Are you recognizing your students’ needs shifting as the temperatures drop? Are you looking for unique ways to help meet these needs? Winter places new demands on the body - more energy needed to keep the body warm, and more rest needed because of that.
At the same time, some offering of active practice can help lift spirits and energies. Like with yoga instruction in general, it’s all about balancing sometimes contrasting ingredients in a way that creates something cohesive and appealing.
First consider the class environment. With temperature, it’ll feel very nice to students to enter a warm studio. Yet avoid “blasting" the heat, so to speak, as a drastic change in temperature (going from outside to inside) can shock their bodies. Music, if used, is most effective when calming and grounding, yet with an uplifting element to it.
To open class, consider “meeting students where they’re at" - most likely craving something restful, comforting, and nurturing. Try a Child’s Pose, or - on the back - a prop-supported Baddha Konasana or Constructive Rest (its opposite - feet wide and knees knocking into each other). Guide students into yogic breath - not necessarily slow, but full, deep, and rhythmic.
What can feel especially nice in cold temperatures is taking longer inhales than exhales. Try cueing a breath rhythm of three counts inhale, five counts exhale - and perhaps exploring other counts in the same (or a similar) ratio. It helps warm and energize the body. Also towards the beginning of class, make sure to thoroughly warm students up, before going into deeper poses, perhaps a bit more than you might think necessary; cold muscles cannot stretch as easily, and are more vulnerable to tearing (a.k.a. injury).
There are plenty of ways to explore different types of movement- varying dynamics, planes, levels, et cetera, to keep your students stimulated and engaged through this - to the point where they might not even realize they’re still “warming up”! Getting creative in these ways can help build heat in the body, balancing the abundance of Kapha in this season with Pitta.
Try high and low Boat Pose (Navasana), transitioning back and forth in between them. Cue Three-Legged Dog Pose to Three-Legged Plank Pose. Emphasize core activation, guiding your students to scoop the belly in towards the spine. Add in a couple more Sun Salutations or Warrior Poses than you might normally, perhaps leaving behind one or two deep sustained stretching poses in order to accommodate for that in your allocated class time.
On the other hand, winter makes us tense and tight. We scrunch up our shoulders and facial muscles, and the body’s skeletal muscle increases its resting tone in service of keeping warm. So we do need good stretching this time of year, after gentle movement to warm the body and begin that process of loosening tense musculature.
Try cueing a swing of an arm through a full range of motion in any standing pose, and then into a half bind - movement to warm and loosen, deeper stretching to further release the muscle. Certainly include deeper stretching poses in your winter classes - Pyramid Pose, other forward folds, and the like - but perhaps not until the latter third of class. As an even further precautionary measure, ask your students if they feel warm before cueing something like Paschimottanasana or Janu Sirsasana.
And perhaps take a bit more time than usual to truly wind down classes, to offer students the rest that their bodies may need in this season - but which modern life might not allow them to enjoy. Even if it’s a Vinyasa class, ask students to get bolsters (if available) and offer a few prop-supported Restorative poses - such as Viparita Karani, Supported Bridge, or Supported Supta Baddha Konasana - towards the end of class.
Do your best with class timing to allow for a nice long Savasana, and a slow, gentle exit back to full consciousness. Yoga can help us find a healthy, enjoyable balance between calm and activity at any time of the year, but particularly in the winter months when the environment challenges our physical systems. Those detailed here, and countless others, are methods for that. Best of luck and Om Shanti!
© Copyright – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division
Please feel free to share our posts with your friends, colleagues, and favorite social media networks.
No comments:
Post a Comment