By Bernie Clark
December 1, 2025
What do we mean by “end range of motion”? Many yoga teachers seem to be quite afraid of it and warn their students to avoid it at all costs. Is it truly so dangerous? And, where exactly is it? If I reach a position in a pose where I can’t go any further, am I at my end of range? If so, do I need to back off? Listen in as four dedicated yoga teachers share their thoughts and concerns.
Cast of Characters:
Jeremey – an Ashtanga yoga (AT) who also teaches some vinyasa, flow and power yoga
Padma – a certified Iyengar yoga (IT) teacher
Ariana – mainly teaches restorative yoga (RY)
Meena – a yin yoga (YT) teacher who trained directly with Paul Grilley
The setting:
The Aphrodite Café in Vancouver, famous for its delicious and organic pies.
Meena picks up her slice of apple pie, topped with a dash of whipped cream, and her cup of chai. She returns to the small table in the corner by the front door. Rain is drizzling and dripping off the outside awning as Jeremy dashes in. He has just finished leading his morning Mysore class. Steam wisps off of him as he places his umbrella in the bin by the door and goes to order his dirty chai latte. Ashtangis do love their chai. The group has been meeting here every Wednesday morning for years and Meena is looking forward to today’s chat. She has a topic already picked out.
The Conversation
Meena (YT): Guys, tell me – when you hear the term, “end range of motion,” what do you think it means? I had a student yesterday who told me that she always avoids going as far as she could in a pose because she had been warned that it was dangerous to go that far. When I questioned her, it was obvious that she had a very different view of what end range of motion means than I do. How do you define it and do you think it is dangerous?
Ariana (RT): For me, end range of motion is simply when you can’t go any farther in a posture. It’s the body’s limit. I do teach my students to stay shy of that limit. Going to as far as you can is risky.
Meena (YT): Okay, but what do you mean by “can’t go any farther”? Is it the first moment of resistance, or the absolute stopping point? Imagine a student in a seated forward fold. She meets resistance, pauses, softens her breath, and a minute later finds she can move deeper. Was that first place the end range of motion, or the second?
Jeremy (AT): That’s interesting. In my Ashtanga classes, students often think they’ve reached their limit, but when I assist them, say in the seated twist Marichyasana C, I can take them further. I can feel the point where I can’t move them any deeper. To me that feels like the true end range.
Meena (YT): I think you are describing passive range of motion, where someone else or another outside force like a sandbag moves you, while Ariana’s definition describes active range, what you can reach by your own effort. The two are different.1
Jeremy (AT): Sure, our active range of movement is smaller; passive is deeper because the external force overcomes muscular resistance.
Meena (YT): Exactly. But both change over time. Our breath, warming up the body, holding a pose for time, or simply continuing to practice over months can expand either range. My point is that end range of motion isn’t a fixed point but a state, defined by the current conditions of the tissues involved.
Padma (IT): In the Iyengar world we’d probably say something similar but more measured. We use props to explore those boundaries gradually. Sometimes to lengthen, sometimes to support. The end range isn’t bad, but it’s a place to approach consciously. Precision keeps it safe.
Meena (YT): Nicely put. Let’s create a working definition, then. Would you agree that the final end range of motion is the position in which further movement is prevented by compression, not by temporary resistance. Before that point, the limit is set by tension in the tissues, such as our muscles, fascia, tendons. With time and load, tension can reduce and change. Compression, by contrast, is final. This is where bone meets bone or tissues meet other tissues and further movement is not possible.2
Ariana (RT): So, you think that end range of motion is where the body runs into itself?
Meena (YT): Exactly. To borrow Paul Grilley’s words, tension can yield; compression can’t. And the type of compression matters: bone-to-bone or the folding of flesh against flesh have different feelings. Bone on bone feels stuck and final: there is no going further in that direction. Flesh on flesh is soft and squishy and you can get a little bit more movement, but not much.
Jeremy (AY): I like that clarity. In Ashtanga we don’t name it, but we live there. It is where adaptation happens. Muscles, fascia, and even joint capsules respond to load and we can only apply a load when we approach our edges.
