Yoga on my Own

Lately I have been attempting to break free of the yoga DVDs at home and take ownership of my practice. I find this concept somewhat intimidating and not something that I can accomplish all at once. I still use a DVD most days, but two or three times a week I will develop my own sequence.

I found a wonderful tool today on Yoga Journal's website. Under the "poses" tab, click on "build a sequence". You can browse through a variety of poses, divided by their difficulty level (all levels/intermediate/advanced), choose the ones that you would like to add to your sequence, and then organize them according to your preferred order.

You can print out your sequence. The pages will display a nice photograph clearly displaying the posture, along with its sanskrit and English name. The only downside to this was that each page only holds 4-5 poses, so you end up with several pages stapled together that you have to turn as you move through the flow.

To develop my sequence this evening, I looked up the pose that I wanted to focus on (Natarajasana / Lord of the Dance Pose). In reading the description of the asana, I looked up the preparatory and follow-up poses and used those as the foundation of my sequence. I inserted vinyasas throughout and created a 6o minute active flow that focused on balance and backbends.

Today's workout:
35 min. run w/ hill sprints (4.6 mi)
35 min. resistance training
60 min. yoga