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I'm hoping to take more advantage of the didactic nature of Iyengar yoga- so if any of you have any thoughts about this, please chime in. First I'll copy a bit of my history from a previous post:
I am a 46 year old woman, in decent physical shape. I have been doing yoga regularly for four years now (off and on before that.) Last summer and fall I took Level 1 Iyengar yoga lessons from a certified teacher. Because she is not in my area year-round, I have to wait until May to resume classes. Per my teacher, I will be in Level 2 this time around.
I go to two regular (generic style of hatha yoga, for lack of a better description) classes per week. And in another month I will be going back to my Iyengar instructor for a 2 hour class once a week (with possibly a level 1 class now and then if she has cancellations.) When I restart with the Iyengar, I will probably drop my regular classes to one per week.
I can (and do) dedicate 3 hours per week of home practice on top of my classes. Any ideas as to how I might optimize the time? I have a fairly flexible work schedule, so I can divide that time up as I see fit. My questions are:
How many days per week and hours per practice? For example I could do 3 one-hour classes or 6 half-hour classes or a combination.
I can practice in the morning but I prefer the evening. Should I try to do both? Or at least one morning practice a week? I can handle that.
Any guidelines at to what types of poses and when? Like should I do two twists plus two inversions plus two seated poses per practice? Or what? And how much of that time should be for just sitting?
Or does none of this really matter and should I just do whatever comes to mind? I am fairly good at trying to do the things I don't like, the things that don't come easily to me. But I'd still feel better with some kind of structure. There are just so many poses!- and sometimes I won't do one for ages because I simply forgot about it. Although I am getting better at this as I've made a list and try to go over it so I don't neglect many.
One of the things I'd like to focus on is building strentgh in my hands, wrists and forearms. I feel like I've lost a lot of the natural strength that I used to have. I can hold a handstand for about a minute but I'd like to build that up.
Thanks again for taking the time to read (and answer if you do.)
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| karmann - feel free to practice in the evening if that works best for you. Maybe at some advanced stage, we non-morning people will have to switch, but if you like evenings better, go for it.  As far as how you arrange the days you practice, do what fits your schedule best. What to practice? If you are doing handstands, you probably have a lot of poses to choose from. Why not focus on standing poses one day, backbends and twists another day, seated poses and forward bends on the third day? If you regularly do inversions, slot time in for headstand and shoulderstand at the beginning or end of your practice. To work on wrists and hands, dog pose and handstand are great ways to warm up. Once you are back to Iyengar class, you might want to chose one pose from class to focus on - think of poses that lead up to it and some that logically come after it and there you have a full practice. Don't forget to schedule restorative and/or menstrual poses at least 3 - 5 days per month. Everybody needs a break |
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| Your practice depends on what you want to achieve, and on your background in terms of what you are doing.
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| don't push yourself chasing some picture that you think your body needs to mimic for you to be doing yoga.
work with yourself, be careful, breathe, don't hurt yourself,
hurting yourself is not yoga. |
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| I am doing the same thing
i am trying to advance and study with Home practice and constant Training,
but you cannot push yourself
and people feel you should be able to curl your body in certain poses, (the dancer pose, arm balances, and headstands are popular)
do not hurt yourself
constant practice will earn you advancement, automatically
just sharing the support
i am in the same situation as a Trainee,
i get a lot of pressure from non-yogi individuals and family
but i cannot be super yogi woman
i practice within my style
and advance slowly.......
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| I've been working on my upper body strength too. A typical 90 minute to 2 hour work-out would be :
Warm-up with pawanmaktasana, anti-rheumatic series.
