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| hi,
i was looking in the back of "light on yoga" at the suggested sequences. i noticed the suggestions for timing (what to do each week) seemed to progress quickly, so i probably wouldn't progress according to those times. i'm used to a mysore practice, in which the teachers "give" you new poses as they feel you are ready. (i'm currently in the middle of the second series.) but (for many reasons) i'm interested in incorporating more and more iyengar into my routine. so if i were to follow the sequences in the back of LOY, how would i know when i'm ready to progress? and do i learn the pose by reading about it in LOY? there are wonderful iyengar classes in our area, but i can only go once a week and they wouldn't necessarily address all of the poses i would be doing. so should i only do a pose after i've worked on it in class? or should i have an occasional private class?
sorry, so many questions.
thanks in advance! |
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Expert Yogi
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| SY - one way to go would be to attend class for awhile. It really helps people get the feel of the style (any style, I think) to be in a class, hear how the teacher talks, what the emphasis is, etc. OTOH, privates might be good if you want to develop a specific practice for yourself. LOY has strong practices and does proceed pretty quickly. I probably doesn't follow a sequence that you would be given these days, plus it does the whole pose and we have many variations and intermediate poses that we teach in classes. Since you are in the 2nd series, I wouldn't think you would have too much difficulty with many of the Iyengar poses. If you have questions about specific poses, feel free to post and I'll do my best to explain them  |
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Location: London, England | seoulyogi - 2007-05-24 2:07 PM
hi,
i was looking in the back of "light on yoga" at the suggested sequences. i noticed the suggestions for timing (what to do each week) seemed to progress quickly, so i probably wouldn't progress according to those times. i'm used to a mysore practice, in which the teachers "give" you new poses as they feel you are ready. (i'm currently in the middle of the second series.) but (for many reasons) i'm interested in incorporating more and more iyengar into my routine. so if i were to follow the sequences in the back of LOY, how would i know when i'm ready to progress? and do i learn the pose by reading about it in LOY? there are wonderful iyengar classes in our area, but i can only go once a week and they wouldn't necessarily address all of the poses i would be doing. so should i only do a pose after i've worked on it in class? or should i have an occasional private class?
sorry, so many questions.
thanks in advance!
Hi there,
I think that if you went up to a teacher before the class started and asked them if they could give you guidance, they might give it to you there and then, or incorporate it into the class, as part of a sequence-I often ask students cif they want to work on any postures before we begin.
Then perhaps try to incorporate these postures into your practice-what postures prepare you for whatever you want to add on? Then just stick them in there.
Nick |
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| thanks glenda and nick! good suggestions. i guess i can't help feeling like i'm cheating or being a "bad" girl when i try poses that we haven't done or addressed in class. especially if the pose falls in the Ashtanga 3rd series or beyond and i try it in another (non Ashtanga) class or at home. there are some poses in the middle sections of the back of LOY that i probably woudn't do for years if i did only Mysore.
nick, what classes do you teach? i thought i remembered Ashtanga, but maybe i was mistaken...
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| Even in Iyengar Style, they should be able to give you new poses as soon as you are ready. The problem is : You are using a book, which describes a plan, and naturally the plan has to incorporate some fixed time frame for the practice.
In Mysore, you are doing it not using a book plan. Correct?
Private or Group depends on what you want to get? If you just want new poses, no private should be necessary. If you want to get max attention, no group class is to be taken.
