Developing Your Verbal Repertoire: Part 1

In any form of art, there are two required aspects: technique and creativity. Creativity comes from the right hemisphere of the brain while technique comes from the left. Most people struggle to integrate both sides of the brain at one time. While that is a useful goal in our practice of yoga, it is helpful to the learning process to give yourself the freedom to explore one side first and then the other. With time, you’ll be able to mix your creativity with learned techniques.

For example, if you were to learn the piano, you would likely learn first to play scales, chords, and read music. Learning how to put your fingers on the keys of the piano doesn’t require your creative side. When you become highly proficient at playing chords and scales, you can then learn to improvise or create your own music. You first need the skills to communicate on your instrument before you can freely express yourself.

You can certainly reverse this. The artist will tend to follow creativity first, and then refine technique with time. For the sake of learning rapidly, we will take the technique first linear approach, then get creative. As with music, you will memorize basic, commonly-used phrases, learn to speak them in time, and then get creative to find your authentic verbiage. 

Exercise 1: Memorizing

Memorize the following phrases by saying them aloud ten times each, speaking with the fullness of your voice. At first it might be helpful to do this exercise where no one can hear you so you can really speak with confidence. Or you may do it with your teacher training group where everyone will share similar challenges. The benefit of the group is that you can feed off each other’s support.

1. Inhale, reach your arms up
2. Exhale, fold forward
3. Inhale, lift your heart
4. Exhale, hands to the ground
5. Inhale, bend your knees and reach your arms up
6. Exhale, open up, warrior II 
7. Inhale, rise to the sun
8. Exhale, bow to the earth 
9. Inhale, reach your leg back and up
10. Exhale, downward facing dog

These are just a few of many phrases. With time you can replace the verbs with words that best suit your authentic artful expression, but first stick to these until you feel completely confident. 

Exercise 2: Phrases in Time

Now that you have these memorized and feel more confident, it’s time to speak in time. Speaking in time will be challenging if you are improvising – trying to match your words to your thoughts and emotions on the spot while keeping time is hard for anyone. Using the memorized phrases gives you the opportunity to focus entirely on the timing. 

Below I have a chart of what words to say on each beat for the 10 phrases you memorized. 

Steps:

1. Set the metronome to 50 bpm (65 bpm on second practice round).
2. Listen to the beat and feel it in your body.
3. Count along with the metronome. For each beat, say the corresponding number “1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4…..” In other words, each beat has one number. It is helpful if your metronome is set to make the one as an emphasized, louder click. In music, this is referred to as the “down beat”.
4. Speak the following phrases within the beats listed below. Sometimes it’s one word or syllable per beat but more often you will fit several words/syllables in to one beat, which is what helps student feel the rhythm and timing of their breath. This will help the whole class to unite! 

Notes: 

1. Don’t try to link phrases together; simply repeat the phrase “inhale, reach your arms up” several times until you get the timing, and then move to the next. I suggest at least ten times for each.
2. If there are no words on the beat, it’s helpful to breathe in or out respectively with your command. This will keep you from rushing or jumping the beat. 

INTEGRATION: SEQUENCE AND TEMPO 

This is incredibly exciting! I want to congratulate you on how far you have come. This is really quite an accomplishment. Right now you are almost ready to be teaching a full class. Before we complete the remaining templates, it’s time for you to solidify the primary sections of the class.

From warm up to peak pose is the heart of what we share as yoga teachers. While the cool down, Savasana, and closing are equally as important, they are far easier to teach. Our focus now is to get this section of your teaching as dialed in as possible so you feel comfortable and confident teaching. This section should take you between 30 (minimum)  and 40 minutes (maximum).

Practice

1. First practice teach 2-3 times to the metronome: I suggest 60-70 BPM. 
2. Once you feel confident, record yourself teaching (without the metronome). Focus on keeping your rhythm and timing. 

Sequencing

The Purpose:

There are many ways to sequence a yoga class, but most teachers would agree that the primary purpose behind creating a sequence is to leave students feeling good. As a teacher, you must always have a plan – know where you are going and how you want your students to get there. 

Coming up with an intention behind your sequence can be very helpful to establish your own template for your classes.  As a teacher my personal intention is to help students become more aware of their physical body which includes an increased ability to activate each muscle, feel the sensations of each muscle in an active or passive state, feel the sensations in and around their joints, and the subtle vibration of the physical body. I also feel it is responsible to teach students the names of the muscles, and their corresponding actions so that they gain the capacity to move their body on purpose in order to eventually have the ability to self adjust their body in order to feel better off the mat as well.

