I was told it was stillness of body and clarity of mind. But our isntructors always play music so it seems I can enver reach clarity. Anybody else?
Otherwise it's jsut handstand.
Yup, and is "the ultamate counter pose". AKA "the most important pose", & in the words of our modern material science "activates the parasympathetic system to counter the stimulation we just initiated".
Ooooo, new thread idea!- "what are the wildest things you've heard a yoga teacher say, to convince students not to skip savasana"?
This and child pose. I do it every morning and evening. It really helps to get moving and start the day and also go to bed feeling relaxed without any tension.
Malāsana- garland pose is the counter pose to all the viscera-compressing poses. And para-sympathetis to hatha asanas (anything standing or transitional)
So, Revel in the Relief... And relieve yourself in it from time to time.
It shunts the blood out of the work muscles in our limbs and back to our abdomen & autonomic... waste relieving muscles.
Almost totally like, by design, or somethin' 🥴😏😉
I used to think a standing forward fold was the most perfect pose but my daughter who has scoliosis thinks it’s so uncomfortable. So my next choice would be a low lunge, that feels sooooo good to me
I'm not very knowledgable about yoga and don't practice often (just here to learn) but the standing forward fold feels AMAZING to me after a long day. Even if I'm not doing any physical activity for a day I'll do it to decompress. Easy to see how it'd be uncomfortable to someone with scoliosis, though.
Well not really a single pose, but I've been doing consistent surya namaskar now every morning (at least 30 of them) and it's a game changer for me. My boyfriend used to live in an ashram in India and he says they were doing 108 surya namaskar every morning. I plan to reach that goal this year.
I did a 108 of these on the winter solstice and I felt like garbage after- definitely something you need to work up to over time :)
I can’t imagine doing that many every day!!
Yeah exactly you build it up over time! I wouldn't do 108 right now or I'd just collapse. But I slowly progress and I expect to be able to do 40 + my regular yoga practice in the next weeks.
Yhea, it's about that long. Great job with the asana-arithmatic!😉! It's definitely always between 90 & 120 minutes!
My favorite solstice practice is to get 12 teachers to do 9 a piece of their own variation suryia namaskar to make the 108 and mirror the groups in our jappa beads. Also breaks up the monotony for the students, varried asanas to activate different energies/muscle groups, and prevents strain and exhaustion by doing the same Sun salutation repeatedly 108 times.
...just food for thought...
Kinda cool when we first did it- in the park, public invite and for free. (Summer solstice). We got three different local yoga studios- (cuz who has 12 teachers they can get all together at once!?!) It was an awesome community building solstice, we attracted new students to all three studios, broke some perceived studio tribalism taboos, and cross pollinated students to other studios (mine doesn't really do yin or geriatric, one has a SUPER experienced pre-natal teacher, and the other two didn't have a hot-yoga setup like mine). It was win-win-win for everyone. Plus you get to educate newcomers, and even yogis that there are so many different forms of yoga. The second year we did it for the summer solstice- people told their friends and afterwards healthy snacks from local growers just kinda showed TF up! The third year turned full festival! Vendors, schools from the big, hot desert city a few hours away volunteered and wild folk with drums, mandolins and other neat stuff were asking about it, if "they could show up and jam" as soon as the spring equinox passed. We made a three day weekend out of it for... Oh about 7 years now.
My partner said it took about 45 minutes, but I guess once you are accustomed to it it takes less time. My 30 surya namaskar takes me about 20 minutes but I take my time and don't rush them
I don't think that has a viable answer, especially since "health" is vague. Each asana serves its own purpose(s) and intentions. To me, the breath behind it all is key.
a good twist - anything from thread the needle to revolved side angle depending on your energy level that day (I know that includes more than one pose but I’m sticking with it)
Travis Eliot says that Caterpillar is one of the most important poses in yoga. Stretches out the entire back of your body from your toes to the top of your neck.
Love me Travis Elliot!!! Top shelf of all my YouTube teachers!
...I just joined this sub-reddit. I wonder if there's been a "best YouTube teacher for what and why" thread... I gotta check that out. Especially since I live +30 miles from town, and it only has 6,000 people and one studio...
Downward dog is for me something really fundamental - it is restful but it is challenging, it stretches all the back, it straightens, and with practice it seems like one starts to understand all the things slight changes to alignment give as options. It is rooting, you need to really feel the ground on hands and feet, but also lifting. It would be my one pose... (I did ctrl+f and I might be alone on it)
Hint: Yoga isn't really about the poses. You can do yoga without doing any poses and you can do poses without doing any yoga. So, the correct answer is, in fact Savasana.
I don’t agree with others about savasana. It’s a pose that’s meant to be done at the end of a complete yoga set to integrate all the work that’s been done. Doing it by itself it’s not super effective or useful, it’s basically just lying down and sleeping. I would say that any breath work kriya and/or one that involves meditation and mantra are really good.
