Simplified Yoga Sequencing

Transcript

one of the hardest things about teaching 
yoga is sequencing do you spend a lot of   time making sure that you're crafting the best 
sequence that it works for everybody in your   classes do you spend a lot also a lot of time 
worrying and overthinking about your sequences   doubting them well my friends i've got one 
simple little tip that's going to help you feel   more clear more confident in your sequences and 
it's not complex at all i'm bree johnson of heart   and bones yoga and i've been teaching for a very 
long time since 2003 and i teach yoga teachers   around the world how to teach yoga and this 
is one of the biggest things that i encounter   is sequencing and so i'm going to help you make 
it way less complex we're going to go through   my one tip to help your teaching feel better 
without even having to change your sequences   now i think in tradition traditionally when we try 
to do yoga and when we think of sequences we often   think that we need to do something different 
that every class we teach has to be completely   different or this pose has to go after that pose 
perfectly and while there is truth to the sense   that we don't want to teach the same thing all 
the time and yes there is a kind of a natural flow   between some poses and you don't want it to be 
disjointed and clunky because here's the thing so   if you're teaching yoga asana yoga poses the body 
and the brain want to move in both familiar ways   and new and novel ways so how do you offer both in 
your classes i do it through one action at a time   i simplify this for myself and i simplify this 
for my students by having again one focus and   it's for me usually in action and why this is a 
really great approach because it works no matter   what yoga style you're doing it works no matter 
what kind of class you're doing it could be a   yin class it could be a hardcore vinyasa flow 
class and anything in between but shake it up a   little bit by adding one focus one action so i'm 
going to give us an example we're going to move   through an example of this the example i'm going 
to share with you about one action or one focus   is for me as a teacher i might look at external 
rotation of the shoulder joint as the focus   so rather than focusing on one pose there's that 
peak pose type of sequencing where you move people   into and towards a peak pose and then you move out 
of that peak pose ps you can still do this with   the peak pose style of sequencing but rather than 
having to focus on the poses themselves focusing   on one action within the poses is actually really 
good for people's brains and nervous systems   it's a healthier way to move because for example 
the external rotation most i like to choose this   as an action in a lot of my classes because most 
of us tend to sit the people in your classes are   going to come into your class in this internally 
rotated tight shoulder position and then we're   going to go into warrior 2 and then those tight 
shoulders are going to show up or we're going to   try to bring the arms up and that internally 
rotated tight shoulder is going to show up   so you don't have to change anything other than 
adding internal and external rotation but how does   that look let's go through some poses and i'll 
show you okay remember that this can be applied in   an ashtanga yoga sequence in a yin yoga sequence 
in any style or approach to yoga that you teach   all you're going to do is take your familiar 
yoga poses and then add for this example   external rotation of the shoulders so i'm going 
to run us through just a couple different poses   where you can see how applicable and wonderful 
adding one action is to your sequences so often   of course let's start in tadasana mountain pose 
mountain pose we sometimes maybe classically teach   it with the shoulder blades back chest up rather 
than pulling the shoulder blades back if you have   people stand and externally rotate their shoulders 
that's a beautiful place to start then from there   externally rotate you can add the arms up maybe 
we do the arms up to the ceiling normally we would   just have the arms up to the ceiling like so right 
the palms facing each other but then you simply   add external rotation arms up and what that's 
doing is now offering new movement pathways into   the shoulder joints it's actually addressing more 
tissues around the shoulders than you might have   before directly working on people's places where 
they hold tension and the beautiful thing about   this external rotation it's not like you're trying 
to do something so wild and crazy or different   you still get to have that familiar position of 
arms up but all you're doing is inviting the arms   to move differently to get a more effective 
stretch okay so now let's go try another pose   so let's try let's say warrior one you know 
we've got warrior one that's that same position   here so instead of having the arms up hands 
facing each other you invite people to bring   your arms external rotation oh notice that you 
can't move a little bit as much as you normally   can but that's great because now we're getting 
the stretch here into the lats it's wonderful   all right now let's move into some like a warrior 
two position so warrior two normally the palms   are facing down so there's kind of that internal 
rotation going on so you where are we going next   you guessed it asking people to externally rotate 
so this is beautiful you don't have to change your   so if you already have a warrior two in your 
sequence fabulous don't change that but just   change some of the work that we're doing within 
it this is again great for not only the muscle   tissues but also for people's brains the nervous 
systems doing something a little bit different is   really good for us through a tree pose right same 
thing arms up or arms up and external rotation   now here we are on the ground let's bring some 
of that external rotation action into some of   our seated positions to give you more of an 
idea so one example would be coming into a   wide angled forward bend or a straight forward 
bend or janus asana any of these seated poses   and you can go into so if you normally 
have people hands on the floor like this   you can have the hands like this this may not 
seem like a lot but again you're re-patterning   a postural habit that most people are going to 
have and they're going to bring into their yoga   practice so even something as simple as just like 
this actually can make a difference but if you   want to up level that you can then get creative 
and then stay in external rotation and do a little   side to side stretch like so or this can also 
be good done standing as well or in any other   position but here you could go external rotation 
as you move the arms so you're also working   on shoulder range of motion with the external 
rotation this is beautiful this is a wonderful   stretch like so okay now let's try some more 
another familiar one would be child's pose   right where we go onto the hands and the knees and 
typically child's pose is done with the arms out   stretching out palms down instead you can go 
of course surprise surprise external rotation   so you can ask people the arms won't be a hundred 
percent externally rotated but they'll be a little   bit more and it feels so much different and you'll 
notice in your own body i invite you to try this   of course but you'll notice and for the people 
in your classes they'll start to notice oh wait   when i externally rotate i start to feel it in 
different places and that's what this approach is   giving you so as a yoga teacher you can simplify 
your teaching while knowing that you're offering   sustainable functional helpful ways for the 
joints and muscles to move you're actually   helping people's nervous system and brains because 
they're doing something a little bit different   within something familiar and it just again no 
matter what style of yoga you can teach you can   bring these actions into your classes and it's 
simple and wonderful an example of another action   would be let's say ribs down so a lot of us in 
our yoga practice we tend to overly thrust the   ribs forward which can put some pressure on 
the spine in fact i have a couple videos that   talk about this you can find the link to those in 
the description of the class below take a look at   that afterwards and so you can bring ribs down 
throughout your class as your action focus by   doing that in warrior one instead of pushing the 
ribs out you can keep them down let the movement   come from the shoulders you could think about 
in twists cueing instead of twisting and having   that chest lifted and the ribs flaring forward you 
twit you cue by keeping the ribs over the pelvis   and rotate so you can see the same poses nothing 
changes in the poses just how we're in the poses   changes so again it makes your teaching that much 
more helpful it makes your teaching that much more   succinct and you don't have to reinvent the wheel 
each time that's huge so i hope this starts as a   becomes a wonderful jumping off point for you and 
you're teaching that changing out of the paradigm   of okay it has to be this brand new thing every 
time and pressure pressure pressure and instead   going well what are the helpful actions in the 
body that people need you don't have to follow   hard and fast rules go with what you know as a 
teacher already get creative get exploratory keep   it simple and your classes will love it p.s if you 
have any questions about this or want more insight   leave it in the comments and we'll all see it and 
reply to that otherwise hopefully watch that rib   thrust video on any of our other yoga education 
videos here and i'll see you in the next class