Ways to sequence a class:

• Peak posture 
• Chakra stimulation
• theme or philosophical teaching peak posture 
• following meridian lines,
• digestive, emotional healing, etc. 

Given the above options, my recommendation is to first master sequencing to a peak posture. 

Once this becomes second nature you will have a strong understanding of the physical aspects of the practice which give you a platform to build upon.

Sequencing in its most basic form relates to a set of postures strung together to bring balance to the muscular system and realign the joints for more optimal postural alignment. In this exploration the physical body may become more capable of more complex postural alignments which we might call “peak poses”

The easiest way to develop sequencing skills is to start with a peak posture (a destination), and determine what muscles need to strengthen and what muscles need to lengthen in order to achieve the required joint alignments that make up the target posture. 

Peak Posture

Peak Posture: Often a peak posture is the most challenging posture in a yoga class due to the requirement of either strength, balance, flexibility, joint alignments and/or focus. In contrast to this definition, a peak posture might also be a simple pose but the entire class prepared for that moment. For example you could sequence a class to a complex pose such as Urdva Dhanurasana (full wheal/upward facing Bowe pose) or you could sequence to a posture like tadasana to support students in their awareness of their posture. Sequencing toward a complex pose tends to be easier for beginner students as the challenges tend to be more obvious then the subtle challenges of tadasana. 

This is also a great time to include a visual demonstration for students to see how to approach the challenging posture, and to give them any tips you might provide. A Demonstration can also provide a brief mental and physical rest for students prior to attempting something that is demanding of their attention and physical strength.

Strength and Flexibility:

Every posture requires both strength and flexibility of several muscles. When developing a sequence for a peak posture create two columns, one for strength and the other for flexibility.

1. Write down all of the muscles or muscle groups that are stretching. 
2. Write down all the muscles groups that are strengthening in order to hold the posture. 

Tip: Start with the posture guide in this manual, then research the internet for the posture and and take in the information you find. It is helpful to use yoga anatomy books such as the Key Poses of Yoga by Ray Long, or Yoga Anatomy by Leslie Kaminoff. 

Lets take a look at Dancer pose:

Example 

Peak Pose: Dancer pose

Peak Engagement & Target Stretch 

After you have written down all of the muscle groups in the strength and flexibility column now is the time to choose one from each. How do you decide? Choose one from each column that you feel would provide students with the greatest access to the peak pose. Why only one from each column? You only have 60-90 minutes and students can only learn and integrate 1-2 things at a time. 

To be effective at teaching you must be willing to limit the amount of information you provide for the sake of repetition and integration of knowledge and information. If you were teaching someone how to speak a language you would start with simple phrases and repeat these phrases over and over again rather than providing a dictionary of all the words they could use to have a full conversation. Peak Engagement is the muscle you are choosing from the strength column, and Target Stretch is the muscle you are choosing from the flexibility column. 

Steps to Choose Your Peak Engagement and Target Stretch

1. Get into your body and try each muscle engagement, which one creates the greatest access to your peak posture? 
2. Of all the muscles that require flexibility, which feels like it is most limiting? 

Example 

Peak Pose: Dancer pose

Note: This is just one possible combination of many, and I may choose other combinations and create several sequences from just one peak posture!

Layering:

The next step to the process is coming up with a set of postures for the strength category and stretch category. I recommend between 3-5 for each. Layering is the process of delivering information repetitively over the course of the class. Think of a layered cake that has icing between each of the layers of cake. The icing is the strength and stretch postures, and the cake itself are all the other postures that exists in the class including the warm up poses, sun salutations, cool down postures etc. 

Example

Peak Pose: Dancer pose

Peak Engagement: Pectorals

Target Stretch: Quads

Using this example of Layering Postures you can see that number 4 and 5 from each column are the same which is helpful in saving time. If a posture strengthens and stretches both of the target muscle groups it is likely to be a very effective preparation for the peak pose. 

Physical Through-Line

A Physical through is like a theme of a book – a message that keeps repeating until the conclusion. Make a choice for your physical through line, of all the muscles that are required to strengthen and stretch, choose one of each that you feel will provide the greatest access to the peak posture. This is challenging for most teachers – once you understand all that is required its hard to limit the focus to one muscle group to strengthen and one to stretch.

The Sacred Vibration of Om

Sutras 1.27 -1.29 • Tantra of the Yoga Sutras Pp. 30-31

It is said that by repeating the sound of OM, the vrittis become still and we can experience our true nature. That is a fairly big claim, if you ask me. So I dug in and did a little research on this one. Turns out the ancient yogis might be right. According to this study that I found, chanting the sound OM stimulates the vagus nerve, which is responsible for triggering the parasympathetic response, initiating the down regulation of the body. At the same time, areas of our brain responsible for triggered reactive states are shown to decrease in activity.

