10,000 Vinyasas

This is a post on why I don’t like using walls to teach headstands and handstands. First of all, I understand that instructors may be kind of forced into using a wall if they have a large class and that’s really the only feasible way to get everybody involved, as opposed to working one on one. I still believe, though, that the wall has some significant disadvantages, leading to a lack of success among people trying to attain these difficult inversions. I also suspect that many instructors lack the technical expertise to actually teach the correct forms of these poses (through no fault of their own, of course; it seems like there’s a lack of expertise in this area of yoga generally). That being said, the first objection I have to using the wall is that it encourages people to “kick up” into head and handstand. This kind of sudden movement into an inversion is undesirable, since it creates some (perhaps too much!) momentum which must then be countered with opposing momentum (read: movement) resulting in greater difficulty in setting down into the pose and attaining the correct form. Inversions and all forms of balancing in yoga should be approached with slow steadiness rather than sudden movements, which cause loss of control and falling over. Second and most important, using the wall the way it’s taught most of time, i.e, with placing the hands or arms two or more feet away from the wall, encourages arching of the back as the leg or legs go up. I’ve seen this so, so many times in yoga classes: student kicks up into wall, tries to straighten legs or bring legs away from wall, but the arched back almost immediately compels student to come right back down. Let me say this clearly: it is impossible to attain stability in head or handstand with an arched back. The back must be straight and flat. It’s just so much more difficult to come into the proper form if you’re already up there with your back in the wrong position. Some women, with their greater control over their musculature, have little difficulty kicking up into headstand, but I believe in the Iyengar method of walking the feet up towards the hips until the toes come off the floor, bending the knees and holding there until you feel comfortable enough to slowly straighten the legs. Teaching handstand almost requires you to assist a student one at a time, so you can hold/adjust them into the proper position. Well,that’s it. I’d sure like to hear from more experienced people about whether they agree with my views on this.