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february / march 2017yogajournal.com.sgRYAN J. LANE/ISTOCK
Art of
WE GIVE YOU THE BUILDING BLOCKS FOR A WELL-ROUNDED
SEQUENCE SO YOU HAVE THE FLEXIBILITY TO CREATE
A HOME PRACTICE THAT MEETS YOUR NEEDS.
The
Sequencing
BY JASON CRANDELL | ILLUSTRATIONS BY MCKIBILLO
W
e’ve all attended classes that elevate our practice. When the class comes to a close,
we walk away empowered, energized, centered. Such results are no coincidence—
they’re the result of intentional pose selection and sequencing.
Sequencing is one of the most nuanced and powerful tools that experienced teachers
have at their disposal for teaching unique, transformative classes, and there are many ways of
approaching sequencing in contemporary hatha yoga. Mastering the art of sequencing takes years
of study, but you can learn some basic building blocks that will allow you to build a home practice
with confidence.
Establishing an independent home practice is a rite of passage for yoga practitioners.
It’s the point at which you really learn to move at your own pace, listen and respond to your
body, and develop greater consistency and frequency in your yoga practice. Like getting a driver’s
license, practicing on your own empowers you and gives you new freedom to explore.
While practicing yoga at home sounds easy enough, even experienced practitioners can be
uncertain about which poses to choose and how to put them together. On the following pages,
you’ll find the building blocks for a well-rounded sequence made up of eight pose groups:
opening poses, Sun Salutations, standing poses, inversions, backbends, twists, forward bends,
and closing postures, ending with Savasana (Corpse Pose). Each pose—and each category
of poses—prepares your body and mind for the next so that your practice feels like it has a
beginning, middle, and end that flow seamlessly together. By following this methodology, you’ll
create a sequence that warms you up slowly and safely, builds in intensity before peaking with
challenging postures, and then slowly brings you back down to a quiet, relaxed finish.
Consider the sample sequence on the following pages to be a starting place from which you
can tailor a practice to suit your moods and needs. You can vary the poses within each of the
categories. You can make your practice longer or shorter, as time permits. And once you have a
basic understanding of the different postural categories and begin to notice the energetic effects
they have on your body, you can start to experiment with creating sequences that suit your needs
on a given day, be they focusing on a particular area of the body or working up to a
challenging pose.
In this basic sequence, these categories progress according to their intensity and the amount
of preparation they require.Placing twists
between backbends
and forward bends
in a sequence helps
the spine to transition
between these
two extremes.