Good Morning Melissa,

Living in a ski town, yoga teachers here unfortunately see a lot of spinal fusions. One of my good Yoga Teacher friends happens to be a PT and a Yoga Teacher who had spinal fusion surgery due to her competitve ski racing days and she has an amazing practice! I picked her brain on this subject a few years ago and her best advice to me as a teacher was – “Toys!” Lot’s and lots of props! Blocks, blankets, bolsters; anything that can provide stability from a different angle or approach that then, can allow the student to focus on engaging their core; so they can move comfortably into a back bend is helpful. Also, play with the idea of offering the student to shift their focus of where the back bend should be. For example, if a Lumbar back bend is out of the question due to fusion; can they alternatively go into more of a thoracic version? These are definitely the moments where our creativity as yoga teachers gets tested but I find they’re also where we get to help out students shine; no matter what body their in. 🙂

Warm Regards,

Shannon

Hi Rachel,

This may be a bit late; but I’m probably one of the “weird” teachers who love to teach this pose as I find once students truly land the pose it can be very beneficial. And it is the gateway pose to harder inversions such handstand and pincha.

I’m with Emily – always start them at the wall if they’re new to the asana. Secondly, I like to ask them if they have any neck issues at all. If not, I actually prefer to teach them tripod headstand first; simply because if you think about the trianganglar foundation of the head and the hands as your foundation; it’s a much bigger foundation than that of classical headstand (smaller triangle) and can provide a new student more stability when first learning. If they have neck issues; that can be a whole new topic line if you ask me; so we’ll roll with no for now.

1) Build the Foundation – Head placement, hands should be the same width as their shoulders, and the most important part is to integrate the shoulds – so arms at a 90 degree angle, with shoulder blades firm on their back; I tell them “pull their elbows back towards the wall” to create the 90 degree angle. The foundation is the most important part so if they can’t master this it will be difficult for them to progress forward.

2. Assume the “Potato Sack” – They can now place one knee at a time onto their forearms and see if they can lift one foot at a time and find a nice balance. This is a good stopping to check in and observe if they have any neck pain. If neck pain; come down.

3. Extend to a Stag Headstand but provide an exit strategy – If they feel balanced; and Emily is so right here; they have to learn to use their TVA to tilt their pelvic bone over their hips, and lock their TVA down. Begin to extend one leg straight up, pressing through the arch of their foot. If they begin to get the wobblies the bottom knee is still connected to their forearm and they can simply extend their foot that’s only 6″ away from the ground and exit out. If they’re rocking it; they can slide the other foot up to meet the top one and – voila!

If they master the stag; then they can work both feet at the same time from the Potato sack, and as their confidence increases in being upside down; you can start to work the Classical version with kicking up, and eventually no wall at all.

Hope this helps! 🙂

Warm Regards,

Shannon