What we'll be working on in 2021

At the beginning of each new year I spend a bit of time thinking about where I want to take my students over the 12 months ahead. And, using a process I picked up from one of my own teachers (Jason Crandell), I’ll think about what mental, physical and emotional qualities I want to help people cultivate in class. Then whatever we’re working on throughout the year - postures, techniques or anything else - everything will be underpinned by those elements. So (only a few days late) here’s what I’m aiming to develop with you lovely people this year....

3 mental qualities

• Agency – I got this idea from another brilliant teacher I’ve recently started studying with, Alexandria Crow (and who I’ll be training with for the rest of 2021 to help develop this point further). Through this theme I aim for students to genuinely feel like they can take any of the options I offer in class without being judged or pressured into doing something different, to choose to rest whenever you want to, or perhaps even leave class if you need to. The longer I do this job the more I realise how different people’s experiences of coming to class on any particular day are, and so how differently they each might need to approach (or choose to avoid) different postures or techniques. Also, if people feel empowered to genuinely do what feels best for them in a group class, might this make yoga feel more welcoming, inclusive and perhaps encourage more diversity among students (and so eventually teachers)...?

• Attention – this one keeps building on a strand from last year because this is still something I’m continually working on (and that my phone/ laptop/ social media definitely doesn’t help with!). I also appreciate that for lots of students it’s even harder to focus on class right now, when we’re working online and they are at home with family/ pets/ housemates etc. But, to me, paying attention to what I’m doing and not thinking about the rest of my life for 60 mins feels like one of the key reasons why I feel better after practice. I think that effect is probably the same whether it’s been a 60 minute vinyasa class or an hour long savasana (which kind of backs up the fact that you should be empowered to rest/ take any option that suits you in class). And, since my cues are sometimes different to other teachers and I ask students to make shapes that aren’t always classical yoga poses, paying attention to class also means students hopefully following my instructions more easily! (You’re always welcome to filter out the jokes though 🥴)

• Equilibrium – my hope is always that by the end of class you’re feeling calmer than you were when you walked in. But this is also something I’d like to cultivate during the more physically challenging parts of class… can you accidentally fall out of a balance without mentally beating yourself up? Can you watch a demonstration of something you don’t think you’ll be able to do without starting an internal monologue it?

3 physical qualities

• Precision and sensitivity – These two are inextricably linked. When you begin practising yoga postures it makes sense that you notice the most obvious sensations first. But, over time, you might start to be able to feel what’s going on in other parts of your body. Developing this sensitivity and a higher level of body awareness will allow you to be more precise in your movements (eg is that leg doing what you think it’s doing..?) and notice the effects of what you’re doing more easily. Trying to work with precision and sensitivity also helps keep my mind from wandering, so I hope it will support your work on our second quality (listed above) of paying attention.

• Evenness - I don’t mean by this that I want all of our bodies to be completely symmetrical by the end of 2021 (that would be weird, impossible, and probably pointless!). Instead, I’ll be thinking instead about even and steady breathing, and working your body relatively evenly. For example, in vinyasa yoga we tend to stretch the backs and outsides of your hips and thighs relatively more than we strengthen them – can we start to address this and perhaps pay more attention to the fronts and insides too? Or, in relation to your shoulders, we spend a lot of time with your arms overhead or in front of you (think plank, downward dog, high and low lunge, handstand etc). Can we add in anything to strengthen the muscles that pull your arms back?

3 emotional qualities (these all overlap with each other and probably give a reasonable insight to my state of mind atm!)

• Patience – with yourself on any given day, with your body when it gets injured, with the process of turning up to class regularly or of constantly noticing your mind has wandered and bringing your attention back on to what you’re doing. And especially at the moment: with people/ pets/ neighbours at home that distract you from an online class! Although that last one might be selfish on my part because I love seeing the pets and kids joining for savasana in your zoom squares….

• Compassion – for yourself when you’re trying to stay focused but your mind keeps wandering, for your body when it gets injured, for your loved ones if they’re being annoying, and for yourself if you need to rest more often than normal during class or if generally you’re having a hard time (we are still in a global pandemic after all)

• Gratitude – for what your body can do and for still being here and able to practice after whatever you have personally been through over the past year or so.

So if you come to class/ a workshop/ a teacher training with me this year, this will underpin what we’ll be working on (and no, this isn’t a recent picture…. it’s from this time last year, in Oman). So if any of this sounds interesting I hope to see you in a Zoom square soon. And perhaps in person in not too long! 🤞

Transitions: malasana (garland pose/ squat) to bakasana (crow/ crane pose)

The transitions we’ve looked in this series so far have been moving from standing on two feet to standing on one foot. In this way, we’ve been moving from a more to a less balanced pose. The transition this blog post is about takes you from being on your feet to your hands but in a way it’s still the same: moving from a more to a less stable posture. For each of the previous two transitions (if you missed them see my posts here and here) I cued my students to move slowly and minimise using momentum. We also made as much of the shape of the less stable pose as we could with both feet on the floor and made the transition simply about shifting your weight (ie not about launching yourself forwards or up). In that way, students (hopefully!) were able to tune in more closely to what was working to hold them steady, what was working to move them slowly, and maintain slow steady breathing. All that same work applied this week to shifting from a squatting position (malasana) to crow/ crane pose (bakasana). 