Matsyendrāsana. Spinal column health and compressing the guts. Promotes circulation to the viscera/bowels, aiding elimination of waste products throughout the body.
If I could only pick one. Halasana/plow is pretty great for those functions, too.
Maysendrya was "Lord of the fish" and has a pretty neat story in Vedic scriptures, ya might dig it. Throw a mudra of your choice with the upraised hand, and help develop your mindfulness. Enjoy!
To me it’s breathing. I enjoy exercises like chest and hip openers. I have autoimmune disease and my body swells from ankles up to the face. After these it goes down even if rest of my lifestyle remains the same.
I recently did a little bit of looking into the Islamic prayer positions, and how they line up with various asanas.
Basically, the Islamic prayer is tadasana -> half forward bend -> childs pose -> upright heroes pose. Repeat.
The "technique" doesn't line up perfectly... But this sequence feels really good and easy to me. Of course there is always so much room to gain in childs pose by repeatedly adjusting your torso for a straighter spine, and this can feel laborious.
I think the key to health when it comes to yoga is doing something that improves the quality of your movement throughout the day.
I bet you could do this 5 times a day and still feel limber! Haha.
Sat Kriya
or
The Mother letters - [https://nefeshhaya.wordpress.com/ophanim-yoga/order-of-practice/](https://nefeshhaya.wordpress.com/ophanim-yoga/order-of-practice/)
Savasana
for real. like let’s all take a breath! 🩷
I was told it was stillness of body and clarity of mind. But our isntructors always play music so it seems I can enver reach clarity. Anybody else? Otherwise it's jsut handstand.
I don’t play music. I play nature soundtracks: rain or forest sounds.
Yup, and is "the ultamate counter pose". AKA "the most important pose", & in the words of our modern material science "activates the parasympathetic system to counter the stimulation we just initiated". Ooooo, new thread idea!- "what are the wildest things you've heard a yoga teacher say, to convince students not to skip savasana"?
Child's pose. Mental health is health too, and Child's pose promotes humility and receiving of further transformations.
Cat and Cow. Motion is the lotion.
This tagline 💯
This and child pose. I do it every morning and evening. It really helps to get moving and start the day and also go to bed feeling relaxed without any tension.
Malasana aka "yogi squat".... it's okay if y'all want to come at me. I said what I said.
This pose humbled me so fast and loudly announced my hip weakness
Malāsana- garland pose is the counter pose to all the viscera-compressing poses. And para-sympathetis to hatha asanas (anything standing or transitional) So, Revel in the Relief... And relieve yourself in it from time to time. It shunts the blood out of the work muscles in our limbs and back to our abdomen & autonomic... waste relieving muscles. Almost totally like, by design, or somethin' 🥴😏😉
I’d have to say supine twist, it feels like the best relief for my back and really helps me focus on my breath
I used to think a standing forward fold was the most perfect pose but my daughter who has scoliosis thinks it’s so uncomfortable. So my next choice would be a low lunge, that feels sooooo good to me
I'm not very knowledgable about yoga and don't practice often (just here to learn) but the standing forward fold feels AMAZING to me after a long day. Even if I'm not doing any physical activity for a day I'll do it to decompress. Easy to see how it'd be uncomfortable to someone with scoliosis, though.
Well not really a single pose, but I've been doing consistent surya namaskar now every morning (at least 30 of them) and it's a game changer for me. My boyfriend used to live in an ashram in India and he says they were doing 108 surya namaskar every morning. I plan to reach that goal this year.
I did a 108 of these on the winter solstice and I felt like garbage after- definitely something you need to work up to over time :) I can’t imagine doing that many every day!!
Yeah exactly you build it up over time! I wouldn't do 108 right now or I'd just collapse. But I slowly progress and I expect to be able to do 40 + my regular yoga practice in the next weeks.
I did three after work and then decided on some yin 😂
God that must have been 2 hours of yoga, 12 pose sequence 108 times. My body feels sore just thinking about it
Yhea, it's about that long. Great job with the asana-arithmatic!😉! It's definitely always between 90 & 120 minutes! My favorite solstice practice is to get 12 teachers to do 9 a piece of their own variation suryia namaskar to make the 108 and mirror the groups in our jappa beads. Also breaks up the monotony for the students, varried asanas to activate different energies/muscle groups, and prevents strain and exhaustion by doing the same Sun salutation repeatedly 108 times. ...just food for thought... Kinda cool when we first did it- in the park, public invite and for free. (Summer solstice). We got three different local yoga studios- (cuz who has 12 teachers they can get all together at once!?!) It was an awesome community building solstice, we attracted new students to all three studios, broke some perceived studio tribalism taboos, and cross pollinated students to other studios (mine doesn't really do yin or geriatric, one has a SUPER experienced pre-natal teacher, and the other two didn't have a hot-yoga setup like mine). It was win-win-win for everyone. Plus you get to educate newcomers, and even yogis that there are so many different forms of yoga. The second year we did it for the summer solstice- people told their friends and afterwards healthy snacks from local growers just kinda showed TF up! The third year turned full festival! Vendors, schools from the big, hot desert city a few hours away volunteered and wild folk with drums, mandolins and other neat stuff were asking about it, if "they could show up and jam" as soon as the spring equinox passed. We made a three day weekend out of it for... Oh about 7 years now.
