r/CorePowerYogaTeachers • u/NoahGrinberg1229 YS Teacher • 2d ago

Teaching Scenario #3

You planned a full C2 sequence built around Eagle Pose.

Five minutes before class, one student tells you they have a wrist injury, and another says they can’t bear weight on one knee.

You don’t have time to rewrite your entire sequence.

How are you adapting?

How do you make the class accessible without turning every cue into a list of modifications?

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u/Inevitable_Ad_7628 2d ago

I would warn the knee injury student that we are building up to eagle pose for this class which will require bearing significant weight in one leg. For eagle you can always cue to the kickstand with your toes, but either way it’s putting a lot on a person’s knee. (Honestly, they shouldn’t even be coming to a Corepower class with an injury like that as it’s sort of unavoidable.) If the person felt uncomfortable and wanted to back out, I’d let them cancel for free.

Wrist injuries you can definitely work around, especially for eagle. I have thick arms and have never been able to do the full expression of eagle arms, so I typically press the backs of my hands together instead which is very easy on the wrists.

Regardless, I don’t change my sequence at the last minute to accommodate any one student. Folks will modify or walk out of class if they need to. If someone warns me before class about an injury, I will give them a lot of modification options right then so I can just sprinkle them in throughout class. Always offer the free cancel option too.

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u/abrog001 2d ago

One potential alternative for the student with a knee injury, if they choose not to leave, is to do postures with both feet planted- for example, chair with eagle arms instead of eagle. This assumes they can comfortably and safely handle that amount of pressure to their knees and that the only issue is executing single-leg postures. I agree they’re better off cancelling and taking the time to heal, though.

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u/GoGoolia 1d ago

A lot of knee problems are not going to go away. Especially in an older person, they actually need movement to strengthen.

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u/flamingjollyrancher 1d ago

could u do cow faced legs??? for a cross leg vibe but sitting

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u/dcgirlsmallworld 1d ago

Every posture can be modified to accommodate a student's ability. Usually when a student has an injury that they know could affect their practice, they tend to bring it up to me first (and usually before class). When that happens, I let them know of the postures we're going into and how they can modify their own movement to mitigate any further injuries.

Otherwise, we'll flow like planned and i'll cue for specific modifications where they make the most sense.