1. Virasana
2. Extended child
3. Downward-facing dog, heels up
4. Extended child
5. Virasana
6. Extended child
7. Downward-facing dog, heels down
8. Inclined plank
9. Downward-facing dog, heels up, then down
10. Upward-facing dog
11. Downward-facing dog, heels up, then down
12. Extended child
13. Virasana
14. On good days, I repeat 6 through 13 2-3 times
15. Extended child
16. Downward-facing dog, heels down
17. Cobra
18. Twisted Cobra
19. Half cobra
20. Sphynx
21. Crocodile (Makarasana)
22. Reverse Corpse pose
23. Uttanasana, feet to width of mat
24. Uttanasana, feet hip distance apart
25. Pashmotinasana with pistol grip
26. Pashmotinasana with hands flat under feet
27. Triangle into Warrior 2 into Parsvokanasana, first side
28. Triangle into Warrior 2 into Parsvokanasana, second side
29. Warrior 1 and variations
29. One-leg prayer pose into Tree Pose, first leg
30. One-leg prayer pose into Tree Pose, second leg
31. Supine work, typically : leg stretches, leg cycling, ab-work (pawanmaktasana, anti-gastric series if I'm being very good), twists
32. Bridge and/or Fish pose
33. Oh, hell I can't remember the name pose..... feet on wall, shoulders in bridge position?
Section 31 is my do what I feel like section and might be replaced by seated twists/forward bends or leg folding for e.g. and the standing poses section might include standing wide-leg forward bend and/or more leg balances. Section 31 is also the section I cut if wanting to do a shorter routine.
I finish with savasana, either in corpse pose or supported bound angle. I include pranayma by doing psychic breath throughout where specific actions aren't called for and during savasana. Currently I'm doing a lot of viloma. If I have time, and the focus, I do yoga nidra and/or chanting to finish.
Yes, I'm not good at including meditation :-)
In class, the last section would include poses I need assistance with such as plough and the wheel (I can hold both but need a little help getting off the mat).
Fee
Edited by Orbilia 2007-06-01 6:04 AM
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| Wonderful Orbilla. Time to change your avatar. |
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| That is a good idea to keep track of your yoga list
then i can rotate other poses not included in my routine
I break up my rountine into twice or three times a day though
and in everything i do
will include a warrior II pose, or Tree Pose, est
i try to squeeze it in throughout the day events
not
all at once, like i trained
I use to have 3 hours classes in Hatha and home practice
i should gather i my list and take it from there,
i love this forum (smile) the yoga love
kisses everyone
Edited by DrRevYogi 2007-06-01 8:11 AM
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| *Blushes*
Suggestions on the avatar change gratefully received. Bear in mind I don't *do* average/'normal'/ordinary though *lol*
I should also have mentioned that I sometimes swop the 'reptiles' (steps 18-21) for, leg lifts, locust, and bow pose (incl. prep. poses for).
The notable absence of the classic inversions at the end is due to a lack of courage on my part. In fact, I only did my first real one about a fortnight ago when a teacher at the workshop I was attending got me to do supported hand stand. I do absolutely love crazy dog though (half hand-stnad). Just got to find me some wall space at home!
Thanks,
Fee
kulkarnn - 2007-06-01 12:11 PM
Wonderful Orbilla. Time to change your avatar.
Edited by Orbilia 2007-06-01 8:39 AM
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| Orbilia - 2007-06-01 6:02 AM 24. Uttanasana, feet hip distance apart 25. Pashmotinasana with pistol grip 26. Pashmotinasana with hands flat under feet 27. Triangle into Warrior 2 into Parsvokanasana, first side Maybe I'm not understanding your descriptions properly, but you go from standing forward bend in 24, to seated forward bend in 25 & 26, and then back to standing in 27 with triangle? Also, what is a pistol grip? Amazing how we all practice the "same" yoga, yet it's so different.  |
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| Ok, maybe I'm getting my asanas in a twist 
What I mean is
- standing forward bend with arms above head, hands on elbows, feet to mat width
- standing forward bend with arms above head, hands on elbows, feet to hip width
- standing forward bend with finger tips on floor, then holding onto my big toes such that the forefinger and next finger are between the toes and the thumb on the outside of the big toe and placed so that the thumb touches the other fingers (i.e. like the hand shape formed when you have your finger on the trigger of a gun, hence 'pistol grip')
- standing forward bend with hands flat on floor, then brought back so you stand on your palms, big toe and next toe either side of the wrist.
