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Lift Your Students' Spirits

A lesson plan for energizing, invigorating, and inspiring students. 

Sometimes, when I walk in to teach a yoga class, I find all of my students lying in savasana, with their eyes closed. When this happens, I scrap whatever class plans I had, and I start my students where they are. The following lesson plan is designed to bring students from exhausted to energized.

OPENING PRACTICES:

  • Breath awareness in a resting position.

  • Easy reclining stretches and vinyasas. Vinyasas focus on moving in and out of a simple pose, rather than stringing multiple poses together. For example, moving in an out of a gentle bridge pose.

  • Easy seated pose. Options: short meditation, breathing kriyas, or simple seated stretches.

  • All Fours/Kneeling vinyasas. For example, spine waves and child's pose/cobra vinyasa.

  • Core/abdominal warm-ups. For example, vinyasas that include plank pose. Practice these slowly and mindfully - the quality of movement is fluid, rather than powerful bursts.

  • Sun salutations.

STANDING POSES:

At first, keep things simple and moving. Choose poses that your students know and practice confidently. For example, 5 breaths each in:

  • Triangle pose and variations.

  • Extended side angle and variations.

  • Chair pose and variations.

  • Warrior poses.

Emphasize students' quality of attention and focus in these poses.

Then, turn to a balance challenge. Choose one pose (such as tree pose) and ask students to hold it significantly longer (perhaps 20 breaths).

  End with one or two 'surprise' poses that will challenge your students (and possibly make them laugh). In my classes, this typically means a challenging arm balance, such as flying pigeon.

BACK BENDS or INVERSIONS  

To energize students, I often focus on active backbends or inversions (especially handstand and forearm balance). Build from basic warm-up poses and end with challenging variations. For example:

Backbend sequence:

  • Prone backbends, such as locust and bow pose.

  • Kneeling backbends, such as camel and lightening bolt pose.

  • Reclining backbends, such as bridge and upward facing bow. 

  • Challenging backbends, such as drop-backs or one-leg variations.

Inversion sequence:

  • Wall squares right-side up (hands on wall, feet on floor) and upside down (feet on wall, hands on floor).

  • Handstand.

  • Forearm balance.

  • Forearm balance with backbend.

CLOSING PRACTICES:

  • Guide students through some simple counterposes to the last section (i.e. some twists and forward bends) or ask them to guide themselves through counterposes of their choice.

  • Self-guided practice: give students 5-10 minutes to guide their own practice or to settle into final relaxation early. 

  • Savasana.

  • Final meditation/dedication of practice.

Try this sequence out yourself - include it in your personal practice before you try it on your students. 

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