobile people
Ensure you offer alternatives and options
Ensure you empower students bodily intuition
Am I empowering my students to tune into their bodies intuition and know when to back down?
Make sure you Que in a way that encourages your students autonomy e.g within a safe range of motion
Steer away from asking students to reach their edge in a class of mixed abilities
Teach them how to listen to signals in their bodies
Remind them pain is a sign to stop
If you are a student ask yourself:
Do I know my “safe zone”?
It’s up to 70% of your full range of motion
If you have hypermobility you shouldn’t be focussed on feeling a stretch
Are there any asanas that I feel a twinge in or “weird” in?
This is your body signalling the movement is exiting the safe zone in its range of motion
Do I have any recurring pain in or after class?
This means you left the safe zone and have impacted your body, you may want to rest or avoid that asana if it’s a specific movement that’s causing it
Do I always push through discomfort and pain?
Fostering a kinder practice with yourself allows your body to feel safe, your safe range of motion will increase slowly with time and consistency.
Reframe pushing yourself into supporting yourself.
The showing up and being present is why you are there.
If you are a hypermobile person the questions above apply for you too.
These questions are things I have asked myself over the years as both a teacher and a student. My hip hurts right now writing this, in a memory of a time when I didn’t know how to listen to it. I was already a teacher but no one had taught me how to teach women. And my mentors sequence was the one that hurt my body.
It took years for me to understand that I was hypermobile. I can’t do the splits or fold my body in half effortlessly so I assumed I wasn’t flexible. But I have double jointed elbows, a bendy back and a penchant for injuries. Hypermobility shows up differently on each of us and chances are if you are neurodivergent or suspect neuro divergence you are also hypermobile.
Being a neurodivergent hypermobile woman means you have to be an advocate for your own body in yoga. Last year I went to a super advanced yoga class by accident, I’m talking Circ du soleil level, it was advertised as hatha. She was old school, she pushed me, for the first five minutes I loved it. But then I started to realised it was way above my range of motion that day and realised I needed to back off. Despite everything I’ve said above, I love to push myself and I’m sure you probably do too. But you have to know when to put the brakes on.
I tried to put the brakes on in this class. I was just back from a meditation retreat and realised my body was quite stiff after 12 hours of sitting daily, so knew my range of motion was impaired. I told her, she kept offering new assisted asanas and new props. I spent as much of the class as I could doing my own thing and reminding her I needed to take it easy. Towards the end she handed me a yoga wheel and said it was restorative. I took it and listened to her, despite an hour of telling her no. I listened this time, as I felt safe that this teacher knew what she was offering and I had told her about my injuries and current state.
I laid my back over the wheel and she walked away. My back crunched as the middle of my spine took the load due to my stiff lower back and shoulders from three days spent sitting. And just like that I got an injury that has prevented me from doing a back bend or deep spinal twist for seven months, an injury that has meant I have barely been able to practice yoga asana this year.
I knew my back was stiff, I spent the whole class telling her no. But eventually I said yes. Sure, it’s my fault, but I also advocated for myself: I stated my physical boundaries and body condition to her again and again and she didn’t listen. She was so focussed on pushing me that she didn’t listen. In hindsight advocating for myself would have meant walking out in this class. I wish I did.
Students listen to your bodies, advocate for yourself and if you need to, leave the class, even if it’s mine. I won’t be offended.
Teachers, listen to your students, listen to their needs and boundaries and instead of asking they push themselves in a world where all we do is push ourselves simply to exist. Ask that they listen to themselves instead, and let your class be a vehicle to create that inner listening. It’s a much more important skill to learn than the splits.
As a woman and a yoga teacher I want us to rewrite the rule book. Taking sequences designed by men in the 20th century and packing them up for a woman dominated space in the 21st century is so over. We are finally realising that medicine and running shoes and BMI and seat belts and intermittent fasting and cold plunge and whatever else was all only tested on men or thought with men in mind. Well I’m over this bullshit.
I want to go to a yoga class with women in mind.
Learn about how to sequence for female anatomy and hormonal fluctuation, learn about how to Que it. And god stop encouraging yoga as the one stop shop. It’s not, you and your students need a well rounded movement practice that yoga asana is one part of.
If your hip hurts get it checked and never trust anyone that says they can teach you the splits in 30 days.
Yoga is a hell of a lot more than the 60minute vinyasa class we teach or practice a few times a week. I invite you to loom beyond this one of eight limbs of yoga and realise there are many ways to practice. All of which finally, need a woman’s touch.