Category: Yoga Teaching

I understand the desire to be creative with sequencing, I really do. But sometimes we really get in our own way. If you’re someone who agonizes about creating a new sequence for every class, then take comfort in my offering: you only need four yoga sequences.

Here’s what you need:

• sequence to a backbend
• sequence to an inversion
• sequence to an arm balance
• sequence to a complex standing pose

That’s it. Once you have the skeleton of these four classes in your back pocket, everything else is a variation on a theme.

Let’s take a closer look.

Sequence to a Backbend

A sequence to a backbend needs to build slowly and smartly in order to support your students to a safe and expansive experience. I’ve been to many a class where a backbend gets tossed in at the end (“if wheel is in your practice, then go for it!”) rather than mindfully sequenced. I understand and appreciate the intention (we all need a bit more backbending in our lives!), but your students’ bodies will be sooooo much happier when you take the time to prepare for these larger openings.

You’ll need to warm up these parts of the body:

• Hip flexors – open those suckers buy incorporating lunges and thigh stretches like anjaneyasana and crescent
• Spine – specifically, you need to train the upper back (thoracic) to extend as the lower back (lumbar) and neck (cervical) are stabilized
• Neutral hips – train the line through the ankle, knee, and thigh to remain neutral in the pelvis (ie: don’t turn out the legs)
• Core – you’ll want to train the core engage in a lengthened position (eccentric contraction) as part of protecting the lumbar spine from hyperextension
• Shoulders – depending on which big backbend you’re doing, you’ll need to warm up the shoulder girdle in different directions (ie: wheel, you’ll need to do poses where you get the arms above the head in external rotation, while in dhaurasana (bow) you’ll need to work the arms behind you in extension).

I would suggest something like the following for a flow/power class:

• Warm up: sun salutations modified with plenty of lunges to start opening the hip flexors; focus on training neutral hips and engaging the adductors.
• Mobilize and engage: get the upper back and spine involved through progressively deep twists and backbends. Use this opportunity to integrate core engagement with the extension of the upper back. Also, incorporate poses that warm up the shoulder girdle towards your peak.
• Targeted hip flexor stretch: before the peak, I like to do a juicy hip flexor opener, such as saddle, supta virasana or anjaneyasana with a thigh stretch.
• Peak: variations of your complex backbend; have several progressive versions so that there is something for everyone.
• Cool down and counterpose: forward folds, outer and inner hip stretches.

Backbends are the sequences that keep on giving. We ALL need more backbending our lives, due to our collapsed posture and sitting habits. There are so many good variations of this sequence; it will never go out of style.

Sequence to an Inversion

When sequencing to an inversion, you are usually training muscular intelligence rather than a specific muscular opening. Sure, the hamstrings need to be opened to get into most inversions, but – unless you’re doing a very complex inversion that requires backbending – the actual poses are pretty much like tadasana upside down.

Here’s what you need to think about:

• Open the hamstrings. The preparatory poses for most inversions involve “walking in” and “stacking your hips over your shoulders,” which requires very open hamstrings. Use active forward folds to warm them up, such as pyramid, prasarita padottanasana, utthita hasta padangustasna, revolved triangle, standing splits.
• Squeeze your legs together. I call this “midline,” where your thighs are neutral in the socket and you’re strongly engaging your adductors for support. Your legs must be active, straight, and engaged in order to provide leverage and direction for lift off. Practice this activation in poses such as crescent, chair, lunges, and forward folds.
• Educate the shoulder girdle: to do inversions, you need to get your arms straight and over your head. You also want to train the upper arm in external rotation and the forearm in pronation. I love working this action by having students hold a block between their hands in chair pose. It’s evil, but it works.
• Educate the ribs/core: Many of us “pop” the ribs forward when doing inversions. A core warm up can help to fire these muscles up and train the psoas (primary hip flexor) to anchor and stabilize the legs into the core of the body.
• Educate hands/wrists: teach your students (in poses such as plank, chaturanga, or any pose with their hands on the floor) how to press into index knuckle and finger tips down to avoid sinking in the wrist. Help them turn their hands into little feet that they can stand on properly.

