I’ve attended plenty of yoga classes before, but I never really thought about the importance of transitions through the poses until I started teaching yoga lessons during our YTT. I guess I must have taken for granted the importance of transitions as I just followed the yoga instructor’s cues to get into the poses without giving much thought into how to transit into the poses.
Ever since we started planning our lessons and teaching yoga, I came to realise that transitions are so important because it allows us to move smoothly from one pose to another, especially from standing to sitting, or from lying on our backs to standing. Without a smooth transition, the movement will become abrupt and may end up confusing the students.
Here are some tips on how to flow through transitions:
- standing (tadasana) to sitting (dandasana):
IN – from standing (tadasana) sweep arms up overhead
EX- hinge from hips to fold forward
IN- step one leg back
hold – step left leg back to plank
EX- bend knees down to table top
IN- sit on knees
EX-sit on one side of your bum to swing legs forward to sitting (dandasana)
2. sitting (dandasana) to standing (tadasana)
IN – from sitting (dandasana), sit in cross leg position and bring both palms in front of you
EX- lean weight forward to uncross legs and lift your hips up into table top
IN-tuck in toes to prep
EX-send your hips up and back to a downward dog
IN- step one leg forward in between hands
EX-step other leg forward in between hands
IN- slowly roll yourself back up to standing (tadasana)
3. From supine poses (lying on back) to sitting (dandasana)
IN – bring arms up overhead
EX-engage your core to sit back up in dandasana
4. From prone poses (lying on belly) to sitting (dandasana)
IN- roll over to one side
EX-relax on back
IN-bring arms up overhead
EX-engage your core to sit back up in dandasana
5. From prone poses (lying on belly) to standing (tadasana)
IN- bring arms to side of your chest
EX-push up into a table top
IN – tuck in toes
EX- send hips up and back to a downward dog
IN- step one leg in between hands
EX- step other leg in between hands
IN-slowly roll yourself up to tadasana
I hope that this post helps you to appreciate the transitions from pose to pose in your practice better!
