Back Bending This Week!

Thanks to everyone who participated in our Free Introductory Yoga Classes last week.  It was nice to meet you and nice to raise donations for the Food Bank together!

The spring term starts tomorrow, and we sure have the weather to match it.  With the warmth from the sun, the full moon phase upon us, and the start of spring classes, I have personally been practicing back bends this weekend and will be sharing a similar focus with you all at our Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday classes.  As of Thursday we'll respect the change in the moon and turn our practice towards forward bending.

For those of you attending earlier in the week, here's a peak at some of the postures we'll be practicing:

Standing postures such as Virabhadrasana I and II (warrior 1 and 2), as well as Parsva Konasana (side angle), Trikonasana (triangle), and Parsvottanasana (intense side/back body stretch) are all lovely postures to help open the pelvic and groin muscles by warming up the legs and core.  These postures will usually kick start our practice in order to wake and warm us up.

Following standing postures, we'll work on some gentle, introductory back bends, such as Salambhasasna (locust), Ardha Bhekasana (half frog), Supported Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana (supported, both feet on the ground, inverted staff ), Setu Bandha (little Bridge), Supta Virasana (reclined hero), and Supported Ustrasana (camel).  All back bends help to lengthen the front body and strengthen the back body, cultivating more openness around the heart and collar bones, front of the pelvis, lower and upper abdomen and ribs.

To finish the classes, we will spend some time quieting and cooling our high energy with some softening twists and calming forward bends, leading the way to Savasana (corpse pose).

As we spend an excessive amount of time forward bending in day to day life (such as sitting in front to the T.V. and computer, driving, bending to lift things/children or to load and unload the dishwasher or laundry machine), back bends are a fundamentally important part of a yoga practice, helping undo what has been excessively done.  This helps to keep us flexible with a healthy spine and healthy muscles, tendons and ligaments to support it.

I hope you can join us for some fun back bending classes this week.  Check out our schedule, there is still room in our classes for more students!

Cheers,
Jenelle