By Allison Ray Jeraci
Photo by Andrea Killam
Yoga International
When it comes to propping poses, I always ask myself, “Why prop?” The answer is never simple, and it always depends on my objective for practicing or teaching an asana.
With challenging, seemingly inaccessible poses, one answer would be to use props simply to get into them. However, that answer can be incomplete, because I often find props valuable even when I don’t need them to access a pose. Props can help me build body awareness and endurance, understand new aspects of an asana, or concentrate on very specific actions over a longer period of time than I could if I were trying to sustain myself in the pose unsupported.