Ariana (RT): But isn’t that dangerous? I was taught never to push to a maximum, but to “back off before the edge.”
Meena (YT): That’s what we should discuss. Is simply being at end range dangerous? Let’s take any joint, such as the elbow. When you fully extend and straighten your arm, the humerus and ulna meet: anatomists would say that olecranon process fits neatly into the olecranon fossa.3 At that moment, the bones act like a door reaching its frame—no further motion is possible. That’s end range of motion for arm extension.
Jeremy (AT): And yet students and teachers hold Down Dog with straight arms. Nobody panics.
Meena (YT): Exactly. As long as you’re not forcing past that natural stop, it’s safe. The concern arises when someone confuses end range of motion with hyperextension and tries to move beyond the bony stop through excessive ligament laxity or trauma. That would be like trying to keep pushing the door after it is already closed.
Padma (IT): But I see hyperextended elbows all the time. Students’ arms bent backward like bows. I worry that over years, that will damage the joint. I tell students to keep a micro-bend and never hyperextend their joints; their elbows or knees.
Meena (YT): That’s a common cue, but have you seen any evidence that static hyperextension leads to injury? I’ve looked for studies and haven’t found any. Most elbow injuries come from dynamic overload—like a FOOSH, a “fall on an outstretched hand,” where a large, sudden impact creates a stress stronger than the restraining ligaments. As a result, they tear.4 The static forces in a handstand or down dog are minuscule compared to that.
Ariana (RT): Still, it looks wrong. It looks unnatural.
Jeremy (AT): Yet B.K.S. Iyengar himself shows clear elbow hyperextension in his books. Check photos of him in Light on Yoga. He hyperextended his knees and elbows all the time.5
Padma (IT): (smiles) True, but that was Iyengar! He was exceptional.
Meena (YT): Yes, but his anatomy may simply have allowed it. Some people’s olecranon process is shorter, or their fossa is deeper, allowing the joint extend beyond 180°. That’s a shape, not a flaw. If bone shape permits, their true end range of motion includes that amount of extension. The movement is stopped by compression, and where it occurs varies across the spectrum of human variation.
A Spectrum of Safety
Padma (IT): I can accept that bone shapes vary, but surely there’s a spectrum of safety also. What worries me is when teachers push students toward their edge without knowing what causes that edge.
Jeremy (AT): Fair point. I don’t force anyone past their end range. Years of assisting students taught me to read breath, micro-movements, and resistance. You can feel when the body says “enough.” I can sense the edges of my students even if they can’t. I think all massage therapists develop the same sensitivity.
Meena (YT): Exactly. Sensitivity is the safeguard, not fear. End range of motion isn’t dangerous—the attempt to go past it is. In Yin Yoga we frame this as “playing the edges.” The first edge is where you feel something. Stay, breathe, observe. Over time, that edge may recede and you follow it, until maybe one day, you meet compression. Then you’ve arrived at your true and final end range of motion for that posture in that direction. There’s no reason to retreat from it, unless there’s pain.
Ariana (RT): That’s gentler than I expected. So, in yin yoga, you’re not pushing but waiting.
Meena (YT): Right. Yin isn’t about conquering your range of motion or your edge; it’s about inhabiting it. All tissues need load to stay healthy: muscle, tendon, ligament, cartilage, even bone. Without mechanical stress, they atrophy.6 When we reach end range of motion under moderate, sustained load, the tissues experiencing the load receive the exercise they need.
Jeremy (AT): That sounds like Wolff’s Law, the guy who showed that bones need compression in order to grow stronger. It’s the same principle we use dynamically. Repetition and end-range strength build resilience.
Padma (IT): But with precision. In Iyengar yoga, alignment distributes that stress safely.
