Do We Really Need Advanced Asanas?

Are Advanced Asanas Really Necessary in Yoga?

It's a question that keeps resurfacing for me, especially as someone who lives and breathes this practice.

What are advanced asanas really for? And do we all need them?

We forget sometimes that these postures were born in another era. A time when life moved slower. People’s bodies were lighter, their minds quieter. They grew up sitting on the floor, walking barefoot, moving with ease and intention. Their food was fresh, their distractions few. The inner and outer world allowed for depth, both physically and spiritually.

Many began the practice as children. But more than age, it was the environment that supported it. So when they folded deeply or balanced effortlessly, it wasn’t forced. It was simply available to them.

But what about us, the modern practitioners who spend most of our days hunched at desks, surrounded by noise, disconnected from our breath? Is putting your leg behind your head or catching your ankles in backbends the only way to be tested on this path? Don’t our lives already offer enough intensity?

Traffic jams. Cancelled plans. Conflict. Loneliness. These are the daily tests. If we can find our breath in the midst of small disruptions, we train ourselves to stay calm when the real waves hit.

Because the truest test of a yoga practitioner is never on the mat. It is when life breaks open. When you lose someone you love. When your health falters. When everything you thought was solid shifts overnight.

How will you respond then?

This is where the discipline of asana helps. Not as performance, but as preparation. Challenging postures teach us how to breathe through discomfort, to stay steady when it’s hard, to meet the edge without collapsing. They train the mind to pause, to stay, to listen.

But also, we do not always need to go all the way to our edge. This is a sustainable practice that should be with us for life. It should not create ego. Not even attachment to our own limbs. The goal is not to conquer a shape. It is to soften the grip. To be strong, yes, but also wise enough to know when to let go.

The more I practice, the more I resonate with people like Eckhart Tolle or Ramana Maharshi, neither of whom practiced asana, yet lived in profound presence. Isn’t that what we are truly seeking?

Asanas still matter. They build strength, health, and resilience. But not all bodies need, or are meant, to move the same way. What is necessary for one person may be completely wrong for another.

What we call advanced is always relative.
A posture that once felt impossible can, with time and devotion, begin to feel like home. The outer shape might look the same, but the inner experience transforms.

What matters is not how complex the pose appears, but how it feels from the inside.
Are you calm? Are you present? Are you breathing with ease?

That is the real measure.

A so-called advanced pose performed with force and restlessness is far less meaningful than a simple one held with steadiness and awareness.

And here is where the real yoga begins.
Understanding your own nature.
Are you overly rajasic, always pushing, performing, never pausing?
Or tamasic, resisting, avoiding discomfort, calling it self-care when it is actually fear?
Or maybe there is a glimpse of sattva, the clarity that helps you strike a balance between effort and ease.

The sign of an intelligent student is not in the postures they can do. It is in the discernment to know which ones to pursue and which to leave behind. Without ego. Without comparison.

Lately, I have found that balance in swimming.

In the water, there is just breath, movement, and sensation.
Each stroke becomes an extension of the spine, an opening through the shoulders, a natural rhythm between strength and surrender.
My breathing deepens. My nervous system slows.
I feel every part of my body moving together, yet nothing feels strained or forced.

It is all about developing a feel for the water.
You learn the strokes, and then you spend your life making them better and more beautiful.
There is no destination. Just refinement. Just presence.

But more than all this, my mind becomes quiet.
The silence of water is its own kind of wisdom.
Just like asana practice when done right.

And then there is Savasana.

The most underestimated and, in many ways, the most difficult posture of all.
To lie down, do nothing, and truly let go—of control, of movement, of the need to achieve—requires a kind of surrender that challenges even the most seasoned practitioner.

It asks for presence without effort.
Awareness without doing.
And in that stillness, the real work often begins.

So no, advanced asanas are not necessary.
But honesty is.

And if your practice, whatever form it takes, makes you more awake, more kind, and more connected, then you are already deep in the heart of yoga.

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