Week 2: September 9-15, 2024
Welcome to week 2 of our Yoga Asana Analysis course!
I hope you enjoyed the material we covered last week about foundational concepts, downward dog, upward dog, and cobra pose.
And in case you missed it, I created three bonus video responses to some great questions that were submitted last week. I shared these videos in the forum, but I’ve also put all three in one convenient location for you – feel free to check it out right here!
Now our new course material this week covers a fresh selection of yoga asanas: Warrior 1, High Lunge, Chair Pose, and Malasana (Squat Pose). These yoga poses all take place primarily in the sagittal plane of movement. (That’s the plane of movement in which our body moves front-to-back, and the movements are visible if we look at the body from a side view. 🤓)
I hope you enjoy breaking down and analyzing this new collection of poses with me!
As a reminder, you’ll have this full week to:
watch the video content (below)
complete the quick quiz on these videos (below)
and share your answer to this week’s homework question in our cohort forum. (Homework Q posted below!)
Please complete these assignments by the end of the day on Sunday, September 15th.
And remember, I’ll be present in the cohort forum all week to read and review everyone’s homework submissions, and I’ll also be there to answer any and all questions that might come up for you about this week’s course material!
I hope you enjoy your content for this week, and I’ll see you in the forum!
–Jenni
Video Content:
Warrior 1 & High Lunge
Chair Pose & Twisting Chair Pose
Malasana (Squat Pose)
Quiz for Week 2’s videos
Homework question for week 2
Please post your response to this question in the “Week 2 Homework” thread in our cohort forum!
Choose one of the yoga asanas we covered this week (warrior 1, high lunge, chair pose, twisting chair pose, or malasana (squat)) and and share one cue for this pose that you feel is either helpful or unhelpful, and explain why.
Feel free to draw on the themes of “bigger picture alignment”, “self-organization”, and “micromanaging” that we looked at last week.
Here are two examples to inspire you! (One for a helpful cue, and one for an unhelpful one.)
Example #1:
A helpful cue for warrior 1: “Bend your front knee and notice the work you feel in the front of your thigh.” This cue is helpful because it focuses on a key movement in the pose (knee flexion), and I also like that it asks students to notice a sensation in their body, which encourages them to stay present and move mindfully.
Example #2:
An unhelpful cue for malasana (squat pose): “Look down and make sure that both of your feet point straight forward and the outer edges of your feet are parallel.” This is an unhelpful cue because it’s intended to control a detail of the pose that most students are better served by self-organizing.
P.S. There are no right or wrong answers here 😃 – I just want to hear your thought process. And through sharing in this way, I’m hopeful that we’ll all learn from each other, collectively!