Namaste to All Yogis,
am a new yoga teacher. I Actually I found a difficullty in yoga class sequensing.I prefer Yiengar tradition to start with standing asanas and finish with lying. I also found it’s more fisiological and energetically works better.I also try to start from relaxation exercises from head to feet. Then do mobilization, strenghtening and streching exercises.I would like to ask Your opinion, what do You think about such sequensing?
Best wishes
Urte – welcome to the forum!
What do you think about how your teacher training handled it?
How did/does your favorite yoga teacher handle sequences?
Hello Maratha,
well, my teacher is very experienced, she works with an integral yoga and does lot of different sequences according to diffrent schools. I am a physiotherapist as well, so my aim is not to make people the best yogis in the World, but to get all the best from yoga to wellness and being.
Actually now I am searching for the most ultimate sequence.
I would like if someone shares their experience.
Thank you-
sequencing is essential in a yoga session.i always begin mine with the most relaxing position, that is the sage pose.then going on to poses on standing, kneeling, and lastly while on lying position. and wrap it up again, with the sage pose… from the simplest going all the way to more complex routine then toning it down for the finale
Hi Urte,
Welcome to the forum. Working out a sequence is very difficult, for me at least, because whenever I work one out, it never happens. There is always someone who has a specific problem in the class who would ask me just before class if we can do something for this ones lower back pain today and and another one has hurt her shoulder during the week at work etc. So this usually throws my own plans to do this and then that out by the window. 
SO I have learned to flow with the class and I always try to sense before hand what it is that they might need. The most important thing that my teacher taught me was to ensure that your sequence always balance out. If you do asanas that requires a lot of forward movement rememeber to balance them with some asanas that requires the opposite etc. I also like to include with every class some asanas that requires bending to the left and right side as in normal day to day life we do very little of side bending.
I have also found that when I come with a specific sequence to the class I loose touch with the class and what they need. I also felt that a sequence would put some pressure on me to get through the sequence and would get frustrated if we didn’t get through it, so I abandoned sequencing a class before hand. Now I just flow, I would rather do a few asanas well and know that everybody gained from that class than rushing through a sequence leaving me and the class perhaps frustrated.
This is based on my own experience and it might be different for you.
Sequencing is clearly both art and science. And both a sound and unsound sequence powerfully impact the student. So the sequence should be considered with deep thought.
If the teacher does not have an idea where she/he is guiding the students in the bigger picture then it would be very challenging to determine how to guide them in the little picture. Teachers who are only trying to build heat in the bodies of students or move them rapidly so they feel “worked out” would conceive one sequence while a teacher trying to move students closer to their source would craft another.
The second element in sequencing is having an idea of what poses have what effect on what students in what ways during what times and how they should be linked. A teacher can do this from an inner intuition, presuming that inner teacher has been cultivated. It cannot be done merely by telling someone to use their inner teacher. We cannot fully access that which has yet to be cultivated.
Or the teacher can use the support of their teacher training, their teacher, and their peers, presuming those three things are sound in the first place. Placing great weights on weak links almost always results in havoc.
New or young teachers are best to offer sound, simple, effective sequences that provide students a generalized practice - until such a time as they are able to soundly offer more. Additionally the teacher must be able to turn to their own practice thus using it as a petri dish to incubate the effect(s) of the sequence in their OWN bodies before sharing it with others.
I don’t think I ever teach two identical classes, in terms of sequences. I do have a mental sketch of what I’m intending but I would be remiss in taking students into Sirsasana if they showed a lack of appropriate action in Adho Mukha Svanasana. Point being I look at the students. Since they are never the same - from day to day, class to class, or hour to hour, then neither is the sequence.
Urte,
I would like to ask again Techne’s question. What methodology were you given to handle sequencing?
It seems that some teacher trainings use none. Some teach only predefined sequences - such as Ashtanga. And some give methodology - such as Purna alludes to. Preparatory poses, goal poses, counter poses.
But I’d also like to go back to your original question “the ultimate sequence.”
For what student - young teenager? Mom with toddlers? Athletes? Seniors?
At what time of the day? In the morning? Before work? After work? Before bed?
What might be [I]your [/I]ultimate sequence at this time and place will probably not be your ultimate sequence a year from now. And is even less likely to be my ultimate sequence.
Vic
Thanks everyone. I agree with most of the statements mentioned above. Intuition is very important I think, it’s also important to feel others need, but since I am a physiotherapist I curious about physical effect. I also never do exactly the same classes, but every teacher should have a concept how she or he works. Yoga is very complex system and at least asana is not just an exercise, because it does such an inclusive effect to even several systems at once. So I am curious how logically make sequences, that do not disturb normal physiological rhythm. What do I mean. For instance, my teacher sometimes starts with standing asanas and ends with lying, other time she starts oposite way. Of cource it has absolutely different effect. Other thing is about stretching, strengthening and mobilization. I prefer mobilization at the beginning and start with neck, shoulders, lumbar area, pelvis and legs. Then I do warm-up, usually with sun salutations or qigong, asanas for core streghtening and streching asanas at the end and short meditation of course. We do pranayama at the beginning and at the end usually.
I think sequensing should be logical one or the other way, I guess at least very experienced teachers are able to use none metodology work according the intuition.
So, well, that’s how I try to work now
Listen to your body.
Urte –
In my home practice I usually warm up first with my sun salutations and then go to standing poses (could be balance or a warrior/triangle/parsvokonasana thing). Because I sit at a computer desk at work I always include hip and shoulder opening. I may or may not take a handstand depending on how my down dog is doing that day. By then I have a lot more information about what to do next than I did when I began, but sitting hamstring stretches, more hip opening, or reclined twists are favorites.
Joint mobility (or as you said mobilization) should be done first. You need full mobility of the joints in isolation and in an upright position first before integrating all the joints in different body orientation.
If you need stretching, then stretching comes before joint mobility. And if you need to stretch, remember to do myofascial release before stretching.
Strengthening comes after all these.
As for sequencing, just let the master(s) do it for you. Why reinvent the wheel? Scott Sonnon has five good Flows and Flowfit®, just do all of them. I have never found a need to resequence the poses.
Check out www [dot] prasarayoga [dot] com.
Hello Herman.
Can you educate me in how joint mobility differs from stretching?
Please and thank you.
gordon
Hi,
As a new teacher I find it difficult to get the word out for instructing with flowing sequences. It is hard saying the correct foot, hand and arm etc. I keep to simple flows at the moment until I have mastered more difficult ones.
I like to make them think I am confident and stammering will not
It sounds like you have the right idea to me as far as class planning goes. I am taught to start with simple kneeling, lying or standing poses to safely prepare the body for more difficult poses such as backbends or inversions.
Julie