Hatha Yoga

Most of the yoga taught in the West has its roots in Hatha yoga.

You may have also come across classes called flow, power, vinyasa, ashtanga, yin, restorative and somatic yoga.

I include elements of all these approaches in my classes. Some weeks will be more demanding than others (so have more of a power element) and we often incorporate elements from the classic ashtanga sequences including things such as the sun salutation.

I tend to be quite posture-led. So we explore good alignment in a posture before moving on to another. My focus is always on optimal alignment rather than a race to go as deep into a pose as possible (often at the cost of poor alignment).

I use blocks and straps to facilitate postures – these are helpful aides rather than to be viewed as a cheat. You don’t need to bring these with you – I have plenty spare.

What to expect in a class

Each weeks’ classes are loosely themed with the same basic lesson plan. This will vary depending on who is in the class, how everyone is feeling and also simply to add some variety for the people that come to more than one class a week.

Themes may be to do with working a particular muscle group such as hips and hamstrings, explore twists or inversions or be designed to work on areas such as upper body strength.

We begin each class with some gentle warm ups. These may be done standing or seated. Marie will then guide you through a series of postures which will change from week to week. You can expect to work with postures such as cat and cow (a lovely warm-up for the spine), thread the needle (to stretch the shoulders), lunges (for hip flexor stretching and muscle development), downward facing dog, planks, pigeon and lizard (for glutes and hip flexor stretches), balances such as dancer and tree, forward bends (for hamstring stretches) and many more.

Lesson Plans and Statistics

Each class will include a number of more challenging postures for the more advanced yogi – there is no pressure to do everything and different levels of ability and experience are catered for with differentiation in the postures.

The lesson plans are always made available after class so that you can explore the postures at home if you would like.

Stats about the classes are also shared. These show the muscle groups used, body positions (eg standing, seated, supine) and the types of yoga poses explored.