Meena (YT): Yeah, Wolff showed that bones need stress; later, Davis demonstrated that the soft tissues of ligaments, muscles and tendons, also need loading, except instead of compression, these tissues need tensile stresses to grow stronger. That’s called Davis’ Law. Cartilage, however, only grows healthier through repeated bouts of compression. Which again means the bones need to compress into each other; that is how the cartilage lining the bones grows stronger. When does the neck of the femur compress the cartilage lining the rim of the hip socket, called the labrum? At end range of motion! That is necessary, even if too much or too frequent stress there could be harmful. No stress is definitely harmful.
Padma (IT): But alignment is important too.
Jeremy (AT): But what counts as “safe alignment”? Doesn’t it depend on each person’s bones? One student’s alignment may be safe for her, but that same alignment may not work for another student. Her bones are different and her body requires an alignment that works with that difference. I can get two students into Trikonasana, both at their end range of motion, but they may look very different: one’s torso is parallel to the floor but another’s hovers higher. But both are stopped by compression of the femur in the hip socket, it just happens at a different depth in the posture. Maybe you would call that “personal precision”!
Padma (IT): Hmmm. I will have to think about that.
Ariana (RT): So, the fear of end range of motion might come from confusing “looking right” with “being safe.”
Meena (YT): Precisely. End range of motion isn’t a visual limit; it’s a functional one.
The Question of Hypermobility
Ariana (RT): Then what about hypermobile students? Aren’t they at greater risk at end range?
Meena (YT): Depends on what we mean by “hypermobile.” Let’s try to define it. Hypermobility simply means moving beyond what’s typical for most people: it is movement beyond the norm. But causes differ. I’d group them into three categories: injury, genetic, and structural.
Jeremy (AT): Injury first. This is like when someone sprains a joint and the ligaments never tighten again, yeah?
Meena (YT): Yes. Trauma that tears or overstretches the joint capsule or surrounding ligaments can permanently lengthen their collagen fibers. That’s acquired hypermobility, and the tissues may not regain full tension for many months, or even years, or maybe only through surgery. Those students should be cautious with loads at end range of motion until healing occurs.
Padma (IT): And genetic?
Meena (YT): Conditions like Ehlers–Danlos or Marfan syndrome affect the collagen’s structure. Their connective tissues are more elastic, less able to resist stress.7 These people can move beyond normal limits without feeling resistance, and yes, for them, end-range work can be unsafe because their “end” may not actually stop them. It is like a door that normally stops by hitting the frame of the doorway (which would be bone on bone compression) but the hinges are loose and allows even more movement than is functional.
Padma (IT): I have a few students like that. They go deep, effortlessly, in every pose but complain of chronic pain.
Meena (YT): I am not surprised. These students often lack proprioceptive feedback. They can’t sense where the joint is in space. Gentle strengthening within mid-range may help them stabilize their joints. But they still need some load; avoiding edges entirely leads to further weakness. But these cases are supposed to be rare, although I am not so sure.
Jeremy (AT): What do you mean?
Meena (YT): Well, according to the medical literature, a condition like Ehlers–Danlos happens to maybe one person in 5,000, although I suspect it is way more common than that.8 People with this condition are often attracted to yoga because they are so flexible. I would guess, and it is only a guess, that maybe one in 50 or 100 flexible yogis may have some form of Ehlers–Danlos. But still, that makes it relatively rare. Most people who seem very flexible are not hypermobile because of injury or Ehlers–Danlos.
Jeremy (AT): So, it is the third cause: structural.
Meena (YT): That’s the most common and least worrisome cause. It’s simply bone shape. If someone’s hip sockets are shallow, they’ll fold deeper in forward bends. Their “extra range” isn’t from lax tissues but from geometry. For them, being at end range of motion is as safe as for anyone else: the compression just happens later in space.
Ariana (RT): Okay, but what if it is a genetic thing? Then what?
Meena (YT): If a student really has a genetic variation like Ehlers–Danlos, they will probably have systemic issues. Collagen is everywhere: in ligaments, tendons, joint capsules, even in organs, nerves and blood vessels. Issues can show up anywhere. If a student suspects her hypermobility is not caused by bone variation or injury, she really should see a specialist, not a yoga teacher.
Padma (IT): But hypermobility isn’t always pathology.
