We've all been there: You're finding a great flow during yoga class when your teacher asks you to "spiral your thighbones," and you suddenly feel like you need an anatomy lesson. Can thighbones seriously spiral?
TaraMarie Perri, founder and director of the Perri Institute for Mind and Body, a community of teachers and students of yoga studies, says that even the most advanced yoga practitioners have difficulty following some of the more abstract cues. We asked Perri to decode four common ones she hears:
"BREATHE INTO (A BODY PART)."
Translation: "Obviously, you can only breathe air into your lungs," says Perri. But your teacher wants you to try to imagine you're sending your breath into a body part where you might feel tension, such as your shoulders or lower back.
Why you might receive this cue: A teacher might notice that you have a habit of holding tension during certain postures, says Perri. Tension can restrict your range of motion, making it harder for you to properly hold poses. So if a teacher tells you to send your breath to that space, he or she wants to you become aware of that tension so you can release it, says Perri.
"REACH YOUR HEART FORWARD."
Translation: "Open the chest or shoulders," says Perri.
Why you might receive this cue: Everyone knows where his or her heart generally is, says Perri. Particularly for forward-bending or back-bending postures, sending your heart area forward can direct your body to move in the proper direction—it's an easy way to instantly coordinate the curves in your spine, she says.
"MAKE ROOM FOR YOUR JOINTS."
Translation: Stand tall and stretch your hands and feet long, says Perri.
Why you might receive this cue: Because your teacher has noticed that your joints are locked or strained. Perri says there’s a particular tendency to lock or sit into hip, ankle, and knee joints. To give them some space, imagine you’re standing firmly on your foot, stretching your leg as much as possible all the way up to your hip, the same way you would when putting on a pair of tight pants, says Perri.
"IMAGINE YOUR THIGHBONES SPIRALING OUTWARD."
Translation: Properly align your thighbones, depending on the posture, to protect the hips and knees as you deepen into a pose, says Perri.
Why you might receive this cue: A teacher might notice that your legs and hips aren't rotating simultaneously, which is something they need to do for you to find depth or alignment in a pose, says Perri. Anatomically speaking, there are limits to how much you can turn your legs in and out, but Perri says teachers use this image to inspire a larger range of motion or help students imagine the femur's movement potential. "By bringing awareness to the femur or thigh bone, you can affect the leg, hip, and sometimes knee joint with one cue," she says. "We all know what a spiral looks like, even if we don't know what the thighbone or femur (should) look like in the pose."
Hear something else in your practice that you can't quite grasp? Perri says if you have questions or feel like you're missing something important, the best thing you can do is ask your teacher. And if you still feel lost in your current yoga class, it "may be a matter of finding a new teacher that speaks to you in a way you can understand," she says.
More from Women's Health:
3 Yoga Poses You're Probably Doing Wrong
7 Things Your Yoga Teacher Wants to Tell You
13 Signs You're Obsessed with Yoga
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