What is Good Alignment and What is Alignment Good For?

A lot of the alignment “rules” like stacking up the knee over the ankle in standing poses, you may have known as a student and passed on as a teacher, are coming into question now that the role of biomechanics has altered through the yoga world. The body is resilient and adaptable and we know this because research has shown that when we stress tissues, by placing them in a position where force acts upon them, they respond by strengthening. The body responds by strengthening through a whole range of positions so it makes sense to vary our alignment from time to time.

Force and biomechanics

Force is simply a push or a pull exerted by one object on another. For example, when a muscle contracts it creates a force that is transferred to the tendon to pull on the bony attachment, thus resulting in motion. There are a number of factors that influence force. bBy definition force is mass x acceleration, but within the biomechanics of how the body actually works there are a number of different types of force we can consider.

These include external force: gravity being the most significant here, alongside other people, e.g. a teacher giving an adjustment, or a prop exerting more force, or reducing the force by supporting the body.

Motion forces which describe the way and direction in which the body is moving.

The internal forces exerted by the body acting upon itself- muscles, tendons, fascia & bone.

And reactionary forces which include the force of support from beneath called ground reaction as well as within the body such as joint reaction.

All of these forces together constitute the ways in which any posture is “interpreted” by the body. In a simple way we can think of yoga asana as applying force by moving through, and holding, a series of postures, where gravity and ground force act on the body, mediated by the responses of the body and influenced by any adjustments or props. Since the movements tend to be low velocity, they exert less force than if we were in a more sporting endeavour. So the body is not exposed to the sort of force associated with injury in, for example, contact sports.

This means that a healthy body is well adapted to manage the load of an asana. Traditionally we "stack" the joints, in Warrior 1 knee above ankle for example, and for most of us this was explained as a way to keep the body safe. To prevent knee injury, which, so the thinking goes, avoids overloading the knee ligaments. This assumes that if the knee hangs forward of the ankle, or if the knee were to roll in, with more weight falling on the inner knee it would be unsafe.

The understanding of biomechanics - how force acts in the body, and its application to asana, requires a revision of these teaching tips. Allowing a knee to move in different ranges of motion, gives an opportunity for the tissues to strengthen in response to the force placed upon them. The forces at play here are not great enough, fast or heavy enough, to pose a threat to the knee, unless perhaps it already has an injury. Although even a knee with some tissue damage, often benefits from a mull range of motion opportunities to strengthen.

According to this research and understanding of biomechanics, the "mis-alignnemt" of the past becomes a great opportunity, a relatively untapped resource full of creative and health giving potential. Think of the fun we can have now the knee doesn’t have to line up with the hip, or the elbow with the shoulder!

How to align now?

So how should we apply our new found wisdom? Do we just surrender those wonderful alignment cues we've crafted over years and years and have the students arrange their limbs willy nilly? Well, like many good things- yes and no!

Nociception - no more warnings

Firstly, we can throw out the “dire warning” type of cues, of how a certain placement might be dangerous. We know now that the body is not as vulnerable as we may have presumed, and that it is for our students' benefit to move in different ways, otherwise known as movement variability. As well as having opportunities to strengthen through some repetition.

As yoga teachers, if we use language that suggests the body is inherently weak, vulnerable, at risk of failure, then this information is perceived as a threat, through the process of nociception. The nerve cells endings that act as sensory receptors and perceive any threat of pain- whether mechanical, thermal, chemical. And relay this information to the central nervous system.

The significance of this is that the nociceptors pick up the THREAT of pain. So before any tissue damage has occurred, and whether or not it does go on to occur, the nervous system is primed to feel pain. This means that changes have already taken place in the body and in the mind. If we fear pain, we tend to stiffen to draw away quickly, our heart rate goes up. We may even already feel new pain, or other existing ailments speak louder.

This can carry through to the nervous system and actually make the body feel weaker and even be more prone to tissue damage- injury, or to sensations of pain.

If, like me, you've been teaching for a long time, the cues you learnt from your teachers may need updating including those I may have taught you! So instead of warning that an innocuous pose may harbour potential threat, we can affirm that asana is really a positive health giving practice and threat the body is well able to withstand the forces placed on it through the movement.

So why align

Perhaps the old alignment cues came more from aesthetics than science, creating pretty 90 degree angles, or having students all lining up looking choreographed in a pose. I am not saying alignment does not matter, but that it needs an update, because we can use specific alignment to create the strength or mobility we want. So by varying the alignment beyond the “old rules” we enhance the potential of asana to create strength, ease and mobility in the body.

Knee alignment

So for example warrior 2 again, it can be advantageous to keep the front knee drawn back to broaden across the pelvis and lengthen the adductors on the inner thigh, but it’s not “dangerous: to let the knee fall in, over the big toe.

If that knee “overshoots” the ankle, presumably the student is perfectly comfy here, or they would have held back, and this can be a chance to strengthen the knee fibrous ligaments and tendons more, particularly the cruciate inside the knee and the patella tendon, over the knee cap.

