Clear Yoga offers Iyengar Yoga. We have instructors certified in the Iyengar Method.
What is Iyengar Yoga?
The yoga of physical exercise comes under the heading of “hatha” yoga. Yoga masters have developed many styles of hatha yoga. Iyengar yoga students named Iyengar yoga after Shri B.K.S. Iyengar of Pune, India.
“Alignment” yoga.
What that means is that you begin to understand how the pose works for your hip, or your back, or your shoulder, or neck etc. The way the poses are taught helps you pay attention to what’s going on in your body so you have tools to fix, help, or get stronger on your own.
Anyone can do this…
Iyengar Yoga is accessible to everyone regardless of age, ability, or physical limitations. It’s not about anyone else in the room. It’s about you.
We practice different poses every class, every week. Over the period of a month your entire body will have been “worked out” and you will have “worked in” to your mind, the various things you learned about yourself.
There are hundreds of ways to approach every pose depending on what you need to work on. Because of that, Iyengar Yoga has many therapeutic applications. Back issues, hip and knee issues, shoulder and neck, and also stress, depression, anxiety can be helped, and in some cases cured through regular practice. BKS Iyengar said “Yoga will cure what can be cured and help us endure what cannot”.
About the classes
Precise alignment is a hallmark of Iyengar yoga. Standing poses, basic twists and beginning inversions are introduced first. Beginners learn the geometry of the poses. Regular practice increases strength, stamina, tones muscles and brings relief to aching and injured joints. Stress, anxiety and depression are alleviated.
As one continues and the basic poses are learned, then seated extensions, back bending and inverted postures are introduced. The practice matures and awareness of the organic process develops. Actions (internal movements) are learned to refine alignment of the poses and practice becomes more penetrating, more inward, and more meditative. At this point the spiritual dimension of hatha yoga is amplified.
The New York Times points out that because Iyengar yoga “focuses meticulously on proper alignment” and its teachers undergo “rigorous training,” it allows instructors to cater to students’ individual needs and to minimize the risk of injury. Certified Iyengar teachers undergo a minimum of three years of intensive training and testing which they begin after at least six years of study with a senior teacher (whose training period normally runs fifteen to twenty years). WebMD states, “Analytical in its approach with a constant attention to detail, Iyengar yoga is great for learning the subtleties of correct alignment in each pose. The use of props — belts, blocks, and pillow-like bolsters — help beginners get into poses with correct alignment, even when they’re new to the poses, injured, or simply stiff.”
Cher de Rossiter Cher is a certified Iyengar Yoga teacher at the Introductory II level. She has a Ph.D. in Health Psychology and is particularly focused on how lifestyle technologies like yoga and meditation can support those dealing with chronic illness, trauma and the effects of getting older. She started practicing yoga in 2006 to support her recovery from breast cancer. The Iyengar method gave her the freedom to practice to the limit of her body’s capability without injury. Now at 65 she credits this approach for stronger and more flexible body with much less pain. She is a student of Senior Iyengar teacher Joan White, and regularly takes workshops from a variety of Iyengar teachers including Manouso Manos. She has studied anatomy with Ray Long MD, and the Yoga Sutras with Edwin Bryant.
