There is a hierarchy in most people’s heads where taking a block from me means they have not got there yet. It is exactly backwards and I watch it cost people years.
What a prop is for
Bringing the floor closer, so that the position can be organised correctly rather than approximately.
Take a standing pose where the hand is meant to reach the ground. If your hand does not reach, you have two options. Round the spine and twist to get down there, in which case you are now doing a different and worse pose. Or put a block under the hand and do the actual pose.
Only one of those is the beginner version, and it is not the one with the block.
The bit people miss
Props are used most heavily in the traditions that are most technically demanding, not the gentlest ones. A room full of blocks, belts, bolsters and ropes is not a room that has lowered the bar. It is a room that has decided the shape matters enough to guarantee it.
My ropes on the wall are there for the same reason.
When to use more support, not less
Any day you are tired, ill, cold, or coming back from something. I adjust support the way I adjust effort, and taking more of it on a bad day is literacy, not defeat. Ask me for it.
Restorative work is the extreme version. If you are working, add support.
When to use less
When the position is organised and you can hold it and breathe. Then take the block away and find out whether it holds without help.
That is the actual progression, and it happens over months.
Ask before you assume
What is in a room varies from studio to studio, so ask rather than turn up hoping. Message me and I will tell you what to bring. I have never once thought less of anybody for asking.