How to work on a tight area of your body with Svayam Yoga
Find which areas are most limited, practise the drills suggested for them, and re-check later to see what has moved.
When this is useful
When general practice is not reaching the thing that actually bothers you - the hip that will not open, the shoulder that will not go overhead - and you want the work pointed at it.
Before you start
- About two metres of clear space and somewhere to stand your phone or laptop, for the mobility check.
- Six minutes. The check is nine movements, not a workout.
- Patience with the timescale. Range changes over months, not sessions.
Steps
Step 1
Run the mobility check
Mobility in the sidebar opens a page headed Mobility check: nine simple movements in front of your camera, about six minutes, to pitch your practice at the right level.
Step 2
Read Where you are now
Results come back as bands per area rather than a score out of ten. The bands are what tell you which area to point the work at.
Step 3
Take the drills suggested for those areas
Underneath the bands, Drills for these areas lists drills aimed at what came back limited, each with its duration and any caution notes attached to it.
Step 4
Practise them from My Drills
My Drills keeps them as To Do, Done and All, with a streak count. Short and frequent beats long and occasional for this kind of work.
Step 5
Build a longer session around the same areas
Design Session, from My Drills, walks you through Body Areas, Drills, Relaxation and Review to assemble a session aimed at the areas you pick.
Step 6
Re-check in a few months
Re-running the check every few months shows how your range is changing. Re-checking weekly mostly shows you how variable a single camera reading is.
What happens next
Your drills and your saved session stay available, and the next mobility check gives you a comparison rather than a first reading. Practice may support a change in range over time; nothing here guarantees one.
An example
The check puts your hips in the lowest band and everything else mid. You take the four hip drills it suggests, run them most mornings, and build one longer hip session for Sundays. Three months later you re-check and the hip band has moved, which is roughly the timescale to expect.
Tips
- Work on one or two areas, not six. Attention spread across everything changes nothing.
- Short and frequent. Ten minutes most days does more than an hour once a fortnight.
- The bands come from a single camera and are a guide, not a diagnosis. Treat them as a direction, not a verdict.
Safety and limitations
- Mobility bands come from a single camera and are a guide, not a diagnosis or an assessment of your health.
- What you told the platform about what your body can do takes priority over any reading. If a movement hurts, that is the answer, whatever the number says.
- Tightness that is painful, one-sided or persistent is worth a clinician's opinion before you practise into it.
- Where an area has a history of injury, a teacher watching you move can see what a drill list cannot.
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 build your own practice session with Svayam Yoga
Assemble a session from drills aimed at the areas you choose, save it, and run it.