What can do some of the heavy lifting for me?

Yoga is an activity where leverage can make or break the experience. Without it, class will feel like a sweaty, uphill battle.

But by using the right tools, both internal and external, students can learn how to locate the support they need to find the balance between ease and effort. This ultimately lessens their learning curve and makes for a more enjoyable practice.

Here are several examples from my own practice.

*Pushing your hand against the wall for leverage creates a stronger opening in your torso.
*Sitting on a block for leverage positions your spine for optimal angle for greater traction and stretching.
*Holding the sides of your mat for leverage makes it easier to lift up your hips.
*Pressing your front hand into floor and away from you gives you leverage to move deeper into the twist.
*Leaning your feet into the mirror creates the leverage to strengthen a rounded back.
*Placing your fingers behind your foot and using your thumb to absorb the weight gives the rest of your body leverage to balance and maneuver.

All of these examples have one thing in common. Find the support you need to do some of the heavy lifting for you, freeing you up to focus on specific moves.

Even if you’re not a yoga practitioner, this is still a powerful strategy for increasing your return on any experience. You have to train yourself to always be looking around at your immediate environment and asking, okay, what can do some of the heavy lifting for me?

Now, if you’re concerned that doing so makes you exploitative and manipulative, you’re right. It does. And there’s nothing wrong with either of those two words. To exploit means to use to the fullest extent allowable, and to manipulate means to handle or control in skillful manner.

Look, if that allows you to provoke greater joy and fulfillment from your experience, and it’s not negatively impacting other people, then it’s absolutely worth doing. After practicing yoga for more than a dozen years, not a single instructor has ever come over to my mat and scolded me for using myself, the wall, the floor, or physical props to deepen my practice.

Because they understand that we all take our leverage wherever we can get it.

And such is life. Ever seen a horse scratching his butt with a tiny tree? Same thing.

We all do what we have to do. No regrets, no shame.

What tool can you utilize to move heavier objects with significantly less effort?