We could even mix it up and play with inner rotation at the hip, a movement which tends to be lacking in asana, plus the chance to revolve to the inner foot and lean some weight on the inner knee.

Shoulder alignment

When it comes to the shoulders one of the most unexpected revisions might be to let the scapula (shoulder blades) lift up when we raise the arms. The shoulder girdle is exactly that - a girdle - where all the bones connect so when the humerus lifts, so does the scapula. The socket of the humerus bone is on the edge of the scapula- the glenoid fossa.

If we insist on keeping the scapula down, the humerus has to move away from its socket a little to give the scapula space. In other words we have made the joint a less cohesive, potentially less stable structure, but asking people to keep the shoulder blades down.

So what to do? Perhaps let the shoulders go where they want as they want. Or vary the way we hold the shoulders, and see what feels best. In postures where we are weight bearing on the hands- down dog and handstand for example, we can try with the scapula drawn up and see how that feels. In down dog some might find it too compressed for their neck, in handstand it should give a greater overall stability to the pose.

Pelvis alignment

In yoga postures we tend to persuade students to work for a neutral pelvis. This is one that I personally still often cue, because before backbends it helps to have a neutral pelvis so that the lower spine can lengthen, and the force of the backbend be distributed more evenly along the length of the spine.

Research has shown that 75% of people have an anterior tilt* in the pelvis and that contrary to common opinion this is not directly linked to back pain. There may be an overlap of anterior tilt and lower back pain, but it is not necessarily a causal factor. So once more we can consider when or why we encourage certain pelvic alignment, if someone is quite happily tilted forward with no adverse effects it doesn’t make much sense to think we always need to “correct” this.

Core

Similarly a weak “core” is often cited as a cause of back pain, but again this has been disproven, and our understanding of “core” can include more than just the abs or abs and pelvic floor. We may see that the torso is not in the most efficient position for full power- and so help a student adjust their alignment, but we can do this without citing that it is likely to lead to pain otherwise.

There is so much more to go through here but you get the idea! Nothing is set in stone.

Pain science

This brings us to pain science- where research has shown that it’s complex! Pain is an output from the brain, ie the brain has to interpret the signal of the body, it is not a direct response of the body. So calming the nervous system, working with an easeful breath while holding a pose, can be a great way over time to redress a heightened state of arousal in the nervous system. Rather than necessarily working to realign the body.

Nervous system

This overview is very much from the musculoskeletal body, but we know that everything is attached; the whole body works as a full organism. Muscles, fascia, organs, endocrine glands, nervous system etc. The easiest way to read alignment is through the bony landscapes of the body. But it is interesting to consider that our whole experience in a sense is an expression of the state of our nervous system. Some traditional yoga alignment can help with calming states of hyper arousal, e.g. lengthening the back of the neck to bring about a more meditative quality. This might be in savasana- a blanket beneath the head or in meditation, bringing the chin down a little.

So while the chin forward might not be “damaging” there are other reasons we can look to encourage certain alignment.

Another feature of hyper arousal can be that the lower ribs flare forward, this response is seen in babies as the “moro reflex”- their limbs pop out suddenly and with a sharp intake of breath the diaphragm and the lower ribs it is attached to jut forwards. So this “shock” response might feel familiar and some body workers and therapists believe this is a sort of shock response caught in the body, which over time and with tender awareness may be alleviated.

Body brain connection

Altering and varying our position more than traditional alignment or indeed movement would allow, and the increased variation this affords our sequencing, also means we increase neural connections between body and brain. This leads to a more detailed “map” of the body in the brain, and has been shown to reduce the incidence of injury and increase the ease with which we move.

Prana

Then there’s the question of prana- you may feel happy to update your cues and alignment in a purely scientific way. Or you may feel we are lacking the subtle awareness that feeling into, and releasing prana brings. Some yogis describe the touch of the teacher, or the alignment as helping them to feel an increased charge of prana. To feel that they link more directly with the mahaprana, connecting to that circuitry as they find or lengthen through the spine or stability in their stance.

One thing we can assume is that physical alignment and pranic alignment are interlinked since the kosha model tells us that we are essentially prana taking on a physical form.

Conclusion- What is good alignment

There can't be a simple answer but it would include:

Variability as an opportunity to load tissues in different ways
Taught with emphasis that the body is adaptable
Consider the complex role of the nervous system in tissue adaptability & pain
Move on from simple aesthetics
Adapt to suit each person

What is alignment good for

Allowing a deep awareness of the body in space- ie proprioception
Encouraging a felt sense of the body – interoception
To support meditative states as well as physical robustness
Offering a framework within which to explore the needs of different students

The knowledge and wisdom I share here, has been learnt from my teachers. Jenni Rawlings has been instrumental in helping me get to grips with some of this.

If you’d like to put this into practice with adjustments you can attend our Adjustments Intensives. All our courses are taught with this evidence based approach as a way to reflect on the ancient wisdom of the yogis.