General Tips For Sequencing Yoga Classes
The Basics Are The Bomb
Dont overdo it. Beginner and seasoned practitioners alike can benefit from returning to the foundation of the practice. If youre a newer teacher, just focus on a beginner yoga class sequence.
Practice Your Sequence
This ensures that what you are delivering to your students is conveying what you want them to experience physically and mentally. It will also give you more confidence teaching.
Assess Your Students
Do you have an idea of the type of student attending your class? i.e. elderly, athletes, recovering addicts, etc.? Knowing this information can help guide what direction to take your sequence.
Practice with your playlist
If you teach with music, be sure to have your music on while practicing. Subtle cues in the music will help you know if you need to speed up, slow down, or just savor the moment. I recommend learning how create the perfect yoga playlist, its a powerful way to impact your students.
Consider a theme
High level themes for your classes can help guide your sequence. Here are 25+ theme ideas to guide your next class.
Tips To Start Practicing Yoga At Home
If you havent practiced yoga much in the past, then youre in for a treat. Once you realize how fun and rewarding it is, I suspect youll opt for more at-home yoga sessions than those in the studio.
But how can we make sure that our home yoga practice is here to stay for good?
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Create The Right Environment
Space, where you practice yoga, can have a considerable impact on the kind of experience you have, and this is true for basically everything you do.
So try to make your practice space one that matches the mood and intention that youd like to put on your practice. For me, that means that I either practice outdoors or in front of a huge window that lets in a lot of sunlight. I like to have incense and candles burning not only because it looks and smells nice but also because of what they represent.
In the yogic tradition, these elements purify the space and work like offerings, connecting you as your Earth form to your energetic self.
I also like to practice when I am home alone so that there are no distractions or people around my sacred space and time. If this isnt possible for you, have a conversation with the people you live with to let them know that your sacred space is essential to you, and therefore not to be entered when youre practicing yoga.
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Try Beginner Yoga Poses On Your Own
Listen To Your Body
If something hurts, stop doing it.
If you feel any stinging or pinching, slowly come out of the posture.
Market And Expand Your Brand
After you have established your yoga studio with the solid loyal following, it is now the time to expand the business. You already have a pool of potential clients. Use those clients for spreading a word of mouth about the quality of your yoga instructions.
A way to promoting your yoga brand is to take it out of the four walls of your studio and integrate it with popular activities of people in your locality. You can reach out to the schools and programs. Involve in some activities in your own unique way so that your marketing strategy stands out from that of your competitors.
For example, you can think of combining your yoga instructions with some surfing activity. People love to involve themselves in such a combination of activities to benefit more from a limited time they have in hands. When marketing your business, do not forget to show your unique yoga logo design every time on your yoga activities.
To sum it up, we can say that when starting your own yoga business, you must treat it like any other business and make additional efforts for its growth. Right from putting in place a proper business plan to find out right location and marketing plan, consider every aspect of it.
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Repeat Sequence To Left Side
Repeat the same sequence you performed to the right side, this time performing it to the left:
- Downward dog split: Inhale, reach your left leg up
- Low lunge: Exhale, step your left foot forward
- Warrior I: Inhale, rotate your right heel down and rise to standing, reaching arms up
- Warrior II: Inhale, reach your left arm to the front of the room and your right arm back
- Peaceful warrior: Inhale, left your left arm up toward the ceiling and reach your right hand down the back of your right leg
- Plank: Exhale, bring hands to ground, step left foot back, hold
- Chaturanga: Lower your chest toward the floor
- Upward facing dog: Inhale, press tops of feet into the ground, reach chest forward and up as you extend your elbows
- Downward facing dog: Exhale, place balls of feet on the mat, press through palms and feet and reach hips toward the ceiling
Yoga For Beginners: 7 Tips For Starting Yoga For The First Time
Yoga For Beginners: 7 Tips For Starting Yoga For The First Time
Thinking about trying yoga for the first time?
Fear not.
You are full of wonderful ideas, and starting yoga is a bigone.
That is, beginning a yoga practice is a wonderful idea.
Truly.
Not to be confused with some of your less-than-perfect decisions.
The bangs you chopped into your hair in middle school, for example.
But now, it’s 2019.
You are ready to live your best life, leaving drama and stress in the dust.
Sayonara, self-doubt and sleepless nights!
Yoga is a great place to start.
Millions of people around the world have turned to yoga for happier, healthier, and more fulfilling lives.
