Sometimes, even at more advanced levels, it is important to return to basics and consider our form, especially in foundational standing postures. This is because we practise those so often that we begin to take them for granted, especially the further we advance in our yoga practice. This is why, in this class, we will try some of the more basic standing postures, both with and without wall support, so as to see what insights the supported version can help us glean and bring into the way we perform the unsupported variation. Our aim throughout this is to pay attention to our form and see if we can identify what we’re doing wrong. We will try to let the wall teach us. Through this practice, we will attempt to become more independent in our practice.
We will start off with some invocations to center the mind, then move on to Uttanasana and Adho Mukha Svanasana, as well as Urdhva Hastasana, to warm up the legs and shoulders. Then, some warming inversions will help energise the body and mind before we enter the main part of our session.
In the standing part of the session, we will only go through a few standing postures but we will do several repetitions of each, to the wall and away from it, so that we can observe the differences between the different variations. The poses we will explore here are Utthita Trikonasana, Utthita Parsvakonasana, Virabhadrasana 1, Ardha Chandrasana, Parivritta Trikonasana, Parsvottanasana, and Prasarita Padottanasana. With most of those poses, another interesting thing to pay attention to, aside from what wall support brings to the mix, is how the different sides of the body feel, which side is stiffer, etc.
After the standing part, we will start to cool down. We will do a few variations of Sirsasana and Sarvangasana, and then prepare for our final relaxation in Savasana.
Video stills from this sequence
