Yoga Props Aren't Just for Modifications: Rethinking How We Use Props in Yoga

6 days ago
5 min read

When you think about yoga props, what comes to mind?

Maybe it's putting a block under your hand when you can't reach the floor. Using a strap when you can't reach your foot. Sitting on a blanket when your hips feel tight. Or grabbing a bolster when you want more support.

These are all incredibly valuable ways to use props. Making a practice more accessible is important, and I never want to minimize that.

But somewhere along the way, I started asking a different question:

What else can props teach us?

That question has completely changed the way I use props in both my personal practice and my teaching.

What If the Yoga Prop Isn't There to "Help"?

There's an assumption we sometimes make in yoga that using a prop means making something easier. But what happens when we use a prop to make something harder?

Put a resistance band around the thighs and suddenly the muscles responsible for hip abduction have something to work against.

Place a block between the thighs and now there's feedback for hip adduction.

Press a foot into a wall and you may suddenly feel muscular engagement that was difficult to find without that external feedback.

The prop hasn't modified the pose. It has changed the experience of it. And that distinction is really important.

Props Can Help Us Experience Anatomy

Anatomy can be intimidating for yoga teachers.

We learn the names of muscles. We memorize joint actions. We study origins and insertions. We learn that the hip can flex, extend, abduct, adduct, and rotate.

But knowing that hip abduction means moving the thigh away from the midline doesn't necessarily mean we understand how to teach someone to experience it.

That's where I think props can become incredibly powerful. Rather than telling a student which muscle they're supposed to be using, what if we create an environment that gives them an opportunity to discover the action themselves?

A resistance band can provide something to push against.

A block can give us something to squeeze.

A strap can create resistance.

A wall can provide feedback.

A blanket can change friction.

A bolster can change our relationship to gravity.

Suddenly anatomy isn't just something we're talking about. It's something we're experiencing.

From Cueing to Creating Experiences

As teachers, it can be tempting to solve a movement problem by saying more.

Engage this.

Press that.

Rotate here.

Lift there.

But adding another cue doesn't necessarily create understanding. Sometimes we can create a much clearer learning experience by changing the environment instead.

Imagine you're teaching a class with hip abduction as your physical through-line. You know you eventually want students to experience that action in a more complex peak pose. You could simply tell them to engage their hip abductors. Or you could give them a resistance band and let them experience what happens when they actively press their legs apart.

Now they have feedback.

They have resistance.

They have sensation.

And most importantly, they have an experience they can refer back to later.

When you eventually remove the band and ask for that same action in another pose, you're not asking them to understand an abstract instruction. You're asking them to remember something they've already experienced. That's a very different way of teaching.

Props Can Create Contrast

One of my favorite ways to teach is through contrast. Try something one way. Notice. Change one variable. Try it again. Notice. What changed?

Maybe we practice a pose without a prop and then add one. Maybe we use the prop for resistance first and then remove it. Maybe we change where the prop is placed. The goal isn't necessarily for one version to be "better." The difference itself is the lesson.

When students have an opportunity to compare experiences, they begin gathering information about their own bodies. And that's where yoga becomes much more interesting to me. I'm no longer telling you exactly what you're supposed to feel. I'm creating an opportunity for you to notice what you do feel.

The Prop Isn't the Point

This may sound strange coming from someone who created an entire training called Prop Lab, but the props aren't really the point. The learning is. I don't want teachers to memorize 100 creative ways to use a yoga block any more than I want them to memorize 100 anatomy facts. I want teachers to understand the why behind what they're doing.

Before adding a prop, we can ask:

What am I trying to teach?

What action do I want students to explore?

What kind of feedback might help them experience it?

Could resistance make this action clearer?

Could support allow them to explore something they otherwise couldn't?

Could changing the setup create useful contrast?

And perhaps my favorite question:

What am I trying to help my students notice?

Once we start there, the possibilities become almost endless.

This Is Svadhyaya in Practice

There is another reason this approach feels so connected to yoga for me. Svadhyaya is the practice of self-study. We sometimes think of self-study as something that happens through journaling, meditation, philosophy, or reflection. But our movement practice can also become a laboratory for self-study.

What happens when I push here?

What changes when I resist there?

What do I notice when I remove the prop?

Does this feel different on my right side than my left?

Does more range of motion actually feel better?

Do I need more mobility here, or would more strength and stability change my experience?

There isn't always one correct answer. The practice is in noticing. The more opportunities we give students to notice their own experience, the more agency they have within their practice.

Stop Teaching Poses. Start Creating Learning Experiences.

This idea has been developing in my teaching for years, particularly through my work mentoring yoga teachers and exploring anatomy, sequencing, physical through-lines, and peak actions with Chromatic Yoga. Eventually, I realized I wanted to create an entire training around it.

And that's how Prop Lab: Yoga Props for Anatomy, Biomechanics & Creative Teaching came to be. Prop Lab is a self-paced online training for yoga teachers and curious practitioners who want to experience anatomy and movement, not just memorize it.

We move through the body from the ground up, exploring joint actions and biomechanics through hands-on experiments using blocks, straps, blankets, bolsters, walls, chairs, resistance bands, and more.

The training includes 80+ guided movement explorations and 100+ creative prop applications, but my hope isn't that you finish the course with a giant list of prop tricks. I want you to finish with a different way of thinking. I want you to be able to look at the movement you're teaching, identify what you want your students to explore, and begin creating learning experiences of your own.

Prop Lab is completely self-paced, includes lifetime access and 25 continuing education hours, and is available to yoga teachers as well as curious practitioners who want to understand their own movement more deeply.