But if you’re not sure exactly how to introduce yoga into your day to day life, here are some easy tips to get started.
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Pick A Time And Stick To It
We think that doing your yoga first thing in the morning is the best possible way to start your day, but find a time that works for you, and then stick to it. If youre not a morning person, dont try and force it. Whatever time you choose, make sure it works for you, for other people in your house and then be consistent.
Focus On Your Breathing
While it sounds elementary because you do it all the time, consciously breathing will change your life. If you did your yoga classes like we told you to, youll remember your yoga teacher taking you through a breathing practice before moving through postures. Its one of the most important aspects of yoga and as they say yoga without breathing is no different to any other sport. Breathing is a great way to reduce tension, and after some at home practice, youll be able to use your breath to release daily tension. Win.
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The Importance Of Timing
The Earth spins on its axis consistently, providing us periods of sunlight and darkness within each full rotation. As humans, we have divided those periods of light and dark into hours. We then further divide and configure those time increments based our priorities. Similarly, when teaching yoga, we are given a set amounts of minutes to work with in order to bring about a transformation for our students.
A basic teacher training program lays the groundwork to manage such timing. You learn when to place poses within a sequence to warm up the body, and then how to prepare it for more difficult postures. You also discover the necessary time needed to counterbalance challenging work and restore an overall sense of balance to the body.
There is power in timingand it goes way beyond the placement of postures in a sequence. This is the first of three blog posts that will look at the elements of timingfrom beginnings to middles to endingsso that you can lead smarter, better, and more purposeful yoga classes within any time limit.
Photo Credit: Chris Ensey
Wear Clothes For Comfort And Also Confidence
This is mainly for the studio environment because lets be real here, half the time we wear our PJs when we practise at home . We recommend you wear high waisted, comfy leggings with a form fitting top. We prefer longer tops or long line crop tops. We wear this so nothing rides up or down. The tightness is better so you dont end up in a down dog with a shirt around your face. The fewer clothing distractions the better! Also, in the cooler months be sure to bring warm layers and in summer breathable moisture-wicking features are ideal.
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Prepare Your Business For The Next Steps
Now you know how to start a yoga business from home. We told you the beginning steps to get you started. Now its time to open your home and start making money. As you continue, your business will grow and you might want to try new marketing techniques. Make sure you check out , an online marketing guide for fitness companies.
How To Get Started With Yoga
Yoga is a popular practice throughout the world that combines breathing, movement, and meditation. Imported to the United States from India over a century ago, yoga has long been praised for its physical and spiritual benefits.
Research shows yoga can help manage stress, ease depression and anxiety, improve mood, and enhance the quality of sleep. In addition, yoga has been shown to increase flexibility, improve balance and coordination, reduce pain, and increase strength.
Taking your first yoga class may seem overwhelming, but it doesnt have to be intimidating if you know what to expect. A typical yoga class is 45 minutes to 90 minutes. Depending on the teacher and style, it often begins with a centering focused on the breath, moves onto poses known as asanas for the bulk of the class, and sometimes ends with meditation as a cool down.
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How To Practice At Home With Videos
Following a led class via video can provide structure and motivation to your fledgling home practice. Once upon a time, people bought yoga DVDs and followed the same routines over and over. The internet has solved that tedium by bringing an abundance of yoga videos straight to our phones and laptops.
The major web-based yoga video platforms all operate on a similar model. Their roster of teachers creates classes of varying styles, lengths, and intensities, which are updated frequently so there is always something new to try. Most of these platforms offer a free trial period, so shop around until you find one you like. Once you settle on a site, expect to pay around $15- $20 a month, which is about the cost of a single in-studio class.
Pay Attention In Class
You could start taking mental notes in class: I really like when we do down dog, low lunge, down dog again, and pigeon, Ill do those three at home. I would be disappointed if my students werent taking some of the things we do on a regular basis and incorporating them into their regular lives, Crandell says.
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Energizing Or Relaxing Class Sequence
Each yoga posture can elicit different energetic effects in your students. Are you teaching a power vinyasa class or a slow flow yoga sequence?
As a general rule, moving the spine forward or inverting, are generally more stimulating. Flexing the spine towards forward bending are more relaxing. Whereas twisting can be considering balancing.
If youre going for a relaxing class, add a longer seated yoga sequence.
Lastly, even changing the order of postures in a class will deliver a different effect on your students. Take this into consideration as you teach targeted classes for students with various injuries or mental and emotional states.
