Dear Humans,
I wanted to veer back into the tactical today and give you some tips on anatomical tips and adjustment cues that you could provide to your students as you teach this week’s flow.
In the teacher’s journey (or at least in mine), I wasn’t able to provide voice overs on anatomical cues until I got really comfortable with the postures I was talking about. (And with teaching in general!) But I really wanted to be able to do it, because I knew the impact of a teacher who could help me self-adjust during practice. This meant practicing them in my own body, going to class with other teachers and listening to what cues they used, and also teaching the postures myself, starting with basic cues, and then moving toward more detailed adjustment cues.
Overtime, I’ve found a few cues that when felt in my own body, really help me access the postures in safe and strong ways. They are cues I love to teach and I thought I’d share a few! All of these postures you’ll see in this week’s flow.
One Leg Mountain Pose (Eka Pada Tadasana): In this pose, I like to ask students to find more length by engaging the quad of their standing leg and noticing how that lifts them out of the hip socket. Then, think about a “pulling in'“ of the outer hips towards center line and an engagement through the core. I also encourage them to imagine a line of energy from the heel of their foot up through the crown of their head. Ask them to find a steady gaze. This allows for a strong, tall, stable posture.
Modified Side Lunge (Skandasana Variation): In this posture, I ask students to think about sending their hip creases back as they extend their heart forward. Pressing the heel of the extended leg onto the mat, and flexing their toes in towards their face. Hands at heart center, shoulder blades pull together and down, heart open. Ask them to notice the sensation in the inner-thigh of the extended leg.
Wide Leg Forward Fold (Prasarita Padottanasana): In a wide leg fold, I ask students to shift their weight forward slightly into the balls of their feet, which stacks their center of gravity and deepens the sensation. I often like to include a half-way lift, encouraging students to lengthen the spine, pull low belly in, and then re-fold while keeping that length. Head and neck can be heavy and loose.
Just a few to get you going! If these tactical tips were helpful this week, please let me know in the comments! I’m happy to do more of them in our letters.
This week’s flow is a set-up for bird of paradise. For paid subscribers, I share the warm up flow, which starts to get into the shoulder socket (to prepare for the bind) and the hip joint. Then, in the main flow, you see we practice balance, we invigorate the leg muscles through squats, and we work on extended side angle. As a third “flow” or standing sequence, you can then take your students to full BoP (Birds of Paradise!).
Sending you love, my friends.
Izzy
Izzy Martens
author, yoga teacher, sequence enthusiast
www.yogahumans.com
What I Taught in Yoga This Week | September 11, 2024
the sequence:
extended mountain
chair plane
one leg mountain
shooting star
warrior III
high crescent lunge
90-90 cactus lunge
star
goddess
warrior II (back of mat)
modified side lunge
shooting star
modified side lunge
extended side angle (add half or full bind)
wide leg forward fold
bend front knee; easy twist
low lunge (front of mat)
knee to nose crunches
easy twist
revolved skandasana
vinyasa!
If you’re new here – hello!
Let me introduce myself! My name is Izzy Martens and I’m just a human who teaches yoga, writes, hangs out with her two cats, hikes around Colorado, and enjoys creating yoga sequences.
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For my paid community, this week I am sharing the warm-up I used in class. This warm-up helps us get into the shoulder joint and hip joints, to prepare for the full bind and leg action we see in our main flow. Enjoy!
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