At Temple Bar Yoga, we work in weekly themes. Here’s what’s on from now until Christmas.
Core This week
Abdominals, back muscles and hip flexors working together to support the spine. Boat pose, plank variations and leg lifts.
Open Standing This week
Triangle, Warrior II and Side Angle. Legs turned out, pelvis facing the side. Plenty of work on foot placement and leg strength.
Balance This week
Standing on one leg, and now and then on your hands. Tree, Warrior III and Half Moon. Your feet and ankles do most of the work.
Revolved Standing This week
Revolved Triangle and Revolved Side Angle. The pelvis squares forward and the spine turns. Good legs make good twists.
Wide-Leg & Hip-Opening Seated This week
Wide-angle seated poses, Bound Angle and cross-legged forward bends. Hips, inner thighs and hamstrings.
Prone Backbends This week
Lying on your front and lifting with the back muscles. Locust, Cobra and Bow.
Seated Twists This week
Marichyasana, Bharadvajasana and Half Lord of the Fishes. The pelvis stays grounded while the spine rotates.
Supine Backbends This week
Backbends from the floor. Bridge, supported backbends over a bolster and, for those ready, Wheel.
Inversions This week
Headstand, Shoulderstand, Plough and Dolphin, with options at every level. Upside down for the week.
Restorative & Pranayama This week
Supported poses with bolsters and blankets, followed by breathing practice. A slower week before Christmas.
Why weekly themes
Not because every class needs a “theme”, but because most people do not learn a pose the first time they do it. Or the fifth.
If you only practise a category once every few months, you mostly just reintroduce yourself to it each time. A week of working around similar actions gives you a chance to actually improve something.
For example, during a standing week, people often realise their legs are working far less than they thought. During backbend week, many discover the problem is not flexibility, but that they cannot organise the actions of the legs, spine, and breath at the same time. In restorative week, people suddenly notice how restless they are when nothing dramatic is happening.
A themed week lets people see patterns. You stop spending the entire class figuring out what the pose is, and start noticing how you are doing it.
Starting with Core
We start with Core, from 12 October. Not “core” in the fitness industry sense of endless abdominal work, but understanding how the centre of the body organises movement and support. Most balance problems, posture problems, and even breathing problems become easier to understand when people learn how to connect movement back to the trunk.
How the weeks connect
Different people will like different weeks. Usually the weeks people avoid are the ones that show them the most.
Over time, the categories start supporting each other. Standing work improves inversions. Twists improve backbends. Restorative work improves concentration. Balance work exposes inefficient effort very quickly.
Done properly, yoga practice becomes less about collecting poses, and more about becoming observant enough to notice what you are actually doing.
From 21 December we switch to our Christmas timetable, and weekly themes return in the new year.
