Ask the Teacher is an advice column that connects Yoga Journal members directly with our team of expert yoga teachers. Every other week, we’ll answer a matter from our readers. Submit your questions here, or drop us a line at asktheteacher@yogajournal.com.

I’m hoping you could have suggestions for the best way to do wheelchair yoga.

—Jodi

We thought this was a great query for Rodrigo Souza. Based in southern Sweden, he teaches adaptive yoga virtually and leads yoga and mindfulness at camps for individuals who have experienced traumatic injuries. Souza prefers the term “adaptive yoga” to “wheelchair yoga” because the previous features a wider range of scholars who can profit, but won’t need or use a wheelchair.

Adapting to a changing body

Originally from Brazil, Souza lived in London where he worked as a DJ before moving to Sweden. He was a climber and had practiced yoga for several years before he suffered a traumatic injury in 2014 that left him paralyzed from the chest down. He delved more deeply into yoga to ease the physical and emotional pain of his injury.

He studied with Matthew Sanford, whom he calls “the jedi of adaptive yoga.” Sanford, who was 13 when he was left paraplegic after an automobile accident, studied with BKS Iyenger and learned adaptations of all of the asana variations. Today, there are a lot of

What’s adaptive yoga?

Adaptive yoga is a technique to make the practice of yoga more accessible to everyone, no matter shape, mobility, or energy level. It’s yoga for folk who’ve a spinal-cord injury, multiple sclerosis, or Parkinson’s, or who’ve experienced a stroke. It’s helpful in adaptive yoga to search out a particular teacher especially for the population.

As a substitute of just showing a flow in a category and having everyone doing the identical thing, an adaptive yoga teacher works along with your disability and along with your ability. We have a look at what you possibly can do.

How is adaptive yoga different?

Along with creating variations of poses to accommodate unique bodies, adaptive yoga teachers create variations in sensations, explains Souza. “We’re going to work with sensations of grounding. We’re going to create a more meditative practice. So we’re more fascinated by the posture experience than the proper physical manifestation of the posture.”

Classes are generally taught in small groups—5 or 6 students at essentially the most—with individuals with the identical condition. That could be very necessary because adaptive yoga students could have different abilities, says Souza. “For instance, I’m paralyzed from the chest down. Should you take someone who has passed through a stroke, they’re going to be a hemiplegic. They’re paralyzed, but they’re paralyzed on either the left side or the fitting side. So the asana variations that work on my body won’t work for them.”

These groups have social advantages as well, Souza says. “Having a disability is a really lonely experience. Once you hang around with folks who’ve passed through the identical thing, you create a natural bond with them.”

What to search for in adaptive yoga classes

A non-disabled person looks for a similar thing anyone else would search for in a yoga class: a teacher who nurtures a way of emotional, physical, and psychological well being. Be willing to search out different classes and different teachers to search out a great fit. There are a lot of virtual class offerings.

You may take classes with people of various abilities in the identical room, nevertheless it’s going to be more difficult for the teacher, Souza says. They should make sure to move the category in the identical direction and make sure that everyone seems to be included. Having assistants to assist deal with every person helps.

Mental health advantages of adaptive yoga

“Yoga teaches you self-compassion; it teaches you self-acceptance,” Souza says. He says yoga has helped him to be “in love with [his] broken body and to just accept it because it is.”  He believes everyone, including individuals with disabilities, must have access to yoga and find a way to practice it.

He named his virtual yoga studio Allihopa, his favorite Swedish word. He says that translates to “everybody, all people, altogether, with one another, with each other.”  It’s a term that aligns with the principles of yoga and with the mission of his work: “to make Yoga accessible for everybody, for everyone, all together, with each other.”

Adaptive yoga resources

If you would like to take adaptive yoga classes or learn more about teaching adaptive yoga, listed below are some resources:

• Through Allihopa Yoga, Rodrigo Souza offers virtual classes on a sliding scale, in addition to a workshop for yoga teachers.
• Matthew Sanford offers classes and workshops through mindbodysolutions.org.  You too can find videos on the Mindbody Solutions YouTube channel, “The Hub.”
• Read Adaptive Yoga by yoga teacher and internal medicine physician Ingrid Yang, MD. She also teaches adaptive yoga classes and conducts teacher trainings virtually and on-site.
• Accessible Yoga offers classes, workshops, and teacher training to all marginalized people, including those that use wheelchairs or produce other physical disabilities. Founder Jivana Heyman also wrote Accessible Yoga: Poses and Practices for Every Body

Got a matter about alignment in a certain yoga pose? Want to higher understand a side of yoga philosophy? Need advice on the best way to approach a difficult situation in your class? Submit your questions here or email us at asktheteacher@yogajournal.com, and we may answer it in an upcoming column.