This is exactly what the pranayama, Nadi Shodhana, does as well; balances the nervous system. In that state of equanimity, the activity of the mind seems to slow down, making the journey inward far easier.

While it is my personal experience that chanting the sound of OM repetitively helps to go into deep states of stillness, it is thrilling to see scientific evidence for this.

Please read through the article below. Don’t get too caught up in trying to understand it all; its a dry research article, so it can be hard to take in.

OM Research Article

If you don’t see the article below, here is the link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3099099/

 Fire Line

The Fire Line

I created The Fire Line for the Elements of Mastery to help students understand their body as a unit rather than separate parts. This is the same reason I personally am so invested in observing nature – to remember that I am not separate than it, but actually a part of it. It is a kinesthetic chain of muscular engagements that help to activate the core in a way that directly enhances strength for twists and arm balances. It starts from the Muscle called the serratus anterior which connects the shoulder blades to the rib cage and directly feeds into the obliques on a diagonal to the opposite hip and continues down that inner thigh. 

TEMPO AND TIMING EXERCISES

These are in your manual under the Verbal Delivery section.

The first aspect of verbal delivery in practice is your timing and tempo. Like listening to music, the tempo of the song changes the way you feel. Consider a genre of music like reggae, and compare it to something like punk rock. The tempos are quite different – reggae being slower, while punk rock tends to be fast. They each leave you feeling a certain way. How do you want your students to feel? The answer to this question might be different throughout different sections of the yoga class, so take the time to define the emotional experience you would like your students to have during each of the following sections. Next to the emotional experience write down the tempo you think would correlate (very slow, slow, medium, fast, very fast). 

Note: Below is a general chart, but you can also make a chart to represent the various teaching styles you offer,  ie. power yoga, vinyasa, slow flow, hot yoga, etc. 

4 Count Breath: Metronome Practice

The most effective way to develop tempo and timing for your breath is to set your breath to a beat so you can comfortably breathe in for four counts and breath out for four counts. For this you will need a metronome, which you can purchase online, in a music store, or even find free on YouTube. To make this process easier, I will assign you a tempo and a specific exercise.

Exercise 1:

1. Set the tempo of your metronome to 60bpm (beats per minute is the same as the second hand on an analogue clock, one beat per second). 
2. Close your eyes and listen to the beat. Move your body to help you feel the rhythm. 
3. For approximately five minutes, inhale for four beats, and exhale four beats.

Reflect upon the experience in your notes. How did this make you feel? Be specific. What was it like in the beginning, middle, and end? What emotional qualities would you associate with this tempo?

Exercise 2:

1. Set the tempo of your metronome to is 60 bpm.
2. Close your eyes and listen to the beat. Move your body to help you feel the rhythm. 
3. For approximately one minute, inhale for four beats, and exhale for four beats.
4. After your breath is aligned with the tempo, begin saying aloud “inhale” on the first beat of four, and “exhale” on the first beat of the next four count. The exercise has not changed; the only difference is that you are cueing the breath aloud. Continue this until it feels easy and natural. 

Again, in your notes, reflect upon your experience. What was it like to say the words aloud in time with the beat. Did you loose the beat or were you on time? Did you change your tone of voice as you went on?

Exercise 3:

1. Set the tempo of your metronome to is 60 bpm.
2. Close your eyes and listen to the beat.
3. Inhale for four beats, and exhale for four beats until you are comfortable.
4. Begin cueing “inhale” and “exhale” on the first beat of each four count. 
5. Now say the numbers out loud with “inhale” and “exhale” ex. “Inhale, two, three, four”, “Exhale, two, three, four”. Repeat for approximately five minutes.

Reflect upon your experience of cueing aloud and on beat. The numbers are one syllable while “inhale” and “exhale” are two, which changes the timing of your words. Did you notice or feel the difference of having to fit two syllables into one beat vs. the one syllable on beats two and four?

Moving Forward:

Practice these exercises daily and they will serve both as your pranayama and verbal delivery practice. You will also strengthen the focus and concentration of your mind, which will be helpful with your meditation practice. The ability to hold yourself to the tempo and timing throughout a yoga class will make a major difference in the way your students feel. There will be a momentum that builds from the tempo and you will feel as though the students are moving themselves. These practices will strengthen your internal rhythm, making it easier for you to speak in time.

In the next step, you will learn how to increase your repertoire of words and phrases while maintaining rhythm. To do so, let’s begin with very common phrases that include directionality of the body. 

