The Art of Yoga and Relaxation: the Importance of the Structure of the Yoga Session

The format of a yoga class if very important, starting out with easier poses for warming up. These poses include things like downward dog, and child pose. These poses are also strategically placed in between the harder poses to give a little bit of a break for the body. Over the entirety of the class session the difficulty of the poses increases moving from child pose into sunbird, or lunge, or warrior 2. This structure is very beneficial for the mind and body. Eventually nearing the end of the class the poses are rather difficult requiring a lot of balance and strength. This process of slowly warming up the body allows for at the end of the class you to take a pose that feels good on the body and you would be incapable of doing without the hour of warming up. In the moment of the act of the harder yoga poses your body is straining to keep up, but afterwards you feel great mentally relaxed and grounded, and physically great. This concept of warming up and slowly easing into harder poses is also evident in a traditional work out, you start by stretching and simple warm up exercises, moving into the harder more strenuous exercises, yoga has the added benefit of being a mental work out that helps bring your mind and body together.