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Sequencing for classes
From a question and answer session at RIMYI, July 17, 1994. Transcribed from video-tape by Rose Richardson, edited by Geeta Iyengar and Francie Ricks
- Should we structure our classes as you do in Pune, taking standing poses, forward bends, backbending & twists, pranayama, etc. week by week? Can this be done without giving up creativity?
- When teaching classes normally the first week of the month we take standing poses, second week forward bends, third week backbendings, and then last one pranayama. Now you ask if the creativity comes to you should you allow yourselves to do accordingly? To answer this question, I have to say that I won't trust your creativity. If I say go by your creativity I would be responsible and I don't know your creativity.
A person can be creative even if he has been given a fixed program. You heard just now in the intensive Guruji restricted me to certain things; didn't you see that? Did he not say 'make them do Sirsasana and Sarvangasana and nothing else?' But as far as creativity is concerned, I will not lose anything by taking only Sirsasana and Sarvangasana. If Guruji told me 'that's enough standing poses, now take something else, I would stop there. But that doesn't mean I've lost creativity in teaching. If he had said 'repeat the same pose,' I would repeat the same pose and teach again with the same creative mind, teaching what you are lacking in that pose and what you are supposed to do. So that is one thing.
Secondly; as a teacher, it is better that you don't confuse your students who are coming regularly The best way is to start the first week with the standing poses, because almost all of the problems come from structural defects. Problems come because of the student's wrong adjustments, where they don't adjust properly or they don't adjust at all. Structural deformities create the problems. And most of the structural deformities can be taken off with the standing poses. Also, standing poses are the best from the point of view of "exercise." When you know that certain organs within have to be worked or toned, the standing poses are best because you can manipulate the inner body with your arms and legs. Also with the standing poses it is easier to make the student understand. It is clearer to the person who is learning how to work within, even if we are working with the liver, kidney or intestines. If I say in Trikonasana on the right side, 'turn your abdomen from the right to the left and extend your spine,' you know what is happening to your intestines, what is happening to your ribs, and how your thoracic chest is opened. So the practitioner begins to come closer and closer to his own body
After standing poses, I suggest taking forward bends. Forward bends work more with the outer muscles of the body You start with the outer back muscles rather than directly with the inner spinal muscles. One who has not practised before will not be very familiar with their back. What are the back muscles doing? Beginners don't know what is happening there. It is only when they come to yoga that they know where their problems are. With forward bend extensions you don't touch their spinal muscles directly This extending is like planting a seed. The other day I said you must loosen the soil. If I want to sow a seed I loosen the soil. You can't put the seed into the hard soil; it won't go in and it won't sprout. So first you make the soil soft from the outside. Then if you want to put the seed even deeper in, you have to dig still more so that a further layer of the soil is loosened. If you are planting a tree like mango or coconut, you have to go deep. But if it is just a small flower or the seed of some small plant, it's all right to plant it near the surface. Right? With seasonal flowers you don't put the seed too deep, just on the top soil somewhere. But still you have to loosen the soil. So now the seed of yoga has to be sown in a person. You can't start digging straight away in. The person will not be able to take it. So you say all right, just a little bit of digging of the soil and you sow the seed of the asanas there. So forward bends are better where you extend the external muscles of the back. You extend the outer muscles, at the same time working on your abdominal region.
After forward bends come seated postures or twistings, like simple lateral twists where a person again begins to work with the outer spinal muscles. It's a turning but it still doesn't go deep inside.
Lastly you come to backbending where you reach directly into the inner spinal muscles. When you are sowing the seed of the yoga plant put it deep inside like the coconut or mango tree; go for the deep end. In this manner after the one month's course, you finish with that kind of program and then take pranayama. Some asana practice has been done. A person coming once a week has been given some understanding, so the last week you do some pranayama. A beginner can just do Savasana. For beginners pranayama is not introduced in the first six to eight months, perhaps even for a year.
The one month's program we have divided in such a manner so that first you learn standing poses, forward bends, twistings, and backbendings, then pranayama. If you want to do some balancings etc., they go along with the twisting. To introduce more advanced poses, you put those things in as you would with a computer, sending a message to that particular file. You open the file of forward bends and you add certain advanced forward bends. You open the file of twistings and you add the more difficult twisting as the person begins to progress. When you are teaching backbending you open that file. The sequence does not change.
But suppose the class has come to some more intermediate state where all things are required. You know that a person comes once a week and you have to see that a touch of all the postures are given in that one class. Then in one class you may give a few standing poses first. Then you give Janu Sirsasana or something of for-ward bends. Then you come to a little bit of twisting. You may ask a person to do an inverted pose like Sirsasana. Then you come back to backbendings after Sirsasana. You make them do full arm balance or you may take a little bit of backbendings and then you take inversions like Sarvangasana and Halasana. Then you take Setu Bandha and Viparita Karani for recuperation, then Savasana. That means that in one class you adjust the sequence in the same way.
If you haven't practised for a long time and you begin again, then you must see that you do two or three postures from each category, and have a touch with each so that you are doing some forward bends, some backbends, some twistings. Then when the intelligence of the body increases, when you begin to ham the essence through your practice, then you can't open too many files at once. You have to give time to one type of pose and go into the details so that you understand what is coming. Then you reflect on it. So one day you may do only standing poses. One day you may do only inversions and see how to work with the shoulders in Sirsasana, how to work with the chest in Sarvangasana, to find out where you go wrong, where you tilt, and how to lift the spine. You work in detail with the inversions. One day you choose backbends and work with those so that you realise the difference between each backbending asana. You work with those asanas to find out the differences, how each pose affects you, etc. That is how the practice has to be adjusted and your teaching has to be adjusted.
In classes where the students have reached some level of understanding and maturity, sometimes you may take just one type of poses, for example only backbendings or only standing poses.
Sometimes in a two hour class you take standing poses for one and a half hours, then in the last half hour a little bit of inversions so they recover and then that class is over. They have to work like that to learn. When you give a variety of poses, you cannot give all the details. So you can teach in different ways.
You also have to find out if the class is dull. Sometimes students are yawning. For them it might be boring, who knows? If you go into the details of one matter too much, they may get bored because they are not that keen yet. They have not matured. Keenness is required when you stretch your legs. If you are to stretch your shin you need keen observation because it is not just a stretch, it is a coming in contact with your own inner body New students also may not be able to observe keenly They fail to penetrate. If they don't achieve anything they become bored and they don't want to do asanas. When someone doesn't want to do, it is better to give a variety of poses. You make the person enter in from different files or different windows to find out how to remove that boredom, so they get some light. If one is keen, you can give two hours for standing poses because the keenness leads one to find out how each part of the body works, stretches and functions from inside. So the sequence and practice depends upon keenness, intensity and intention. That is how one has to practice. It depends upon your interest, your keenness, and your requirements.
In teaching, it is better to be on the safer side, because you don't know the students. You don't know in which category they fall. When you come to Pune for an intensive we take it for granted that you are keen and it's safe to start in that way We may concentrate on one thing and give a lot of details. But if you come for public classes, it's a general class. In general classes, you cannot assume that students are that keen. They just want to do some practice. To stick to practice some discipline is required. So you need to follow the sequence.
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