This week I wanted to talk about how to put together your yoga flow at the end of class. Now that we will have more time for our cool down at the end of class, I’m sure you are all now wondering how to fill that time.

A few notes before we get into sequencing:

-Starting in October, your yoga section must be a MINIMUM 7 minutes long,(excluding cardio classes) but I encourage you to shoot for 10 minutes! Now that we are taking out stretching between sections, this does not mean you can add more time into the other sections. 

Cooling down speeds up recovery after a workout and reduces soreness. It’s also important to activate our relaxation response, training our bodies through mindfulness, breathing and body awareness to keep stress responses from taking over. 

-The portal currently has yoga flows from old programs up for you to view and get ideas from in the yoga section! I’m filming individual postures and programming guides that will eventually be uploaded. 

Now let’s get started with programming! 

1. Start with a purpose: What postures were worked today, what joint actions were used, where are we feeling the most sore?
   1. Example: Pistol Squats, horse Pose, Power 4, Power Base Skier days are going to be quad heavy, maybe hip flexor heavy days
   2. Example: Glute snappers, Seated pretzel, Angled head to barre, side diamond, etc. are glute med heavy days, will have sore hips.
2. Counteract: Take what you taught in class and counteract the movement in a static stretch:
   1. Example: Horse Pose loads the leg in front of the body. To counteract, bring that leg behind the body for a low lunge, bring heel to seat.
   2. Example: Pistol squats include hip flexion, so counteract with hip extension in a low lunge, bridge, wild thing, camel pose.
   3. Example: Seated Pretzel includes abduction and hip extension, so counteract with adduction/hip flexion in a piriformis, reverse butterfly, shoelace pose, half pigeon. 
3. Group: Pairing 2-3 poses together where your hips or foot are/is facing the same direction:
   1. ex. Low lunge > Half Split > Pigeon Pose
   2. ex. Wild thing > Gate pose > Half Straddle
   3. ex. Happy Baby > Knee to Chest crossover > grab heel for quad stretch
4. Transition: move into your next pose pairing with transitions that unravel fluidly, meaning it takes a simple rotation of the foot, hip or torso to change direction.
   1. ex. crescent lunge > Warrior II
   2. ex. Half pigeon > seated side bend
   3. ex. wide forward fold > runner’s lunge
5. Upper Body: add in upper body stretches
   1. ex. chest opener or cross body shoulder stretch in low lunge
   2. ex. prayer hands or thread the needle in child’s pose
   3. ex. half or full bind in side angle pose
6. Shavasana: any time you can finish in a corpse pose is a great bonus! allow at least 2 minutes to complete. Different variations:
   1. legs extended
   2. Knees bent and knocked together
   3. feet together and knees wide
   4. Ball under the back for a bigger extension
   5. feet on the barre or wall if at stations, this is extra cooling!

The examples listed above are not exhaustive, there are many more pairing and transitions to work through. This is a lot of info and if I can clarify anything please reach out.