I would suggest something like the following for a flow/power class:

• Solid warm up of surya A and B’s (depending on level of students)
• Mobilize/educate: neutral standing poses and standing forward folds to train openness and engagement through hamstrings and legs; also trains neutral hips, which you need when you start kicking up to avoid chaos. Use these neutral poses to train the adductors to squeeze; you’ll need this when upside down. (If the legs aren’t stable, the whole pose will topple.)
• Educate the arms: you also need to teach the connection of shoulder blades down into the hands. For example, when you’re doing handstand, you have to keep the arms straight. Support for the pose comes from the shoulder girdle.
• Educate the shoulders: in my training, we balance the action of pulling the bottom ribs in (serratus anterior engagement) with hugging the shoulder blades slightly together (rhomboid engagement). These two opposing actions work together to train the shoulder blades to stay anchored on the back body and provide the necessary support for the body weight. In pincha or headstand, you need to teach students how to pull the shoulder blades into the back to create the necessary stability to invert.
• Cool down: the cool down should stretch the adductors and outer hips, as well as give students a chance to rest their upper bodies.

Inversions are awesome and mind blowing. Teach them at a wall. Create benchmarks that clearly indicate to students whether or not they should proceed to the next “variation.”

Sequence to an Arm Balance

Sequencing to an arm balance is a fun and interesting challenge. Very different parts of the body need to be warmed up than for an inversion or backbending class. How you warm up for the pose will depend greatly on the particular arm balance that you are doing, as they all have unique requirements.

Generally, here’s what you need to think about:

• Get the core fired up. No core, no arm balance. I like to start off with supine core exercises if I know that my peak is an arm balance. When you establish core integrity early on in the class, students can bring core awareness into every pose that they are doing.
• Teach the hands/ wrists: similar to inversions, you have to teach students how to use their hands properly to avoid wrist compression.
• Teach to the shoulder girdle: like backbends, you need to teach students to become aware of – and stabilize – their shoulder girdle. Draw their awareness to scapular stability in poses such as plank, chaturanga – as well as in non-shoulder weight bearing poses such as warrior 2.
• Open the hips: depending on the arm balance, you will have to open the hips in different directions to help them get to the pose (the exception here is classical vasisthasana, which is basically tadasana on its side!)
• Teach to leverage: much of the time, the ability to do an arm balance is not about strength as much as leverage. Doing eke pada galavasana or koundinyasana (A or B) depends on being willing to bring the upper body forward enough of the pivot of the elbow so that the lower half of the body can become light. Teach this action (shifting forward) in transitions such as plank to chaturanga.
• Don’t fatigue them. Don’t overdo your prep to the point where they’re wiped out for the actual pose.

I would suggest something like the following for a flow/power class:

• Core primer: a little supine core arm up to get their shoulders and legs integrated into the center of their bodies.
• Sun salutations as a general warm up.
• Standing poses and hip stretches that help to open the hips for that particular arm balance. For example, if you’re doing eka pada galavasana, it’s helpful to open the outer hips first in poses such as pigeon, standing pigeon, or awkward pigeon. Most arm balances (crow, koundinyasana, tittibhasana, etc) will require deep hip flexion at the very least. Poses such as lizards and standing poses with binds can help to get the body prepped for this kind of flexibility. Look at your peak arm balance and note what needs to be warmed up. For example, parsva bakasana and dragonfly will require twisting, while tittibhasana will require hamstring opening. Prepare for these openings as needed.
• Alternate standing poses with prep poses on the hands. Don’t do too many poses on the hands in a row; the upper body will get too fatigued.
• Peak: have non hand weight bearing options available. For example, if your peak is side crow, provide an option to do a revolved navasana instead. Plan for alternative (challenging!) options so that everyone has something to work on.
• Cool down: counterpose with gentle backbends and hip flexor openings.

Sequence to a complex standing pose

Complex standing poses – revolved triangle, revolved half moon, ardha chandra chapasana – are challenging and also stabilizing to practice. I won’t go into these too much, but I will say that you can create an excellent, kick ass class by taking your time to teach the necessary actions in strong preparatory poses.

For example, if your peak pose is ardha chandra chapasana, then take your time to really teach your students about the external rotation of the standing leg, and do poses that help them to open the hip flexors and quads. Complex standing poses are delicious and incredibly satisfying. They’re also stable enough to be done in the majority of all levels classes. Best of all, your students will develop more appreciation for their standing poses when you take the time to really suck the marrow out of teaching the alignment.

