Irrespective of the style of yoga taught by you, it involves a great deal of working with the shoulders. And the shoulder girdle in the human body is one of the most mobile yet vulnerable joints in the body. The mobility of the shoulder is related to its strength and weight-bearing ability.

Doing correct yoga poses improves the functionality of the shoulder joint. 

• Knowing the shoulder Anatomy

   – The shoulder is made up of 4 joints and many muscles. And the shoulder blade is an important part of your shoulder joint which is connected to your upper arm.
  
  

• An important role of the shoulder in your hand movement

   – During yoga poses like bridge or wheel, the position of the upper arm will influence the whole shoulder joint movement. For healthy functioning of the shoulder, the shoulder blade must move when you move your upper arm. 
  
  

• There are 3 positions essential to the stability of the shoulder joint

  0 degrees of flexion (when your armrest alongside your torso while standing); 90 degrees of flexion (plank pose) or 180 degrees of flexion (arms placed overhead directly).

• Shoulders support the body

   – In many poses the shoulder joint gives full support to your body. For instance poses like downward-facing dog pose, side plank, crow pose, half-moon pose, and so on.

• Understanding the anatomical movements of the shoulder joint – 

  A good yoga teacher should be familiar with the difference in different movements like flexion, internal and external rotation of shoulders, and extension of shoulder muscles. For Eg, Tadasana pose includes raised arms with dropped shoulders and external arm rotation.

In short, a yoga teacher needs to understand the anatomy of the human body and get more knowledge on the shoulder joint to enable students to do a safe and good yoga practice.