Originally Posted by
Road Fan
That's interesting. I was having trouble raising my leg while in a prone position so it stood straight up with my knee locked. Rather than hold it straight up without the knee locked, he said to raise it as high as possible with the knee locked, and move forward from there. In that asana, I know which aspect of form has the priority. So my teacher is watching and adapting.
right on
I have plenty of issues in many asanas due to injury or just plain inflexibility or morphological issues.
Whenever I do a 'class' with an instructor who is new to me, I give them a quick rundown of my major injury/issues. I truly don;t expect them to remember all that, fully expecting that I'll remind them during the practice, and they'll remember our very brief conversation. Surprisingly, they remember more than I expect. They then help me adjust accordingly.
I'm lucky - we have some great instructors around here who put a lot of thought into their classes.
I've found that if I can bring some focus to my breath, most all my poses benefit greatly as I can decide what to relax and what to strengthen.
Good Instructors come from great teaching instructors, and aware students come from good instructors.
BTW, I'm not an instructor, by a long shot - just slowly becoming a better student.