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When I was new to teaching yoga and feeling the responsibility of keeping my students safe for the first time, I read countless articles and social media posts outlining the potential hazards of certain poses.
These usually included concerns around the safety of the neck in Headstand (Sirsasana) and Shoulderstand (Sarvangasana) and the shoulder in Wild Thing (Camatkarasana). Even the staple, Chaturanga Dandasana, became suspect when I saw it referred to as a “shoulder shredder.”
So as my list of “dangerous poses” grew, I either eliminated certain postures from my sequences entirely or taught textbook alignment by sharing an overwhelming amount of detail to protect my students from possible risk.
But as the years went on, I saw plenty of students in other yoga classes practicing controversial poses without issues. At the same time, I witnessed students experience discomfort even when practicing “proper” alignment in poses commonly considered safe.
As I delved deeper into my study of anatomy, movement, and pain science, I began to question my logic regarding yoga poses to avoid. Eventually, I came to realize that poses aren’t objectively “safe” or “unsafe.”
My list of “dangerous” poses changed to reflect a new perspective: you can’t label a pose as safe or unsafe without considering who is practicing it. Each movement or position varies in its potential risks and rewards for each individual, depending on their anatomical proportions, experience with yoga, injuries, and current capacity. Each pose has potential downsides, no matter how unlikely to occur, and sometimes it simply isn’t worth it, especially when you have plenty of other options to draw on instead.
Following is my current logic when I’m assessing which yoga poses to avoid or to include in class.
Yoga Poses to Avoid Teaching
1. Poses Where the Risks Outweigh the Rewards
Just because the most extreme poses work for some students some of the time doesn’t mean that each pose is equally appropriate for every student.
For example, you wouldn’t hesitate to modify your sequence to reflect the needs of pregnant students by offering alternatives to deep closed twists, big backbends, or strong anterior abdominal work. Likewise, if you’re teaching mainly seniors, where the incidence of osteoporosis is higher than in younger populations, it makes sense to minimize your use of rounded spine forward folds. Or when your class is pitched at athletes who prize strength or speed over range of motion, it wouldn’t make sense to include poses that require extreme range of motion like front splits (Hanumanasana), wheel (urdhva dhanurasana) or leg behind the head pose (eka pada sirsasana).
Each individual can and will make their own decisions. But as a teacher, your responsibility is to build your sequences around poses that reflect the needs of the majority of your students. That means avoiding poses and practices that hold unnecessary risk for your student base, as well as being ready to help manage the potential down-sides of more widely appropriate poses like demoing supportive use of props and more accessible variations or alternatives.
2. Poses You Don’t Understand
It’s impossible to appreciate the risks and rewards of a pose you don’t completely understand—in terms of knowing it in your own body and appreciating, in an intellectual sense, the skills, qualities, and anatomical proportions required to practice it competently.
For example, you can’t anticipate the discomfort that students with low back pain experience in Bird of Paradise (Svarga Dvidasana), for example, if you don’t appreciate the load that lifting the bound leg places on the structures of the low back.
Without that kind of knowledge, it’s also difficult to know how to scale the challenge through variations or props. To teach Dancer Pose (Natarajasana) with an overhead bind in a way that’s accessible to an all-levels class, for example, you need to understand that students could be hampered by lack of stability (and would benefit from holding the wall or a chair) as well as by lack of flexibility in shoulders, spine, and hips (in which case the option of using a strap to link hand to foot is key).
You don’t need to know the minutiae of every single pose. However, your classes should be built around poses you do understand, in your own body and in your mind. Especially if your sequence builds to a peak pose or repeats a pose several times, it’s crucial that you are ready to support your students in whatever challenges may arise, whether that means offering multiple versions of that pose or a relevant alternative to it.
3. Poses That Require Props You Don’t Have
You can teach pretty much anything if you know how to scale its difficulty with support from props. That starts with having sufficient props to equip each student, but it also means knowing how to use those props to offer an accessible version of your pose to every student.
Splits or Monkey Pose (Hanumanasana), for example, can be accessible to almost anyone, even athletes with the tightest hamstrings, with blocks under their hands and perhaps a bolster supporting the back thigh. Arm binds can become an option for anyone, no matter what a student’s proportions or shoulder tightness, when using a strap. Balance poses are achievable when practiced alongside a chair or wall for stability. Even Shoulderstand can place less load on the neck with folded blankets stacked beneath students’ shoulders.
If you teach exclusively in well-equipped studios, the issue of prop scarcity may never arise. But chances are at some point, you may be teaching in a gym, community or corporate space, or outdoor area where props are sparse. Online classes can also be challenging when you aren’t sure what props students have at home.
On these occasions, it’s good practice to offer only the poses that the majority of your students will find manageable without props and offer alternatives for the remaining students.
There’s no such thing as a universally unsafe yoga pose. Each one has its pros and cons, depending on the person practicing it. As a teacher, it’s not your job to keep every student “safe.” It is your responsibility to create classes that are appropriate to the people in the room, take into account the props and supports available, and reflect your own knowledge, skill and experience.