Teaching the Peak Pose

Teaching a peak pose can make a big difference for students. Many teachers avoid a peak pose out of fear of challenging students too much. Some avoid providing a visual demo because they don’t want everyone to look at them. If resistance comes up for you, take note of where that is coming from. Teaching a peak posture is a great way to support your students in their journey. Providing them with something that is a little out of their reach provides them with a path forward. If their practice doesn’t challenge them, they are not growing, changing, or transforming. 

Here are a few simple ways to make your peak pose effective:

1. Offer three variations to provide accessible challenges for everyone in the room, regardless of their level of ability.

2. Provide one key action or muscle engagement that will help “unlock” the pose, providing a potential revelation. 

3. Be sure to visually demonstrate to help enhance your verbal cues. 

In your visual demonstrations, use “contrast teaching” in order to accentuate what you want your students to do. If you want them to round their back, first show them an arched back, and then move from the arched position into the rounded position. Contrast teaching provides exactly what the name implies – contrast – making each side of the spectrum more easily defined. 

4 Layers of the Abdominals

 There are 4 layers of Abdominals that are often referred to as the core. It’s important that for most anatomist, the core consists of ALL the muscles that surround the lower torso, not just the abdominals. The 4 Layers of abdominals primarily help to flex, latterally flex, rotate the truck, and compress the abdomine. Ech layers has muscle firber directions that help us to understand the line of pull. 

Muscles:

1. Rectus Abdominis : Most superficial (outer most) layer, responsible for flexing the spine. It is known for being the “six pack muscle”
2. External Obliques : Most known for latteral flexion of the trunk and for being that sexy side belly muscle – however it is much larger than it looks on the outside, and it is responsible for more than just side bending, it also flexes and rotates the trunk toward the opposite hip. 
3. Internal Obliques: Direction below the External Obliques, the internal Obliques have opposing muscle fibers – the direction is opposite which means that it has the opposite action. These muslce pull the trunk toward the same hip that they are on. The “Fire Line” is a term I created to talk about coordinating engagement of the internal and external obliques from the apoosite sides of the body – creating a diagonal line of pull from one side of the ribs to the other hip.
4. Transverse Adominis: The Deepest layer of the abdomine, this muscle is activated as a result of Udyana Bandha. It compresses the abdomine inward and upward, creating vacuum effect. This muscle wraps around the entire mid section, not just the front of the body. 

Internal and External Obliques

The primary reason I want to share this video with you is so you can see the diagonal fibers of the External obliques going down through the Lina Alba, and continued by the Internal Obliques on the other side wrapping all the way around to the back as she is pointing out. 

 Miscellanies:

1. Linea Alba :Tendon that runs down the center of the abdomen 
2. Concentric Contraction: Activation of a muscle while shortening it
3. Eccentric Contraction: Activating a muscles while it is lengthening 
4. Isomentric Contraction: Activating a muscle without any movement occurring. 

The Air Line

In the last section you learned about the anatomy of the back muscles including the Erector Spinae and QL muscles. This workshop focuses on strengthening these muscles while drawing your sensational attention of the opening of the front body. For whatever reason most of us feel confined when we strengthen muscles – I suppose it has something to do with the feeling of concealment, so if you put your attention on what is lengthening as a result of your strength it typically opens the experience up to a joyful celebration of expansion. This is a bit of the secret behind the workshop that I do not share so much with students.As a teacher in training It is useful to know the techniques behind “the magic” that happens. Knowing it, you still have to embody it in order for it to work, we are not above it just because we know what is happening – our mind and body still crave the feeling of expansion so we have to get on board with it, and use the technique to our advantage. The nervous system will react positively, the muscular system will follow suit and suddenly the expansion that is gained will be magical and revelatory. 

Teaching Techniques

This sequence is one of the last in our templates and it also marks a turning point for our journey together. While I have provided written verbal cues for you to follow, you now have more freedom to explore your own way of instructing if you wish. If you prefer to stick to memorizing, feel free to do so. 

Traffic Directions

Traffic directions are the general alignment or placement cues for getting students into the general shape. These are incredibly important when we start holding postures that are more intricate than those in sun salutations. It takes more descriptive terminology to help people understand what you are asking of them. There are two methods to deliver these instructions:

1. with the breath
2. conversationally

With the Breath

With the breath cues tend to require more practice as you will have to decide what actions happen on what part of the breath. Many times you will be verbally cueing more than one action within a single inhale or exhale. This is ok but can be a mouthful to add in the word “inhale” or “exhale”. In that case, conversational may be the better choice. The advantage here is that you may have an easier time keeping the whole class breathing together.

