This is a great class for anyone starting out in Iyengar yoga as it combines a lot of the elements necessary to build a good base for your practice: flexibility, endurance, and core strength. We will also include some preparatory inversions as it’s important to get students accustomed to them from an early stage, seeing as they form such an important part of one’s yoga practice.
We will start, as usual, with some shoulder-opening exercises as part of the warm-up. This part will include such poses as Adho Mukha Svanasana, Virasana Forward and different arm positions in Tadasana: Urdhva Baddhanguliyasana, Urdhva Hastasana, Garudasana Arms, and Paschima Namaskar. These poses don’t only help to open up and warm up the shoulder area but also allow you to release tension in and gently stretch out your spine. We’ll also do some variations of Ardha Uttanasana to warm up the wrists before the inversions.
Right after the shoulder, neck and upper back warm-up, we will move on to some preparatory inversions. You will notice the benefits of the warm-up in this part. Inversions are much more difficult to hold if your shoulder, neck and upper back area is stiff. We will prepare for two inversions today: Adho Mukha Vrksasana and Sirsasana. We will end the inversion part with Virasana Forward as this is a good pose for loosening the muscles around the neck and shoulders.
Then, we’ll go through a few core-strengthening poses such as Urdhva Prasarita Padasana, Paripurna Navasana, and Ubhaya Padangusthasana. The two latter poses are quite advanced and might require some students to use props or try out modifications to gradually get their bodies used to the strain and gain the strength necessary to hold the poses without assistance. However, it’s a good idea to start practicing these poses early in your practice as a strong core is one of the most fundamental requirements if you wish to progress steadily.
We will finish the class with some chair twists and a few backbends such as Setu Bandha Sarvangasana to release any accumulated tension in the back and shoulders and help us to wind down before finishing with a few minutes of meditation in Savasana.
Video stills from this sequence
