If you have been reading this blog, you may be aware I'm recovering from a lower back injury originally caused by a botched deadlift attempt in April of last year. I further aggravated the injury with high-load training with kettlebells, Power Wheel, etc. before the back was truly ready.
Yoga is often recommended as a solution for low-back problems, so I started looking into it. Last night, I took an introductory class at one of the Unity Woods Yoga studios. I had tried a couple of Yoga classes here and there but this was the first that was explicitly advertised as an Iyengar style class. I have already forgotten many details, but I do remember the following:
- Child pose
- Triangle pose
- Low back/hamstring stretch with fingertips against a wall, as preparation for a forward bending pose (which was demonstrated by the instructor but not taught to us)
- Easy pose
- Hero pose
- Tree pose
- Warrior pose
- Mountain pose
We finished by wrapping straps around our thighs and lying down, face up with our legs against the wall. This was an interesting choice of finishing pose that I hadn't seen before.
I like the Iyengar approach, as represented by Unity Woods, for its emphasis on alignment and use of devices such as blocks, blankets, ropes, etc. to relieve pain and/or compensate for range-of-motion limitations. Also, their winter session classes had not yet begun whereas those of the other studio I was looking already started last week.
The most important result was my back was painless at the end of class.
So, I'll start taking the Level 1 Iyengar class next week and update my logs as needed
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