Conversational

Conversational might be a little more challenging when first learning as you will need to feel the pulse of the inhale and exhale without saying it. This allows cueing to sound more natural, like you are talking to the students. While it is still very intentional and very direct in its approach, it feels to the student that the teacher is now present with them. 

The Hip Flexors

This workshop targets strengthening of the Hip Flexors, in particular The Psoas, T.F.L, and Pectineus which is also an adductor. By building strength in these muscles and learning what their purpose is and how to use them you develop greater body awareness – proprioception. Given that you have learned about these muscles in the psoas section of anatomy this should help solidify that knowledge intellectually and provide wisdom from the experience of getting the sensations of activating this muscle group into your body.

Concealment and Revelation 

Understanding these two “Acts” of the universe has really helped me to “make sense” of what otherwise makes no sense in life. The Universe, and Nature (which is what we are) is constantly concealing and revealing itself in many ways. This for sure brings heart ache and frustration to the human experience and at the same time joyous celebration as well. We can start embracing this in our life by first observing that it is always happening. It happens with the weather, it happens with the seasons, it happens when a flower drops its seeds and those seed go from challenges of concealment to the growth and expansion of becoming a flower (revelation). It is everywhere. Honoring this process helps to release the effort to control what is not in our control, and provides us with the opportunity to place effort on what is in our control; our actions. 

Lesson Format

Mostly Lecture + Some Movement, have your mat set up near by.

Anatomy of the Back Muscles

Pg 128, Chapter 10: The Errector Spinae Group

Boney Landmarks

1. Spinous Process: The Back boney protrusion that sticks out – when you round your back these are what you see sticking out under the skin.
2. Transverse Process: You can’t see these, they are the part of the vertebra that sticks out on the sides
3. Costals: The Bones of the Ribs

The Muscles

Errector Spinae

1. Spinalis: One of the Erector Spinae – The Spinalis runs from one spinous process to the next. It runs up the center – it is to the other two Erectors. This muscle extends the spine.
2. Longissimus: Latteral to the spinals is another Erector Spinae muscles who’s job is to extend the spine as well.
3. Iliocostalis: The easier of the Errector Spinae to remember becuase the name defines where it is – it runs from the ilium to the Costals. Like the Longissimus and Spinals it helps extend the spine and perhaps more accurately it pulls the ribs down toward the ilium. It is more lateral than the other two.

When any of these three muslces activate on one side only they can serve to latterally bend the spine and potentially assist or initiate a twist. When both sides are active they extend the spine (create a back bend). Activating these also help to maintain upright posture when seated.

Quadratus Lumborum “Q.L.”: Not considered to be one of the erector spinae muscles but does a similar action of extension of the spine. This muscles I important in keeping the pelvis upright when seated. For supine back bends it is one of the most important to getting the body to rise away from the ground right there with the Gluteus maximus and hamstrings. 

Exercises for Strength and Awareness

Baby Cobra: I absolutely love this exercises. Going super slow and harnessing a focus and attention on each vertebrae can be so meditative. The goal is not to go deep but rather to build awareness of muscles that control each vertebrae. Please take your time with this one and repeat, there is so much wisdom to be gained from this. 

 Reverse Plank Pose: I used to avoid this posture, but I love it now because of how much strength is required int he QL and Errector Spinae. For some time I avoided strengthening my QL by constantly tucking my tailbone in back bends – thinking lumbar extension was bad. I didn’t know any better, that’s what my teachers told me. One of my teachers who was a Spinal Specialist noticed this pattern and put two fingers on either side of my lumbar in full wheel and said “these muscles are asleep, activate them”. Suddenly my hips shot upward and my posture deepened without any discomfort at all, infuse it felt magnificent. The area she touched had not been trained or paid attention to, and now I could finally feel it! That said, Full Wheel is an extreme pose to learn to activate the erectors and QL, Reverse Plank is far more accessible which is why I chose to share that with you here. 

Visual for Back Muscles

To give you a better visual of the erector spine I found this video that I would like to share with you. This helps to see the layers of back muscles include the erector spinae. Don’t worry about memorizing this video, this is more to give you a better “general” understanding of the back muscles. 

THE QL & PSOAS

I like this image to see where the Q.L. is in relationship to the Psoas, and Pelvis. Often we think of them to be on different sides of the body, but in the abdominal region there isn’t a big ribcage dividing the front side and back side, its just layers of muscle (and organs). 

Lesson Format

Some Lecture + Yoga Practice. Please prepare to get on your mat.

