The Yoga Move We Never Cue

Question: What’s one thing we do a lot of on the yoga mat, but don’t explicitly name or cue?

Answer: Getting up and down from the floor. If you’re doing vinyasa flow yoga then you are likely getting up and down from the floor between all your asanas (poses). It’s a transition, often from down dog to a standing pose like warrior II.

The point? Thanks to furniture, getting up and down from the floor isn’t something we do a lot of in modern society, which means it can feel tiring in a yoga class that requires it several times in the course of a 60 minute class.

So? Spending time with this foundational transition can help you move more efficiently through your yoga practice.

Getting up and down from the floor is a valuable life skill that will make you hellaciously strong. It’s core work, it’s hip work. It’s your whole body work.

If you teach vinyasa yoga try highlighting this skill all on its own. There are endless ways to do it and it can become its own sort of yoga movement practice.

  • Start from tabletop position and find all the ways you can get up to standing and back down to tabletop.

  • Now try sitting on your yoga mat. here too, find all the ways you can get yourself up to standing. What feels doable, what feels challenging? Can you lead with a different leg/arm?

  • Channel your inner baby here and start from laying down on the floor. Can you rise all the way to standing? How did you get there?

  • Can you get up and down from the floor without using your hands to help?

Trisha Durhamfunctional movement, yoga alignment, yoga sequencing, yoga transitions