Today I decided to chose gentle heart opening flow as the first class of the new 10er course, my idea was there will be some new students, so a minor heart opening will be nice and since I haven’t completely recovered yet from the flu, a gentle flow would be better.

So here is my sequence with some checkin draft :

Theme: gentle heart opening flow

Breathing : deep breathing with sound

Sit on your heels, or cross legs, sit up tall and straight, activate your abdominal muscles, close your eyes, Feel . your face muscle soften, relax the space between your eyebrows, shoulders naturally roll back and down. slowly draw your attention inward, feel your body, feel your breath, listen to the sound of your breath.

Now begin to take slow, steady and deep inhalation through the nose, following by slow and completely exhalation. Count to 5 when you breath in, maybe pause a moment one second or 2 then count 6 when you breath out.

Feel the expansion of your upper rib cage and collar bones when you breath in, feel them sink again when you breath out.

Feel the air flow through the back of your throat and produce a ocean wave like sound.

Activate the bandhas which is hug in the pelvic floor and lower abdomen muscles at the end of exhalation , and draw them slightly up with the inhalation, and direct the air upward to the whole upper body.

If you feel confused, just come back to the breath or just simply breath as deep as you can.

On the other hand nearly every meditation technique diminishes and relieves pain and suffering because it involves focusing your awareness inside your body where you enter into new relationship with the gritty details of how your skeleton moves, how to concentrate your attention, or learning how to breathe. Thus in learning to move with your breathing through the 9 positions of Surya Namaskara you aim to reverse the lack of bodily, kinesthetic consciousness.

The moment you connect your breath with your movement, awareness enters the equation, and you have a potent meditative device at your command.

In syncing up your movements with your breath you learn to breath better, you better utilize your breathing musculature and thus you not only breathe deeper and more thoroughly you strengthen an entire chain of muscles within your torso that span from your collarbones to your pelvic floor at the base.

SPINE MOVEMENT — Bridge Rolls from Constructive Rest

This is a great exercise to “wake up” your core and begin to mobilize places in your body that feel “stuck.”  

From constructive rest, keep your gaze looking straight up, and lift your hips up into bridge pose. (It doesn’t have to be your highest bridge pose. The focus here is mobilizing your spine, not getting a super-deep backbend.) Make sure there’s a little space between the back of your neck and the floor. If the back of your neck is flattening, lift your chin slightly.

From here, aim to lower down “one vertebra at a time,” placing your upper back, your middle back, and your lower back on the mat. When you reach the bottom, tilt your pelvis forward a little bit, so that you create a small arch in your low back. Then tilt your pelvis back, gently pressing your lower back into the floor. Lift your tailbone up off of the floor, and peel back up, vertebra by vertebra. When you reach the top, lower down one vertebra at a time.

Continue a few more rounds like this, and notice if there’s any place you get “stuck” or that you tend to skip over (for many of us, this is the upper part of the lower back/lower part of the midback). This time, instead of skipping over it, press your feet down and forward like you’re pushing the floor away. This will help you to activate your abdominals, and you might then discover that you have a little more mobility to work with.

Practice a couple more bridge rolls like this, pressing your feet down and forward as you approach the “stuck places.” Then return to constructive rest.

GENTLE CORE WAKE UP

(from Tom’s workshop)

in 90 degree, ex to chest, in 90 degree, ex toward floor

hold in 90, 45 10

Slow Bicycle

ALL FOURS

Cat Cow, draw 8 move the spine, wrists warm up

Cat Cow exercise, elbow knee touch, Tiger pose to open the chest

Extend Puppy Pose

Cobra : in up, ex down

DownDog: pad the feet, take some deep breaths , find the stilness

SAMASTHIHI

Adjust breathing, arms up, side bend, minor back bend.

SS A 3-5

SSB with Anjaneyasana ( low lunge)  + half vinyasa cobra 3 times then change side

SSB with knee to chest in plank to Ashta Chandrasana (high lunge) → Parivrtta Ashta Chandrasana (high lunge twist) -> Anjaneyasana-> Runner

Vinyasa with UpDog hold then change side

Samasthihi -> Virabhadrasana II -> Utthita Parsvakonasana (side angle) -> Parsva Virabhadrasana (reversed w) -> Trikonasana -> change side

Utkatasana-> right leg back to Parsvottanasana (intense stretch) -> Parivrtta Trikonasana

Stand with toes to squat down

Malasana-> open arms -> bind

Grab toes from Malasana to Ubhaya Padangusthasana ( grab toes boat)

Baddha Konasana

Marichyasana A -> V -> Mari C -> V -> Shalabasana -> Balasana -> Dhanurasana -> Bridge

Lying Pigeon + Spinal twist
Savasana

Reflection:

Today because of the entry problem was a bit chaos at the begining also wasted quite a bit time, otherwise maybe we could finish it completely what I designed.

Today Dimitrios Samasthitihi was awesome!!

I quite like from  Parsvottanasana (intense stretch) -> Parivrtta Trikonasana, I feel in this way they feel more stable and can open the chest more.

As a whole, today was quite nice, I felt myself also more relax and spontaneous

My idea of this new course is having different theme , focus each time and from that to design the sequence, and I would like to keep the class on Wed only Ashtanga!