Monthly Archives: April 2010

The work of Master Teacher Karin Stephan Fri

Pranayama Dirgha, Nadi Shodhana.

Standing strength using a strap to find the side body. Runner with the new hip openers that seem to be working so well for everyone. Standing postures with holds.

Balance Tree with variations. Toe stretch

Twists and forward folds including Trianga Mukhaikapada Pascimottanasana. (Promised Karin I would teach this more 🙂 

Aromatherapy Pitta Blend from Yoga Flow Oils thank you Susan.

Strong backs open hearts. Tues

Pranayama complete breath over blocks

Toe stretch, toe balance, toe stretch, top of foot stretch.

Cat rolls to cat bows with a roll added in. Doing both cat bows tonight to build strength for arm balances.

Cobra work tonight.  Half tortoise twist. Moving into hip openers with swan & swan bows  add in Iyengar TV watching swan.  Adding in the two new external hip rotator stretches WOW these are still tough. However, these really do open the side hip.  Glad everyone likes them and smiles through the stretch.

The new forward fold Karin would like to see in more classes was visited once more. Savasana

Aromatherapy tonight is Anxiety Ease from Yoga Flow Oils thank you Susan.

Tech class LFF Seminole Tues

After observing the new flow class I have a few things to go over.

When in intense pose/chair do not straighten legs then move into forward fold. The move is a flowing action of being in chair pose then lower chest to thighs the knees are deeply bent then with the chest on the thighs slowly straighten the legs but keep the chest on the thighs so you may not have the legs all the way straight but work toward that.

Warrior 1 – hips bones in front of body are forward not at a slant. If needed lift back heel. You can also widen legs but not so wide that feet are not in line with hips

Warrior 2, Sun Warrior, Side Warrior, Triangle   back foot should be at 30 degree angle with toes pointing forward at 30 degrees.  Most people are keeping the back foot parallel to the back edge of the mat.  You can not find the strength of the back leg with the foot at the wrong angle.  

Hindi squat—  Hand on the floor the fingers are pointing in the direction of the twist so if right hand down the fingers are pointing toward the left and the right elbow/upper arm is pressing into the right leg. 

  Firelog / Modified half Lotus fold forward leading with the sternum bone/heart rather than the head.  Keep chest/ cervical spine in line as the fold happens.  Long spine, long back no humps.  Can round back only if belly is on heel of top foot and sternum bone is on shin of other foot and nose is about 4 inches from floor.  Otherwise stay high.  

3 Leg Dog.    shoulders are dipping  the line of the shoulders should stay parallel with front edge of mat …. no twisting of the upper body, no bending of elbows.  hips stack to open hip  

 Single Leg stretch  when legs alternate keep lower leg in alignment ~~ ankle in line with knee and knee in line with shoulder.  Don’t torque lower leg.  

 Seesaw movement  Make sure arms are not in “B52 airplane arms”   Arms are out pretty much from the shoulder.  Not winging them back like a high diver going off the high board either.  Level and out from shoulders the torso/back is doing the work not the neck and arms.  

 Seesaw with knees lifted    Most were allowing the knees to flare way out   keep knees in.

Twisting lunge     Arms stack in alignment not the top arm flung way back and toward the hip. Wrist over elbow,  elbow over shoulder joint then open the chest to open more not fling arm /head back.

Flowing into spring with TriYoga Thurs

Covering Sandi’s Tri Yoga class we just did a flow class with 1-2 things of Iyengar work added in.

Nice side body opening with palm tree then earth-touch to cat rolls, natural rolls, jumps from Mountain to pyramid 1 to toe balance to wake up the feet and legs.  Balanced chair that we have not done in a while.

Mountain to swan alternating sides then into swan bows.  This is where I added a little Iyengar work in with the elbow on blocks to lengthen the spine head also placed on block. 

Standing flow with Triangle, side warrior, warrior, pyramid and pyramid twists.

Cat bows with the cat tuck added in. Rabbit and extended rabbit then to facedown and spinal strengthening  work. Cobra rolls, locust.  Cross L-seat twist moving into serenity twist and forward fold. few more twists and folds then aromatherapy oils and savasana.

Aromatherapy today was Ananda Blend thank you Susan.

Inspired by Karin Stephan master teacher Iyengar style Tues

After working with master teacher Karin Stephan for 5 days the class could only be an Iyengar bases class.

