How can I learn more advanced yoga asanas?

Once you have practiced yoga for some time, you may feel motivated to trying out more advanced asanas. These can be more challenging poses that require a lot of mobility, strength, coordination, balance and/or body control. Challenges can serve to “keep us going”, to have a sense of achievement and as a gentle way to test our own limits physically and mentally.

For me as a yoga teacher, it is important to regularly offer such challenges in my classes in order to make the classes interesting and varied. It also gives my participants the opportunity to grow while continuously practicing with me. At the same time, I make sure that all other students (including complete beginners) benefit fully from the lessons as well. For this reason, advanced asanas are built up piece by piece in my classes.

For example, a yoga class that leads to inversions such as Adho Mukha Vrksasana (handstand) or Vrishikasana (scorpion) would include a thorough warm-up of the wrists and shoulders, as well as exercises to strengthen the various muscle groups needed. This means that a large part of the class is devoted to preparatory asanas and exercises. Then I offer preparatory variations of the actual peak pose. For the handstand, for example, this could be an L-shaped handstand. A three-legged dog on the wall, where the standing leg is also raised at some point, a lying handstand on the side, etc. With this I give participants who do not want/can't practice the final asana a chance to continue practicing the variations while others practice the final pose.

This progressive build-up and the offering of variations and preparations makes my yoga classes interesting for complete beginners as well as long-time yoga practitioners and yoga teachers. In my opinion a must for yoga classes.