Yoga, same old same old..

[trilobiterevival]

I have been practicing for over a year now, some studio classes and a lot of home youtube. Love Adriene, etc, and have really enjoyed it all.

Recently I have noticed, both in classes and online, everything seems to be broken down into repetitive sun salutations. All of the popular teachers basically rehash SS's with very small variations, again and again and again. Anyone new might be forgiven for thinking every sequence must contain a downward dog, plank and forward fold. But there is so much more to yoga asanas!

There are literally hundreds, and so many different styles, from vinyasa to iyengar to yin, yet no matter what you search for, under nearly every description, it's just some young woman rehashing sun salutations.

Is it laziness, trend led, or because the SS has some sort of popular, visual appeal? The more you dig into yoga the SS's are such a small part, however great it is to practice them. I am not sure why they dominate the entire western market. I get that they work both sides of the body, that they're a decent workout, but I just don't get the obsession when there's so, so much more.

Iyengar has some interesting variations but there is so little of it online compared to vinyasa (which is very SS based). Even if you search for slow or varied hatha sequences the results are all sun salutations on repeat.

I wonder how many more people would be drawn towards and benefit from yoga if the less acrobatic asana's weren't at the forefront. It's obvious that vanity has a lot to do with it online, as if you search simply 'yoga' on pinterest or any other visual media only the most wild and acrobatic asanas show up first. This must put a lot of people off.

I love my yoga practice, but wondered if anyone else thought the online/class world is too hyper-focused on sun sequences? I would love some decent sequences that didn't overuse them or actually presented more asanas without them as the sole attraction.

I'm not generally a yoga enjoyer but I have a peloton and the app has yoga classes. They have focus flow ones which I do enjoy, and not a single sun salutation!
Attached a couple of pics of examples
I get what you mean though, I'm sick of quad stretches in stretch classes, foot to bum.. like there are others

Down Dog app doesn’t do this.
(Though they are guilty of introducing a new position every now and again which is then in ALL my practices for a while)

So it's not just yoga then?
I know you can search for other types, but 9 times out of 10 they will go on to involve the same old sequence. So a yoga for hips, relaxation, waking up, healing injury...ALL of them are the same, slightly mixed up vinyasa sun sequence. Just why o' why?

I often wonder how many Adriene videos do this, just one after the other, more or less all the same with a different dialogue over the top. I love her to bits but it would be great if she really mixed stuff up.

I think I have DownDog on my ipad will have a look!

I use a range of Adriene's videos and if you look for specific videos, there's reasonable range of variation there. She's not the greatest lover of balance work though.

Unless you work live in the studio with a paid-for teacher, in a planned regular progression of practice, I think this is what you'll get. Because it's safe and accessible for someone with no experience, just dropping in, and for free.

The big latforms, such as Yoga with Adriene, cannot supervise any of the practice Yet if there were an injury from more tricky or difficult sequences or poses, it's conceivable that the person injured might blame the online practitioner. The reputational damage could be considerable.

So I think you need to find a live, not-free, studio course which develops your practice in a safe, supervised way, where the yoga teacher can ensure you're doing things safely, and that the progression of your work is safe and logical.

It is not laziness - most teachers teach a certain type so yin is totally different to Iyengar totally different to Ashtanga and sun sals A and B are a typical part of flow/Vinyasa yoga often 5 of each then a peak sequence with standing postures which may flow or not then starting to bring the postures down to the mat. 5 Sun As and 5 Bs only take 10 mins max so hardly lazy in a 45 or 60 min class to spend 10 mins on them. Yes there is loads more to yoga and ultimately yoga teachers will appeal to some people and not others it is very individual. Iyengar is known as furniture yoga as it is so strict about alignment which puts some people off it can become quite stressful rather than just breathing and flowing but laziness is not the motivator to how we teach. Yin is very slow and you hold postures for ages which some find relaxing and others find too slow and not comfortable - most yin is all lying with some seated - personally I find it boring. Like everything in life, not everyone likes the same things.

If you want do yoga with new pose, then you can watch online videos. So many videos available in YouTube. So, you can know many new poses and also enjoying the yoga hours very well.