What is the yoga program like at Green Body? Here’s a run down.
BEGINNERS
Students start with a 6 week beginner’s course usually with a focus such as managing back pain or stress & anxiety.
We start by working on lifting the chest, straightening the arms and getting the legs and hips moving in the basic standing poses.
There is plenty of repetition, the teacher demonstrates everything and gives easy-to-follow instructions at a steady pace. Students are adjusted individually from time to time to bring them into correct alignment.
We finish with our legs up the wall relaxing!
Throughout the course we expand the repertoire of standing postures, introduce downward dog pose, some sitting poses, simple twists and shoulder stand – one of the most beneficial yoga poses for health.
After the course, students are familiar with the main standing poses and have learnt a couple of different ways to approach shoulder stand.
Next step – LEVEL 1 or ALL LEVELS.
Once students have been through the beginners course, the other classes follow a rotating focus – week 1 is standing poses, week 2 sitting poses and forward bends, week 3 is backward bends, week 4 restorative poses and week 5 miscellaneous poses. Miscellaneous week might include some therapeutic work, opening hips or shoulders, inversions, abdominals and balances.
Level 1 classes are 75 minutes long and generally begin with a child’s pose, a forward bend and a downward dog. Then we progress our inversion preparation.
Students work on creating mobility in the upper back and stability in the shoulders and once the group is ready we do half handstand, half headstand and then learn how to kick up to the wall.
We develop the standing poses, introduce a few more sitting poses, twists and back bends, and build up experience with shoulder stand (below is Linda, 56, in shoulder stand).
Once students have been coming for some months we do full headstand starting with about 30 seconds and building up over the weeks. Students continue to build up their time in shoulder stand to a steady 5 minutes. By the way… savasana (final relaxation) also gets longer!
Going up – LEVEL 1/2.
After spending 6-18 months in level 1, students may be ready to move to a longer (90 minutes +) level 2 class. (Level 2 students can always attend Level 1 classes should the schedule work for them.)
In a level 2 class it is assumed that students have a reasonable foundation of standing poses, forward bends and twists, and the basic backbends are familiar. We practice kicking up to full handstand and doing forearm balance or preparations in most classes.
We then start to work on moving deeper into the basic postures and exploring some more advanced poses focusing on the theme for the week. Headstand is built up to 5 minutes and we start to introduce some leg variations.
At this level students are also ready for more restorative sequences and pranayama (breathing) practice begins. In general, students are also now beginning to practice some yoga at home when they can’t make it in to the studio.
So as you can see, the yoga program is designed to steadily build up the student’s interest and ability, and cultivate a discipline for regular yoga practice that will hopefully last a lifetime.
For students happy to come along and simply enjoy some yoga, any of the beginners, level 1, restorative or all levels classes are fine. For students wanting to progress it is recommend to attend a ‘level’ class at least once per week so that they can keep building up their practice. All levels classes are made accessible to all students and our restorative classes are designed to give all students an opportunity for a deeply relaxing yoga experience every week.
Happy practicing!