Sequencing for Yin Yoga

 

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Hi Yenies, welcome back to a yin Yoga. Podcast if we have met before, my name is Nick Daniel, I’m your host. I am a therapeutic Yoga teacher

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in Yoga, teacher, trainer, and yoga business mentor.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you are new around here, welcome, if you are a familiar welcome back.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you are a familiar, and you have not yet. If you’ve been listening to these episodes. and you’ve been getting some

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Nyk Danu Yoga: nuggets of wisdom or helpful things to help you on your path from these. If you wouldn’t mind taking a moment just to pause this right now

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and

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Nyk Danu Yoga: do a review wherever you’re listening to this, podcast if you’re watching this on Youtube, make sure that you have subscribed. And you could give this a thumbs up that would be awesome.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you’re listening to this. If you could pause in whatever app you’re listening to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: this in, if you would give this a 5 star review, I’d be super grateful.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It helps other people interested in Yin Yoga find it the more sort of ratings and reviews, the podcast has the more likely that apple or spotify, or wherever you’re listening is to show this, when people are searching

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Nyk Danu Yoga: for yin Yoga podcasts, or if they’re searching for Yoga podcasts.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I’d be really grateful if you’d take a moment to do that right now, just pause it

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Nyk Danu Yoga: before you forget. Okay. thank you. So before we dive into 2 days episode. Just a reminder

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Nyk Danu Yoga: for those of you that have been here, or those of you that are new, that although I have the soul of a mermaid, I also have the mouth of a sailor. So you can expect that there will be adult language in this episode. If you have small people around, grab your headphones. Now.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: okay, friends, before we begin today, I just wanted to share a little bit of feedback that I’ve gotten from my 60 plus hour therapeutic yin. Yoga teacher training.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So this little bit of praise or testimonial is from

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Dana Hayden.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and she says

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I had done a brief yin training with you in my 200 h at Mach, so I used to offer a little snippet in a 200 HI don’t do that anymore.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But this was much more in-depth. My knowledge and understanding has grown in so many ways from knowing the Asana’s more in depth

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to yin yoga and Trauma, how parts of Chinese medicine relate to Yen Yoga

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Nyk Danu Yoga: how to create and sequence classes for different purposes, etc. I loved the practices and the discussions that followed about how people experience things differently in their bodies.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: My biggest takeaway was starting to recognize how to sequence classes

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and looking forward to working on future classes with people that I know to try this out and discuss how the experience was for them.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I won’t no, just by it. Experiencing it in my own body.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I would absolutely recommend this training. I had a fabulous experience, and would highly recommend it to anybody interested in Yan Yoga.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Thank you, Dana.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you are interested in learning more about my 60 plus. It’s at the time of this recording. It’s a 60 plus hour therapeutic

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Nyk Danu Yoga: yin Yoga training. It could be longer in the future. I have a feeling it will go that way. But for now it’s a 60 plus hour. If you want to know more about that there’s a link in the episode notes to check it out and to get on the wait list. The reason you might want to get on the wait list is because that is who I reach out to first when registration opens.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So when registration opens, the first people I let know are the waitlist. Before I put it on social media or anywhere else.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and the other reason that you might want to join the waitlist is that I give a first 5 people to sign up discount code

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Nyk Danu Yoga: only to people on the wait list. So for those of you that have been saving and pinching your pennies that can really help.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And the final reason is that I’ll send a bunch of other cool yin stuff on the way. And so until the wait list opens, you’ll get these podcast episodes or videos or other cool yin things from me.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Every week or 2 weeks. If we’re on a bit of a break, along the way. So all of those are good reasons to get yourself on the wait list. If you’re interested in Morgan training.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, that being said, let us dive into today’s episode.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: today’s episode is

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Nyk Danu Yoga: highly requested.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So it wasn’t even one I was considering, actually. But it was requested a lot. So here we are. I aim to please whenever possible

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Nyk Danu Yoga: except when it’s not possible.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So today’s topic is sequencing Indian Yoga.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: this is a complex thing to talk about

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Nyk Danu Yoga: verbally or on video.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But I’ll do my best.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: First, I want to mention

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that these are just my opinions. Right? Obviously, it’s my, podcast, the question was pushed to me. So that’s obviously my opinion.