Meena (YT): Exactly. It may be, but most of the time it is natural and normal for that person. The key is knowing which kind you’re dealing with. We can’t diagnose in class, but we can observe patterns and ask questions, and suggest students seek further assistance if we suspect a pathology.
How Adaptation Works
Jeremy (AT): This brings us back to adaptation. If I never let students reach end range of motion, aren’t I denying their joints the stress that keeps them healthy?
Meena (YT): Yes, within reason. Tissues adapt to demand. This is the function of a principle called mechanotransduction: cells sense mechanical load and remodel accordingly. Without sufficient challenge, ligaments lose strength and bones lose density. But overload, especially dynamic overload or too frequent overload, can cause injury.
Ariana (RT): So “never go to the edge” is as misguided as “always go to the edge.”
Meena (YT): Well said. The goal is to explore the edge intelligently. In yin yoga’s three principles—come to your first edge, become still, and stay for time—each phase cultivates sensitivity. Whether or not you reach end range of motion isn’t the issue. The issue is awareness.
Padma (IT): That’s a nice bridge between our styles. In alignment work, we seek that same awareness, though we arrive by precision rather than stillness.
Jeremy (AT): And in flow yoga, it’s breath that tunes awareness. Different doors to the same house.
Meena (YT): Exactly. End range of motion is just one of the rooms you may choose to visit.
The Fear of Stillness
Ariana (RT): I think many teachers fear end range of motion because it’s also the edge of control. When you’re at the limit, you can’t adjust much. That feels vulnerable.
Meena (YT): Right. Yet, vulnerability is where learning happens. If we teach students how to notice instead of how to avoid, we cultivate responsibility rather than fear.
Padma (IT): I like that distinction: “responsibility instead of fear.”
Jeremy (AT): How about, “courage without recklessness.”
Meena (YT): And curiosity. When you arrive at end range of motion, something remarkable happens: the muscular effort quiets, breath steadies, and awareness becomes fine-grained. It’s not a battlefield; it’s a laboratory.
Ariana (RT): That sounds almost poetic.
Meena (YT): Maybe that’s because at the end of motion, stillness begins.
Consensus over Chai
The rain outside had turned to a pervasive mist. All the cups were empty, but only Jeremy looks forlorn: his chai had run out. He tries to drink one last drop and continues:
Jeremy (AT): So, what did you say to the student who said she didn’t want to go to her edge?
Meena (YT): I said that was fine! No one has to go to their end range of motion. She gets to decide how to practice. I would be totally happy if all she did was move a little and then pay attention to the sensations, to her breath, to her emotions, to what she is feeling. Yoga is not about maximizing range of motion. I would never insist people have to go there. I just don’t want them to be afraid of it either. If she feels unsafe at any time, she should back off. In yin yoga we play our edges, we don’t ignore them. If it feels like the edges have receded and we no longer feel anything, then we go a little deeper and investigate again. We pay attention while we are in the pose, but also when we come out, and even over the next day or so. In this way we build a mental model of what works for our body. I suggested she goes to where she feels safe, but really observe what she is feeling. If, or when, she feels it is safe to go deeper, don’t fear it, but don’t be reckless either. Pay attention.
Padma (IT): Let’s see if we agree. The ultimate end range of motion isn’t inherently dangerous. It’s simply the point where compression stops movement.
Jeremy (AT): Right, and reaching it can be healthy; tissue need some edge, some load so that they stay healthy.
Ariana (RT): The risk lies in trying to go past it, especially for those with genetic or traumatic hypermobility.
Meena (YT): And teachers need to help students learn where that edge really is: through observation, not assumption.
Padma (IT): And perhaps we can all agree that fear doesn’t make students safer. Education does.
The four friends clinked their mugs together in a mock toast as Meena raises her voice:
Meena (YT): To our edges! May we keep exploring them wisely.
