Realize Your Chaturanga with Elysia and Karin

Moving Mindfully: Realizing Your Chaturanga with Elysia and Karin

Date: June 10, 2017
Time: 12:30pm-2:30pm (2 hrs)
Location: Yoga Tree Yonge & Eglinton

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by Dr. Elysia Baldassara

We love teaching this workshop to students of every level, and continuously have requests for it throughout the year. The importance of learning the correct foundations for downward dog, plank and chaturanga will not only build strength, and help develop a practice, but prevent injury. This is one of our most favourite workshops to teach because we always see the most dramatic improvements in alignment from all students by the end of the class.

So many students benefit from breaking down each posture and learning how to focus on correct alignment and safe modifications. There is often limited time in a yoga class for students to truly understand the mistakes they are making during a full vinyasa sequence. Our goal every workshop is to ensure each one of the students leaves completely confident in what we have taught them. We take great pride in knowing every student who completes our workshops has improved dramatically by the end of the class. We love to provide one on one feedback, answer questions and help our students work within the boundaries of their own unique anatomy.

Some key foundations we address in the workshop:

Lowering to Chaturanga from Plank is one of the most important foundational transitions in vinyasa yoga. We teach how to move slowly and precisely, addressing questions from students, using anatomy models and props, and giving modifications to every level of practice. Students will learn how important chaturanga is to strengthen the entire body, especially the core and upper-body, only this can lead to improvements in other postures.

Downward dog can be deceivingly “easy” for not only beginners but advanced students as well. This pose is in fact very complex, involving many components and cues which can often times be rushed during regular classes. The benefits of finally understanding this posture are countless, it is a beautiful posture to both strengthen and stretch the body while requiring precise balance in your arms, core and legs to avoid overloading any one area. Often times student in class feel as though everyone has their heels on the ground except you—in this workshop we address these questions, and show our students exactly how the posture should be done for each individual practice. Most often we encourage our students to lift their heels and intentionally bend their knees. Our goals are always to help develop practices, and we work hard to get students into more challenging postures like inversions and arm balances. Without the proper foundations of plank, chaturanga and down dog students often find their practices become stagnant.

Most importantly, all our workshops focus on injury prevention. If you have ever had wrist pain, back pain, shoulder issues or any discomfort during or after a yoga practice we address these concerns at the individual level. We have a unique and dynamic method of teaching, always working off each other’s strengths. Every one of our students walks away with so much knowledge, and most important to us, positive changes to their practice.

We love exciting our students and helping them see how simple changes to alignment and positioning can have tremendous effect on building strength and mastering new postures.

Feedback from past participants

“The workshop was absolutely amazing…it is so interesting to take a step back and understand the mechanics of your body. Everyone needs to take this class!” –Sarbani, Yoga Tree Student

“Everyone benefited from having a detailed understanding of how to avoid their common mistakes. This workshop is a must for all yoga students!” – Ron, Yoga Tree Teacher Graduate

“Karin and Elysia were patient and warm while giving detailed information, and they made sure that everyone left the room confident in the poses we had practiced” Anne Marie, Yoga Tree Student

“I finally understand how to do a proper Chaturanga!!” JP, Yoga Tree Student