Olga Kabel- The Origin of Misalignment in Yoga: Common Compensations in Backbends and How to Avoid Them

Perfect alignment in yoga poses used to be the Holy Grail of yoga practice. Today, however, the concept of alignment has come under fire in the yoga community for attempting to fit people into “one size fits all” expressions of the pose.

There’s more to the concept of alignment than that, however, says yoga therapist Olga Kabel, founder of Sequence Wiz.

We all come to yoga with baggage of past experiences and habits, which influence how we sit, how we stand, how we walk, and so on. So, when we practice yoga, our body will assume it’s usual movement patterns. This will cause us to avoid working in certain areas that are weak, and instead transfer the demands of the pose into another area of the body.

This is what is often referred to as release valves, or movement compensations, and it is the origin of most common misalignments in yoga poses.

For each directional movement of the spine, Olga explains, there is a list of pretty typical release valves. It’s important for yoga teachers and students to learn these, so you will know what can potentially happen with your neck or lower back, so you can check yourself or your students to make sure that you’re not falling into those habitual movement patterns. Hear Olga explain how we can self-identify these release valves and correct them so you can enjoy all the benefits of backbending while avoiding the drawbacks.

Olga Kabel is a founder and managing director of Sequence Wiz - a web-based yoga sequence builder that assists yoga teachers and yoga therapists in creating and organizing yoga practices.