Teaching the Three Sequences

Before moving on to cascading, you will submit a video of yourself teaching all three sequences without pausing and without notes. Start with the Warm Up, which ends in Tadasana, and move right into Sun A, which starts in Urdu Hastasana. After three rounds of Sun A, move into three rounds of Sun B, starting with chair pose.

Cascading

Cascading is a term I use to describe an unfolding of a sequence that builds on itself. These sequences are typically Sun A, Sun B, and similar three to five rounds of flow/hold based sequences. When a new posture is introduced, it will generally be held for three to five breaths. On the next round, that same posture will not be held, and instead only half of a breath (inhale or exhale) will will be allotted to it. The combination of hold and flow establishes a rhythm for the body that seems to help ease the mind.

During held postures, students crave movement. During movement, students crave holding. Going back and forth, eventually the mind realizes that it’s always going to want the opposite of what it has. When holding a pose, the body has an opportunity to establish a sensory experience and feel out the posture before moving through it quickly the next time.

Most professionals in any sport will do some form of warm up that slows down the movements so that their body can jump on board. I remember as a golfer we used to go through the full swing at a slow, smooth pace, tracking the movement of the club to make sure our bodies were doing what we believed them to be doing. After a few slow swings, we would try a faster swing. Our coach would watch and determine if we should start hitting golf balls or if we should go back to the slow swing until the body was in control of the club.

The Approach

We have three sequences that we will be working with for cascading: The Warm-Up, Sun A, and Sun B. The warm-up will not need to change; it already has a held lunge prep position in it, and now we can use this posture as part of Sun A. Instead of jumping back to chaturanga in round one of Sun A, we will step the left foot back on the exhale for lunge prep. We inhale out of it to plank pose, and exhale to chaturanga. On the second round of Sun A, we will step back with the right foot to initiate the same sequence.

The advantage to having the step-back instead of the hop-back in the first two rounds of the A are probably obvious. There is less impact when the body is still warming up. Jumping back to chaturanga is rather intense on the body and requires tremendous muscular strength. This allows us to add in a plank pose which was also held in the warm up and now move through it to chaturanga. The beauty is that the appropriate muscles are getting a few more rounds to awaken to what is happening.

The third round of Sun A utilizes a jump-back to chaturanga this time, and now adds in a lunge pose. We use three-legged dog as a transition posture for this, but you could also choose to hold three-legged dog. For now we will consider it a transition posture to get to high lunge. High lunge is held on each side before completing Sun A.

Sun Salutation B introduces a new posture: chair pose, so that is held. The high lunge postures are now flow-through postures. In the second round of B, we flow through chair and lunge and add in Warrior 2 and reverse Warrior, three to five breaths each pose. In the third round, we flow through chair, lunge, Warrior 2, Reverse Warrior, and add in a hold for side angle pose. We could continue this pattern of adding on to sun B by doing more rounds of it. This is often how teachers sequence their standing series. For our purposes, we will end it on the third round and take a different approach for our standing series.

STANDING SEQUENCE: TEMPLATE

This Standing Sequence consists of 7 Postures. The purpose of the standing sequence is to prepare the bodies of your students for the peak posture. Later on in the training you will learn to pick a peak posture and work backwards to insert postures that will prepare your students. Right now I don’t want to overwhelm you with too much theory as I would like for you to memorize the structure of postures.

This Sequence is fairly common in most vinyasa and power yoga styles of yoga because it offers a range of options for peak pose and hits many of the muscle groups in the hips with exceptions of the quads and hip flexors. What that means is if you were to do a backbend as your peak posture you would want to either add to this sequence or replace some postures in order to open the front body. More on this when we get to sequencing. For now Memorize the sequence. 

The Postures: 

1. Parvritta Utkatasana: Revolved Chair
2. Parvritta Parsvakonasana: Revolved side angle (This version keeps the heel up – AKA twisted lunge)
3. Transition Postures: High Lunge (inhale), Warrior 2 (Exhale), Interlace Hands Behind Back (inhale), Bow (Exhale)
4. Utthita Trikonasana: Extended Triangle Pose
5. Ardha Chandrasana: Half Moon Pose
6. Eka Padasana: Standing Splits 
7. Pandangusthasana and Padahastasana: The Forward Fold with Yoga Toe Lock and The Forward Fold with Hands under feet. 

STICK FIGURES

Please share your stick figures on the facebook group, would would love to see your creativity or lack there of. this will provide comic relief and inspire new ideas for all of us. 

