Yoga 101 for Beginners: Summer Breakthrough for Weeks 41-42

While I'm still under the weather with low energy, I've continued to go to my yoga classes this mid-summer season to regain my strength. I did start to return to my yoga home practice, and had to stop it, due to fatigue and low energy. I hope to return it real soon by adding new poses and intermediate poses to my routines, when I'm feeling up to it.

For last Wednesday's yoga class, we've sat in the easy sit position with some meditation, side stretches and spinal twists to warm up our class session. We started out in class with the Sun salutations with the a few rounds of cat-cow, down dog, a few planks, up dog, and went in the mountain pose with a back bend. We've done some forwards folds with the shoulder stretch and did a few rotations of the knee-chest-chin, plank, up dog/cobra and down dog again with the chair pose and the mountain pose with some meditative breaths. Then we’ve continued with the warrior one and two poses with the reverse warrior, the side angle pose, the triangle pose with the blocks, and proceeded to the balancing poses, like the half moon pose. Since my balance is unsteady, I've been using the wall for the tree pose. Instead of the corpse pose to end the class, we've chosen to do 15 minutes of meditation to relax.

This week for my Wednesday’s yoga class, we've performed some meditation with the easy sit on our mats, and then done the side stretches and spinal twists to warm up our backs. Once again, we've gotten started with the cat-cows, down dogs, mountain poses, a couple of forward folds, and a few planks for our Sun Salutations. We've done a round of the knee-chest-chin, up dog/cobra, down dog, plank, and the chair pose, with some more forward folds with shoulder stretches and returned to the mountain pose with a back bend. Then we were ready to do our Warrior 1 and 2 poses with the reverse warrior, side angle and triangle poses, and prepared to do the balancing poses: half moon pose with the blocks, and the tree pose, while I'm still using the wall for balance. Instead of the corpse pose, we've decided to have 15 minutes of relaxation with mediation to end our class.

During last week's Thursday yoga class, we went on our backs for the corpse pose to relax and then rolled on our backs to massage it. We've done some breathing exercises and stretched our legs to the sky and to both sides. We've warmed up with the spinal twists and other side stretches with a couple of leg opener exercises. Then we've faced the back mirrored well to do the inchworm pose and the knee-chest-chin pose, along with some planks and side planks, the down dog and the cobra/up dog for a few rounds. We've gotten ready to do some kneeling arm-leg balances, before we've threaded the needle on both sides. We've done some forward folds and add some crescent lunge, swan dives and reverse swan dives, and the pigeon pose for a good stretch with the child's pose. Towards the end of class, we've done bridge and reverse pose, some new leg extension exercises with the dolphin plank, before we’ve closed out the session with the happy baby pose.


For yesterday’s Thursday yoga class, we’ve went on the corpse pose and massaged our backs with the spinal twists, side stretches, and rolling on our backs. We've raised our legs to the sky to open our hips with some exercises. Then we returned to do the inchworm, the knee-chest-chin pose, some planks and side planks with the up dog/cobra, down dog, and cat-cows. We've also used the blocks for the forwards folds and the Pilates ring to do the "magic trick" of balancing on on one leg and prepping you to do the airplane/hinge pose by dropping it to the mat. I've had trouble doing that with both feet. We've also done the dolphin plank pose We followed it up with some cobra poses, the up and down dog poses with the blocks to use for the forward folds and the dolphin plank pose, followed by the kneeling arm-leg balance. We've also used the blocks to do the same pose by raising it up and lowering it to the ground. We've used the ring for the monkey pose including the monkey pose and the bridge pose, before we stretched our legs out with the ring to the sky, and closed it out with an easy sit and Namaste.