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| what are your thoughts?? what books do you recommend?? |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 399
 
Location: Oregon | I practiced with a woman 4-5 times and followed the beginning partner series of Acro Yoga. (I like their book enough.) It was a nice experience. She'd been practicing Yoga longer than I, and I was probably going to limit her. (There's an acrobatic angle to Arco Yoga, that I just don't have.)
My thoughts? Partner yoga can be really neat, but also really intimate. I'd love to be able to practice some very basic partner stretching and breathing exercises with my lifemate, if I'm ever to have one again. But signing up to take a class without a partner? Not sure if that's for me. |
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| I dont' like it. I like adjustments and I like a little partnering.. but not a whole class of it.
Yoga is self realization, but group realization? not sure..
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| typically, if a class is going to be all partner yoga, then i do it as a workshop and advertise it as a "partner yoga workshop." i ask people to sign up in pairs--to bring a partner.
in some classes, i do ask students to partner up but generally only for one or two poses. And, most of the time, i have them partner up into groups of 3 wherein one person gives tips/assists, and then two people work together, and then they trade off. this tends to take the intimacy out of it, and gets people a sense of being "off the hook."
similarly, if there's only one man in the class, I'll partner with him and then allow the ladies work with other ladies--working with mixed partners when you don't know them can be uncomfortable for both men and women.
i don't have any books about partner yoga. i believe that one of our forum residents does though--i think she wrote it.  |
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| zoebird may have been referring to me and the book I just co-wrote (if so, thanks!). There's more about the book here: http://8thelementyoga.com/books/partner_yoga.php. It's available on Amazon, and sites like that as well.
I consider partner yoga a wonderful expression of namaste in that not only are you honoring the shared light and goodness within your partner, but you are really working together to become one. My husband and I practice partner poses regularly.
I really like partner yoga and love the way it can really help people feel connected. In a society where young people spend so much time with their iPod, video games, etc. I think noninvasive human touch, and working together as a team helps reinforce how we are all threads in the same human cloth.
I teach a few partner poses in my prenatal class and my students really enjoy it.
When I add partner poses into a general class, I pick some of the less intimate poses. I've seen some books that have some really intimate poses which I consider "couples" yoga, not partner yoga. However, I always give people the option of doing a solo pose instead, because some people are not comfortable with partner work (based often on some traumatic experiences) so I like to give people the option of not doing them.
I have taught partner workshops and regular classes where I do use some of the more intimate poses, but there's plenty out there that are not. I've also tried Acro yoga and really liked it, though I did find some things challenging and maybe not for beginners. |
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| I don't like the partner yoga I've experienced, always when a teacher threw some into a class. It's always seemed to have too much potential to injure someone while not accomplishing anything that couldn't be done otherwise. I can imagine with the right partner, ideally where we both knew what we were doing, and the right instruction, it could be an interesting workshop. |
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| I'm actually co-teaching a partner yoga workshop tomorrow, how timely is this! The presentation/workshop is being geared to rank beginners in yoga (asana and otherwise), and not everyone will even be coming with a partner, so we were very careful when designing the sequences so as not to overwhelm, offend or intimidate. Though I have to say, just preparing for this presentation as a partner-teacher has been an interesting experience in itself. The challenges of co-teaching can be, well, challenging! DIY, I would love to take a look at your book at some time, and I do appreciate you letting me know about it several weeks back (sorry I never replied). At that point my co-teacher and I had finally worked out what we could agree upon as acceptable for this upcoming class, and I didn't want to become overwhelmed myself with more choices and options at that time. Though after tomorrow, I'll definitely take a peek at it. |
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| I'm actually going to a "Partner Yoga for Singles" this Friday at a studio in my town. I guess we start off with a half hour vinyasa class to warm us all up then we're going to do some sort of round robin partners yoga.
I'm pretty curious to see how it goes and I'll definitely report back afterwards. |
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| OrangeMat,
How did your workshop go? |
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| It went really well, thanks for asking! For most of the people attending, this was their first time at a yoga class, so the poses were very basic, and on the more gentle side. They especially enjoyed the face-to-face sukhasana twist and back-to-back "seesaw" pose.
 (Parivrtta Sukhasana, Inward.gif)
 (Sukhasana Backbend Forward Bend.gif)
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 Parivrtta Sukhasana, Inward.gif (1KB - 40 downloads)
Sukhasana Backbend Forward Bend.gif (0KB - 42 downloads)
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| Good to hear.
I love the stick figures, did you draw them? |
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| Yes I did. I write up all my flows using them, and have been commission by a couple teachers in my area to draw them up for them as well. They're all my original content. I have plans to get a website up at some point for a drag-and-drop sequence design program. In the meantime, it's just me. |
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| First post ever....here we go.
I think partner yoga is a great opportunity for people to get over their uncomfortability with intimacy and feel a connectedness with each other. Whether it is Male/Woman, Woman/Woman, or Male/Male each one is loaded with social implications. Going through the exercise and finding comfort and depth of breath is a great opportunity for people to touch that wonderful related place that is in yoga and in our heart. |
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| Me too tombo! Last night I did partner yoga with my class and had Delbert McClinton (Texas Roadhouse) slow, deep, heartbreaking, lost love music during savasana and laid a Valentine's pencil and Necco candy in their palms during savasana--it was a hit |
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partner yoga
