Potpourri Practice I | iHanuman


Love, Service, Devotion, Yoga

Potpourri Practice I



A mix of all classifications of asana for a well-rounded practice.

by: Beth Cholette
In this audio download, which clocks in at a little over an hour and a half, instructor Matt Harris offers a yoga class with a little bit of everything. The routine is probably most appropriate for intermediate level students. There are a few parts of the practice which are a bit difficult to follow with Harris’s audio-only cues, although these sections are likely to be easier to intuit for the more experienced student.Harris has his class begin standing for a brief meditation. He guides the participants through a series of poses to gradually warm-up and open the body, including alternating between standing forward bend and a flat back, then coming into chair pose. Moving down to the floor for plank, Harris cues a sort of cat/cow series from this position, adding knees in to the chest. Harris then leads the students through several standing sequences. The first of these includes down dog, warrior 2 with eagle arms, baby cobra to full cobra with a twist, and 1-legged side plank. The following series also begins from down dog but moves into lunge, warrior 2, and triangle. After another side plank, Harris starts doing a bit more exploration in the postures—for example, a revolved chair pose, a low lunge with a twist and a quad stretch, and finally, moving towards the splits (a.k.a. half monkey-god pose). Staying on the floor, Harris also has his students practice bow pose, royal pigeon, and half-dog.At this point (just under an hour), it’s time to try an arm balance/inversion. Harris has his students set up for forearm balance by looping their upper arms with a belt and coming to the wall with their mats and a block. After detailed instruction and practice with using the block for dolphin pose, he has the students attempt to kick up to forearm balance three times—in fact, he suggests that both forearm balance and handstand should be practiced nearly every day. Coming away from the wall, Harris instructs the class to place a tall block under the pelvis for a long sequence of variations on bridge pose. Following this, he has the students sit on two blocks to briefly practice coming into king pigeon. This series is concluded by another version of bridge pose, this time using the block in a flat wide position and bringing one leg at a time into the chest using the belt.With 8 minutes left, Harris begins to wind down the class. As the participants continue to relax on the blocks, he has them bring their arms overheads and then perform a simple reclined twist. The guided savasana is brief (about 2 minutes) and unfortunately, Harris’s instructions are cut off as he is bringing the class back to seated to finish. Overall, this routine offers a nice variety of poses for the intermediate practitioner.
Potpourri Practice I
Album Runtime: 
100 minutes
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Practice Level: 
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