How to check your posture with a camera with Svayam Yoga
Run one posture check on a pose of your choice and read the alignment feedback it produces.
When this is useful
When you practise alone and want a second opinion on a pose you already know - most usefully on a standing pose you hold long enough to look at, rather than something you flow through.
Before you start
- A device with a camera, and roughly two metres of clear space.
- Somewhere stable to stand the device at about hip height.
- Light falling on you from the front, not from behind.
- Form-fitting clothes. Loose fabric hides where your joints actually are.
Steps
Step 1
Open Posture and pick a pose
Posture in the sidebar opens a searchable catalogue of poses with their alignment cues. Choose one you can already hold reasonably steadily - the check reads a held position, so a pose you are still finding will mostly tell you that you are still finding it.
Step 2
Accept the camera notice
Before the camera starts you are shown what it does: frames are processed in your browser, nothing is uploaded unless you choose to save it, and the analysis reads body landmarks rather than your face. Read it once and continue.
Step 3
Set up the frame
The setup screen lists the alignment cues for your pose and how to place the camera. Stand your device at hip height and step back until your head and feet are both in frame. Then press Start camera.
Step 4
Get into position and raise your right hand
The screen shows your camera view while it looks for you. Once it has found you clearly, raise your right hand above your head to confirm you are ready - this is how you tell it to begin without walking back to your device.
Step 5
Hold the pose through the countdown
A short countdown runs, then the pose is assessed on the few seconds you hold. Breathe normally through it. Fidgeting to look correct is measuring the wrong thing.
Step 6
Read the feedback
The result lists the areas that passed and the ones that need correcting, each with a cue to work with. Take one correction, not five - trying to fix everything at once usually produces a new compensation somewhere else.
Step 7
Decide whether to send it to a teacher
If alignment was flagged as unsafe, or corrections keep returning after several attempts, you are offered the option to send that assessment to a teacher. You are shown exactly what would be sent - the pose, the result, the confidence and the correction areas - before anything goes. Nothing is sent unless you choose to send it.
What happens next
The result is saved to your posture history so you can see how a pose changes over attempts. If you consented to a recording, it is encrypted in your browser before upload and only an approved teacher you sent it to can review it.
An example
You have been told your Warrior II is 'collapsing' but not by whom or where. You run a check on it: the hip and knee readings pass, the front knee cue comes back as needing to track further over the toes. You do it twice more that week with that one cue in mind, and on the third attempt the knee passes.
Tips
- A laptop webcam a few feet away reads more reliably than a phone held close, because the camera needs your whole body.
- Run the same pose a few times across a week rather than many poses once. Change shows up in comparison, not in a single reading.
- If it cannot find you, it is nearly always framing or light before it is anything else.
Safety and limitations
- The feedback is guidance on alignment, not a diagnosis, and not physiotherapy.
- Come out of the pose if anything is sharp or radiating. A held position long enough to assess is not worth an injury.
- A camera reads one flat view. It cannot see effort, and it cannot see that a stiff hip is being covered for by a shoulder - which is one of several reasons a teacher in the room is still worth having.
Svayam supports a general wellbeing practice. It does not diagnose, treat or cure anything, and it is not a substitute for medical advice, physiotherapy, or an in-person assessment by a qualified yoga teacher.
Related how-to guides
How to check your mobility with Svayam Yoga
Complete a seven-movement mobility check and read the result for each area of your body.
How to ask a yoga teacher a question with Svayam Yoga
Write a question, send it to a teacher of your choice, and find their answer when it arrives.
How to book a live yoga class with Svayam Yoga
Find a live class, check when it runs in your own timezone, and book a place in it.