While a lot of people, especially in modern day society, think that yoga is just a form of fitness, Yoga really is a way of life. Yoga is defined as a Hindu spiritual and physical practice utilizing breathwork, meditation, and physical asanas to promote physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional health.

But what if I told you that some common yoga poses that you might see in almost every mainstream yoga class could be hurting you?

I will be the first to admit that the science of fitness, kinesiology, and movement is constantly evolving. When I first started working out in the 90’s, the common practice was to do static stretching before an intense workout. Today, that’s the last thing you should be doing. And now, more than ever, there’s a huge disagreement in the fitness and yoga community about the best things to do for your body. To foam roll or not to foam roll, dynamic versus static stretching, high impact versus low intensity, even disagreement about what kind of footwear you should be using. The bottom line is, I can’t make a claim that everything I say in this article is FACT. I also make sure to use the word “could” instead of “will” as if you do it correctly, you may not have a negative result. However, I have seen a large percentage of participants incorrectly execute these poses and thus risk injuring hips, back, shoulders, and knees. What I can say is that based on the data, we can come to some conclusions. Sometimes there will be conflicting information and sometimes there will be studies that outright refute claims but that information will often be ignored (cue food pyramid…).

So here you have my Top 5 yoga poses that could be hurting you:

1. Upward Facing Dog (Urdhva Mukha Svanasana)

If you’ve been to a hot yoga class, you have probably done at least half a dozen upward facing dogs throughout your vinyasa. When getting into upward facing dog (see photo) often people will settle into their shoulders and let the weight of their hips drop to the ground. This is an active pose and certain muscles should be engaged while doing this. Protect your shoulders by imagining pressing through the ground and lifting your head and neck toward the sky keeping your eyes straight ahead. Also, press into the floor with the tops of your feet engaging your quadriceps muscles and avoid hyperextending your low back by “dropping” your hips toward the floor. When I am cued into upward facing dog, I usually choose to perform a cobra (see photo) where I remove any pressure from my hands and take this moment to improve lower back strength.

2. Pigeon Pose (Eka Pada Rajakapotasana)

This might make me unpopular because I know A LOT of people who absolutely love pigeon pose. But just because something feels good doesn’t make it good for you. So why could pigeon pose be bad for you? More often than not, I see students “settle” into this pose or even worse, “collapse” into the pose. Essentially what is happening when we are sinking into pigeon pose is that we are shutting down the glute muscle, an already predominantly weak muscle in most modern Americans bodies. Why? We are constantly in hip flexion and constantly weakening the glute muscle as a result by how much sitting we do on a daily basis. Pigeon pose also forces us outside of our normal range of motion. This also puts a tremendous amount of stress on our knee join. Instead of pigeon, consider turning on your back and performing a figure four. While in this figure 4, make sure you are not pushing past your normal range of motion by activating the external hip rotators.

3. Bird of Paradise (Svarga Dvijasana)

Yes, this pose looks cool AF when done correctly but your average person walking around (including me) can’t get into the correct position to execute this properly. Honestly, anyone who is physically able to get into this position may have issues with hypermobility which may cause them to not be activating the appropriate stabilizing muscles in order to do it safely. This pose can be problematic for the hips, knees, and mostly the shoulders as it causes pulling on the shoulder joint creating stress on the connective tissue. I don’t even have an alternative for this…just don’t do it. In a class when others are doing bird of paradise (and it should always be optional) I always opt to stay in a side angle with a possible half bind (see photo).

Bird of Paradise (cool AF until you faceplant)

4. Monkey (Hanumanasana)

Monkey pose is basically a split. Yeah, that thing you might have been able to do back in junior high school. I haven’t been able to do a split in over 30 years but knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t want to. Splits can be seriously problematic for hypermobile folks who collapse into the pose without any care for the stress it puts on the ligaments and faschia. Remember, never go past your normal range of motion. While you are within your normal range of motion, consider focusing on contracting and engaging the opposing muscle groups. Opt for a supported half split with a gentle bend in the front knee focusing NOT on the stretch of the hamstring but the contracting of the quadricep muscle. Consider adding blocks under your hands for added support. Remember range of motion is only good when your muscles can support you in that range of motion.

5. Child’s Pose (Balasana)

Oh boy, I can hear the hate mail dinging in my inbox. But seriously, I have nothing against child’s pose. And it’s one of my favorites. However, I do think that child’s pose is overused because it feels so good. But remember, just because it feels good, doesn’t mean it’s good for you. My biggest complaint with child’s pose is that MANY people use it to help with back pain. And while it may feel good while you’re in it, it isn’t giving you what you probably need. More often than not, back pain is a result of an imbalance in muscle strength. Often it’s the weakened glutes that are the culprit. Consider doing a couple rounds of bridge pose (focusing on the contraction of your glutes and less on the opening of your hips)

A big thank you to both Yogi Aaron and Dr. Lauren Shelton. Yogi Aaron was my yoga instructor for my RYT200 training and has opened my eyes to the negative effects of stretching and through his book, Stop Stretching, has really guided me in my own practice as well as spreading the word of AYAMA (Applied Yoga Anatomy and Muscle Activation). Dr. Lauren has also been an incredible guide helping yogis build a stronger and more stable yoga practice and provides incredible videos on her instagram channel to assist those with chronic pain, muscle imbalance, and hypermobility. Both Aaron and Lauren have inspired me to write this article! Thank you for all you do.