We’d looked at trying to get into crow pose and hold it a few weeks before in class so I knew my students were familiar with this posture (see that week’s blog here). So this week, since we were approaching the same pose but as part of a transition, instead of holding it we were moving in and out of the pose in time with our breathing.

Start in malasana, or a relaxed squat. I’ve got my big toes together here and my knees apart, and I’m dropping my chest as low down between my legs as it’ll go. This means my knees are as high up towards my armpits as they can go (which will be useful as we progress towards the next pose).

Before you move on from here, squeeze your legs in against your upper arms. Keep squeezing them through all the steps that follow!

To get to this shape I’ve changed 3 main things from the picture above:

• I’ve planted my palms on the floor in front of my feet and slid my hands back so my arms are pressing on my shins

• Lifted my heels

• Lifted my bum

In the introduction to this blog I talked about making as much of the unstable pose as you can with both feet on the floor. This shape looks like bakasana but we’re not quite there yet!

This is as much of bakasana as I can make with my feet on the floor. I’ve kept everything the same from the last picture (legs squeezing in, hips lifting high, fingertips gripping the floor) and now I’ve also shifted my weight forwards so it’s more over my hands. Arm balances aren’t about lifting up - they’re about getting in position and then shifting your weight forwards so that your feet can lift up.

You can see that everything in this photo is exactly the same as the last picture, except that I’ve bent my knees, pointed my toes and brought my feet to my bum.

Since we’re looking more at the transition rather than simply trying to hold this pose, this is how I was cueing my students:

‘Inhale come up on to your tiptoes (ie photo 3); exhale shift your weight forwards and lift your feet (ie photo 4); inhale hold there; exhale bring your toes back down again’. We went through that transition (photo 3-4) and back again three times. Please ask if anything is unclear!

Transitions: Side angle pose to half moon pose

In part two of our series on transitions, here is another fundamental one! I really like shifting between these two poses slowly because I feel my outer hips working A LOT (and outer hip strengthening is great for long term yogis because we stretch that area of our bodies so often). I sometimes say to my students that as far as most yogis are concerned we can think of your outer hips as having three main jobs: they create motion both by turning your legs out and swinging your legs out to the side, and they also act as stabilisers when you are shifting your weight around.

When people move into half moon pose it is fairly common for their front foot to turn inwards. I’ve found that switching on my outer hip in that leg helps prevent my front foot turning in. So here are the steps I took my students through:

Start in side angle pose as shown in this first image. You may want to have a block under your bottom hand; for my proportions using a block works better than reaching for the floor.

Have your bottom hand just outside your front ankle so that your arm lines up with your shin. Gently press your leg out against your arm and see if you can feel your outer hip switching on to press your leg out.

Put your top hand on your top hip (this is optional but it keeps your arm from waving around and pulling you off balance!). Keep pressing your front leg gently out against your bottom arm so you’re engaging the muscles you need in your front hip for when we make our next transition.

My last blog post contained a short video of a correction you can do to yourself by hooking your thumb into the front of your hip - that adjustment can also be useful in your front hip here.

Keep that same action of pressing your front leg out going as you step your bottom hand forwards (this action is key to stop your front foot turning in!).

Place your bottom hand about the length of your torso in front of your front foot. Slowly shift your weight forwards on to to your bottom hand and front foot until your back foot lifts off the floor.

Keep working same area of your bottom hip that you could feel when you were pressing your leg out against your bottom arm (even though your arm isn’t there any more!). Slowly shift a little more weight on to your front foot to allow you to lift your back leg higher. Of course I’ve managed to cut my top foot off again here 🤦🏻‍♀️😂 But what you can’t quite see is that my top toes are pointing towards the camera (ie my top leg has turned out as well as lifted up. You may be able to feel the outside of your top hip working to lift your leg.

If you feel steady you can reach your top arm up. And if you feel really steady try looking up! Before you come back down think about where you want to place your top foot, and then as slowly as you can shift back to side angle pose.

Bonus strength drill!

The steps above will take you through the transition from side angle pose to half moon. But below is a little strength drill I also had my students doing to work their hips a little more. If you wanted to add this in during your transition it would fit nicely after the first two photos above and before the second two.

Come into the position shown in this last image, except with your back toes still on the floor. Press your front leg gently out against your bottom arm to engage the outside of that hip. Then shift your weight forwards on to your front foot just enough to hover your back toes off the floor (as shown here). Keep your front knee slightly bent, keep pressing your front leg against your arm and lower your back toes back down to the floor. Lift and lower your back foot a few times, but keep the movement really small (smaller is harder!). Then the last time you hover your back foot hold it up for a few breaths. Let me know how you get on!