March 17, 2016 
Let’s talk about hands-on assists because that’s what we spent all of our time on during our Group Session tonight. Hands-on assists are really what help separate CorePower Yoga from any other yoga studio I’ve practiced at. Here’s the reason why hands-on assists exist during CorePower Yoga classes.
In yoga, there a few different ways a teacher can “assist” a student during class. A teacher can give verbal assists by telling their students what to do. This is common in Bikram Yoga studios where the teacher will guide the class entirely by the dialogue while sitting on the podium, located at the front of the room. Teachers can give directional assists when cueing postures by using the words “point,” “right,” “left,” “back of the room,” “front of the room,” etc. Teachers can also give a demonstration assist, which means the teacher demonstrates how to get in and out of a particular posture by doing it themselves in front of all of the students in class.
Then there are physical assists. This is where the teacher will physically touch a student. Physical assists and adjustments are a great way for a teacher to help guide a student into a posture, sink into a posture more deeply or to transfer some feel-good positive energy during class. At CorePower, these are called hands-on assists or adjustments.
At the end of Week Two, we were first introduced to hands-on assists in a lecture and then practiced what we learned on each other in a clinic afterwards. Today, we finished learning about the rest of the hands-on assists available for postures done in a Hot Power Fusion class. Then we had a chance to practice them on each other.
The difference between good and amazing hands-on assist can depend on hand placement and the amount of pressure applied. When it comes to hands-on assists, you need to be mindful of not having “creepy fingers.” It’s important to keep all of the fingers together when necessary or cup them together when it makes sense. You also want to make sure you’re applying the right amount of pressure during an assist. Not enough pressure leaves an adjust feeling just meh and applying too much pressure can hurt. With hands-on assists, it’s all about feeling confident, feeling positive, grounding yourself first, getting just the right amount of pressure and of course practice, practice, practice.
In tonight’s Group Session, I started feeling more comfortable practicing hands-on assists with a partner. At first, it can be nerve wrecking physically touching someone you don’t know that well. Once you realize how helpful hands-on assists can be for alignment and how amazing they feel, you’ll want to practice them more and more.
Still to date, my all-time favorite hands-on assist to receive during a Hot Power Fusion class is during Half Tortoise. During this assist, the teacher will sit on my lower back and then guide me back up by pressing back and down on my hip crease. I really want to master this hands-on assist by the time I start teaching my own classes.
Image Source: CorePower Yoga