Back in ‘ancient times’ when yoga was first being practiced there were no props.
The only prop was the body itself.
In fact, Iyengar’s eponymous book, Light on Yoga, first published in 1966, includes hundreds of images of Iyengar in yoga poses, and there is not one prop in the book - except for a wooden box that he’s seated on in the last pose of the book.
Even the yoga mat was only ‘invented’ as recently as 1982, when an English yoga teacher called Angela Farmer got fed up with her hands and feet slipping on the floor and went to buy some carpet underlay - the very first yoga mat.
So why does Iyengar yoga use props?
BKS Iyengar was a perfectionist and when he started his yoga practice he was recovering from a long childhood illness. He looked around him for ways to access the poses without hurting himself. The props we use use today are based on the simple objects Iyengar found lying around the house or in the street.
Iyengar explains why he introduced props into his practice first, and then his teaching when he realised the benefits:
I was preoccupied trying various ways to improve and perfect my own practice. I used to pick up stones and bricks lying on the roads and used them as ‘supports’ and ‘weight bearers’ to make progress in my mastery of āsana…
As his teaching progressed, he realised the value of props, and pioneered the use of props in restorative and therapeutic yoga.
What are the most common yoga props?
The first yoga prop was probably the brick. Initially just a sawn-off bit of wood, these were used to assist the lift of the shoulders in headstand to reduce pressure on the neck. Gradually, the bricks were standardised and evolved into the cork or foam bricks we use today.
Now, if you visit an equipped Iyengar yoga studio you’ll find:
Mats, blocks, bricks, belts, bolsters, blankets, bandages, slanted planks, setu bandha bench, tressler, ropes, rope walls, chairs and more.
What do I need to practice Iyengar yoga?
While props are important in Iyengar yoga, they’re not essential. The lockdowns of the past couple of years taught us to improvise with our yoga props, just as Iyengar did all those years ago.
However, if you’re starting out as a yoga student, it’s really helpful to get your own props so that you can practice safely at home, as well as taking them to classes if needed.
Your starter props kit would consist of:
1 mat, 4 blocks, 2 bricks, 1 belt and 1 blanket
The blanket is possibly optional, but I find a blanket will be used in one way or another in most classes, under the head in savasana, or on top of the blocks in shoulderstand, and for restorative sessions it can be folded and placed over the blocks to stand in for a bolster.
And once you have your own props it encourages you to practice at home - where the real yoga happens.
The final yoga prop which is used in most yoga practices is a chair. Find a folding chair and keep it handy. Israeli yoga teacher Eyal Shifroni has written two books full of ways you can use a chair to deepen your yoga practice.
What your props are used for:
MAT - A large part of yoga is to improve our proprioception – the awareness of the body in space. Having a mat means that we can work out where to place our feet, to align the edges of our feet with the edges of the mat, to be in the centre of the mat in Tadasana and so on. It places the body in space. Mats also give a sticky surface to prevent the hands and feet from slipping. Mats can also be folded up give support in headstand, or rolled to support the spine in poses such as Chair Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana.
BLOCKS – Blocks are used most often for seated poses to give a secure support from which to lift the spine. They are also used to ‘lift the floor’ when in shoulderstand, in order to lift from the shoulders, rather than letting the weight drop onto the back of the neck.
BRICKS – Bricks are mostly used as extensions of the arms in standing forward bends. If the hamstrings are tight the hands can be placed on bricks so that the spine can stay extended. Bricks are also used as supports in Brick Setubandha (the clue’s in the name).
BELT - The simple D-ring belt is an essential part of your yoga kit. A bit like the bricks it acts as an extension of your arms to reach the feet in supine and seated forward bends, in the standing balancing poses, such as Vrksasana, and it can help to give direction to a pose, e.g. to lengthen the arms up in Urdhva Hastasana. It can also contain the arms, e.g. keeping the elbows together to give a more secure base in shoulderstand.
BLANKET - A heavy cotton blanket is the ideal option, and most reflects the blankets used in the Iyengar Institute in Pune. Folded it can act as a support, and a way to soften the poses when being held for longer.
A final word on props.
Iyengar yoga focuses on alignment of the body in the pose, so instead of pushing the body beyond it’s natural limit, props are used to access the final pose, while still respecting each body’s particular boundaries.
There are endlessly creative ways to use props to change the focus of each pose too. This is another great advantage to Iyengar yoga - you will never do the same class twice, indeed you’ll probably never do the same pose twice.
However, as Shifroni states in the introduction to ‘A chair for Yoga’:
Practitioners should be careful not to develop dependancy on props; rather, props should be employed intelligently in pursuit of a more mature and mindful asanas practice.