By:
Virginia Iversen, M.Ed
Teaching
Yoga to brand new students is both challenging and very rewarding. When a new
student comes through the door of your studio, he or she will most likely have
specific reasons for coming to your Yoga class. For many new students, their
main motivation for practicing is often physical. They may want to get into
better shape, hone their abs and lose a few pounds. Or they may have heard that
practicing Yoga will help to prevent injuries when they are engaging in other
sports, such as running on pavement or playing tennis.
Of
course, the many physical benefits of practicing a balanced series of Yoga
postures on a regular basis, is well-known to both exercise physiologists and
to experienced practitioners. By engaging in a flowing series of Yoga poses, which
includes strengthening postures as well as elongating forward bends, twists and
backbends, a student will experience greater physical energy, flexibility and
strength. However, during the initial stages of establishing a regular Yoga
practice, a brand new student will need to follow a manageable pace of postures
and breathing exercises.
As a
professional Yoga teacher, it is important for you to offer classes that
challenge your more experienced students, while still being accessible to new
students. This can be quite tricky, to say the least! You may find that
offering a series of Yoga classes, which are tailored specifically to
introducing your brand new students to the basic postures of the Sun Salutation
and other foundational poses, will help your new students to become familiar
and comfortable with the practice in a safe and non-intimidating manner. In
this way, you will be able to guide your new students through a slower pace of
asanas and pranayama techniques, in contrast to the pace that you would
normally set during a mixed level class.
If you do
not have enough brand new students to run a dedicated series of introductory
Yoga classes, by crafting an intelligently-sequenced and easily modifiable
series of asanas for a mixed level group of students, you will be able to set
an accessible pace for your new students, as well as a satisfying and
challenging pace for your more experienced students. It is very important that
you emphasize safety and respect for one’s own individual level of fitness,
flexibility and strength, during the course of your classes. By honoring his or
her physical capabilities on a given day, the likelihood of sustaining an
injury or burnout is much lower.
This is
particularly true of your brand new students. For instance, you may have a new
student in your Yoga class who is quite physically fit, but who has very
limited flexibility. Although this student may feel that he or she can fully
extend into Triangle Pose without a hitch, by doing so without maintaining proper alignment in the posture, he or she may sustain an injury during class.
And, as we all know, walking away from a Yoga class feeling worse than when you
started is the quickest way to take the proverbial wind out of a brand new
student’s sails!
By
setting a manageable pace during the course of teaching Yoga to brand new
students, you will help to optimize their ongoing enjoyment and success during
the practice. If your students keep coming back to Yoga class, their practice
will continue to deepen, as the repertoire of poses that they can practice
safely and correctly will broaden naturally over time. Do not be demoralized if
you have to keep reminding your new students of the correct alignment of the
postures. Over time, teaching a “do-able” and balanced sequence of Yoga poses,
pranayama exercises and relaxation techniques will create vibrant physical
health and emotional well being, for both your new and experienced students
alike.
Virginia Iversen, M.Ed, has been practicing and studying the art of Yoga for over twenty years. She lives in Woodstock, New York, where she works as a writer and an academic support specialist. She is currently accepting Yoga and health-related writing orders and may be contacted at: enchantress108@gmail.com.
© Copyright – Virginia Iversen / Aura Wellness Center –
Publications Division
Please feel free to share our posts with your friends,
colleagues, and favorite social media networks.
2 comments:
During the initial stages of establishing a regular Yoga practice, a brand new student will need to follow a manageable pace of postures and breathing exercises. Thanks for nice posting.
By setting a manageable pace during the course of teaching Yoga to brand new students, a teacher can help to optimize their ongoing enjoyment and success during the practice. Thanks for good posting.
Post a Comment