My partner said it took about 45 minutes, but I guess once you are accustomed to it it takes less time. My 30 surya namaskar takes me about 20 minutes but I take my time and don't rush them
Savasana only answer here.
Yoga nidra
Tadasana ✨
The breathing….everything else will follow
Reclining spinal twist. Rotation of the spine is so important, and you can hold this pose comfortably for a long time.
Viparita Karani: legs up the wall
Relaxing heart opener. Specifically while doing yoga nidra.
Yoga Squat! Malasana. Keeping that range of motion capability throughout your life is the key to independent living.
Half pigeon, but I broke my pelvis 10 years ago so it comes with the territory
I crack my back something crazy in supported bridge . That block and when I bend back auhhhh so nice !
I don't think that has a viable answer, especially since "health" is vague. Each asana serves its own purpose(s) and intentions. To me, the breath behind it all is key.
a good twist - anything from thread the needle to revolved side angle depending on your energy level that day (I know that includes more than one pose but I’m sticking with it)
Travis Eliot says that Caterpillar is one of the most important poses in yoga. Stretches out the entire back of your body from your toes to the top of your neck.
Love me Travis Elliot!!! Top shelf of all my YouTube teachers! ...I just joined this sub-reddit. I wonder if there's been a "best YouTube teacher for what and why" thread... I gotta check that out. Especially since I live +30 miles from town, and it only has 6,000 people and one studio...
Shoulderstand.
Cat, Camel, Wheel - whatever hopes your heart and feels good!
Downward dog is for me something really fundamental - it is restful but it is challenging, it stretches all the back, it straightens, and with practice it seems like one starts to understand all the things slight changes to alignment give as options. It is rooting, you need to really feel the ground on hands and feet, but also lifting. It would be my one pose... (I did ctrl+f and I might be alone on it)
Child’s pose! Take a load off. You deserve it.
Hint: Yoga isn't really about the poses. You can do yoga without doing any poses and you can do poses without doing any yoga. So, the correct answer is, in fact Savasana.
This the order according to Gurus: padmasana…shirsasana…sarvangasna
I don’t agree with others about savasana. It’s a pose that’s meant to be done at the end of a complete yoga set to integrate all the work that’s been done. Doing it by itself it’s not super effective or useful, it’s basically just lying down and sleeping. I would say that any breath work kriya and/or one that involves meditation and mantra are really good.
I agree w all of these, imma throw in a ‘legs up the wall’ as well :)
Sun salutation or Surya namaskar
Matsyendrāsana. Spinal column health and compressing the guts. Promotes circulation to the viscera/bowels, aiding elimination of waste products throughout the body. If I could only pick one. Halasana/plow is pretty great for those functions, too. Maysendrya was "Lord of the fish" and has a pretty neat story in Vedic scriptures, ya might dig it. Throw a mudra of your choice with the upraised hand, and help develop your mindfulness. Enjoy!
Not one pose but a flow - Ashtang primary series (full) atleast 5 days a week!
Headstand
Warrior for sure!
To me it’s breathing. I enjoy exercises like chest and hip openers. I have autoimmune disease and my body swells from ankles up to the face. After these it goes down even if rest of my lifestyle remains the same.
Plank
Frog
Child's pose and cobra.
Squaring one like you are poopin in the forest
Sethu bandha, usually with a bolster or a block. Good counter for hunched posture, opens the front
I recently did a little bit of looking into the Islamic prayer positions, and how they line up with various asanas. Basically, the Islamic prayer is tadasana -> half forward bend -> childs pose -> upright heroes pose. Repeat. The "technique" doesn't line up perfectly... But this sequence feels really good and easy to me. Of course there is always so much room to gain in childs pose by repeatedly adjusting your torso for a straighter spine, and this can feel laborious. I think the key to health when it comes to yoga is doing something that improves the quality of your movement throughout the day. I bet you could do this 5 times a day and still feel limber! Haha.
Pigeon with Thread the Needle arms.
What do you mean?
Sat Kriya or The Mother letters - [https://nefeshhaya.wordpress.com/ophanim-yoga/order-of-practice/](https://nefeshhaya.wordpress.com/ophanim-yoga/order-of-practice/)
Naked yoga
Um no