{"id":5397,"date":"2015-02-02T17:31:03","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T22:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theyogimovement.com\/?p=5397"},"modified":"2016-10-20T23:39:33","modified_gmt":"2016-10-21T03:39:33","slug":"props-love-em-hate-em","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theyogimovement.com\/props-love-em-hate-em\/","title":{"rendered":"Props. Love &#8217;em or hate &#8217;em?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Do you have a love-hate relationship with props? Do they help or hinder your practice?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">I&#8217;ve had teachers that will not allow them, and then I see highly respected teachers like David Garrigues encourage the use of them.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Check out this video. He has his student working on dropbacks. He has him use the wall, then a block, and then a prop to even tie behind his back!<\/span><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2bW94ds4RE4\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Ok \u2026 so how do we know?<\/strong> &nbsp;<\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">How do we know if we are cheating or deepening our practice? &nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>SO hard to know, right?!?<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">I&#8217;m dedicated to how I was taught (the no props version), but&nbsp;there have been times I&#8217;ve rebelled and tried&nbsp;practicing with props. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">I think I came up with my own Ashtanga(fied) solution for this, and here&#8217;s what I think<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">First thing to remember: <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Everyone is different.<\/span>&nbsp;<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This is SUPER SUPER important.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">I certainly can&#8217;t pretend to know what&nbsp;YOU feel like in YOUR body (or mind for that matter)! I can only speak from my own experience.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Second thing to remember:<\/span> <span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #000000;\">Everything we do should be to deepen our practice.<\/span><\/strong> <span style=\"color: #000000;\">I mean this spiritually and physically.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">I&#8217;ve had instances where using a prop really helped deepen my practice. I&#8217;ve also experienced certain props being completely restricting and limiting on learning a posture.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><strong>Examples of how I&#8217;ve deepened my practice with props:<\/strong><\/span>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A. <a title=\"Asana Lab: Yoga Is Not Meant To Be Beautiful, It\u2019s Meant To Be Real!\" href=\"https:\/\/theyogimovement.com\/2014\/03\/03\/yoga-is-not-meant-to-be-beautiful-its-meant-to-be-real\/\">Pasasana:<\/a> <span style=\"color: #000000;\">When I roll up the mat to practice, so that I can rest my heels, I can really work on the twist to find out where I&#8217;m constricted, and deepen it. &nbsp;This gives me the opportunity to keep my balance so that I can create awareness in other areas.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">B. When I do&nbsp;backbends with my hands against the wall, I&#8217;m able to deepen my backbend by seeing&nbsp;how far I could walk my feet in. <em>This is an extra backbend I sometimes add in when I have extra energy.&nbsp;<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">These two examples above give me the opportunity to really isolate parts of my body, so that I could gain some awareness. Then, I can work on the posture without a <em>prop<\/em> later using the same awareness &#8211; and knowing exactly where to work. <em>I also encourage my students to do this in specific postures when they&#8217;re practicing at home.&nbsp;<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><strong>Example of how props have restricted my practice:&nbsp;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">One posture I struggle with (big time) is Supta Kurmasana. I&#8217;ve tried using a towel between my hands with the objective of pulling the hands towards each other, but this is a complete hinderance.&nbsp;The act of my hands gripping the towel or strap change the dynamic in which my shoulders move. I am not able to move or open my shoulders. When my hands grasp the strap, it&#8217;s like they freeze.&nbsp;<em>I&#8217;ve also seen that become a habit with people who can&#8217;t bind. They automatically grab for the strap vs. trying to open the chest and shoulders.&nbsp;<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The purpose IS to open, <em>and NOT&nbsp;just use a prop to mimic the posture.<\/em> This would be an example where a prop DOES NOT&nbsp;deepen the practice.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Let&#8217;s Define Prop:<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A prop can be anything, but <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">when these items are used to create&nbsp;awareness&nbsp;and deepen our practice, they no longer become props.<\/span><\/span><\/em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&nbsp;They&#8217;re only really props if you are dependent on them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>We just have to change our mindset about it.<\/strong> It&#8217;s like having a teacher guide&nbsp;you into a posture except this is just a physical object to assist you.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">If you need to use a guide (not prop) to help you open and understand what&#8217;s going on in your body, or maybe to assist you through an injury, then do it!&nbsp;Make sure you&#8217;re always returning to normal practice, so you can put into practice what you learned.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Just don&#8217;t bring one of these into a Mysore shala! That might be a bad idea. <em>At least discuss with your teacher first.&nbsp;<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Your Homework <em>(Yay, adult homework time!)<\/em>:<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">1. When you&#8217;re practicing at home this week, pay attention to the posture you&#8217;re struggling with the most. If you&#8217;ve been using a prop, I challenge you lose it and see how it changes your practice. Are you able to deepen the posture more without the prop?&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">If you haven&#8217;t been using props, I challenge you to find a way to use one with your most difficult posture to create more awareness and deepen your practice.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">2. In the comments below, tell me how you&#8217;ve used props and your experience with them. Need advice, leave a comment!&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">3. Check out this page of props on<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/1BJpqY1\">Yoga Outlet<\/a>. <span style=\"color: #000000;\">Are there any that you think would help deepen your practice? Tell me how!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you have a love-hate relationship with props? Do they help or hinder your practice? I&#8217;ve had teachers that will not allow them, and then I see highly respected teachers like David Garrigues encourage the use of them.&nbsp; Check out this video. He has his student working on dropbacks. He has him use the wall, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[288],"tags":[289,313],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.9.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Are Yoga Props Good or Bad in Yoga Practice?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Do yoga props help or hinder your yoga practice? It can do both, but they shouldn&#039;t be discounted completely. 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