Angelica GovaertOwner/Founder, Yogalebrity · Online Yoga Empire Builder

Do not bend your knees, no matter what that bad yoga teacher tells you. If you bend your knees, you

10 Dec 2022 · 2 min

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1:32

In this one‑minute teacher‑training clip, the instructor demonstrates how to use a strap to deepen a forward fold without telling students to bend their knees. He explains that bending the knees prevents hamstring lengthening, so instead students should press the backs of their legs into the floor, which naturally engages the quadriceps and may lift the heels. The instructor shows how to place the strap on the opposite side of the feet, warns against pulling the strap too tightly (which tightens the upper body), and recommends a gentle grip. He pairs the movement with breath cues—inhale to lengthen the spine, exhale to bend the elbows and fold—emphasizing a safe, progressive stretch that can eventually allow toe‑touching. The video ends with a call to follow for more yoga teacher tips.

Chapters

Here's your 1-minute yoga teacher training. Today we're going to talk about straps in forward fold. A huge mistake that a lot of yoga teachers make is they tell their students to bend their knees if they can't touch their toes in a forward fold. And the problem with that is that you will not ever be able to touch your toes if you don't lengthen out those hamstrings. So instead, I teach students to press the back of the legs into the ground. You'll see what happened there is that my heels actually lift it off of the ground because now I've engaged my quadriceps and all of my legs. I'm going to take this strap and I'm going to bring it on the other side of my feet. Another mistake that people make is that they'll take that strap— they'll take that strap and they'll just wrap that around them really hard, wrapping it around, and just pull really tight. What happens when we pull really tight is now we're tightening our upper body, and that's not what we want to do either. We want want to have a really gentle forward fold. So loosely holding on to the strap, pressing the backs of the legs into the ground. Inhale, lengthen the spine, and exhale, bend your elbows as you fold forward. So now we're really still feeling this on the back of the leg and on our lower back, getting a really nice stretch as we begin to lengthen to the point where we can actually touch our toes one day. I would love it if you lit up that follow button for more yoga teacher tips.