Very, very unfortunately, the Instagram algorithm has shaped how yoga teachers and mobility trainers have started to convey bite-sized knowledge in order to be seen, liked, and saved.
The structure is usually: if you want to learn this, do this.
As a daily practitioner and teacher, that makes you lol. No one has ever learned or practiced that way, and it's undermining all competence.
The Illusion of Individual Biomechanics in Group-Feed Advice
It doesn't even make sense to sell the biomechanics of specific asanas most of the time. To focus on specific body areas makes sense only from a relatively advanced point.
Inside the 1:1 Setting: What We Actually Teach First
The reality of individual teaching, which you receive in a Mysore setting or 1:1, is mostly completely different. The first concern is not tight shoulders, tight hamstrings, or backbends that look like a tabletop.
The concern is to teach the breathing structure, get the student to focus, get them to hold the drishti, get them to build stamina and show up for themselves, and make them not have their feet all over the place.
Then, individual to the body and constitution of the student, you have to see them, feel them, and you can start correcting and aligning them. Often you can throw your anatomy book out of the window, because the theory is often not applicable.
Your Body is Not the Standard
And, as a teacher, you can barely assume that the student's body is reacting or moving like your own body.
I often see seasoned, often male, teachers teach in a way as if their specific bodies were the standard for other bodies. It's never like that.
So, most of what I see in my feed is ridiculous advice. I remember a teacher who had the slogan: Shut up and practice.
That's mostly it.