Shake It Up

Now that you have four sequences at the ready, you can shake it up! Dial up the heat by creating more challenging transitions; or dial the sequence down (all the way to hatha!) by adding modifications and fewer power transitions. Intelligent sequencing can be applied respectively to hatha, power, flow or vinyasa classes; it’s how you teach the poses (pacing, transitions, timing) that will determine your class style.

Moral of the story? You don’t have to create new and wild sequence to create an amazing class experience. As my friend Mel says, “Are you a classical movie, or are you sitcom?” Be a classical movie. Teach confidently from the backbone of your four solid, intelligent sequences. Then spice it up without needing to recreate every sequence from scratch!

PS: Still worried about being boring? Read this!

Want more? Check out my continuing education courses in Yoga Sequencing and Teaching here.

Do you feel the pressure to create a new sequence for every class?

When you tromp into your eighth class of the week and teach the same sequence that you did yesterday (heaven forfend!), do you hear any of these voices in your head?

“My students are getting bored.”

“I need to keep them interested.”

“If I don’t create something new, they’ll think I phoned it in.”

“They’ll stop coming to my class.”

In a saturated marketplace, yoga teachers may feel the pressure to innovate continually. We feel like we have to be different, interesting, compelling…and popular. Our classes need to be full. Our students need to leave happy. And sometimes it seems pretty popular to crank up the dance tunes and lead students in a yoga rave.

Now, let me throw a a healthy caveat in here: a healthy inspiration to innovate and share authentically is wonderful. If you love generating wild flows with complex transitions, then go for it with my ample blessings.

But just in case you’re someone who feels the crushing burden of being continual novel weighing upon you, I want to let you you in on a well-kept secret:

Your sequence doesn’t have to be interesting; YOGA is interesting. You don’t have to hold the students’ attention; their PRACTICE will hold their attention. You don’t have to be entertaining; being PRESENT is all-consuming.

In fact, an excess of novelty can get in the way of the bald ass starkness of simply being present. A wildly entertaining playlist and sequence can inadvertently create an environment of distraction rather than a space for mindfulness.

Some of my favorite class sequences have been utterly simple. For several years, I showed up on my mat and practiced the exact same sequence day after day (I was an ashtangi). Was I bored? Never. Every practice was different. Some days I felt like an elephant; some days I felt like a swan. Because I practiced the same poses everyday, I could more clearly see how the variation in my daily experience was completely subjective.

A simple practice can be confrontational. In a world that is cluttered with tasks, chimes, alerts, and to-do lists, clearing the slate and breathing into the present moment can take surprising courage and vulnerability. Holding space for students to simply be with themselves – as they are, with no distractions – can be scary. We can’t hide behind the sequence or the music. It’s just them, and it’s just us. And here we all are. These spaces – free from errands, tasks, and distractions – is rare and nourishing. We feel the life beyond the clutter. The “I” beyond the Iphone.

If wild and varied sequences don’t feel authentic to you, I encourage you to throw them out. And here is a very practical challenge: I dare you to teach the exact same sequence for a month. Not only will you challenge those nasty little fear gremlins in your head, but you’ll be able to focus on other aspects of your teaching (student connection, hands on assists, verbal assists, rhythm, class tone, theming, etc.) that you may not have time for when you’re constantly working a new sequence. And more importantly, you may offer your students a surprising new experience of their own practice.

Want more? Check out my continuing education courses in Yoga Sequencing and Teaching here.

Camel pose (ustrasana) is one of the few backbends that encourages a strong engagement of the front line of the body. Because you are moving backwards into the pose (imagine gravity like a heavy blanket trying to push you further into the pose), your abdominals (rectus abdominis) need to work eccentrically (engaged and lengthening) to enter the pose properly. If you attempt the pose without putting your hands behind you, you’ll feel the abdominals work very hard to keep you from collapsing backwards!

Camel is also a gateway pose to other challenging backbends (laghu-vajrasana and kapotasana), if you are you interested in such exotic treats.

Component Parts

A component part: a part of the body that needs to be warmed up or educated in order to do the peak pose effectively.

