Most people love to get adjusted in yoga class. It feels so good to be able to access a space in your body that you couldn't before, and sometimes that just can't happen until a teacher touches you with his or her knowing hands. It seems so simple—a small twist here or turn there—but there is actually a lot behind the art of adjusting, from deciding who to adjust to when and how. As part of the teacher training program at Yoga Loft, Iyengar-based teacher Anne Saliou gave a workshop last weekend that was all about adjusting, and I went to check it out.

While we tend to think about adjustments as being hands-on gestures, Anne says there are actually three types of touch—physical, psychological, and spiritual. And when a teacher does use physical touch, there is a specific process that comes along with it. Physical adjustments, says Anne, should start with observation, then vocal direction, and then the application of a teacher's hands.

I am intrigued, both as a student and a recent grad of a teacher training program, about this process of adjusting. I have often wondered why teachers adjust the people they do, and don't adjust others. Anne says the first students to adjust are the ones who might injure themselves. After that, it's whomever it will help the most. That's not necessarily new students, who can easily get overwhelmed by too much adjusting.

In the workshop, we practiced a lot of deeper adjustments to do in standing poses like Parivrtta Trikonasana and Parsvottanasana, using straps to pull the hips back to align them. We also used our hands and knees to help other students open their shoulders in Urdhva Dhanurasana. We even practiced some adjustments on our own to see how they felt in our bodies before we tried them on others.

I sometimes take classes with teachers who will use soft touch—like using their fingers to show where lines of prana should be running down the spine—but, according to Anne, who gave me some great adjustments on Saturday, touch in yoga should always be fairly firm, directed, and about alignment. Anything else, she says, is not appropriate for the classroom.

Does anyone have any thoughts about adjustments in the classroom and what kinds of adjustments are your favorite (or least favorite) to receive as a student?