Best Luck
seoulyogi - 2007-05-24 9:07 AM
hi,
i was looking in the back of "light on yoga" at the suggested sequences. i noticed the suggestions for timing (what to do each week) seemed to progress quickly, so i probably wouldn't progress according to those times. i'm used to a mysore practice, in which the teachers "give" you new poses as they feel you are ready. (i'm currently in the middle of the second series.) but (for many reasons) i'm interested in incorporating more and more iyengar into my routine. so if i were to follow the sequences in the back of LOY, how would i know when i'm ready to progress? and do i learn the pose by reading about it in LOY? there are wonderful iyengar classes in our area, but i can only go once a week and they wouldn't necessarily address all of the poses i would be doing. so should i only do a pose after i've worked on it in class? or should i have an occasional private class?
sorry, so many questions.
thanks in advance! |
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Location: London, England | Hi Janet,
Well, did Iyengar yoga for five years, then came to Astanga-I would imagine you would see elements of each in my teaching-probably not enough for true devotess of either-the study of human anatomy has, I hope, given me awareness of the shortcomings of each, with respect to using yoga as therapy for the body. It is a shortcoming of astanga that you have this insistence not to proceed before yuo can accomplish a posture in the series-in rehabilitation, yuo do use a progression of exercises, and if a patient finds an exercise impossible to do safely, you use that to find their weaknessesn and use other exercises to help accomplish that posture/movement-you don't just stop there. Then the patient makes progress, and is made more confidant that they are doing the right thing. This is what I do in my classes-lots of astanga yoga, with lots of exercises to help students realize the therapeutic goals of yoga practice-some may not seem pertinent, intitially-keeping the eyes closed and balancing on one leg, for example-but eventually, what should happen is that the postures become an exericse in what is called 'proprioception training.' Proprioceptive nerves are those nerves that tell your central nervous system where you are in space, so that yuo can make appropite changes to your posture-the perception of self, which ties in nicely, I think, with the mental aims of yoga practice.
Sorry to rabbit on
Nick
Edited by Nick 2007-05-25 4:19 AM
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| kulkarnn - 2007-05-25 12:16 AM
Even in Iyengar Style, they should be able to give you new poses as soon as you are ready.
i believe this -but we usually work on only 2-3 poses per class, which i can only attend once a week. and we work as a class, so it's hard to give some students new poses and not everyone. we usually work on just a couple of aspects and we stay together. that's why i was thinking an individual lesson.
In Mysore, you are doing it not using a book plan. Correct?
no i'm not using a book. i'm in a class with 1-2 teachers at a time.
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| Nick - 2007-05-25 4:08 AM
Hi Janet,
Well, did Iyengar yoga for five years, then came to Astanga-I would imagine you would see elements of each in my teaching-probably not enough for true devotess of either-the study of human anatomy has, I hope, given me awareness of the shortcomings of each, with respect to using yoga as therapy for the body. It is a shortcoming of astanga that you have this insistence not to proceed before yuo can accomplish a posture in the series-in rehabilitation, yuo do use a progression of exercises, and if a patient finds an exercise impossible to do safely, you use that to find their weaknessesn and use other exercises to help accomplish that posture/movement-you don't just stop there. Then the patient makes progress, and is made more confidant that they are doing the right thing. This is what I do in my classes-lots of astanga yoga, with lots of exercises to help students realize the therapeutic goals of yoga practice-some may not seem pertinent, intitially-keeping the eyes closed and balancing on one leg, for example-but eventually, what should happen is that the postures become an exericse in what is called 'proprioception training.' Proprioceptive nerves are those nerves that tell your central nervous system where you are in space, so that yuo can make appropite changes to your posture-the perception of self, which ties in nicely, I think, with the mental aims of yoga practice.
Sorry to rabbit on
Nick
nick! too bad you don't live in chicago! that sounds like what i'm looking for!
one more question- the sequencing in astanga and iyengar is so different. i'd love to hear peoples' ideas about this. why are they so different? i understand that some poses are cooling (salamba sarvangasana) and some are not (sirsasana) but what's the rationale for what, where? the thing that confuses me so much are that they are so different.
i understand it's individual. i'm a pitta/vata or vata/pitta not sure which. i think that would make a difference as far as sequencing.
