Although this course is designed to give a fully-rounded and detailed exploration of yoga over the six sessions you can also book to attend the sessions individually.

Each session is a themed workshop and begins with a warm-up, a detailed practice of a selection of the poses for that week’s theme, a discussion of an aspect of yogic history/philosophy and concluding with a 45min steady paced flow and relaxation to integrate all the postures and ideas from the session.

Suitable for all levels.

The six-week sessions will be focussed as follows:

Week 1 (Oct 2nd) Forward Bends:
Looking at detail of alignment in classical forward bend poses to focus on the flexibility of hips, hamstrings and lower back. Forward bends offer a very soothing aspect within yoga practice and this session will combine asanas (postures) and relevant sutras (ancient yogic principles) to develop this aspect.

Week 2 (Oct 9th) Back Bends:
Back bends bring great vitality and exuberance to practice. They create a strong and fluid spine and promote free-spiritedness and confidence. Learning how to align the spine from the basic postures and then to build gradually towards deeper back bends.

Week 3 (Oct 16th) Twists and Detoxifying Poses:
A deeply revitalizing session this week! Progressing from the first two sessions to create deeper mobility through the spine and gaining knowledge of how certain poses rejuvenate and ‘reboot’ all the bodies systems- digestive, circulatory, respiratory, eliminatory..an all-round detox for body and mind!

Week 4 (Oct 30th) Core Strength and Balance- ‘The Bandhas’:
Fundamental to a strong practice is awareness of the action of the core muscles. In yoga these are called the ‘bandhas’ (meaning ‘locks’ in Sanskrit). This session involves work with poses and breathing techniques (pranayama) to fully understand how vital these are for balance in every aspect of practice and the sequence will include standing balance poses to embody this. When connected to the bandhas your practice will take a significant leap forward!

Week 5 (Nov 6th) Upper Body Strength and Balance – Arm Balances and Inversions:
This session will really build courage and confidence. Breaking down the body-mechanics of arm-balancing and going upside-down. It doesn’t matter if the feet don’t leave the ground, the important aspect here is to gain the alignment detail to prepare yourself for flight! This session will be lots of fun, uplifting and very light-hearted. Having looked closely at the detail of a new and challenging pose you can take yourself to the next level in your practice. Inverting the body allows a wonderful circulatory boost to the upper areas and its also really good to change your perspective! Sometimes we need to go upside-down to come right way up!

Week 6 (Nov 13th) Smooth Transitions- Vinyasa:
For the last of the six sessions we look at the smooth linking of poses. This is called vinyasa. When the breath flows though the whole practice as an unbroken chain and the body maintains a constant awareness of both the postures themselves and the means of flowing into, out of and between them, then the practice is a moving meditation. Through this final session we will focus on fluidity - connecting a variety of the poses we have studied in the previous five sessions. We will have fun exploring some creative and original sequences and also discuss how to develop a self-practice.

Amanda is a fully qualified and certified yoga teacher. She teaches vinyasa flow, dynamic, hatha, yin, meditation and pre- and post-natal yoga. She is passionate about yoga and tirelessly fascinated by its amazing history and philosophy. She loves sharing the wonderful benefits of yoga and is very much looking forward to leading this course and meeting the Yoga Fundamantals student group!

This is a 6 weeks course every Sunday from 3:30pm-5:30 pm
Dates: 2nd-9th-16th-30th Oct, 6th, 13th Nov
Please note: no class on half term Sunday 23rd Oct