In order to prepare the body for camel pose, the following activations and lengthenings in the body need to be specifically addressed:

• neutral hips: the thighs need to stay neutral at the hip. Because the big ol’ glute max will tend to engage and externally rotate the thighs, you’ll have to use your adductors to squeeze the legs in and internally rotate them slightly.
• lengthened hip flexors: the hip is in a position of extension in this pose, so a few deep hip opening poses for the hip flexors is a good idea.
• spinal extension: backbend should be targeted to the upper back. Backbends are great poses for counteracting some of daily slouching postures.
• core engagement: the core needs to be activated to prevent hyperextension in the lower back.
• arms in extension (behind you).

Let’s take a look at these component parts one by one to see some of the preparatory poses that can help you get there. Keep in mind that preparatory poses should be more accessible than the peak pose 🙂

Neutral Hips

Poses that help you to “scissor the legs” and “hug your inner thighs together” are teaching your adductors to engage. These muscles line the inner legs and help to both adduct and internally rotate your inner thighs. Some good poses for teaching this action:

• chair with legs together (squeeze the legs)
• hero’s pose (teaches a bit of internal rotation
• lunges (high lunge or low lunge)
• twisted chair
• twisted lunges
• locust pose
• eagle pose (when done properly; see this video for tips)

Lengthened Hip Flexors

The hip flexors are muscles that cross the front of your hip joint. To stretch them, take your thigh back relative to the pelvis.

• lunges (high lunge or low lunge) – awesome hip flexor openers! The best. Do several.
• side angle pose – the back leg, if you give your glute a good squeeze
• reclined hero’s pose – as long as your careful of your knees: see here

Spinal Extension (Backbends)

The trick with teaching backbends properly is to focus the spinal extension into the upper back while stabilizing the lower back. When you are teaching all your backbends, make sure to set your students up for success by integrating these instructions early on. You can also add backbends to your standing poses.

• low lunge, high lunge with backbends
• sphinx
• locust (all variations)
• bridge
• cobra (low and high)
• upward facing dog

Core Engagement

In backbends, the core needs to be activated to prevent hyperextension in the lower back. In backbends, the muscles of the front of the body are lengthening eccentrically while they are contracting, which is a nice change from doing crunches (when they contract and shorten).

• plank
• chaturanga
• boat (note that this pose can get a little tight in the hip flexors though)
• supine leg lifts

Arms In Extension

Though you probably don’t need to warm up the shoulders that much, the shoulder joint is in extension (arms behind you). What needs to be trained here is the extension of the shoulder WITH the widening of the collarbones. In other words, don’t let the shoulder heads drop forward when you take the arms back. You want the shoulder blades to move closer together to help support thoracic extension (backbend). For tighter students, have them hold a strap with hands shoulder distance apart so they can get the action of the shoulder and chest together.

• tadasana with hands interlaced and arms in extension
• locust
• high lunge/low lunge with hands interlaced behind you.
• prasarita padottanasana C (wide legged forward fold with hands clasped behind you)
• bridge

Putting It Together

Once you’ve put these poses together in a sensible sequence, it’s time for the peak! Here’s my favorite entrance into this pose. You can also place a bolster across your students’ shins to help make the pose more accessible. Check it out!

Want more? Check out my continuing education courses in Yoga Sequencing and Teaching here.

Sequencing is the hidden art of the yoga class. Peak pose sequencing is a sequencing style in which you select a challenging apex pose and then creates a sequence that will sensibly prepare the body to get there.

Peak Pose Sequencing: a yoga sequencing style that builds the class progressively towards a challenging apex pose.

There are other styles of sequencing. Some yoga styles (like hot and ashtanga) use a set sequence where the same poses are practiced each time, while other styles of yoga (like wave vinyasa) build upon repetitive iterations of postures. Teachers may sequence a class around an energetic focus or sequence to create a well-rounded and balanced class.

I prefer peak pose sequencing because

• the body is prepared pragmatically and logically for more challenging postures,
• the students feel empowered because they have the openings and the education to give the peak pose their personal best shot,
• the students gain confidence because – even if they can’t fully do the peak pose – they can see the pathway towards increasing their own skill levels,
• peak pose sequencing is style blind and can be adapted for multiple styles of yoga (hatha, vinyasa, hot, etc),
• peak pose sequencing encourages teachers to be very specific, clear, and mindful in our use of asana.

Peak pose sequencing has five steps.

1. Choose your peak pose
2. Determine the component parts of your peak pose
3. Brainstorm the poses for your sequence
4. Organize your poses from easiest to hardest
5. Plan your transitions based on your yoga style and class level

Step One: Choose Your Pose

In peak pose sequencing, we first must define the peak pose for the yoga class. For our purposes, let’s choose a peak pose of warrior 3.