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You may have different opinions and different information, and you know what’s really cool about the world is that we can all have different opinions and different information.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I think that’s pretty cool. so I will say that my

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Nyk Danu Yoga: framework for sequencing comes from a few different places.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Number one. My original teacher training was in the Ayungar Yoga tradition, which does have some different sequencing rules than those of you who were trained in the Vinyasa estranga system. Ok? So there’s already some big key differences there. I will dive into that more coming up.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s one thing to note

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the other thing to note is that when I’m talking about sequencing in yin, I’m talking about it from a

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Nyk Danu Yoga: a therapeutic lens, because I’m a yoga therapist, so I cannot see the world through any other glasses other than therapeutic.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so there might be some things that I say that you hadn’t considered, because that’s sort of the lens that I am seeing this through.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and also that when I’m sequencing in yin, I’m also thinking a lot about the fascia. and how it’s going to respond as opposed to the muscles.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So, in my opinion, as soon as we start sequencing in a yin practice versus a Yang practice or a more movement based practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: There’s already got to be a switch simply because we’re dealing with different tissues. and they respond in a different way.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so muscle sort of bounces back pretty quick, pretty easy. deep fascia. Not so much. It’s a bit of a slow grown. And so

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you hear me in this episode.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: teaching and talking about sequencing in a different way than what you are familiar with.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It is because

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Nyk Danu Yoga: number one of my first, my first training.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: my younger base number 2, therapeutic lens, and number 3. I’m thinking of it from the perspective of how does our deep fascia respond?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And in what time, and at what pace? Okay, so I just wanted to mention these 3 things, because I know that somebody has

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Nyk Danu Yoga: tends to happen, especially nowadays.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Sometimes people hear new information, and they immediately get defensive of the way that they’ve been doing things. Okay. So again, remember, this is my opinion. I’ll tell you what my opinions are based on.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then, of course, ultimately, you decide for yourself. But my

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Nyk Danu Yoga: invitation to you is is that if what I’m saying sort of sparks a little bit of the

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Nyk Danu Yoga: hey? What say what in you before you get defensive, and immediately start defending your position?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Actually sit with it. And then. dear Yoga teacher. practice it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So take some of these principles that I’m talking about and practise them.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then practice the opposite in your body and see for yourself right? Okay?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So here we go.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I’ve talked in other episodes about how sometimes we are trained. Most people are trained in a different style of Yoga than yin for their first teacher training.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and so they kind of have those little suitcases. little baggage that they bring with them when they come into their Yin training.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so they just automatically do things the same way they did in their more young or movement based form of Yoga. If you’re not familiar with these concepts of sort of Yin and Yang.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I did a whole podcast episode on that. If you’re listening to this, I’ll link it below. If you’re watching it on Youtube, I’ll put a little card wherever the

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Nyk Danu Yoga: cards go, whatever corner that ends up being.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so that you can check that out. So if you don’t have a good understanding of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: of yin-yang theory, and it is pronounced yong, not yang

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you don’t have a good understanding of those concepts, then some of this might only halfway land. So you can always check that episode out as well. So movement forms of Yoga dynamic, more dynamic forms of Yoga, whether that’s your Hatha, or your Vinyasa, or your Stanga, or your hot, or whatever those forms are.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: have certain principles, and work with certain tissues, and then yin works with different tissues. So yin, of course, we’re addressing our muscles as well, because we cannot separate our fascia from our muscles unless we’re dead.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and somebody’s cutting us open with a scalpel. Right? So these are connected. These are interconnected. Our muscles and our fascia are not separate.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: In fact. every muscle, every compartment muscle, every segment of muscle, every little tiny piece of a muscle is also wrapped in fascia.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, so please. No, dear dear ones. When I simplify this. I’m not pretending that I think that muscle and fascia are are separable. They’re not. You cannot separate them.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: They are inherently interwoven and interconnected.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: However, that being said.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yin Yoga’s specialty physically is deep fascia and large bands of connective tissue. and those types of tissues respond differently.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then a tissue like muscle. So if our focus. when we’re teaching our classes is muscle.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: we might sequence in a different way than if we were working with deep fascia.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s the first seed to plant. and I know that sometimes

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you may have been trained in a style of yoga, where you were taught that as soon as you do a pose you immediately have to do a counter pose.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay? And I’m not saying that that’s wrong. It’s not my experience.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I don’t find that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: A therapeutic way to practice

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But again, that’s what a large percentage of you were taught, especially if you were taught in this sort of ish vinyasa astrona lineages.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I come from the Iangar tradition.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: where we were actually taught that when it comes to the spine, for example, that you want to finish one direction of movement

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then do something neutralizing like a twist or a lateral extension before you do another direction of movement, meaning in the Ayungar tradition. You’re not going to do a back bend, and then immediately do a forward bend. You would instead finish any back bending.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: do a twist or a lateral pose, and then move into the forward bending, or vice versa.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, so it’s just a bit of a different lens and a different way of seeing the body.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and they. This is said to be easier on the spine, which, from my experience, that is true. but especially when we’re dealing with deep fascia. It is definitely easier on the deep fascia.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So just understand that when I’m talking about

