Iyengar yoga home practice

Welcome to some ideas for home practice!

As I have written in this article, not all of our teachers have the time or inclination to get involved with online teaching at this time.

Rachel and I are both offering online classes - Rachel on Monday evenings and Thursday mornings, and my classes are on Tuesdays (10am and 7.30pm), Thursday evenings, and (from 10th July) Friday mornings 10am.

I will still offer a weekly class through photographs which might inspire you to some practice at home.

This week it is standing poses, with some inversions if they are part of your practice already. These classes are aimed at existing Iyengar yoga students at Maitri Studio. I will choose poses with which most of you will be familiar. If there are poses you are concerned about, perhaps finding them too much for your body right now, leave them out. This is your practice, not a demand.

I am uploading practice sheets with a couple of notes to help you. I have also posted them on my personal facebook page, where there is also a video of me doing the om chant and invocation to Patanjali at the start of class (both posted 30 March 2020), and I will share them on the Maitri Studio facebook page too. Might even manage to share on the Maitri Studio instagram and twitter pages too!

• Practice 1 - standing poses
• Practice 2 - forward bends
• Practice 3 - backward bends
• Practice 4 - restorative/inversion/pranayama prep
• Practice 5 - standings - what can you do with legs at right angles?
• Practice 6 - twists and forward bends - elongate and revolve the spine for a different perspective
• Practice 7 - a short basic class with some ideas for alternative equipment use
• Practice 8 - backwards again - upper back and shoulder releasing
• Practice 9 - restorative/pranayama
• Practice 10 - legs, abs - strength in the middle - and some sun salutations :) an active practice!
• Practice 11 - forwards, can be adapted for during first days of menstruation
• Practice 12 - chair yoga - some poses sitting on a sturdy yoga chair, others using the chair for support

Remember, there are many online resources to help you. Yoga Vastu and Yoga Selection are taught by experienced Iyengar yoga teachers and have trial free periods before a very reasonable subscription price. Yoga Journal has lots of information about yoga in general, with a useful pose library, and videos. Roads to Bliss Youtube channel has many videos from Iyengar yoga teachers from around the world. We have also shared some practice resources already on the Maitri Studio facebook pages, and will continue to do so as we become aware of them. There is a good summary of some practice sheets at this blog, and a series of practice plans from the Manchester & District Iyengar Yoga Institute here.

Happy practising everyone. May you #FindYourCalmSpace. It's in there somewhere!

Sending you much love in this time,

Claire