Monday, December 10, 2012

Yoga for beginners, by beginners ;-)

Our first challenge in yoga class - build your own sun salutation based on the sun salutation B of Prana Yoga Flow.

It is not as challenging as it sounds - in the book, each posture of sun salutation B has a number of variants that can be used to add some challenges or just do some slight modifications.

I really got energized by the idea of creating something ourselves, so I scanned in the pages with the variants of Alberto's book (sorry for the copyright infringement Alberto, but I won't publish my creation). I went into presentation mode, started creating a 4 page powerpoint slideshow. Some cutting and pasting of the images, followed by what to do in my own words and tadaa, my first sun salutation was a fact. That it was a powerpoint presentation on my laptop made me feel a bit more in my comfort zone, but that should not be an issue.

I specifically looked for those variants that I consider to be usefull and manageable for beginners - like me.
Some rotation out of the "awkward chair pose", both to left and right, to make my spine more flexible.
A variant on one foot in the forward bend - to open the pelvis which will come in handy for other postures.
And, the part that I am most proud of as a rookie,  I have included a posture in between the upward facing dog and the downward facing dog, where it is easier to create a long back  - go down on your knees, sit on your heels, bring your belly as close as you can to your upper legs and stretch your arms as far as you can. I've asked my wife to check if it made my back straight when going into downward facing dog.... and it did.... I had a sense of victory, being able to create yoga for beginners, as a beginner. (maybe I should start including pictures instead of trying to explain the whole thing - pictures speak louder than words right?)

Now it is just a matter of practising it for the rest of the week.... and the good thing is, I'm back in my yoga zone where I want to practise every night.... game on!

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