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Nyk Danu Yoga: not counterposing. That’s what I’m talking about.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s not that I don’t believe we can do a counter pose. But what I am gonna say is, we don’t do a pose, counterpose, pose, counterpose, pose, counterpose, or at least that’s not how I practice in. It’s not how I teach my students, not how I train my teachers.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So, for example. if you’ve just done a back bend in Yin

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Nyk Danu Yoga: one of the areas of the of your body that’s going to be notably

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Nyk Danu Yoga: affected by this is your thoraco lumbar fascia. which is the fascia of your low back.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And this is really really dense, sturdy, sturdy, sturdy tissue and fascia.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So it doesn’t move quickly. It doesn’t yield quickly, and it also doesn’t sort of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: bounce back quickly. It’s a slow, moving sort of groany experience.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So, in my opinion, it is wiser. then, if you were sequencing, and you had a back bend that you wanted to do in a forward bend to do it in the way that I just described.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Do your back, bending shapes together. do something neutralizing like a twist

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or a lateral extension, or both, or even just getting them up seated, doing other body parts, maybe doing something for their hips before you move directly into a forward fold, and I know that some of you, your little, that little mind blown Emoji pup is happening right now.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because you’ve only ever taught, and you’ve only ever experienced pose opposite, counterpose, pose opposite, counterpose.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So again, if you’re feeling a little bit challenged by this new information, I would encourage you to explore it in your body and decide for yourself.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: The other thing I mentioned is that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: we have to treat Yin Yoga a little differently than we do our young Yoga practices.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if your first training was an Ashtanga or a Vinyasa system, or a system where they taught that you pose and counter pose immediately. That might be totally valid for that quick, moving, warming, heating, flowing type of a system that might make sense.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But in a system of yoga where we are still and were there for a long time. and we’re doing long holds.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then that’s a toll other animal.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: We’re dealing with different tissues. We’re dealing more with the bones. We’re dealing with the connective tissue. and so allowing space and time for that to start to feel normal again

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Nyk Danu Yoga: is crucial before you take another shape.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that brings us to. I’m just going to briefly touch on this, because I am going to do a whole episode on the rebound. But that brings us to another thing that’s unique about Yin.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And one of the things that’s unique about Yin is this rebound effect? This is what my teacher Paul G. Really calls it. I actually call it the the resonance or the linger of the pose in your body.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So anyone who’s practiced again and has done a good solid, you know, 5 min or more hold in a pose, and then starts to come out is going to be familiar with that sort of oh, moan and groan, kind of feeling temporarily vulnerable, slow, moving feeling right? What you’re feeling. There is your deep fascia.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so it would be wise for us to allow that experience

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to come back to closer to your familiar shape before you ask it to do something else.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So, for example, when we were talking about the thoraco lumbar fascia, which is that again, that densely fashioned area in your low back when we’re talking about that area. That area is not going to bounce back from a 5 min back. Bend

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Nyk Danu Yoga: enough that you can now do immediately.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: A 5 min forward bend that is going to be so hard on the students or your body. So what you would do instead is, first of all. and if you do not, if you’re a teacher and you’re not offering these little rebound breaks in between poses.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you really need to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: pay attention to that. That is what makes you and unique. And that is that little time that’s going to give us

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Nyk Danu Yoga: what we need to begin to feel familiar again before we move into something else again. I’m going to do a whole episode on the rebound. But just note your teacher. If you were trained in a style of Yoga, and they did not

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Nyk Danu Yoga: teach you to include rebounds. Start adding those in little. 1 min breaks between long held shapes to allow your students to begin to feel like they’re familiar self again before you ask them to make a new, funny shape with their body.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s all for rebound right now.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So. in my opinion.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: when it comes to directions of the spine, it is wiser to do your back bending shapes together. then put in a lateral pose like a side bend of some sort.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and or twist both if you can. and then slowly, maybe, start moving them into forward bending shapes

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that will give that thraco lumbar fascia, and the deep fascia of the back body. Time to begin to feel like it’s familiar self again before you’re now asking it to take the completely opposite position.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and in there we would include a rebound. So you would come out of a back bend, or whatever. Maybe, if you were doing a few back bends back to back. That’s fine. and then you would, you know, each one would get a little rebound.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then you would do a rebound, maybe do a twist, a lateral, and then a forward fold.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And I realize again that for some of you this is seriously giving you mind-blown things because you are. You have been taught that you immediately follow a back bend with the forward bend.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Just know that is not written on any ancient Yoga cave anywhere.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s true. There are whole styles of Yoga that never practice that way. legitimate historic forms of Yoga that don’t practice that way.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So, although that may be the way you were taught, it may or may not be the correct way.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and it’s definitely going to be more challenging for Yin.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So for sequencing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that is one thing that I recommend that is quite different, perhaps, than what a lot of teachers have explored is that we want to finish one direction of the spine. First

