Poses

When it comes to Asanas, we’re not trying to create pretzel yogis. The first thing to do is have a fun, introductory day in which you introduce the topic, play around a bit, and notice where your students are with respect to flexibility, strength, ability, attitude, emotional wellness, and self-awareness. This will influence how you go about teaching them. It’s important not to jump into difficult poses before students have the basics down, as this would be both dangerous and discouraging to them.

Often times, simple poses, such as standing forward fold, downward dog, and child’s pose are enough of a challenge to begin with. We want them to love and become aware of their bodies, not hurt them, be discouraged by them, or focus on what they cannot do yet.

It’s fun and beneficial to try to have the children embody the pose—for example, tell them to, “Be strong and confident like a lion!”

 

A few poses you might choose to use include:

•      Boat Pose (Navasana)

•      Bridge Pose (Sethu Bandhasana)

•      Camel Pose (Ustrasana)

•      Cat Cow Pose (Marjaryasana bitilasana)

•      Chair Pose (Utkatasana)

•      Child’s Pose (Balasana)

•      Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana)

•      Corpse Pose (Savasana)

•      Crocodile Pose (Chataranga dandasana)

•      Crow Pose (Bakasana) *Great for building confidence

•      Dancer Pose (Natarajasana)

•      Deer Pose (Marichiyasana)

•      Dolphin Pose (aka Shark Pose)

•      Downward Facing Dog Pose (Adho mukha svanasana)

•      Eagle Pose (Garudasana)

•      Fish Pose (Matsyasana)

•      Bow Pose (Dhanurasana)

•      Flower Pose

•      Forward Fold (Utanasana)

•      Frog Pose (Mandukasana)

•      Gate Pose (Parighasana)

•      Half Shoulderstand (Ardha sarvangasana)

•      Happy Baby Pose (Ananda balasana)

•      L-Dog (against the wall/Handstand prep)

•      Lions Pose (Simhasana)

•      Locust Pose/Floor Swimming

•      Mountain Pose (Tadasana)

•      Pigeon Pose (Eka pada rajakapotasana)

•      Rabbit Pose (Sasangasana)

•      Ragdoll Pose (Utanasana)

•      Sit/Easy Position (Sukhasana)

•      Tree Pose (Vrksasana)

•      Triangle Pose (Trikonasana)

•      Turtle Pose (Kurmasana)

•      Warrior I, II, III Pose (Virabhadrasana)