Props and poses...

I was exhausted after this last three day weekend of yoga teacher training. Well, let me rephrase that: I am always exhausted after our three day weekends and sometimes they are very draining, but this time I was tired in a good way. Even though we did sit around more than I am comfortable with, we did move a bit more and I learned so much about certain poses and using props. Here is just a small bit of what we learned last weekend...

Source: http://www.yogaclubdfw.com/how-to-downward-facing-dog/

On Friday we started with a couple of hours of yoga practice focusing on the feet (using a soft ball to roll around on -- oh the bliss!) and working on our downward facing dog (Adho Mukha Svansana).

We added to that practice on Saturday by coming back to down dog as well as focusing on shoulder exercises and mountain pose (Tadasana). We used a strap in partner work to help guide/pull the butt back and saw how much better that was for the hands when not so much pressure was on them. We learned more about spreading our fingers wider and how pushing forward on the mat helped relieve some of the pressure on our wrists.  I realized as I was learning all this that these were some of the main reasons I came to yoga teacher training.

We also looked at a lot of poses with props that each of us had done some referencing with as homework. I chose using a chair or the wall to help in balancing for Warrior 3 (Virabhadrasana III).  I love Warrior 2  pose but getting into Warrior 3 without using a wall or a chair has always been difficult for my balance.

We also learned a lot more about setting up a class plan: focusing on the type of class you want or the things you want to think about when figuring out which poses to use in a class setting or for our own practice.

My intention for the next two weeks: find a small ball (like a soft golf ball or racquetball) and use it to massage my feet. There were indeed some tender spots when we did this in class but afterwards my feet felt so much better!