Reading · What I Taught in Yoga This Week

Dear Humans,

I am sending you my version of an “Out Of Office” with this post. I’m writing this on Friday July 3rd, and scheduling it to go out on Wednesday, as it normally does.

I’m sending you this post from the archives this week because by the time you read this I (should) be in New Mexico on a solo five day writing retreat.

I am heading into my final year of my MFA program. My thesis year. Which means that by the end of this year I will have written a book. I’ve been writing it, actually.

I’ve felt nervous to share too much about it on here. Because it feels so personal. So raw and tender to bring my true creative writing out into the world. But it’s about time to start bringing it to the forefront.

I’ll share more with you soon.

In the meantime, enjoy this great post. It’s always fascinating to me to read what a past version of myself wrote. I hope current you enjoys it.

Sending love,

Izzy

It wasn’t that long ago that I had a big resistance to the idea that there was value in simplicity when it came to teaching yoga.

I very much have pitta energy. All fire. What I desire in a yoga asana class is movement, and new and exciting patterns and transitions. I’ve explained this as “a desire to wear out my fast moving brain, to be better able to settle into silence and stillness.”

I don’t think this is wrong or bad. I actually think it’s an effective strategy.

But when it comes to my teaching approach, I have softened around the idea that teaching something new, interesting, or complex is always ‘better'.

Most of you who have been with me for a long time know that I’m in an MFA program studying creative writing. I started classes this week and last night I had my first Poetry Workshop. The professor is amazing. Just listening him speak is like listening to someone recite poetry. His passion for the topic doesn’t just vibrate off of him, it’s within him. It’s as if his lifetime of studying and doing and teaching has made him embody the craft. So much of what he was saying felt applicable to our practice here—the practice of teaching, of practicing, of becoming.

But one thing in particular really struck a chord with me. My professor was talking about the urge to create complexity in poems. To rely on fancy tricks and technique. He said: “Stop valorizing complexity to avoid simplicity.”

He asked us, instead, to stay within the simple questions. Like what is a poem? And what makes a poet? And why write?

It made me reflect on my resistance toward simple yoga sequences. It required me to ask myself if I was trying to skip over the simple things, because those are actually the more difficult things to master.

So here’s the question: Can you teach a simple class and make it just as interesting, powerful, and engaging as a complex one? I think so.

But could it actually be harder to teach simply? Might it require you to go so much deeper than just the poses themselves? To go into the energy, the intention, the history, the why of the postures, in order to see the depth that simplicity really offers?

This goes beyond sequencing, too. There are other simple questions that seem worth revisiting.

I’ve written before about asking yourself the question why do I teach? I’ve also encouraged you to reflect on who you are as a teacher.

Today I want to ask you to reflect on what ‘fundamentals’ you might be resisting. What simple aspects of teaching have you perhaps danced right over in an attempt to find complexity?

What if you embraced the simple instead? What if your challenge was to take something simple and make it amazing, just by spending time with it.

Our foundations are there for a reason. They create the structure on which the rest of our practice builds.

So even if you’ve reached sky high my friends, remember that you can always return to the base. You may have forgotten what’s even down there.

And if you’re just starting, what a treat. Don’t be afraid to be where you are.

With simplicity in mind, I wanted to offer you a set of sequences that I think can be taught to a ‘beginner’ audience and an ‘advanced’ audience alike.

I’ve received a few requests for slow flows or beginner-friendly yoga sequences. The truth is, I often teach the same postures (with exceptions of course) no matter the audience. What I do change though is my pace, my prop use, and my level of cuing.

For example, in a beginner class, I am going to really take my time breaking down the postures. I’m going to give adjustment cues based on what I’m seeing in the room. I might demo more, too. I’d also likely spend a lot more time in the opening, warm-up and cool down. I’d also, likely, only move through a standing sequence one time, maybe twice.

What I often see happening in the yoga world is that we discount what our students can actually do. Just because a student is a beginner doesn’t mean they can’t access many, many shapes. Especially with the right cues, modifications, and props. We also think that going really slow and holding postures is an ‘easier’ option, but dang, have you ever held a posture like warrior II for ten breaths? That’s HARD. What I think beginner’s really need is room to explore to modify and a lot of instruction. Which makes your teaching job even harder.

In the spirit of the theme, teaching ‘simply’ is hard. AND it gives you an amazing opportunity to flex other aspects of your teaching. Your energy, how you weave in intentions or philosophy, your anatomical cues, your adjusts, your pace. When your mind isn’t on the complexity of the sequence, it can be elsewhere.

So today I have offered three ‘simple’ flows. Everyone gets the beginner-friendly main flow and then I have a warm-up flow and a yummy seated cool down flow to share with paid subscribers.

I want to suggest these can and should be taught to any audience. If your class is newer to yoga asana, maybe you take it slow and take your time. If you have a more advanced or active audience, maybe you flow through the main flow two or three times, evolving it slightly each time you move through it.

Izzy Martens

author, yoga teacher, sequence enthusiast

@yoga.humans | @martensizzy

the write-up:

mountain
extended mountain
forward fold
halfway lift
ragdoll
hands to blocks
standing l
high crescent lunge
warrior 2
dancing warriors
star
goddess
goddess pulses
star
wide leg forward fold
- *can use blocks under hands
side lunges
low lunge
easy twist
wrist circles
modified side plank
tabletop
cow and cat pose
child’s pose

Let’s keep it going! Here is a nice warm up and a seated cool down flow. I love when I have time in my classes to really spend on the seated cool down sections. You’ll see in this sequence that I’ve linked together a number of yummy stretches and twists. Enjoy!

Warm Up Flow

What if simplicity was the key?