Opening up your front and back body

Do you want to practice functionally and therapeutically? This class starts with a short talk in which José explains how to practice yoga poses in a functional way, meaning: feeling the purpose of a pose instead of copying a picture of a pose. As each pose stimulates different areas of your body, the idea is to practice the pose in such a way you will experience the stimulated area while performing it; getting its therapeutic benefits. José will also explain which joints are affected and how their range of motion can either obstruct you in doing a pose or assist.

In this Yin session, you will stimulate the inner thighs, the front of your legs, hips, and torso, and the bum muscles, while doing various side bends. In the inner and outer parts of our legs can be very intense to stimulate. So be aware of the emotional effects it can create. The focus of this class is the Ujjayi breath. The breath turns on your parasympathetic nervous system which is your rest-digest system and takes or keeps you in the present moment. This session starts and finishes with meditation and again various options for poses are given. You might also like to practise José’s accompanying classes: Opening up your front body and Opening up your side body.

Props: blanket, pillow, blocks, bolster.