Go With The Flow—Creating Teachable Vinyasas

Following someone else’s yoga flow is always ten times easier than trying to create your own. Have you found yourself stuck in creating unique vinyasas you can teach your students? Today we want to go over the perfect formula for creating teachable vinyasas that will remind you and everyone you’re teaching why yoga is a true love.

STUCK IN YOUR FLOWS?

Creating your own yoga sequence isn’t very difficult, we can all move from one pose to another without an issue, the problem arises when you want to have those perfect flows between poses–it’s hard to get those vinyasas right. And if you’re just getting started toward a yoga teaching certification, you might not know every single thing about correct posing for safety. One other issue many yogis run into is simply feeling a lack of ease in doing yoga. Yoga is half exercise and half meditation practice. If you’re not in the right mindset to intentionally flow through a sequence and take a pause from the world, you might have a harder time creating a flow you can teach or reuse later.

THE VINYASA FORMULA

The best way to get started is to try visualizing the order in which you’d like poses to go. If you have yoga pose cards then here is where you’ll want to whip them out to order them, if you don’t then no worries. Pose cards aren’t required to build flows. You can still visualize your pose order by drawing stick figures in the order you think you should go from one pose to the other. You’ll want to order your cards or stick figures by structure or category. Here’s an example:

• Opening; Breathing, getting into the yoga mindset
• Sun salutations
• Warrior sequences; Any combination of warrior or standing poses
• Balances; Poses such as tree, eagle, half moon, side plank, etc.
• Fun/play poses; Inversions and arm balances
• Backbends; Bridge, wheel, bow, etc.
• Hip openers; Variations of pigeon, lizard, figure 4, etc.
• Finishing poses; Happy baby, supine twist, fish pose, etc.

When your poses are categorized by pose structure, you’ll be able to figure out which ones are flowable within different categories and which ones you may be able to combine. The list above is by no means the order in which you have to do your yoga practice, just an idea for how to sort poses. Once you have an idea of the order you’d like to put poses in you can follow this easy formula for creating a thorough yoga workout lasting anywhere from 25-40 minutes depending on the number of poses you’re incorporating. If you’re wanting a longer workout simply add in a third flow and you’ll have great flow variations you can start using in class or start practicing yourself.

1. Open/Welcome
   • Deep breathing, and floor stretches
2. Warm Up
   • Sun salutation A and B
3. Flow One
   • Easier poses that help warm up to your peak pose
4. Flow Two
   • Similar to the first flow or increased in intensity to build up to more difficult peak pose
5. Wind Down
   • Floor stretches, dead man’s pose

KEEPING SAFE DURING PRACTICE

By creating these vinyasas you’ll feel empowered in your own practice as well as in your ability to teach others, plus you’ll build your confidence in being creative within yoga. When creating your flows there’s one important asset you should take into consideration: ability. Your vinyasas can’t be too difficult that they prevent students from being able to follow them or that they push you to your limits. Pushing students beyond their limits is actually what can get a lot of yoga teachers in trouble. One day you could be in a class trying to adjust a student only to push them a little too far resulting in an injury the next day. If they’re injured and need to see a doctor or physical therapist they could sue you for professional negligence. To avoid anything of the sort you want to be careful when teaching classes and you’ll want to carry something important: yoga insurance. With yoga insurance, you’re protected against third-party claims that arise out of your business operations or from you causing damage. Yoga insurance is designed to cover legal fees associated with lawsuits as well as can pay for medical costs that result from a client getting injured. Sometimes, offering them that goodwill payment is enough to avoid a lawsuit. While you’re running your business, your focus should be on taking it to the next level and not worrying about how to respond to a mishap. Yoga insurance can offer peace of mind and help your business grow.