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Nyk Danu Yoga: do something neutralizing, twist, a lateral extension.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then we do the other direction of the spline. That will make it easier on you.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: When I studied with Paul. He did do this one class, usually during our our thing, so just so that we could feel what it felt like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I think they called it the paper clip. So if you’ve never taken a paper clip and kind of bent it out of its shape and back in again several times. It’ll break eventually. So he would call this the Paper Clip Series, and the reason that he wanted us to experience this is so that we had felt

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Nyk Danu Yoga: experience in our body. Of what does it feel like to move right from a

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Nyk Danu Yoga: a you know, a back bend, and that deep fascia to a forward bend, and so he would get us to do a back bend, then a forward bin, a back bend, then a forward, bend a back bend, and then a forward bin. And man. Is it a groaner?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It is such a groaner, especially without a twist or a lateral extension in between. So not only is it more challenging for the student

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Nyk Danu Yoga: physically. you’re also not going to get as deep either way

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Nyk Danu Yoga: when you’re doing that, because the fascia hasn’t come back to neutral yet.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and we want to be starting our forward bending and our backward bending, in my opinion. ideally, from a place of neutral. So again, I’m sure I’ve pushed a few buttons. Sure, I’m going to get some blowback about this.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but when we’re talking about counterposing again, I’m not saying we don’t counterpose I’m not saying we do a whole class of back bends, and we never do a twist or a lateral, or for it. I do not think that is wise.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: What I’m saying is, we finish our back bending action, then we do some neutralizing. Then we move into our forward folding, or vice versa. It doesn’t have to be backward bending and then forward could be the other way around. If you wanted to start with forward folds. Maybe you finish your forward foldings.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: direction movements. You do a lateral and a twist, and then you move into some back, bending whichever way.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but giving yourself an opportunity to do the same direction of the spine.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If there’s going to be more than one of that shape is so much easier on the deep fascia of your body, giving you your body the time to neutralize in a twist or a lateral extension.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then moving into the opposite action.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s easier on the deep fascia of your body that way. Now, if you were doing a sequence where you were only doing one back bend and one forward bend action. That’s super easy. Then, again, you just put a twist or a lateral pose in between.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and you, of course, allow for rebounds. Because, remember, if we’re teaching yin. We need to include rebound time that minute for the student to just be

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and feel, and, you know, come back to their familiar self again before you’re asking them to do something else.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Sometimes those rebounds might be quite still. Sometimes those rebounds rebounds, for some students are a little wiggly. I leave that up to the student to decide. They know better than you what they need in that time.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I just queue.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know. Here are some options for the rebound. Please take whatever your body just asked you to do is the right answer. So I try not to be too prescriptive with rebound time, because I want the student to drop in and to feel what it is that they need and do what their body is asking, because it might be different than your own experience. Right? We’re not all the same.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s a little bit about sequencing, as far as like one way that I see sequencing differently again. I’m coming at this from formerly Iangar trained therapeutic Yoga teacher.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and also considering the deep fascia of the body.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so

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Nyk Danu Yoga: say it one more time rather than, in my opinion, back, bend right into forward Bend. I would always place a twist or a lateral extension, or both, if you’ve got the time to kind of neutralize the spine a little bit, to allow that deep fascia of the body to come back to its more familiar home before I move in the opposite direction of the spine.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I will also allow for rebound time in between those shapes a minute or so for students to just be to feel whether that’s moving on their own wiggling or stillness

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to allow themselves to come back to their familiar shape before I do something else.

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So I just wanted to address that part of it, because

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Nyk Danu Yoga: one of the people that requested this

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Nyk Danu Yoga: episode. Hi, Janice, if you’re listening.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: who has taken my teacher training requested this, and I think that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: this may or may not have been one of the reasons that she requested it, because I do look at this through a bit of a different lens.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s just one little nugget that I wanted to share with you on sequencing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but sequencing in general. And I. At the time of this recording there will have been another episode previous to whether or not you need to theme

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Nyk Danu Yoga: your Yoga classes, because that was something that came up so that one will come out before this one. And again I’ll link it below or put a card or whatever on Youtube, so that you can check that one out

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so I won’t talk about theming when it comes to sequencing in this episode, because I just did a whole episode on that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But what I do want to mention is that with your sequencing you could theme or you could not theme, and that’s up to you, and if you want to know more about the theme or not to theme again, you can check that episode out.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But when it comes to sequencing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that’s really my only kind of I hate to use the word rule

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because I don’t really believe in rules per se. I believe rules are meant to be examined with critical thinking.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then we decide for ourselves. But that’s my only kind of I guess if you could say rule or guideline that I’m pretty strict at following in my own classes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I’m not going to have people move directly from a forward fold into a back back, bend, or vice versa.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then, when it comes to sequencing, I feel like in the Yin community. There seems to be all this pressure on.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, including meridians in your sequences, and again

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Nyk Danu Yoga: done past episodes, talking about that more in depth. I’m not going to go into that a ton other than to say, Dear Yoga, teacher, if you never, ever, ever, ever, ever sequence your yin class

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Nyk Danu Yoga: with meridian theory. That is a Ok. In fact. I don’t think any of the sequences

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that I ever did with Paul in all of my training were explicitly meridian-based sequences.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Funny that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I’ve mentioned in other episodes that unless you’ve got a lot of Chinese medicine study. You really shouldn’t be including meridian theory in your sequences.