In the last, two, you then bend the elbows to go further into the pose without compromising back alignment.
Fee
Edited by Orbilia 2007-06-01 11:22 AM
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| Fee, thanks for taking the time to explain. OK, so they're all uttanasana variations, got it. Would you like another one? (sure you would!): uttanasana with hands on outsides of lower legs, pressing the shins toward each other but still resisting to widen the hips. Elbows bent outward as you apply isometric pressure on the shins from the side. This will allow the sit bones to release even further toward the ceiling, stretching the hamstrings up away from the knees (even microbending, you'd still be correct), and all the while, as you said, keeping proper lowback alignment (lower ribs and belly drawing away from the tops of the thighs). Can you tell I really like my forward bends? |
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| Oh yes, that's delicious too. And, it shows *lol*! My favourite forward bend is seated head to knee.
I recently had a teacher make me another Uttanasana variation at the wall (back to wall) at the same workshop as I mentioned above. She then edged up my sitting bones with her thumbs, held me in place with her stomach/hips and then pressed/slid my back down the wall. This was repeated for several cycles until I was at my limit. She partnered me as I'd told her I'd had a hamstring injury just before last Christmas that I could still feel pulling in my right leg so she didn't want me working with anyone else on this one. This adjustment/variation was incredible. After months of being annoyed by my lop-sidedness, this one action seems to have freed me up amazingly. Mmmm, I think I may ask my own teacher if she'd do this one in class.
I think the injury was a torn muscle sheath by the way. I bent forward to use the dustpan and felt a sensation like a wet tissue tearing start just above the back of my knee and move all the way up. Not painful per se but a pain in the butt never-the-less! That'll teach me not to have taken the opportunity to do a standing forward bend but just slump forward like a sack of spuds!!!
Fee
Edited by Orbilia 2007-06-01 12:15 PM
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| Yes, this is a very intense variation. Tends to pull on my lower back if I'm not careful, since I'm so open there. A friend of mine teaches this version in her kids' classes with the variation of taking the arms up overhead so that the palms are flat on the wall. She calls this bat pose! If I had to pick a favorite forward bend, it would probably be paschimottanasana (seated forward bend). Having a chronically slippy sacrum tends to make anything symmetric make me happy. |
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| Hhi Karmann,
I would go an hour three times per week. I don't think 30 minutes is something I'd do by plan but rather by convenience, if I had to, or time was short to to scheduling issues. I say an hour three times per week even though I think a 90 minute practice is more beneficial.
What is the determining factor in that choice? The practice should have a bell curve to it such that you warm and prepare the body for asana (from the inside out), then have a sequence of poses which are building in some way (for some that is thematic for others it is frisky), begin to scale down the work, and move appropriately into Savasana for at least 5 minutes. If you can do all that mindfully in an hour then do so. If not then it may be an indicator to shift to 90 minutes twice a week.
Sequencing poses is work and can be tricky. The corrolary of that is that some people and some practices seemingly do not addresss sequencing at all. So this would depend on what you are persuing, as Neel states. However, in an Iyengar framework, which is the question you are forming, the effects of the poses are carefully considered.
In Purna Yoga we have several series that we teach; the morning series, the opening series, the hip series, and these are brought together in combination with classical Surya Namaskar and standing poses, inversion, backbends, and twists.
I think home practice basics should be taught by every studio so that when you exit the studio you, as the student, actually have some tools for a home practice. Instead there are occasional workshops for your "home Practice" development. I just don't think it's enough. |
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| I am curious what everyone thinks about the lesson plans in "Yoga the Iyengar Way"? There are several in the back of the book that work in a progressive path.
Thanks,
Erik |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| They are great! Two disadvantages are that you have to flip pages unless you know the pose names and they don't include much in the way of modifications. Otherwise, go for it  |
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| erikro - 2007-06-02 3:29 AM
I am curious what everyone thinks about the lesson plans in "Yoga the Iyengar Way"? There are several in the back of the book that work in a progressive path.
Thanks,
Erik
I think they are very good.
Jonathon
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Guidelines for home practice?