THE ILIO-PSOAS “The Bridge”

The reason I refer to the Ilio-Psoas as the bridge is because it is the muscle that crosses from the extremities to the trunk. It attaches to the femur bone and all the way up the low back and at the start of the mid back – that is a long span! But it is also wild to think that the alignment of our thighs in the hip socket can throw of the alignment of our spine. Most of us have one side of our psoas tighter than the other which can cause a lateral bending potentially resulting in scoliosis. I can attest to this myself – my right psoas is far stronger and shorter than the left, as a result my low back bends toward the right side. Knowing this has been helpful – I know if I have low back discomfort I can start with a thigh and psoas stretch on the right side. While I knew my right psoas was significantly tighter, an x-ray confirmed the effects on my spine. As you move through your practice of both studying anatomy and how it relates to your personal body, you have a choice: let it drag you down every time you notice your imperfections, or let it inspire you to take better care of your self. This has been the key for me to develop into the teacher I am today. I have taken my injuries, muscular and structural patterns, and used them as a form of study. I would invite you to do the same as we all go through injuries, chronic pain, and discomfort; let it empower you and your students.

The Muscles: Page 57

In this section we work with 3 primary muscles, but discuss several others. Be sure to look each of them up for a better visual and intellectual understanding.

1. Psoas Major: One of the muscles of the Ilio-psoas: Attaches to the Lessor Trochantor, the 5 lumbar (low back) vertebrae and discs as well as T12 Vertebrae and Discs.
2. Iliacus: The other Ilio-psoas muscle runs from the inner iliac crest pelvis to the lessor trochanter
3. Sartorius (pg 102): The Tree Pose muscle attaching from the A.S.I.S down to the inner tibia. Responsible for external rotation, hip flexion, abduction
4. Rectus Femoris: (pg 96) One of the quadriceps as perviously discussed
5. Pectineus: (Pg 79) a small adductor that adducts, flexes and internally rotates the hip.
6. Gluteus Maximus: (pg 64) The big buttock muscle that externally rotates the hip and extends it
7. Hamstrings: (pg 103) the three muscles that extend the hip joint and flex the knee joint

ANATOMICAL TERMS

Synergist: (pg 36) Muscle that helps the movement of the prime mover. In the case of the psoas being the prime mover, the following are synergists

1. Rectus Femoris
2. Pectinius
3. Sartorius
4. Tensor Fasciae Latae

Antagonist: (pg 36) The opposing muscle of the prime mover and synergists. These muscles create the opposite action and therefore require a certain amount of relaxing these muscles is required for movement to occur. The following are antagonists to the prime mover of the iliopsoas

1. Gluteus Maximus
2. Hamstrings

Prime Mover: The muscle that is primarily creating the movement, also known as the Antagonist.

Open Chain: (Pg 45) When the extremity is free to move

Closed Chain: (Pg 45) When the extremity is fixed by the floor, or any outside force

MOVEMENTS & SECTIONS OF THE SPINE

Movements (pg 116)

1. Flexion: Rounding the spine – like forward folds
2. Extension: Arching the spine – Back bending
3. Latteral Flexion: Side bending
4. Rotation: Twisting

The Sections of the Spine (pg 19)

1. Coccyx: Tail Bone
2. Sacrum: Triangular Bone
3. Lumbar: Low Back
4. Thoracic: Middle Back
5. Cervical: Neck

Bones, Discs, Boney Landmarks

Please study page 12 for these terms amongst others regarding the spine

1. Vertebral Body
2. Intervertebral Discs
3. Transverse Process

STANDING SEQUENCE: TEMPLATE

This Standing Sequence consists of seven postures. The purpose of the standing sequence is to prepare the bodies of your students for the peak pose. Later on in the training you will learn to pick a peak pose and work backwards to insert poses that prepare your students. Right now I don’t want to overwhelm you with too much theory as I would like for you to memorize the structure of postures.

This sequence is fairly common in most vinyasa and power yoga styles of yoga because it offers a range of options for peak pose and hits many of the muscle groups in the hips, with exceptions of quads and hip flexors. What that means is if you were to do a backbend as your peak posture, you would want to either add to this sequence or replace some poses that open the front body. More on this when we get to sequencing. For now, memorize the sequence. 

The Postures: 

1. Parvritta Utkatasana: Revolved Chair
2. Parvritta Parsvakonasana: Revolved Side Angle (This version keeps the heel up – AKA Twisted Lunge)
3. Transition Postures: High Lunge (inhale), Warrior 2 (exhale), Interlace Hands Behind Back (inhale), Bow (exhale)
4. Utthita Trikonasana: Extended Triangle Pose
5. Ardha Chandrasana: Half Moon Pose
6. Eka Padasana: Standing Splits 
7. Pandangusthasana and Padahastasana: The Forward Fold with Yoga Toe Lock and The Forward Fold with hands under feet. 