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But there’s all kinds of ways that you can decide how to sequence.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You can sequence

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Nyk Danu Yoga: based on just what I call your your general feel-good. Fix them up, get them out the door sequence. Okay, so this is kind of my class recipe.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I like to have some sort of forward, bending action that could be even as simple as child’s pose, or hugging their knees into the chest.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: some sort of a twist, a lateral extension, some sort of a back bend. I like to address the neck and the shoulders, because there’s so much tension for anyone who works at a desk in this neck and shoulder area.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I like to get into the hip flexors and their hip. But it band zone. That is my recipe for creating a class that most people will enjoy.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and that most people’s bodies really need. So that is, my friends. how I sequence my classes. I use that recipe. and then which poses, I put in

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Nyk Danu Yoga: depend on many things.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: The day, the time the students in front of me

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Nyk Danu Yoga: any injuries they may have, etc. Etc.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I feel like sometimes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: especially new teachers don’t like that. Answer because they’re looking for this hard and fast structure

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to slip their sequence into.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And this is because a lot of us, myself included, when I first graduated, feel like our first teacher training, there was this big hole when it came to sequencing. That’s not uncommon. So if you feel that way, if you’re a newer teacher and you’re like, Oh, my God, I have no idea how to sequence

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but what I’m giving you. There is a recipe that you can get started with in your classes. That will be typically a crowd pleaser

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because you can create the fanciest, most impressive fancy sequence of your life.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But if people are still leaving with the same discomfort and aches and pains that they walked in with maybe not so important. So rather than

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Nyk Danu Yoga: get super fixated on fancy sequences, especially if you’re a new teacher, start simple.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: do all of the directions of the spine which includes back, bend.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: twist, or lateral twist, lateral pose, forward, fold. Make sure those are in there.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you can get all the directions of the spine in, and then you can add some things for their neck and shoulders, and if you’re going, wait neck and shoulders. My training didn’t include anything for their neck and shoulders. My apologies about that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: There are. There are upper body things in yen. and I guess not. Every teacher includes those, but there are so you can do a little something for their neck, shoulder, upper, back area. That’s always a crowd pleaser.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you can make sure you get their hip, but it bend zone in.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and you can make sure that you get their hip flexors. So dragons some version of a dragon, whether that’s kneeling or laying on your back, doing baby dragon some version of those always again, always a crowd pleaser.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you are a new teacher, and you are stressed out by sequencing. I just gave you a formula.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you can write that out

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Nyk Danu Yoga: doesn’t have to be in that order, but, you know, make sure there’s a back bend. Make sure there’s a twist and a lateral extension. Make sure there’s a forward fold. Make sure you get their neck and shoulders area done and their hip butt it and hip flexors. Write out that little recipe

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Nyk Danu Yoga: again, and my advice would be to make sure that there is a twist or a lateral pose between that forward bend and back bend.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then you’ve already got a brilliant sequence that’s really going to create

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Nyk Danu Yoga: happy campers. If you can help people relieve chronic discomfort and pain

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Nyk Danu Yoga: from when they came in to when they came out. You can have happy students. So when you’re a new teacher, please don’t look around at all of the teachers who’ve been teaching for 1020

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Nyk Danu Yoga: years and think, Oh, my God, I need to be able to sequence like that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: First of all, you don’t ever have to be able to sequence with a big theme and make it all you know, fancy and poetic. You don’t ever have to do that may not even be relevant. I feel like sometimes, and we address, I address this in the the last episode when it came to theming or not theming. I feel sometimes like

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Nyk Danu Yoga: as teachers, we do that actually for us. And our students really don’t give a shit.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: They don’t give a shit about

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the theme of your class. They really don’t.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now, if you’re teaching exclusively teachers, there might be a bit more of that, or if you teach a lot of teachers, but for the most part the general public wants to leave that class feeling better

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Nyk Danu Yoga: when they leave, then when they came in. so please cut yourself some slack and just keep it simple. Focus on rather than meridians. And all of this other stuff. Duh duh duh duh duh! Push that aside.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you haven’t done a lot of in-depth study in Chinese medicine, you’re probably not going to do that skillfully. Anyways. so rather focus on what is the intended area of this shape?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And what are other shapes that I could offer

