Bringing Your Practice Home

Many yogis don't practice at home because they simply don't know where to start. Here's how to create sequences that will keep you engaged, curious, and dedicated.

By Judith Hanson Lasater

Pose/Counterpose
A somewhat similar and traditional approach to sequencing is to follow some poses with their opposite movement. Most often, the concept of pose/counterpose involves practicing a forward bend after a backbend. In all my years of teaching, I have never heard students request backbends after forward bends, only the other way around.

With only a few limited exceptions, I prefer not to practice or teach using this approach; instead, I like to examine what I am doing in my backbend that makes me feel as though I need to immediately practice a forward bend. Such an urge makes me suspicious that I am compressing my spine unevenly in the backbend. Rather than jumping to practice a forward bend to undo the side effects of an uneven backbend, I attempt to discover exactly where and how I am compressing my back and to relieve that compression. I do, however, make an exception when I am teaching beginning students. Sometimes after backbends I will give beginners a little bit of a forward stretch, such as Downward-Facing Dog. However, the poses I most like to do and teach following backbends are twists. I would suggest you follow a deep backbend practice with Bharadvajasana (Pose Dedicated to the Sage Bharadvaja), as it is the twist that most resembles a backbend and thus is the least likely to strain your lower back.

The main point to remember about pose/counterpose sequencing is that the best counterpose to a backbend is not a forward bend; instead, it is to do a lesser backbend. Most students seem to find that a lesser backbend is a relief, and it also does not strain the structures of the back as moving from an extreme backbend into a forward-bending movement can do. A couple of simpler backbends after a deep backbend practice feel great.

After several Urdhva Dhanurasanas, I sometimes have students just lie flat on the floor on their backs, with legs straight, and their arms over their heads and resting on the floor. This position is still an extension or backbending movement for the spine, but it is also, of course, less of a backbend than the previous pose. From this pose, you can easily and comfortably do a supine twist or another supine pose like Supta Padangusthasana (Reclining Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose).

Always remember to pay attention to the effects of a pose before you choose the next pose. If you choose a counterpose, be careful not to move to the most extreme opposite movement right away. Instead, proceed gradually toward that movement, using several intermediate movements to get there.

Harmonizing Subtle Energies

Almost everyone who practices yoga will tell you that their "energy" feels different after they've practiced. This is no doubt one of the main reasons why we practice: to change our experience of how energy moves in the body. We want more energy; smoother, more even energy; or energy that is quieter and less agitated.

Another way to think of sequencing has to do with consciously manipulating two of the main energies in the body, prana and apana. In the ancient teachings of India, these two energies are considered extremely significant in the overall health and spiritual evolution of the practitioner. Prana is believed to exist above the diaphragm and to have a tendency to move upward; it is "masculine energy" and controls the heart and the respiration. Apana, it is said, exists below the diaphragm and has a tendency to move downward; it is "feminine energy" and controls the organs of the abdomen, pelvis, and legs.

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