Issue 11: Evolving Yoga Asana With Somatic Muscle Science While Honoring Traditional Somatic Roots
Hello Dear Reader,
Honouring tradition does not require freezing it in time.
When conversations arise about evolving or altering conventional yoga practices, the resistance that surfaces is often deeper than technique. Beneath the stubborn backlash lies a sincere and understandable fear: that by modifying movement or sequencing, we may lose our reverence for yoga’s original teachings. The Chakra System. Ayurveda. The Yamas and Niyamas. Pranayama, mantra, mudra, chanting, ritual. And rightly so. These pillars are not ornamental, they are foundational.
Coming from a ballet background, I understand this tension intimately. I would have questioned any teacher who asked us to perform a full Adage in the center of the room prior to the preparatory barre work. The sequence exists for a reason. But if that order were intentionally modified to serve musculoskeletal functioning and readiness, or injury prevention, I would welcome the new perspective without perceiving it as "sacrilege".
Somewhere along the long lineage of yoga asana and right up to now, a belief took hold that if a pose or sequence is not executed exactly as described in a textbook, its benefits will be lost. That irrational, yet deeply ingrained belief, still lives quietly in our collective subconscious. It appears in rigid rules such as "never allow the knee to pass the toes", or its contradictory counterpart "always allow the knee to pass the toes in Anjaneyasana only". It appears in mandates about breath timing "always inhale as arms rise for Urdhva Hastana", foot placement in Tadasana "always keep the big toes touching and feet in parallel", or "always square the hips in Warrior I" to "never square the hips in Warrior I". The result is-- people stop asking "Why?", stop listening to the feedback from their bodies, stop questioning the authority they have over their own bodies... and begin to dampen their innate felt-sense and intuition.
Belief Systems of Our Time and of Times Past.
It is as if a sacred spell will be broken if we deviate—even when the instructions create pain or compromise the body’s integrity.
As a result, many yoga practitioners continue movements that cause discomfort or injury because they believe that suffering is part of the path, that doing a sequence “correctly” will eventually make them strong, flexible, lean, calm, enlightened. Yet engaging in movement that causes pain teaches the nervous system something else entirely: to ignore sensation. To override interoceptive and exteroceptive feedback. To mistrust the body’s intelligence. To create boundaries. To tighten muscle bracing for protection. Over time, body agency erodes and body-wide sensory-motor amnesia grows defeating the very purpose of a body–mind practice intended to cultivate self-awareness.
Perhaps it's time to ask: What if something was lost in translation?
Yoga asana has never been a singular, fixed method. Across centuries it has evolved through diverse, and often opposing, branches: dynamic flow and regimented stillness, the use of props or their absence, static holds or continuous movement, prescribed sequences or adaptive progression. Vinyasa, Hatha, Ashtanga, Iyengar, Bikram, Yin, Restorative, Kundalini—and the lesser-known yet profoundly influential Vinyasa Krama Yoga, the system that inspires Yoga Somatics Online. Each style serves a purpose. None negate the others.
The Word Somatic Is Trending
"Somatics" is a very broad field
At this moment in time, the word somatic is everywhere—somatic yoga, somatic counselling, somatic movement, even somatic gyms! I hear the word somatic used in colloquial language while on public transit and at dinner parties. Somatic this and that has exploded all over social media and pervades everything from health and wellness to movement arts to business, lifestyle and marketing trends...
But what does the word somatic actually mean?
You'll find many definitions of the word depending on the world that describes a particular story of somatics. Here are a few perspectives on somatics from various disciplines and fields.
The definition of Somatics through the lens of anatomy and science:
Biology: Refers to the living tissues that make up the body itself— cells such as skin, muscle, and organs distinct from germ cells (responsible for reproduction).
Medicine: Describes physical sensations or symptoms that arise in the body, often reflecting how stress, illness, or emotional states are being expressed through bodily experience.
Anatomy: Relates to the body wall: muscles, connective tissue, and skin, differentiating these structures from the visceral organs housed within.
Psychology: Approaches recognizing that lived experience, emotion, and trauma are not only cognitive, but are also held and communicated through the body, making embodiment central to healing.
Neurology: The somatic nervous system governs voluntary movement and conscious sensory awareness, allowing us to move, sense, and respond intentionally within our physical environment.
The definition of Somatics through the lens of body-mind and wellness practices and movement arts :
Somatic: Originates from the Greek word sōma, meaning "body"; Soma: the body as distinct from the soul, mind, or psyche.
Somatic: Derived from the Greek word soma "the body", relates to the body-mind connection and internal sensations and interoception.
Somatic: Relating to the body, as distinct from the mind.
Somatic: A disorder once thought to be “all in the patient's head”.
Somatic: Relating to, or affecting the body as compared to the mind.
Somatics: A term coined by professor and theorist Thomas Hanna, in 1976, that represents a field of movement studies and bodywork that focuses on the internal physical sensations, perceptions, and experiences of the body with the aim to release chronic muscle tension. (I offer 1:1 Coaching in this bodywork)
Somatic Movement Arts: Practices that focus on internal physical sensations and experience rather than external appearance aiming to connect body-mind and improve movement efficiency and performance.
The definition of Somatics through the lens of yoga traditions:
Soma: Derived from the root su "to press/extract", it symbolizes the essential "nectar of the gods" offered in Vedic sacrifices. In Sanskrit, Soma primarily refers to a sacred, intoxicating, drink from the plant it is derived from used in ritual practices.
