Yoga for Every Body:  How to Adapt Yoga Poses for Different Situations, Conditions
and Purposes 

Every person that comes to a yoga class has her own unique challenges and needs. One student can’t raise her arms up because she has tight shoulders, another one cannot be on his knees because of previous injury, and so on. As yoga teachers, we need to be able to give those students pose options, so that they feel comfortable, supported and included in the yoga class, and get the same benefits as everybody else. This is why we adapt the classical form of postures to make it more accessible to different students.

However, this is only one reason to modify the form of the pose. We can also change the shape of the pose slightly by repositioning the arms or legs to alter the entire effect of the pose, or to target a specific body area. Some poses (like Warrior 1, for example) have 10-15 different versions without any additional props, and each version works a different part of the body. You can also use different versions of simpler poses to prepare for other, more difficult poses more efficiently, or to manifest an idea, when you are creating a more integrative practice with a specific theme. Pose adaptation is one of the most effective tools we as yoga teachers have to achieve very specific structural, energetic and mental-emotional effects.

In this two-hour workshop, writer and yoga therapist Olga Kabel will show you how to use different versions of poses to make your yoga practice more precise and more effective. You will see how you can use the same pose for a wide variety of purposes. Adaptation is the richest and most untapped resource for yoga teachers and students alike – let’s explore them together!

In Part 1, You Will Learn:

• What are superposes and what makes them so powerful
• Why it’s useful to look at yoga poses as tools, rather than sacred shapes
• How to select specific pose variations to adapt the pose to the student’s limitations
• How to use variations of the same pose to target completely different parts of the body
• How to build an entire practice from different versions of Prasarita Padottansana (Wide-legged standing forward bend)
• 13 versions of Bhujangasana (Cobra pose).
• 8 versions of Utthita Trikonasana (Triangle pose)

In Part 2, You Will Learn:

• How to carry the same adaptation throughout the practice to target a specific body area
• How to use pose adaptations to build a progression from less challenging to more challenging poses using pose adaptations
• How to use different versions of a pose to manifest a certain principle or idea for a more integrative theme-based yoga practice.
• 18 versions of Virabhadrasana 1 (Warrior 1)
• 15 versions of Dvipada Pitham/Setu Bandhasana (Bridge pose), and many more.

Take a Sneak Peek at Olga's Course:​​