After a few months of classes and videos, most people have met dozens of poses under a confusing mix of names. One teacher says Half Pigeon, another says Eka Pada Rajakapotasana, a third says Sleeping Swan. Notes on how you set them up end up scattered across apps, screenshots and memory.
A personal reference list is a small document you keep for yourself: the poses you actually do, the names you have heard for them, and the details that make them work for your body. It is not a catalogue of every pose. Its value comes from being short and yours.
Why one pose can have several names
There is no single official list of yoga poses. The traditional number of asanas is the symbolic 84, but different historical texts identify different selections: the fifteenth-century Hatha Yoga Pradipika describes 15 poses, and the later Gheranda Samhita says 32 are useful. Modern schools have added many more and given them competing English names. Some names have been applied to different poses over time, and some poses have several names.
So when two sources disagree about a name, neither is necessarily wrong. A reference list that records the names you have actually heard, and from whom, saves you from trying to settle the question.
What to record for each pose
Keep each entry short enough to read on a phone between poses. A useful template:
- Name you use: whatever you will search for later.
- Other names heard: English and Sanskrit, with the teacher or source if you remember it.
- Family: standing, seated, twist, forward bend, backbend, balance, inversion or rest. This helps you find poses by kind.
- Your setup: one or two cues that work for you, such as 'back foot turned in slightly' or 'block under front hand, middle height'.
- Props: what you use and where.
- Your alternative: what you do instead on days the pose does not suit you.
- Notes from a teacher: any individual feedback you have been given, with the date.
An example entry
This illustrates the format; the setup notes are one person's choices, not instructions for everyone.
- Name: Low lunge.
- Other names: Anjaneyasana (studio class); 'crescent lunge, back knee down' (video series).
- Family: standing / kneeling lunge.
- Setup: folded blanket under back knee; front knee over or behind the ankle; hands on blocks.
- Alternative: lunge with back knee lifted, or a supported lunge holding a chair.
- Teacher note (March): 'Keep the hips level rather than sinking deeper.'
Choosing a format
Any format you will actually open works. A notes app is searchable and always with you. A spreadsheet lets you sort by family or filter by props. A paper notebook is easy to use on the mat without a screen. Whatever you choose, keep one list rather than several, and use the same field order for every entry so it is quick to scan.
Photos or short clips of your own setup can be more useful than written cues, but keep them private and consider whether you want them stored in a cloud service.
Recording Sanskrit names usefully
If you include Sanskrit names, write them as you saw them spelled, and note whether diacritics were used (for example, Adho Mukha Svanasana vs Adho Mukha Śvānāsana). Spellings vary, and search engines may treat them differently.
Resist the temptation to translate names word by word from memory. Many pose names combine several words, and a guessed translation can mislead you about the shape. If you want a reliable meaning, check a dictionary and note where it came from.
Keeping the list useful
A reference list loses its value once it is too long to scan quickly.
- Start with the poses you did in your last two or three sessions, not everything you have ever seen.
- Add a pose only after you have practised it more than once.
- Review the list every month or two. Remove poses you no longer practise, or move them to an 'archive' section.
- Update setup notes when they change, and keep the date so you can see what shifted.
- Before a class with a new teacher, glance at the list so you recognise poses under different names.
What a reference list is not
Your list records what has worked for you so far. It is not a substitute for instruction on poses you have not learned, and it does not make a pose suitable if something has changed — an injury, pregnancy, or a new medical condition. If your situation changes, treat the list as a record to discuss with a teacher or clinician, not as permission.
Sources & Classical References
- Wikipedia: List of asanas — Background on the symbolic number 84, differing selections between texts and competing English names.
- Wikipedia: Asana — Numbers of poses described in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and Gheranda Samhita, and the borrowing of names between traditions.