Soma: Associated with the Vedic deity/moon associated with it, representing nectar, immortality (amrita), and cosmic bliss. Agni is the rising fire— the upward-moving force that awakens from below. Soma is the descending grace— the cooling, nourishing essence that flows from above. In higher yogic practices, Agni is often associated with the awakening of Kundalini, ascending from the root center through the body, while Soma is experienced as the subtle nectar that descends from the thousand-petaled lotus at the crown. This lotus, traditionally linked with the Moon, is described as the seat of Soma, the place where effort gives way to integration, and intensity is met with ease.
Somatics To Awaken Human Potential
Agni and Soma for Personal and Collective Consciousness
Yoga Somatics Online.
I founded Yoga Somatics Online in 2019, just before somatics exploded in mainstream culture. I welcome its popularity, because at its core, somatics is about becoming the best human you can be, awakening the burgeoning personal "Soma" potential while igniting collective potential.
What It's About.
Yoga Somatics Online offers Yoga Alliance-Approved Continuing Education trainings and courses that educate movement teachers and students about muscle science, how tissues hold on to muscle tension patterns through conditioned learning, and how through observation, you can rewire patterns that once served as survival coping mechanisms in order to help you thrive using practices that Retrain Your Brain by recruiting the Somatic Nervous System. It's about working with—not against, the stretch reflex. It's about reshaping the electric fascia matrix organism that you inhabit by changing your form to improve function. It's about becoming aware of how your nervous system learns, adapts, releases, and reorganizes—heightening self-awareness. It's about focussing on how movement feels from the inside out and developing your own perceptions about said feelings and sensations. It's about owning your thoughts, feelings, and actions in order to establish body agency. It's a creative tool for expressive movement to develop contemporary choreography and dance. It's a healing movement modality for releasing emotional and physical trauma. It's a form of bottom-up mental health counselling.
My Mission
My mission as a somatic movement educator and yoga teacher trainer is to share this knowledge in service of collective somatic self-care by deepening Social Interoception. When individuals learn to move, sense, think, and act more consciously, that awareness resonates outward evolving community, culture, and manifesting collective change.
Anatomy Is a Story With New Headlines Every Century
The story of anatomy is not static.
Anatomy evolves with research, lived experience, and cultural context. Yet much of the movement world including fitness, physiotherapy, sports, dance, and yoga alike still relies heavily on static stretching and minimal dynamic exploration. Research now clearly shows that static stretching pulls on muscle tissue, activates the stretch reflex, increases resting muscle tone, and reduces force output. (All the things my Yoga Somatics Teacher Trainings and Courses help to counteract).
Returning to Vinyasa Krama
Why Evolving Asana Is Not Sacrilegious
T.K.V. Krishnamacharya understood this, over 100 years ago.
Known as the “Father of Vinyasa”, Krishnamacharya developed the Vinyasa Krama System, a practice built on dynamic movement between and within poses. His methodology released rigid anatomical thinking and rewrote the narrative and understanding that conscious movement prepares the body, educates the nervous system, and supports the flow of prana, breath, and circulation far more effectively than static holds.
It is often believed that altering conventional yoga asana is fundamentally wrong.
As our understanding of anatomy evolves, movement practices must evolve as well. Yoga asana is a physical practice. And it is also sacred. I hold deep reverence for yoga tradition and profound gratitude for my teachers. What I challenge is not tradition but outdated anatomical narratives that persist and remain unquestioned in many classes today.
In my opinion, Krishnamacharya was a revolutionary.
Tirumali Krishnamacharya Venkata (1888-1989), was a scholar, esteemed Ayurvedic healer and teacher. His students were B.K.S Iyengar (Iyengar), Patabhi Jois (Ashtanga), and his son, T.K.V. Desikachar (Vini Yoga). He broke social norms by teaching across caste, age, health status, and gender, and by permitting Indra Devi, his first female student, to study yoga. In 1947, Devi brought yoga to Hollywood teaching stars such as Greta Garbo and Eva Gabor.
When interest in yoga was waning in India, he preserved it as a living tradition by adapting it to the needs of real bodies. His Vinyasa Krama System integrated dynamic movement, breath, and whole-body pandiculation long before these concepts were validated by neuroscience.
Somewhere along the lineage, more static interpretations of his teachings became concretized, and those methods were later mistaken as "sacred" anatomy itself.
Evolving Asana With Somatic Muscle Science
Dynamic Pandiculation.
Evolving yoga asana through somatic muscle science is not about abandoning form— it is about restoring function through enhanced form. The focus shifts from achieving externally “correct” shapes to cultivating internal sensory-motor awareness. Pandiculation, gentle contraction followed by slow, conscious release, works directly with the brain to dissolve chronic tension patterns. Slow, intentional movement retrains the nervous system, improves mobility, and restores agency without severing yoga from its contemplative roots.
This evolution does not dilute yoga— it deepens it.
Inspired by Krishnamacharya’s pedogogy, I developed Somatic Mobility Drill Sequences (YTT coming soon), Bilateral Somatic Exercises for the Myofascial Meridians (coming soon), Creative Somatic Sequencing Movement Meditation, and Embody Your Core Somatic Self-Myofascial Release and other trainings within Yoga Somatics Online that integrate Vinyasa Krama principles with contemporary somatic muscle science rooted in yoga tradition. These practices support fascia-informed, anatomy-enhanced, creative movement that honours tradition while allowing the body to breathe, adapt, and respond to the human condition as we evolve our form in these times for improved function.
Dissolve To Evolve: One of my mantras/mottos to live by.
Yoga has always evolved. Let us continue that evolution consciously. History repeats itself, and we can stop the hamster wheel by dedicating ourselves to continuously #DissolveToEvolve for the greater good.
I invite you to join a course and begin your own revolutionary somatic self-care practice—one rooted in tradition, guided by science, and led by embodied awareness.
HIT REPLY!
What definition of the story of Somatics do you like most, study, practice, or believe in? Why??
I'd love to know your perspective.
