Unlock the hidden potential of familiar yoga poses
Did you know that most yoga poses in their current form are fairly recent inventions? The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, a 15th-century manual, describes just fifteen poses, most of them seated. In the early 20th century, teachers in India began combining these traditional postures with European gymnastics, military-style drills, and the popular physical culture movement of the time. Many of the poses we practice today came out of that blend.
Knowing this doesn’t diminish the value of the poses, but it does caution us against canonizing their forms. Instead, we can look at poses as tools for specific purposes. Small shifts in form change what a pose does, and once we get a sense of that, familiar poses turn into a set of options. We can choose the version that targets the area we’re working on, offer a student a version that fits their body, or pick one that carries our intention for the practice.
In the video below, we look at six reasons to adapt yoga poses and what each one can bring to your practice and teaching.
Yoga Pose Adaptations: Unlock the Hidden Potential of Familiar Poses is a new webinar series that shows you how to get more out of the poses you already know. It is based on a simple premise: yoga poses are tools, and we can use these tools for our own purposes, so that our practices become more precise, more effective, and more purposeful.
The series consists of two webinars, a comprehensive 175-page reference e-book, and twelve sample practices that illustrate different ways to use pose adaptations. You will come away with a deeper understanding of what pose adaptations are and how to use them, plus a large collection of adaptations for yoga poses.
In the first webinar, we explore what makes pose adaptations so powerful. You will learn what superposes and near-supers are, and how to select specific pose variations to adapt the pose to the student’s limitations. We also examine how variations of the same pose can target completely different parts of the body.
In the second webinar, we move into the practical application of the three strategies that guide the choice of pose adaptations: accommodating the student, manifesting your intention for the practice, and getting the most out of the adaptation movement itself.
The webinars teach the reasoning and give you examples. The 175-page reference e-book is what you can keep handy and go back to when you are planning your next yoga practice or wondering what to do about a student who complains about neck tension.
The book covers the theory behind adaptations and features an extensive collection of adaptations for 35 yoga poses. Every pose has a link and a QR code that lead to a webpage with videos of the same pose adaptations.
The series also includes a demonstration practice and eleven additional practices that illustrate different ways to use pose adaptations to affect specific areas of the body, as well as energy, physiology, and mental state.
The Yoga Pose Adaptations: Unlock the Hidden Potential of Familiar Poses webinar series includes 2 webinars, a 175-page reference e-book, and 12 yoga practices.
It is currently available for the introductory price of $79 (regularly $95). This offer expires on October 12, 2026.