STICK FIGURES

Please share your stick figures in the Facebook Group. I would love to see your creativity or lack thereof. This will provide comic relief and inspire new ideas for all of us. 

LESSON FORMAT: Lecture

This section is lecture, so it does not require your yoga mat or yoga clothes. 

Training Manual

Watch this video to see how to download your training manual, which will serve as your workbook for certain sections, like Elements of Voice. 

ELEMENTS OF VOICE

Mastering Your Verbal Delivery

Knowing anatomy and designing sequences are both essential to sharing the asana practice with others. However, in order to transmit information into action, we have three options available to us: visual, kinesthetic, and verbal. Further in, we will touch upon visual (demonstration) and kinesthetic (adjustments), but in this section, we will concentrate our efforts entirely on verbal. There are five essential aspects of verbal delivery

1. Tempo and Timing 
2. Verbiage
3. Volume 
4. Tone
5. Space

Ironically, you are already masterful at many of these from your years of experience having conversations. However, you might find these aspects far more challenging in the context of teaching a yoga class because your attention will be divided between the sequence, time, observation of the practitioners in their practice, management of personalities, etc. Because there are so many pieces to the puzzle of teaching an asana class, it is imperative that we take the time now, within the context of this training, to develop proficiency in each piece. 

What Holds us Back?

When taking verbal delivery out of the context of teaching a full class of yoga, you are still likely to face many challenges. Depending on your previous life experiences, you may struggle with one or many of the following:

1. Projecting: speaking at a volume so more than one person hears you 
2. Speaking in front of large groups
3. Speaking in small groups or one on one
4. Instructing others to “do as I say”
5. Finding the words that fit your intention
6. Commanding or taking a lead role
7. Being the center of everyone’s attention

This list goes on, of course. Circle the ones that seem most accurate to your fears, and add to the list (write them down) if you have more struggles. Understanding your fears is the first step to removing the power fears can hold over you. Then the next step to breaking through these fears is to start practicing, and practice often. Practice so much that your weaknesses become your source of strength. 

Sun Salutation B

The original Suryanamaskar B is an easy sequence to memorize but tends to be much more challenging on the body. I am grateful I learned it when I was 24 years old, but If I was learning it now at 36, I think it would be a bit harsh.

Because my clientele is diverse in age and physical ability, I don’t often use Surya Namaskar B, as I feel there are other excellent ways to accomplish the same rhythm and flow of breath that are more accessible to the general public. That said, it is helpful to know and you may want to teach it. I don’t like to hold people back from their potential, so if someone is young, strong, and eager to learn Suryanamaskar B, I am all about it. Still,  I am careful about how many times I ask them to repeat it as it still takes the body a long time to build the appropriate musculature to do that many chaturangas on a regular basis. My preference is always quality over quantity.

Our Sun Salutation B is excellent because it provides many potential places to expand it into bigger flows. Lunge is much more mobile than Warrior 1. Anytime your heel is off the ground, you’re in a ready position. And because the back heel is lifted, lunge is also a great opportunity to improve balance and proprioception. While it is less grounded, it actually develops the quality of Earth because it forces all the muscles in the Earth line to activate, particularly the muscles that surround the ankle joint.

The New Postures:

Many are the same as Surya Namaskar A, but here are the few that are different.

1. Utkatasana: Chair
2. Three-Legged Dog
3. Low Lunge Prep (like in the warm-up)
4. High Lunge

STICK FIGURES

Please share your stick figures in the Facebook group. We would love to see your creativity (or lack thereof). This will provide comic relief and inspire new ideas for all of us!

Abhyasa and Vairagya Continued & Intro To the Gunas

NOTE: THE READING FOR THIS VIDEO IS UNDER THE MATERIALS TAB. AT THIS TIME, PLEASE BE SURE TO HAVE READ THROUGH PG. 27 IN TANTRA OF THE YOGA SUTRA – UP TO SUTRA 1.17

The gunas are the three forces of nature responsible for all change in life. The three gunas are:

1. Rajas: outward, expansive force

2. Tamas: inward, contractive force

3. Sattva: balancing the gunas internally allows us to act in the world without being pushed or pulled by attachments of the mind or ego. The Ego is endlessly trying to define itself and therefore triggers us into a reactive state, always defending its definition of who we are. Through Abhyasa and Vairagya- focused effort, surrendering or allowing results or nature to take care of the rest, we balance the push and pull of the gunas. We will go further into the gunas later on.

When Rajas and Tamas are in balance, we can act in the world without being pushed or pulled by the mind’s attachments.