When you select your peak pose, you will generally want to choose a pose that is complex and challenging for the average practitioner.

Step Two: Determine The Component Parts

Component parts are the parts of the body that must be educated or warmed up appropriately in order to do the peak pose.

Component parts: parts of the body that must be educated or warmed up appropriately in order to do the peak pose.

For example, let’s consider warrior 3. What makes this pose challenging? What parts of the body need to be warmed up our educated in order to do this pose safely and effectively?

Well, we know that it’s very hard to keep the hips square in this posture. So one of our component parts may be “neutral/square hips.” We also know that the hamstrings need to be open, so another component part may be “open hamstrings.”

Note: it is important to be specific with any component part that is referencing the hips or shoulders. It’s not enough to list a component part as “hips,” since the hip is a ball and socket joint and “hips” could mean anything! Be specific about what is happening at the hip and shoulder joint.

Your ability to balance is challenged, so another component part may be “balance,” or “foot/ankle stability.” You may also recognize that the back body has to work against gravity to find stability and lift, so you may add in “back extensors.”

While you can dive down a component part rabbit hole, it’s better to restrict the number of component parts to about six or so in order to focus on what is most important to teach or address in order to achieve the final posture.

Our final list of component parts for warrior three may be:

• Hips square
• Hamstrings open
• Foot and ankle stability (balance)
• Back extensors
• Core
• Final position: arms reaching forward (flexion/external rotation of upper arm at the shoulder)

Step Three: Brainstorm Your Poses

Now that we have a list of our component parts, let’s examine how we would choose our poses. For each component part on your list, brainstorm a list of less complex poses that also teach to this component part or action.

For example, can you think of other poses in which the hips must work to be square? What can you come up with?

There are lots of options, but our list may include:

• High lunge
• Chair
• Pyramid
• Low lunge
• Half hanumanasana
• Etc.

For each component part, brainstorm about five poses that you feel really help your student to understand its action. Note: you may have the same poses in multiple lists; for example, pyramid pose helps train both “square hips” as well as “open hamstrings” so it’s a double whammy!

Step Four: Organize Your Poses From Easiest To Hardest

Once you’ve created your list of poses, put them in order from most accessible (easiest on the body) to hardest (most difficult for the average practitioner). Your peak pose should be the most challenging, so warrior three will be the last pose on your list. If you have a pose on your list that’s harder than your peak, save it for a different sequence!

By organizing your poses in this way, you will create a class plan the builds logically in the body and helps each pose prepare for the next.

Step Five: Plan Your Transitions

Remember that peak pose sequencing is style blind; this means that this logic will work for many hatha, hot or vinyasa styles. Although the order of the poses may not change, the way in which you transition the poses will create your style. For example, in a flow practice, you may link multiple poses together, repeat poses several times, and link poses via a vinyasa or sun salutation. In a hatha style class, you may practice one static pose simply after the other.

By planning your transitions skillfully, you will create an intentional experience for your students.

Bonus: The Cool Down

One final thought.

The class doesn’t end at the peak pose. Students often need to wind down and counter balance the body.

Consider: what poses would counterpose or balance the action of the peak pose? For example, if you have practiced warrior three as your peak, then you really don’t need to do more hamstring opening. You probably spent the whole class preparing to open the hamstrings! Instead, it may feel really nice to stretch the outer hips and inner thighs, which were active and engaged to support balancing and squaring the hips.

For your “cool down,” consider what needs to be stretched and what needs to be “contained” in order to counterbalance your peak posture. Then choose 3-5 poses that help to unwind the body from its efforts.

Pro Tip: understanding component parts can also guide your cueing. Now that you understand which component parts that are being targeted in each pose, use your cues to reinforce and instruct to those actions as you move through your sequence. By the time you reach your peak pose destination, your students will have a deeper and more embodied understanding of what they need to do.

Free Sequences

Check out my sequences to these poses:

• Wheel (urdhva dhanurasana)
• Forearm stand (pincha mayurasana)
• Insect pose (tittibhasana)
• Sample of a hip opening sequence
• Bird of paradise
• Dancer’s pose (natarajasana)

Want more? Check out my continuing education courses in Yoga Sequencing and Teaching here.