Rethinking Limitations in Your Yoga Practice

We often think that if we just stretch the hamstrings, hip flexors, or quads long enough, one day we’ll “get” the splits or sink gracefully into a deep backbend. But what happens when the body feels strong and open, yet something still stops us from moving deeper?

Sometimes it isn’t the muscle at all, it’s the nervous system. Muscles are built to stretch and contract, but nerves have a different role, they transmit signals quickly and efficiently throughout the body. Nerves aren’t very elastic, and when they’re put into tension they can limit your range of motion to keep you safe. What feels like “tightness” may actually be your body’s way of protecting itself from overstretching sensitive neural tissue.

Take Hanumanasana (splits) for example, many practitioners assume that tight quads or hip flexors are the limiting factor. But the femoral nerve, which runs from the lower spine, across the iliac crest and down the front of the thigh, also stretches when you go into deep hip extension. If this nerve is sensitive or restricted, it can cause a sharp pulling sensation in the front thigh during splits or even during backbends like King Pigeon or Camel. This isn’t a signal to force your way deeper. It’s your nervous system saying: “Not safe right now.”

You may be experiencing this nerve tension in your practice if the stretch feels sharp, burning, or “zingy” rather than achy or muscular. The sensation runs in a line instead of being localized in one muscle. Deep poses feel blocked even when you’ve built good muscular flexibility, warmed up and strengthened appropriately.

Instead of pushing through this discomfort you can try to mobilize the nerve gently with dynamic stretches ( for splits think leg swings, low lunges with a pelvic tuck). Use props to reduce the degree of extension so you can breathe deeply and give nerves space. Soften the effort! Remember that your nervous system responds to safety, not force. The goal isn’t to “conquer” the pose it’s to listen to your body. Flexibility is never just about the outer form it’s about the conversation between your muscles, your joints, your breath, and your nervous system. Sometimes the greatest progress comes not from forcing depth, but from learning how to create safety and trust in the body.

Personally I have been experimenting with nerve flossing in my own practice and teaching. It is a gentle mobility technique that helps the nervous system move more freely through its pathways. Unlike muscles, nerves don’t “stretch” well instead, they glide through connective tissue as we move. When nerves become irritated, compressed, or restricted, they can limit our range of movement and create these sharp, zinging sensations. Flossing involves putting the nerve on tension at one end of its path, while releasing it at the other. This creates a smooth gliding motion, almost like gently tugging and releasing a thread, which can restore mobility and reduce sensitivity over time.

Starting to recognise these patterns and sensations in your practice especially your “struggle poses” can be so effective, like a missing piece of the puzzle. With this information you can structure your warm ups, your drills and preparation before peak poses when needed. This is why it’s so important to not go through the motions listening blindly to the teacher, yes they have valuable information but they do not live in your body.

If you are a teacher, recognise if you have 30 skeletons in a room, you have 30 different bone structures, 30 variations and 30 physically differing sensations going through the practice. Each one relating uniquely, mentally and physically to the asanas presented. Their differences are your opportunity to learn, to listen and to find a way to create a more sustainable comfortable practice. Remember, one person may feel great sensation, another may be searching for any sensation at all. All are valid. By exploring different avenues and techniques you can offer students different ways to explore and report back. This nerve flossing is especially fascinating and can be gentle and extremely effective.

Here are a few of the nerves most often involved in yoga postures and where you might feel them:

Sciatic Nerve – Runs down the back of the leg, often limiting forward folds or hamstring-focused splits. Tension may show up as sharp pulling or tingling in the back of the thigh or calf.

Femoral Nerve – Runs through the front of the hip and thigh, and can restrict backbends or hip extension in splits. It may feel like a burning or nervy sensation across the front of the thigh or around the hip / lumbar spine.

Obturator Nerve – Runs through the inner thigh, and can sometimes be felt in deep hip openers like Baddha Konasana or straddle splits, presenting as a nervy pull.

Tibial or Peroneal Nerves – In the lower leg and ankle, these may show up in seated postures or deep squats, where ankle flexion and compression can irritate nerve pathways.

Median Nerve – Runs down the front of the arm through the inner elbow into the palm. Creates tension in postures that stretch the forearm and wrist, like Plank, Chaturanga, Downward Dog, and weight-bearing inversions. Tingling in the thumb, index, or middle fingers when the wrists are loaded or extended.

Axillary Nerve – Runs near the armpit, supplying the deltoid and teres minor. Can become compressed in Deep Binds, Shoulderstand variations, or when forcing arms overhead in backbends. You may feel shoulder fatigue, sharp pain near the deltoid, or radiating sensations around the upper arm.

Many times, what feels like a “tight chest,” “weak wrists,” or “sticky shoulders” is not just muscular but involves nerve tension. Recognizing the difference means you can modify using props, adjusting angles, or adding gentle nerve flossing drills instead of forcing your body into positions that compress or overstretch these sensitive pathways. Check out the resources below for some helpful anatomy pointers and flossing drills to incorporate into your practice or teaching. I would also as a final note like to fully express that I am not a doctor or physical therapist, these are methods that I have independently researched and experimented with through my own physical limitations / injuries in my own asana practice. Please always consult a physician when you have injuries or pain in the body, be curious and educate yourself but do not self diagnose. Always seek medical attention from a doctor.