Pranayama: Dirgha, Nadi Shodhana

Cat rolls to open the spine and calf stretch to ready the legs for more work.

Sun Salutation:  Working the side body by placing strap at end of mat, leading with the wrists to lift up into modified Warrior 1 really bringing intelligence to the side body. The new hip external hip rotator stretch that is hard but works well we will keep for awhile longer. Wide Leg Forward Fold with sways as deep as needed to open the inner leg. On to standing postures really working the legs.

Balance tonight was Tree with variations for everyone to pick which one they wanted to work on tonight.

Everyone thought I had forgot toe stretch and toe balance but no. To the floor for this work.

A posture I don’t teach much Trianga Mukaikapada Pascimottanasana (and not because it takes so long to say) was one we worked on tonight.  Using the strap for this forward fold. This is one Karin Stephan wants to see added into more classes. Twists and a few other folds.

Aromatherapy tonight was Relaxing blend. Thank you Susan.

Savasana was very still tonight and you all welcomed it with open arms and hearts.  Very well done.

TrIyengar What!! Mon

Well working with a master Iyengar teacher over the weekend it just flowed into the Tri Yoga class.  So it turned into a mix of Tri Yoga & Iyengar  so TrIyengar get it. 🙂

Pranayama Complete breath then Nadi Shodhana.

Cat rolls. Sun Salutation with swan to mountain move.  Held swan for swan bows then added some Iyengar work from the weekend. In Swan place two blocks under the elbows, forearms toward each other and create a cup with your hands for your face. Lengthening out the back releasing the hips down cooling the mind. After 5 breaths here move the blocks forward until the hands are long and still on blocks add another block under the forehead to further settle into the posture.  This was so nice most in class didn’t want to come back up.

Toe stretch and toe balance to wake up the feet.

Flowing back up and into Standing.  To the wall with shoulder work by Doug Keller preparing the shoulders and back for standing postures.  Shoulder swings and rolls to release the shoulders.

Standing flow of Pyramid,  Pyramid sways, Forward Salute, Triangle, Side Warrior, Warrior 2.

Some twists & forward folds.

Aromatherapy was Prana Blend tonight from Yoga Flow Oils. Thank you Susan.

Kaliji Tri Yoga Flow class Thurs

Subbing Sandi’s Tri Yoga class so in keeping with the feel of Kaliji this class will be  very much a  flow class.

From the Tri Yoga Flow Manual the class will be a new version that Chandra shared for the Earth 108 series.

The only changes will be in the winter section where we will be on the floor instead of the wall.

I may add in Iyengar work in the standing postures so share with our northern yogi’s before they leave.

Legs & arms strength & stretch Tues

Opening the chest with pranayama over blocks.  With all the pollen in the air we need to really open the chest for full lung cleaning.

Warming up the legs and toes. Onto some hand balancing work with arm strength added in.

Sun Salutations with leg stretches added including inner leg work. Standing strength postures. Keeping the new hip rotators stretch for a few weeks to go from just dating the pose to really loving it.

Some spinal strengthening.  Twists and Forward folds. 

Savasana with aromatherapy.

Aromatherapy tonight is Shanti thank you Susan with Yoga Flow Oils.

Tri Yoga Flow is How we go Mon

After the weekend workshop with Kaliji the only thing to do is a pure flow class.

Starting with Pranayama complete breath done over 2 blocks.

Flows for this class came from the Flow Manual with cat bow 1 with the added breath change from the workshop. Second round will have cat bow 2. Swan rolls and Swan bows.  Standing posture flows.

Seated twists  and supine twists.

Savasana and Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy tonight is Ananda blend from Yoga Flow Oils thank you Susan.

Long lean spring legs. Finding the leg strength Fri

Pranayama breath Dirgha, Sun Breath to build some heat for the leg work.

Sun Salutation with hip opener added in see how you like one new one from Tues class.  Onto the real work for today finding the ease within the pose while holding challenging postures that are using the large muscles of the leg.  Lunges, Chair, Balances, Deviasana, horse.  Trust me you will find the strength that we all have in our legs. This is how we move through our days keeping them strong and lean will bring ease to the movements.

Core wore with dolphin/leg lifts,  cobra, sphinx.

Releasing everything with leg lifts to settle the hips and sacrum, hip side stretch to twist the spine, happy baby and rocking the clock for the final releases.

Aromatherapy today is Vata Blend from Yoga Flow Oils.  Thank you Susan