Yoga Is Not Just For The Experts
Number one, being a yoga teacher is not about being able to do all the fancy, complicated poses, like headstand, or forearm stand, or some of the arm balances.
What its actually about is cuing, which means effectively using your voice to tell people what to do with their bodies, and compassion.
So cuing and compassion.
So dont get down on yourself if you cant do all the super fancy things, because really good teachers are about great cuing and being extremely compassionate and loving with their students.
After all, yoga is a form of healing arts.
This doesnt always come naturally to everyone and thats okay. You can develop it with hands-on experience and will likely learn it in your teacher training education.
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Is Yoga Right For You
Yoga is accessible for just about everyone.
If you have a medical condition or a recent injury, it can be challenging or dangerous to do certain types of yoga, specific poses, or breathing techniques. Usually, there are alternatives or modifications that can allow you to practice safely, and many common complaints have specific yoga therapy remedies. If you are recovering from an injury or are in poor health, we recommended consulting with a physician or other qualified health care professional before beginning yoga.
While you may feel some intensity in the belly of your muscles while in a yoga pose, you should never feel pain, especially in the joints. A sharp or intense pain is your bodys signal to tell you to stop, back off, and take it easy.
Equipment For Doing Yoga At Home
There are a few key items that you should make sure you have in your at-home yoga space before you begin.
Yoga mat
A yoga mat is the most important piece of equipment you will need for your yoga practice. Most yoga mats are thin and have a strong grip to ensure you dont slip or slide while practicing.
When choosing your mat, opt for one that feels non-slippery and doesnt roll up while you are practicing.
Yoga block
Yoga blocks are a very helpful tool for assisting you when doing stretching poses or where you need extra stability such as the Half Moon Pose.
It can also help you reach the floor if you are not flexible enough to touch the floor in a forward fold. Yoga blocks come in multiple shapes and sizes, and can be made of foam, cork, or wood.
Yoga strap
Similarly to a yoga block, yoga straps can make poses more challenging once you are more advanced. It can also assist in making poses less challenging if you don’t have the ability to stretch or bend far without the assistance of a strap.
You can use a yoga strap in many different ways, however it is commonly used in forward folds and other leg stretches.
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How Often Should I Do Yoga
If you can practice yoga 3 or more times per week, you will see significant improvements in your flexibility, range of motion, strength, balance, inner peace, and overall well being. Ideally, we recommend shorter and more frequent sessions, 20-45 minutes long, and for a total of 3-4 hours spread over several days. Practicing yoga less than this amount will still be beneficial, but you will see smaller improvements over a longer period of time. Like most things, the more time you can dedicate towards it, the more benefits you will receive.
Seven Tips For Practicing Yoga By Yourself
So youre ready for some yoga but your studio is closed? Dont despair. Take matters into your own hands by becoming your own yoga teacher. Dont sweat it if you forget your training or your chants! Many times, practicing solo allows you to focus entirely on the intrinsic. Here are seven tips for getting started by yourself.
Set Your GoalWhen you plan your own yoga class, you get to decide on every factor, like the type of yoga youre going to practice and the pace and energy of the class. Take a moment to assess your current state: do you crave a fiery power practice, or are you feeling worn-down in a way that only a restorative class can soothe?
Of course, you can create a dynamic class for yourself, mixing and matching from different classes youve taken in the past to create a tailor-made sequence that hits all the right spots.
Focus on the Tried and TrueYoull generally want to choose poses that are familiar to you. Youll be familiar with proper alignment for those poses, as well as safe ways to enter and exit the pose. Trying a new pose for the first time solo can set you up for injury: youre better off relying on a teachers cues the first few times and then practicing at home once comfortable.
But Challenge YourselfWhen you set the sequence, it can be tempting to gloss over poses or areas that arent your favorite. Resist the desire to skip the poses that you find challenging: the discomfort from these poses can provide a great opportunity for growth.
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Want To Open A Studio Get Help
Being a yoga teacher and being a business owner simply require different skillsets. How to put together a team, have targets, projections, growth goalsthose are all things you learn when you get an MBA, not in yoga teacher training, Brown says. If you are a studio owner in a big city and want to grow your business, you need a manager, accountants, someone with marketing experience, and so on, so you can focus on what you know and do best. What I have found is that I have to pick my battles of what is really important to me to focus on, Finger says. For me, thats developing relationships with my teachers so they feel connected and empowered as teachers. That way she can travel without worries because she knows her team is running payroll, teaching, and selling packages as she thinks bigger picture about ISHTA.
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