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Location: London, England |
"nick! too bad you don't live in chicago! that sounds like what i'm looking for!
one more question- the sequencing in astanga and iyengar is so different. i'd love to hear peoples' ideas about this. why are they so different? i understand that some poses are cooling (salamba sarvangasana) and some are not (sirsasana) but what's the rationale for what, where? the thing that confuses me so much are that they are so different.
i understand it's individual. i'm a pitta/vata or vata/pitta not sure which. i think that would make a difference as far as sequencing."
I'm not sure that the sequencing is that different in principle, but there's obviously infinite leeway in Iyengar, and no leeway whatsoever in Astanga. I mean, the postures do get progressively harder in astanga, as they usually would in an Iyengar class. If you were to take all the forward bends out of the first series, you will see that you have a bunch of what Iyengar would call 'beginners' postures before you go through the kurmasana squence, which itself gets harder with each posture. I personally wouldn't have designed the sequence of forward bends with a half-lotus before janu-sirsasana, and I don't think there is any good reason for it being there-apart from maybe acting as a gateway to stop those who are not capable of it from doing any sitting postures whatsoever-and that goes for quite a number of students.
As for cooling and heating, I'm not sure -I mean, you do any posture for long enough with sufficient skill, and it's going to raise your metabolic rate. Shoulderstand can be very heating if you know how to apply bandhas and use them to create tension across yuor body which allows you to work towards extending the spine. When it's done well, the resulting tension across the abdominal wall is extreme-that sure heats you up. But I guess if a student just relaxes in the posture, then the time spent will be cooling down.
Take care
Nick |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| SY - Iyengar sequence is indeed endless in the possibilities. The basic sequence is standing poses, headstand, backbends, twists, shoulderstand, forward bends, though there is variation even in that and poses like downward dog can be inserted all over the place. I found that using pre-packaged sequences from books and class for quite some time eventually got the general idea into my head and now I can justify some departures from that, though some senior teachers still surprise me with new and interesting sequencing. |
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| In your home practice you may, obviously do whatever you chose as long as you are the one taking responsibility and not leaving that on the shoulders of Yoga. So you are not at all a "bad girl" for doing these poses and sampling them, in integrity with your condition, your practice, etcetera.
It is simply unguided which creates an additional risk. I ask beginning students NOT to do sirsasana at home (even after they've gone up in class with me a time or two) until they really understand limits and safety.
Maing a transition or switch can be challenging. But combining can be confusing. That part is up to you. I don't have a full sense for where your current practice might meet an Iyengar practice nor where it might not meet it. Some people really enjoy taking from here and from there and even that depedns on what you are taking. So for me it is not possible to say a definitive "when" you should be taking on another pose without seeing you in the prerequisite or precursor to it/them.
seoulyogi - 2007-05-24 1:40 PM
thanks glenda and nick! good suggestions. i guess i can't help feeling like i'm cheating or being a "bad" girl when i try poses that we haven't done or addressed in class. especially if the pose falls in the Ashtanga 3rd series or beyond and i try it in another (non Ashtanga) class or at home. there are some poses in the middle sections of the back of LOY that i probably woudn't do for years if i did only Mysore.
nick, what classes do you teach? i thought i remembered Ashtanga, but maybe i was mistaken...
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| Sorry I confused the Style with a Style of Teaching the Style in a particular class. Yes, if that particular class does not meet your need, you should seek another class whether private or group. If you do not need group class for motivational purposes, yes, private class is better.
seoulyogi - 2007-05-25 8:50 AM
kulkarnn - 2007-05-25 12:16 AM
Even in Iyengar Style, they should be able to give you new poses as soon as you are ready.
i believe this -but we usually work on only 2-3 poses per class, which i can only attend once a week. and we work as a class, so it's hard to give some students new poses and not everyone. we usually work on just a couple of aspects and we stay together. that's why i was thinking an individual lesson.
In Mysore, you are doing it not using a book plan. Correct?
no i'm not using a book. i'm in a class with 1-2 teachers at a time.
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new poses- when?