___________________________
Footnotes:
1 Meena is correct at a high level. In the therapeutic world, there are actually three distinctions. The first is Passive Range of Motion (PROM) and refers to the movement achieved when an outside force, such as gravity, a teacher, or a therapist, moves the body without the person’s muscular effort. This is often the largest range of motion possible. The second is called Active-assisted Range of Motion (AAROM) where the person actively participates in the movement while an external force, such as a teacher’s guidance or a strap, assists. This is what Jeremy uses for his students. The third is the Active Range of Motion (AROM), which is the range of motion that a person can achieve solely through their own efforts. See Hudson S. Rehabilitation Methods and Modalities for the Cat in the Handbook of Veterinary Pain Management 2009 Jan 1 (pp. 538-577). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780323046794100280.
2 A full exploration of tension and compression can be found in the article, What Stops Me? at https://yinyoga.com/what-stops-me/ and at https://yinyoga.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/What-Stops-Me-by-Bernie-Clark.pptx.pdf.
3 Here is a simple drawing of the bones that make up the elbow joint. Notice the distal end of the humerus where you will find the olecranon fossa and the proximal end of the ulna which has the olecranon process. These two ends fit together snuggly at full extension. However, when they meet for most people the arm is not completely straight. In fact, the average person cannot fully straighten their arm at the elbow! (See Houglum and Bertoti, Brunnstrom’s Clinical Kinesiology, 223, where it is implied that variation beyond 0° of extension is rare.)
4 For more details about hyperextension of the elbow and knee see my books, Your Body, Your Yoga, and Your Upper Body, Your Yoga. See my article in Yoga International for a short summary on knee hyperextension: https://yogainternational.com/article/view/i-hyperextend-my-knees-is-this-bad-probably-not/. For another view on the elbow, check out David Keil’s comments in Yoga Anatomy: https://www.yoganatomy.com/yoga-hyperextended-elbows/
5 These drawings are based on the photos in B.K.S. Iyengar’s book Light on Yoga.
6 See my article on Antifragility for further details on the value of stress. https://yinyoga.com/are-yoga-teachers-making-us-fragile/
7 The Ehlers–Danlos Syndromes (EDS) comprise a group of heritable connective-tissue disorders caused by genetic defects that affect the structure, synthesis, or processing of collagen and related extracellular-matrix proteins. Classical, vascular, and hypermobile types are the most common, with classical and vascular EDS linked to identifiable mutations in type V and type III collagen genes, while hypermobile EDS remains genetically heterogeneous and is currently defined clinically rather than through a single known genetic marker. Microscopic studies show that, unlike the uniform, tightly packed collagen fibrils seen in healthy tissue, EDS fibrils are often irregular in diameter, loosely organized, and sometimes “flower-shaped” or frayed, reflecting defective fibrillogenesis. These micro-architectural anomalies account for the characteristic tissue fragility, skin extensibility, and joint laxity seen clinically. Primary reference: Hausser I & Anton-Lamprecht I (1994), “Differential ultrastructural aberrations of collagen fibrils in Ehlers-Danlos syndrome types I–IV,” Human Genetics, 93(4), 394–407.
https://gersedbelgique.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Differential-ultrastructural-aberrations-of-collagen-fibrils-in-Ehlers-Danlos-syndrome-types-I-IV-as-a-means-of-diagnostics-and-classification..pdf
8 According to the website MedlinePlus, “The combined prevalence of all types of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome appears to be at least 1 in 5,000 individuals worldwide. The hypermobile and classical forms are most common; the hypermobile type may affect as many as 1 in 5,000 to 20,000 people, while the classical type probably occurs in 1 in 20,000 to 40,000 people. Other forms of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome are rare, often with only a few cases or affected families described in the medical literature.” https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/condition/ehlers-danlos-syndrome/.
However, as Meena points out, that may be too conservative. Recent research indicates that hypermobile Ehlers–Danlos syndrome (hEDS) and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder (HSD) may be considerably more common than once thought, with recent reviews suggesting prevalence rates as high as 1 in 500–900 people, far above earlier estimates of 1 in 3,100–5,000. See two sources: Liebertpub.com – https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1177/23258292251382250; and Ehlers-Danlos Society – https://www.ehlers-danlos.com/what-is-eds/.