Sunday 25 November 2012

Vinyasa Flow at Yoga Barn



My first class in the Yoga Barn in Ubud was both amazing and extremely humbling.  For a start, it was 30 plus degrees so within minutes in the open air studio I was in a lather, panting and feeling like I hadn’t been on a mat in years.  My fellow students were extremely adept.  One tanned blonde Adonis-like Scandinavian (who went to every class I attended) was the most flexible human being I have ever beheld and took variations that I previously had not thought anatomically possible.  Nonetheless, I couldn’t but look at him with a teacher’s eye and notice that his spine was so flexible that it was collapsing even in down dog.  As he rushed from pose to pose adding his own complicated variations, I wondered if he was connecting at all with his practice, or basically showing off.  (A few days later he was joined by his girlfriend, with whom he did some partnered Cirque de Soleil type balances.  Perhaps they were acrobats after all?)

The class was extremely challenging but quite different than any class I’d been to before so I have included below a few notes on the sequencing, which I hope my fellow teachers and practitioners will find interesting:


·       Warm up:
o   Cross legs - inhale chest forward, exhale chest back
o   Kneeling - arm movements linked to breath
o   All fours - ams - plank - knees, chest to bhujangasana. X 5
o   Arms - extend right leg, knee to chin x 3. Low lunge, lower to chaturanga, Up dog, down dog, low lunge with opposite leg. Step to forward bend. Tadasana. Repeat 2-3 times each leg.
·       Ukatasana - vira III
·       Uktakasana, hold at low point. Twist. Variation - side crow
·       Surya Namaskar B.
Down Dog - lower to elbows push forward to chaturanga, Up dog to down dog x 3
·       Vira II, reverse Vira II (goddess pose), Parsvakonasana
·       Padamottanasana, possible balance
·       Vira II, high lunge with twist, Ardha chandrasana
·       Happy baby, roll back and forward. Straight legs. Navasana - ankles crossed, straighten and back to upright. Repeat crossed the other way.
·       Ams, extend leg, knee to same elbow, knee to opposite elbow. open out to side at right angle (aptly described by the Japanese teacher as “like dog peeing”), slide across body and straighten leg. Wildcat.
·       Vira II, low lunge, shoulder under elbow. Possible balance
·       Squat, Bakasana jump back to chaturanga. Vinyasa.
·       Lying, fist under pubis, elbows tucked in, raise legs.
·       Salabhasana
·       Dandasana, Paschimottanasana
·       Wide leg seated stretch
·       Bend knee and take out to side at right angle with body. Elbow to straight leg, both arms touching head in a side stretch.  Straighten lower arm to lie beside straight leg, take upper arm above head and reach for toes.
·       Marychasana c,  cross upper leg, twist and bind.
·       Hook knee over shoulder, stretch out leg. Bend left leg, cross over right and balance
·       Headstand. Counter poses and cool down.
·       Savasana

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