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Hey Reader,

Back in 2005, when I was in my very first yoga teacher training, I remember being told that your knee could never, ever, ever go past your ankle.

Not only was that "bad alignment" but it could do serious damage to your knee.

Since I did not want to do harm to any of my students, I took that advice to heart. I was super careful about knee alignment, whether in a low lunge or warrior 2 or chair pose. I was vigilant about knee alignment.

As I became a more experienced teacher and did more anatomy trainings, I started to question the logic of this.

I also started listening to non-yoga teachers -- movement professionals in other modalities like strength training and physical therapists, mobility coaches and dancers. Most of them had a completely different take on alignment.

The key is in the context. Making blanket statement about ideal alignment isn't helpful. Getting specific about the action, when it's being done, and whose body is doing it, matters significantly.

This leads me to my Movement Snack this week.

Movement Snack this week:

This month in my online studio, MOVE with Naomi, we're focusing on Anjaneyansa, a low lunge.

This is one of those poses in which your knee can actually go past your ankle and for most folks, it's not dangerous or injurious or bad alignment.

I actually made a really quick video for my YouTube channel, walking you through the basics of the pose in less than 4 minutes. Check it out here:

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I'm teaching this pose all month long in MOVE, looking for all of the different aspects of anjaneyasana to guide the flows, poses, and focus. This past week, we focused on quads and building into camel pose.

This quick video is a tiny taste of what that class sounded like:

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I give a little instruction about the lunge/camel transition, as well as important actions in camel pose to keep your low back happy. And this video is about being ok with a messy practice vs a perfect one.

Want to spend this month working on your low lunge?

I can help with that. If you join MOVE, you'll get access to weekly live classes, all of which feature anjaneyasana. And you'll get access to all of the pre-recorded classes for the month, too. Oh and a monthly calendar which will give you a daily practice all geared toward stronger legs and a healthy spine. Join MOVE to get access to those classes! Use coupon code COMMUNITY2 to get 80% off your first month.

If you want to test out my classes, the best way to do that is by dropping in on Wednesdays for my creative flow class at 12pm ET. You don't have to come every week, but in order to get into these classes you have to sign up for the weekly reminder emails that I send every Tuesday, which also gives you a preview of the flow! Sign up here.

Question of the week:

Are you seeing signs of spring blooming? what's your favorite early spring bloom? I'll tell you mine, when you tell me yours!

I look forward to hearing about your favorite early spring blooms and hopefully seeing you on the mat soon, too!

Warmly,

Naomi

Want to stay in touch during the week? Here are a 2 easy ways:

​Follow me on Bluesky, where I share daily movement practices as acts of resistance, connection, and strength.

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***It would also personally mean a lot to me if you supported my work on substack. I had a big goal when I started my substack. I thought 100 people from this list would happily pay to read my writing. Turns out I was off by 98 people.

Although I have slowly built it over the past 18 months, I’d really love to hit 50 by my birthday (April 7th) with the larger goal of 100 by the end of 2025. I’m currently sitting at 48 subscribers, inching closer slowly. Subscriptions are $5/month or $50/year. If supporting independent writers and artists is important to you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to my substack.