Led Practice #4 for Beginners

This video download is the fourth in a series of twelve Anusara yoga classes presented by the Garden of the Heart yoga studio. It is instructed one-on-one by Jaye Martin. Each of the practices in this series are intended to build on the prior sessions, but it is not necessary to have tried the previous classes prior to attempting this one. Martin teaches in a small room with a burbling fountain; snippets of piano and other musical chords can be heard in the background. The theme of this practice is embracing your potential, which Martin connects to the idea of exploring your individual creativity, coming back to this concept repeatedly throughout the class. Although Martin cues the postures in English (using mirrored cueing for the standing poses), he also offers the Sanskrit translations for many of the poses, a first for this series.Martin begins the practice seated with the chanting of a single OM. He then comes to downward facing dog and moves through each of the postures which make up the sun salutation, including introducing chaturanga dandasana, or four limb staff pose. Subsequently, he comes to the head of the mat for four rounds of sun salutations (two on each side), adding upright lunge and chaturanga to the simple sun series that fellow instructor Betsey Downing presented in the third class. Following the sun salutes, Martin moves to the floor for a lying leg stretch using a strap. Remaining in the reclined position, he also performs eye of the needle before returning to standing for several simple balance postures. To provide an additional stretch for the hamstrings, Martin has you partially roll up your mat and then perform a standing forward bend with the toes elevated on the mat.Martin continues the standing work with side angle pose, intense side stretch, and the pinnacle posture of this practice, hand to big toe pose, which he shows performed both with and without a strap. He then comes back down to the floor, where he finishes the practice with downward facing dog pose, child\'s pose, kneeling twist, and a final child\'s pose before coming into savasana. The relaxation here is a bit more traditional than in three other sessions which preceded this one; Martin spends approximately six minutes softly coaxing you to relax the various areas of your body, signaling the end of the relaxation segment with several bell tones. He concludes the class in a seated position for a final OM and namaste, bringing the total time for this session in at around 56 minutes.This is a nicely designed practice to provide new yoga students with the opportunity to continue to enhance their skills, as it adds new elements such as balance postures and exposure to Sanskrit terms. There is also enough variety to the poses presented to keep even more experienced yoga practitioners interested, and thus this video is likely to appeal to virtually anyone looking for a basic, foundational yoga session.