About the book

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What are yoga adaptations?

The form of any pose can be modified depending on what you are trying to accomplish. This is called pose adaptation. Adaptation means altering the form of a pose to maximize its function. Pose adaptation is one of the most effective tools that yoga teachers have to achieve very specific structural, energetic, and mental-emotional effects. The same pose can be used for a wide variety of purposes, which makes your practice more precise and effective.

What are superposes?

Superposes are benefit-dense poses that are accessible to most students, can be modified easily to emphasize the effect for a particular area of the body, and can be adapted easily to accommodate different body shapes, physical abilities, student preferences, and so on.

Why do we adapt?

– To get a different structural effect

– To prepare the body for what is coming next

– To make a pose more or less challenging

– To customize the pose to the student’s needs

– To keep students’ attention

– To manifest an idea

This book covers various adaptations of those superposes and reasons for doing them. Since human movement potential is vast, a great variety of pose adaptations is possible. The lists of adaptations in the book do not represent the entirety of adaptations for each pose, but rather examples common to the viniyoga tradition that I know to be effective for the described areas. They are meant to inspire your curiosity and creativity and to facilitate a new type of thinking in regard to yoga poses. The diagrams that accompany each pose illustrate the primary body areas (not individual muscles) that the pose is intended to target. The lighter color indicates the areas that are stretching, and the darker color shows the areas that are contracting. These target areas often change when the pose is adapted. Whenever you set out to design a yoga practice, make sure that you have a clear purpose in mind. What are you trying to accomplish physically, energy-wise, or mentally? Having a clear intention will make it easier to choose appropriate adaptations and make your entire practice more logical, consistent, and effective. Have fun!