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that I could give to someone if they’ve got an injury or an issue. So, for example, here’s a really common one.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: sleeping Swan. Not everybody can do that pose, because if they’ve got the pressure on their knee, or they’re just so tight in their hip structure. Whether that’s bones or muscle, we don’t know always

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that their their butts like way up in the air, and yet they’re in a hurry to like get their elbows on the floor, but like their booties way up.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that’s not a great pose for them, so in that case you could encourage them to flip on their back and take what is sometimes called figure 4, sometimes called, you know. Recline, Swan. I’ve known it as keyhole, whatever name you want to call it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: where, if you’re laying on your back and your feet are on the floor and knees bent across your right ankle over your left thigh, for example, or you could tighten that, cross up.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: put your knee over your knee. and then you bring your legs closer to you until you feel a stretch, whether that’s using props or your hands. So when you’re creating a sequence. it’s always a good idea to have

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Nyk Danu Yoga: little notes to yourself about. Okay. If someone can’t do this, how can I make these more accessible? So I would rather see teachers teaching really simple.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: clear sequences.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but that have a ton of adaptability for different bodies

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and prop usages for different bodies and options, for people who have injuries or just don’t get much out of that pose. That’s where you should focus your attention, dear teacher.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: making the practice accessible and adaptable to the people in the room is way more important than all of this fancy

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Nyk Danu Yoga: sequencing stuff. So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: a simple sequence, well thought out.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: with plenty of time in there for rebounds.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then making sure that for each pose you take a look at it and go. Okay.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: what other pose could I give in place of that. If somebody can’t do this one, or if it’s just not a good fit for their body.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: right? So if you have that already in your sequence. Then, when it comes up, live in front of you in the room. You’re not going to panic going. Oh, crap! They can’t do that. What am I going to give them?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So create your sequence, then go and put little notes. What else could you give them? So, for example, there was my example, Swan.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Maybe Sleeping Swan isn’t available for their knees. So maybe you do some kind of reclined hip opener. Right?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Another example is, not everybody can do dragon again with me. Stuff! People can’t kneel. but what they might be able to do is lay on their back and put a block or a bolster under their sacrum

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and hug one knee in while extending the other leg out straight, which is called Baby Dragon. Sometimes some people call it Lazy Dragon. so it’s exactly the same pose just flipped on its back, so there’s no pressure on their knee.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so that might be something that you want to add in there as well.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So what’s more important, when your sequencing is, are you keeping track of the

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Nyk Danu Yoga: key directions of the spine?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Are you forward bending? Are you doing lateral twisting back, bending. Are those movements there? If so, bing!

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Gold star number one.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: are you doing something, maybe, for their neck and shoulder and upper back zone, those tight spots. There’s a little bonus little extra sprinkles there for that one. And are you doing something for their hip? But IT band zone and their hip flexor zone. Those are great to add in as well.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you’ve got all of that in a sequence. and then you go through when you make some options for people that can’t do them. So if they can’t do this pose, I’d give them this instead, so that you feel prepared when it shows up in the room because it’s going to show up in the room.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that’s awesome. Then you’re prepared right? You’ve got your sequence. You’ve got some alternative shapes that you could do. Another thing you want to really think about is prop usage. How can you make them more comfortable while they are in those shapes

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that’s super important.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and if you’re not really well versed in prop usage again.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: my apologies, if that was not gone over in your in training or your previous training.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I go over it

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Nyk Danu Yoga: ridiculously in my training. but you can also just get creative and play. So any times a body part can’t reach the floor. You can put a block, a blanket, or a bolster underneath that body part to bring the floor up to it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Anytime hands are struggling to reach an area of the body. you can use a strap to increase that reach.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now, that being said, I’m not talking about using a strap in a forward fold. I don’t actually like that Indian at all. It’s a

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Nyk Danu Yoga: sidebar. But

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I just mean, for example, maybe somebody’s doing a figure 4 version of a stretch for their hip and butt area because they’ve got knee issues. But when they reach to hold on to the back of their leg they’re really straining kind of their neck and shoulders, and they’re sort of lifting their head up off the ground a little bit. But yet when they bring the floor, the the bottom foot back to a block

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Nyk Danu Yoga: for the floor. They’re not feeling it. Then, looping a strap around the back of their leg is the perfect in-between solution. And again, if you don’t know a lot of prop hacks.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: there’s a few ways that you can start to learn. Those one is take another training where people actually teach you how to use props

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or 2

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or both together is to actually start exploring this in your own practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So one of the other reasons that teachers

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Nyk Danu Yoga: really struggle with sequencing is because they don’t actually have a home practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: They’re relying on videos by other teachers to do their practice, or going to a studio again, led by another teacher for their practice. And if that’s what you’re doing, and then you come home and you’re trying to plan your sequence

