Yoga for Beginners 101: Spring Fling for Weeks 31-32

While my knee is almost better, I’m still taking things real slow with my yoga home practice by starting slow before I now will being modifying or challenging new poses to the routine, starting this week, since when my knee is almost 100% better. But it does still feel better to get back into a normal yoga routine for class and for my home practice, while the sun’s shining and the temperatures are warming up with a nice breeze. I do have my medicine leftover from last month, enough to get me by until the end of May, when I need it whenever it flares up.

For my home practice, I’ve been doing the daily stretches and then adding the Seated poses three times a week, and now a mix of one of each sequences of poses, one time this week.

For my recent Wednesday yoga class, after I took last week off, due to a sore left side, we’ve started with some meditation and some various spinal twists and side stretches to warm up the session. Then we’ve gotten down to business with the Sun Salutation sequence a couple of times of cat-cow, down dog, mountain and raise arms, forward fold, plank, knee-chest-chin, upward dog, down dog, the awkward chair pose, another forward fold with a shoulder stretch, and back to mountain. We’ve added a new pose here, the twisted chair, which did a number on my back for a few moments. Then we’ve did the warrior poses of warrior I and I for both sides, along with the reverse warrior, the side angle pose, the triangle pose, and proceeded to the balancing poses. As for the tree pose, I’ve altered my tree pose position to below my knee. We also added one new yoga pose this time around, which were a doozy: the wheel pose, in which I’ve learned in a previous Friday yoga class earlier this week, and came close of doing it. Then we’ve done some final spinal twists and stretches, including rocking back and forth on our backs. We’ve finished the session with the corpse pose.

During my recent Thursday’s Gentle Yoga class, since I took the previous session off, due to a sore left side, we’ve warmed up on our back with the corpse pose and did some spinal twists. Then we did some leg extension exercises with our legs with the Pilates ring, and then we were rocking back and forth on our backs and going in circles. Then we’ve did a couple of rounds of the Sun Salutations with the extended side angle and warrior poses with a couple of forward folds with the blocks. From there, we did the cat-cow and the downward dog with the plank and upward dog in a few repetitions with the crescent lunges and swan dives. We’ve done a couple of new poses for the class: an one-legged balancing pose, the seated wide-legged forward bend, the hinged forward bend, some hip flexor exercises with the point and flexing of our feet. Later we focused on the the awkward chair pose and did the tree pose in a sequence We’ve finished the class with some new leg extension exercises with the ring, some spinal twists, and a side stretch in a balancing pose with the ring.


Last week’s and this week’s Friday yoga class, we’ve started out with the easy sit and raised a yoga block in our hands above our heads. We’ve done some spinal twists to warm our bodies with some side stretches as well. We’ve began our workout with the lunge and the knee-chest-chin pose . We’ve followed it up with the plank, the cobra, up dog and downward dog and the down dog splits. We’ve also did some kneeling dancer/leg-arm balances and a couple of forward folds, along with the camel pose, the half moon pose, and a new pose called the octopus pose with some half push-ups. We’ve done at seated forward bend and seated wide-legged straddle, the triangle pose, the bridge pose, some leg extension exercises, before we’ve closed out the session with the corpse pose. Note: In two weeks, my Friday yoga class will be going on a summer hiatus until September, after we have a sub next Friday.

For my 8th Stretch-lates class, the last one for this spring, since it’s going on summer hiatus until September, two weeks ago, we’ve started with a new warm-up routine with the fist squats with a bounce and then arm raising up and lowering down with stops at the waists, and followed it up with regular deep squats, both straight leg and bent knee, and the single leg stretch in slow motion and picked up steam, like we do in Pilates class. As for the straps, we did the Vee stretch, the lower back stretches with a forward fold, did the shoulder stretches with and without them, and raised them over our heads and in front of our bodies. We also did the hug stretch, and then do a spinal twist. Then we’ve done both single leg taps, and the hitchhiker stretch, the opened book pose, the butterfly pose, some air walking movements, that was concluded with a back roll and a knee roll, before we’ve ended it in a Pilates stance with the stretch.

For my 8th Yoga-lates class, we’ve started out with the easy sit and warmed up with some spinal twists and leg extension exercises, the child’s pose, and the extended child’s pose. We’ve did a couple rounds of the squats and deep squats, the star pose, the crescent moon pose, some shoulder stretches, the downward dog-plank rations, did the Bird dog, some lunges and high lunges, and progressed to a couple of new poses, the closed book, the waterfall fold, and the lizard pose, and some ankle and foot pulses. We’ve even did a kneeling bow pose, the waterfall, and a couple of half push-ups, some single taps, the “V” stretch, the saw with pulses, before we’ve finished our session.

For my 9th Yoga-lates class, since it’s now also going on summer hiatus until September, too, we’ve used the same mini medicine balls for our final spring session this month. We’ve did a couple of rounds (10 reps) of the plank, the down dog, half push-ups, foot pulses, down dog splits with the forward fold. It was long and exhausted, before we’ve went to do the closed book, some lunges and squats, the crescent and full moon poses with the ball, the little butterfly, the Bird dog, some shoulder stretches and shrugs, and shoulder stretches to close it out.