A strong and slow flow class progresses towards Eka Pada Koundinyasana B (one-legged sage B variation).

Hip opening and core and back strengthening prepare your body for the peak pose. Backbends, twists, wrist stretches, and kapalbhati pranayama create heat and a sense of spaciousness in the body, so you’ll be ready for savasana on your belly to complete practice. This class opens with a poem by Rilke on the importance of seeking and asking questions.

*Not suitable for those with wrist sensitivity. Join us for class but be mindful of how much pressure you’re putting on your hands & wrists. 

Style: Slow Flow

Duration: 60-minutes

Level: intermediate

Props: 1 block

Focus: hip opening with Eka Pada Koundinyasana B (one-legged sage B variation) as the peak

Location: Lila Familia Production Studio, Vancouver, BC

Spotify Playlist: I Beg You To Have Patience (PWC) 

Opening Mantra 

Come to a seat on your mat or come to recline on your back.

This class opens with a poem by Ranier Maria Rilke:

“I beg you to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”

Sit in the unknown. Be comfortable with not knowing the outcome. When we’re focused on the outcome, we are not present in the process. Do what needs to be done, and don’t think about what’s to come.

As you bring your hands to your heart, bow your head to your chest.

Three calls to Aum to join our voices and open to the sound that fills the room.

Opening Flow

10-15 breaths to move as you like, options:

• Balasana (child’s pose)
• Adho Mukha Shvanasana (down dog)
• Uttanasana (forward fold)
• Bidalasana (cat pose)
• Bitilasana (cow pose)

2x Sun Salutations following the cues

Tadasana (mountain pose)

Uttanasana (forward fold)

Ardha Uttanasana (half lift)

Uttanasana (forward fold)

Anjaneyasana (low lunge) variation

• Keeping the hands overhead, make circles with your hands to release the wrists

Eka pada adho mukha svanasana (3-legged downward dog) variation

• Extend the lifted leg, so the heel is facing the sky, OR
• Hook your extended leg at the ankle of the lower leg to extend the hamstring

Adho mukha svanasana (down dog)

Phalakasana (plank pose) with alternating hand to shoulder taps

Balasana (child’s pose)

Breath of Joy from the shins at the back of your mat

• Inhale arms wide to either side
• Exhale and wrap your arms around you

Ardha Shalabhasana (half locust pose) variation

• Inhale and lift your head and torso from the ground
• Exhale and lower your chest and forehead to the ground

Bharmanasana (tabletop pose)

Adho mukha svanasana (down dog)

Parivrtta Anjaneyasana (revolved lunge) variation with wide arms

Uttanasana (forward fold)

Ardha Uttanasana (half lift)

Uttanasana (forward fold)

Tadasana (mountain pose)

Repeat the same sequence on the other leg.

Peak Pose Prep

Take a step to the middle of your mat and bring your big toes to touch.

Utkatasana (chair pose)

Bakasana (crow pose)

Uttanasana (forward fold)

Wave 1

Adho mukha svanasana (down dog)

Come to sit on your shins for kapalbhati pranayama for 45-seconds

Utthan Pristhasana (lizard pose) variations

• Stay on fingertips, OR
• Lower forearms to the ground,
• Keep the back knee on the ground, OR
• Tuck the back toes and straighten your back leg

X2 lizard pose variation

• Lower the back knee to the ground
• Use the same hand on the back of the front leg
• Lower your chest and attempt to shimmy the shoulder under the front leg
• Straighten the back leg
• Lengthen your breast bone forward
• Hug your inner thighs toward your midline

Eka pada adho mukha svanasana (3-legged downward dog) variation with hips stacked.

Virabhadrasana II (warrior 2)

Trikonasana (triangle pose)

Eka pada adho mukha svanasana (3-legged downward dog) variation with hips stacked.

Phalakasana (plank pose) with a knee to armpit taps

Balasana (child’s pose)

Repeat the same sequence on the other leg.

Peak Pose Prep

Take a step to the middle of your mat and bring your big toes to touch.

Utkatasana (chair pose)

Bakasana (crow pose) variation hugging one knee into the chest at a time

Uttanasana (forward fold)

Adho mukha svanasana (down dog)

Wave 2

Adho mukha svanasana (down dog)

Phalakasana (plank pose)

Bhujangasana (cobra pose) variation on fingertips

Balasana (child’s pose)

Adho mukha svanasana (down dog)

Utthan Pristhasana (lizard pose) variation on fingertips

X2 lizard pose variation tucking the shoulder behind the front leg

• Explore lifting the front foot off of the ground,
• Try to extend the front leg
• Try to lift the back knee off the ground

Bharmanasana (tabletop) variation with the back leg extended and hips stacked

• Take the knee of the extended leg to your upper arm
• Bend your elbows and draw the chest forward
• This is a turbo variation of our peak pose

Adho mukha svanasana (down dog)

5-breaths to do as you please:

• Take the half vinyasa
• Stay in DD
• Take a child’s pose

Repeat the same sequence on the other leg.

Peak Pose Flow

Come to sit on your shins for Eka Pada Koundinyasana B (one-legged sage B variation).

*If you have wrist sensitivity, feel free to take a forearm stand instead. 

** If you don’t want to come into the full variation of the pose, feel free to take the shorter variation from tabletop or lizard pose. 

There are two ways to get into Eka Pada Koundinyasana B (one-legged sage B variation).

1. Come into it from the ground as we did from tabletop
2. Come into it from a 3-legged down as we did with the knee to armpit taps

Tips to get into the peak pose from the ground:

• Walk the hands back, so your fingers line up with your front heel
• Hug the inner thighs toward your midline
• Reach the chest forward
• Extend through your heels and lift your feet away from the ground
• Bend your elbows as if you were doing chaturanga

From a 3-legged downward dog and come forward to plank pose and hook the extended knee to the upper arm as you lower into chaturanga.

Option to take parsva vasisthasana (modified side plank) to release between sides.

Cooling Flow

Come to sit on your shins on your mat and breathe.

Salabhasana (locust pose) or, transition into Dhanurasana (bow pose)

Supta Matsyendrasana (supine twist) from the belly

Savasana (corpse pose) from the belly or turn over onto your back