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Nyk Danu Yoga: for your classes. It’s no wonder that you’re struggling

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because you are not practicing on your own at home by yourself and, dear Yoga, teacher. I’ve said this before. I’ll say it again. Here’s your loving smackdown.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You need to have a home practice. If you are going to be a teacher. You need to have a home practice. Now, I’m not saying you can’t go to a yoga class

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and be led once in a while. It’s lovely once in a while to like, try to turn off the teacher, brain and go and have some other teacher that you love and adore, guide you through a practice that’s a wonderful treat.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But think of that light dessert.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and the home practice for yourself is what you do every day or every second day, or however often you’re going to practice. Doesn’t have to be long. Practices. Doesn’t have to be daily.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Not going to do that whole yoga every damn day day, hashtag

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but whatever your practice time is

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that it’s a time for you to play with your body. And with these sequences. So one of the best ways to know whether or not a sequence feels good.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to actually practice the sequence. so create some sequences for yourself. play with them, explore them in your own practice, make edits where needed. Go? Oh, you know what

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Nyk Danu Yoga: actually, it would be better if this pose was up here, and this pose was down here, or you get the idea. There is no shortcuts

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to becoming confident and accomplished with sequencing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m sorry

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Nyk Danu Yoga: going to say that again in a different way. There is no magic, I feel confident, sequencing pill

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that comes from practice practice doing your sequencing and practice with your own body. practicing, practicing, practicing those sequences.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then you have a deep understanding of what they feel like in your body.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then you just add, in alternative poses and prop variations for those people that don’t have your body.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But if you’re just writing out a sequence on paper and you’re never practicing it, how do you know how it feels? How do you know how it’s going to feel for your students? So take a few minutes

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Nyk Danu Yoga: whenever you’ve got some time

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and just start writing down some sequences.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: then start practicing them with your own body. seeing how that feels afterwards. Take a few moments after the practice to journal and reflect. Did I like this sequence. How did I feel? What? What was missing? Maybe. What could it? I have used more of what could I have used less of?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Could I have rearranged the order of those poses. Would that have felt better? So it’s like a little science experiment.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: This is where you start. So I gave you what I wish that I had.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: When I finished my teacher training nobody gave me that little recipe that I just gave you about the directions of the spine.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: neck and shoulders, hips and button it bend. Nobody gave me that, so I was literally

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Nyk Danu Yoga: throwing spaghetti at the wall, trying to figure out how I should sequence.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I would watch a video of other Yoga teachers and I would kind of write down their sequence, and then I would practice the sequence in my body, and then I would take things out and add things in, and that’s how I learned to sequence.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Nobody gave me a magic pill. There was no easy, quick answer. I had to actually invest the time. I know I’m sorry

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to get confident and comfortable sequencing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So when I graduated my first teacher training because no one gave me a formula. No one gave me a recipe. I was just sort of left out there in the wilderness by myself to figure this out. I started watching a whole bunch of videos.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I would write down their sequences.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then I would practice it in my body, and then I would edit things and take things out and add things in and change the order, and then I would practice it again

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Nyk Danu Yoga: until I felt like. Okay. Now, that was a sweet sequence.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: there is no magic pill. If you’re a new Yoga teacher to getting comfortable with sequencing, it takes practice. It takes repetition, and you have to experience it in your own body. If you are not doing your own sequences.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: how are you going to know if they’re effective or kind or well crafted.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you aren’t. You’re going to feel like you’re just shootin in the dark.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you’re an experienced teacher. then none of this is probably even that relevant for you.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You’re probably pretty okay, pretty comfortable with sequencing. Or maybe you’re not yet still, and if that’s the case again, it’s probably cause you’re not practicing what you preach. You don’t actually have an established home practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I remember in my very first teacher training my teacher, saying that you cannot practice what you cannot teach, what you don’t practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And she was right.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You can learn things in books, you can learn things in your teacher trainings, but until you have embodied it several times.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you do not have the ability to then transmit that information into other people.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and if you do try to jump ahead of that, if you try to just write a sequence out, you don’t practice it, and then you take it and you teach it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You’re not going to feel confident with it. Number one. So here comes that imposter syndrome word again.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You’re not going to feel confident with your sequences. If you haven’t practiced your sequences.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: confidence comes from taking action.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m going to say that one more time confidence comes from taking action.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: not from thinking.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Confidence comes from doing, not thinking.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Thinking

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Nyk Danu Yoga: just makes us less confident because we get stuck in that little wheel of but I don’t know. And what if and what are they doing, and what are they doing? And get out of that?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Write down a simple sequence.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Get on your map, practice, practice, practice it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: practice it the first time. Go! Ha! What did I like about that? What didn’t I like about that? What felt like it was missing. What could I use more of what could I use less of tweak it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: practice it again.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: tweak it, practice it again, and you feel like it’s a solid sequence

