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Yoga Teaching & Learning Newsletter
July 2024

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Hello Reader

Welcome to this month's newsletter for yoga teachers. As usual you'll find news and offerings to inspire and support your yoga teaching.

I've been streamlining the YogaUK mailing lists and systems this month, which turned out to be quite a job.📨 But a satisfying practice of saucha! 💖

The July newsletter has gone out to everyone on any list who have marked themselves as yoga teachers. I'll continue to do that each month, but I don't want to clutter your inbox if it's not for you. So I've also introduced a new way that you can control the mailing settings yourself - instructions at the bottom of this email - just underneath the sunset picture. (BTW - it's very easy to do.)
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Keep scrolling down for:

• Dates for your diary
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• New article: Helping students optimise flexibility in yoga practice
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• Community news
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Dates for your diary -

• The next Q&A Zoom session for yoga teachers
  ​10am on Saturday 13th July. 🤗 (CPD)​
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• Community taster: Use coupon code: communitytaster24 at the checkout before the end of August to get free community membership for 3 months (select the quarterly subscription) which will give you access to up to 3 Q&A sessions and the community hub. Cancel your subscription to upgrade or renew or to opt out, at the end of 3 months.
  ​Find out more about the community here​
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• Back pain workshop​
  Saturday 26th October at 10am-12 (CPD)
  ​A practical and exploratory workshop on Zoom.
  ​Find out more and enrol here​
  ​Community members' free enrolment here​
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• Do you have a student who wants to become a yoga teacher?
  ​We're interviewing NOW for our online
  ​BWY Foundation Course which is a
  preparation for yoga teacher training.
  ​Course information here​

This month's article ended up being a little longer than usual! So here is the first half below. You can jump to the full article here​
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Helping students optimise flexibility in yoga practice

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Flexibility is complex and dynamic. How we work with yoga students most effectively depends on the individual, their current level of flexibility, and their life situation.
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Understanding the functional anatomy behind the concept of flexibility helps us as yoga teachers to personalise and optimise the guidance we give students in developing flexibility.

Yoga is well known as a great way to increase and maintain flexibility in the body and mind. In fact improving flexibility is one of the main reasons why people attend yoga classes.
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When joints become stiff, the body loses flexibility. The positive side of this is that we gain some stability in affected parts of the body. But overall, any stiffness in the body produces lack of fluidity in movement and a loss of stability and adaptability in the body as a whole.
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What is flexibility?

Flexibility in the body can be defined as the capability of the joints to move freely and efficiently through a full range of motion (ROM).
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Each joint in the body has a specific normal range of motion that is dictated by its structure and the anatomical structures around it, particularly the muscles, tendons and ligaments.

For example the ankle joint is a hinge joint, only able to flex and extend, and only to a limited degree, while the hip joint can flex, extend, abduct, adduct, and externally and internally rotate and can make relatively big movements.
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The structures of these joints support their function. The ankle joint has a limited range of movement because it needs to be stable in order to support the weight of the body while upright, and to provide a stable connection for the foot while walking.
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The hip joint however has a much wider range of motion so that we can walk and run, turn quickly on the spot, and adopt a wide range of body movements as we move around the world, for example squatting, climbing, and avoiding falls.
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What causes joint stiffness?

We develop stiffness in movement after we’ve had a period of immobility due to injury, illness or other trauma. Even just a few days in bed quickly leads to stiffness.

Stiffness can also creep in because of ageing, dehydration and lifestyle changes.

Flexibility will be lost when there is any chronic illness that reduces joint movement, such as arthritis, or the existence of scar tissue after injury.

Stiffness also arises simply from having a sedentary lifestyle and not moving enough.
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Fascial changes

When a joint is under-used over a longer period of time, this can lead to lack of blood flow and dehydration of the tissues, which makes the fascia surrounding the joint less pliable and less able to repair itself.

Lack of movement also increases the possibility of adhesions – where layers of fascia stick to each other – which limits movement.
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Lack of regular movement decreases the elasticity of fascia and it tends to thicken and become more fibrous, which decreases joint mobility.

In yoga classes it is useful to include a range of practices that mobilise all the joints in the body to maintain fascial health and increase mobility. Particularly since even active people may have certain movements that they rarely do in everyday life.
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It’s important to note that fascia doesn’t change quickly. Regular short practices, respectful to the body’s current limits, are the best way to ease tight fibrous fascia.
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Muscle tension

Another cause of limited flexibility is muscle tension which restricts joint movement. Muscles support and move joints, but can sometimes hold the joints a little too much and fail to let go when not needed.

This can be due to injury, but is very often associated with stress. Tight muscles will limit joint movement.

Stretching them out in yoga practice, gently and kindly, while breathing and relaxing, will help them to learn to let go.
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This process takes time, as the cause of the stress also needs time to be processed mentally and emotionally.

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The full article here also covers:

Developing flexibility and resilience, hypermobility, immobility after injury, static vs dynamic poses, isolated movements and limbers, and useful philosophical teaching themes to support the development of flexibility.

Any questions? Do ask at a Q&A meeting on Zoom, or in a chat space in the community hub.

Community news

Talking points

At the June Q&A meeting, we discussed personal topics of exploration and teaching challenges. One teacher told of her experiences working with a student dealing with emotional trauma and its physical manifestations. Patanjali 2:33 on positive thinking was also raised in the group for reflection and different interpretations and ideas were shared. We talked about the anatomy of knee stabilisation in reclined pigeon, and also some recent ‘wins’ and successes in our yoga teaching this month.

See a more detailed summary in the Q&A Follow-On chat space here where you can add your own thoughts and comments on these topics.
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The next three Zoom Q&A meetings are:

Saturday 13th July 10-11am

Friday 30th Aug 1-2pm

Saturday 21st Sept 10-11am

Log in to the community hub for further dates, to say you're coming, to get email reminders, and to access the Zoom links - link from your Dashboard at yogauk.com.
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Back pain workshop

This workshop on Saturday 26th October is free of charge to community members - log in to the community hub and look in the 'Events' space to say you're coming and access the Zoom link.

"It’s precisely those who are busiest who most need to give themselves a break."​
Pico Iyer

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Have a lovely wind-down if you're breaking up for the summer this month. I look forward to seeing some of you soon. 😊

love and light,

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Please feel free to pass this newsletter on to any yoga teacher friends or colleagues who might be interested in any of the content. They can sign up to receive newsletters to their own inbox at www.yogauk.com

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