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Nyk Danu Yoga: go through and add alternative poses. variations, prop usage. so that when you take that sequence into a classroom. if somebody shows up and they can’t do that because their knee hurts. You’re like Aha! Ha! Ha! Ha! I have plan B. For you written down right here.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I know of something else that you can do to access that same area. It’s best to do that research before you show up. especially when you’re a new teacher.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You’ll feel more confident. If you’ve got some plan. B’s plan. A plan. B’s in there, then you’ll feel more comfortable teaching.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so

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Nyk Danu Yoga: it’s probably a pretty brief episode, but

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’ll just synapses it. Now

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in summary.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: dear Yoga, teacher, if you are struggling with your sequencing. it is because no one gave you a formula or a plan or a recipe card. I will give you one right now, because I want you to save

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Nyk Danu Yoga: all of the time of blood, sweat, and tears that I had to put into sequencing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you include a forward, bending action, a twist, a lateral, so a side bend.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: a back bending action. Those are crucial.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then, if you really want to make them happy, let’s do something for their neck and shoulder area where they there’s all this tension. Get their hip, but it bend zone in there and get something for their hip flexors.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you follow this basic recipe, and you just add and insert and change and swap out the poses and change the order again. The order that I am recommending is, do not do a back bend right into a forward bend or a forward bend right into a back bend to break those up with something lateral or a twist.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you can take that basic formula or that basic recipe

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then just change the order and add in different poses.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know. So you do one. If you do one back bend per class. I mean, there’s so many in Yen that you could choose from.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then you want to practice it. Okay, so take the recipe card.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: fill in some poses, practice it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: tweak. What didn’t work for you.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then add alternative shapes and poses and prop hints that you could offer.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now, when you have that, you’re going to feel much more confident, going into your class and teaching that sequence.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because not only do you have a formula to get you started.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you’ve practiced it in your own body. So again, remember, confidence comes from doing, not from thinking

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so. You’ve got that embodied sense of confidence going. I have done this sequence. I know how good it feels. and you’ve got your little things written down for people who are maybe not able to do that shape because of injuries. Or maybe it just doesn’t work well for their body.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and maybe some prop variations. Now, you’re gonna feel awesome walking into that class with that sequence.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I think that’s all for sequencing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I hate to say it, because I know it’s not a popular opinion.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But, dear teacher, if you are struggling with sequencing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: stop looking outside of you at what all the other teachers are doing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and take that little cheat sheet formula I just gave you, and start creating sequences and practice. You cannot teach what you do not practice. You must have a home practice in order to be able to skillfully guide people

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in a Yoga class. There is just no way around that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Otherwise all of your sequences won’t quite land.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: They won’t quite be what people need, and you won’t know why, because you haven’t experienced it yourself first.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then also note, too. If you’re a new teacher and you’re still struggling with sequencing, I’ve given you some really good tips here. This ought to get you running and started. But just know it’s gonna be something you’re gonna tweak probably

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Nyk Danu Yoga: forever.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’d also recommend that you save sequences that you think went really well. You do not need to teach a brand new sequence every single freaking class.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: This is something that Yoga teachers think that students do not care about.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: We get bored of our sequences long before our students do. Repetition is good.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: The nervous system appreciates repetition. When people know or have a sense of something being familiar, they relax in a deeper way.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, so also keep that in mind when you’re sequencing doesn’t have to be a brand new fancy sequence all the time. Create several templates

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that you have practiced in your body, that you are comfortable with that you know well, and run with those, and then just gradually keep adding on. And before you know it, you’re going to have a whole little collection of these sequences that you have created and vetted and practiced and taught.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and that takes so much of the pressure off.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, I hope that you found this helpful for those of you that are struggling with sequencing

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Nyk Danu Yoga: again. I remember, remember at the beginning I said, this might ruffle a few feathers with this whole pose, counterpose thing, but again, rather than just get all up uppity about it, and want to get in the chat and start adding your comments.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Stop first and practice it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Practice the difference in a yin way, not in a half away, not in a vinyasa. I’m not talking about that. This is a yin, podcast y’all

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Nyk Danu Yoga: take a moment or 2 to do

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Nyk Danu Yoga: 2 practices back to back

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Nyk Danu Yoga: 1 one day, one the next day. Keep some notes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: How does it feel

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Nyk Danu Yoga: when you do a back bend right into a forward bend, a back bend right into a forward bend versus I did it a back bend, and I do a twist and a lateral pose into a forward bend.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Go ahead, experiment with that. Let me know how it goes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, dear friends. I hope that you found this helpful. and until we meet again. Bye, for now.