Radiance Yoga offers a wide variety of classes to help broaden and deepen your yoga practice. This month, the studio is highlighting the Intermediate/Advanced Flow class. This invigorating, vinyasa-style class is available twice a week, on Thursday nights and Sunday mornings.
Yogis who practice flow yoga will recognize most elements of this class. The poses are mostly familiar, and breath is linked to movement to develop and support the postures, just as it is in a flow class. These classes also incorporate mantras, meditations, and breathing exercises that you have likely experienced in your practice before.
Of course, there are some differences. You may be encouraged to hold poses for longer periods in the Intermediate/Advanced Flow class. Use these extra breaths to refine and evolve your version of pose, perhaps exploring deeper expressions or new variations. There is also a greater emphasis on building strength in the body. You may feel challenged by these strength-building sequences at first, but they will make you stronger and healthier.
Your instructor may also introduce more advanced asana in this class. Allow yourself to receive these new postures with curiosity and enthusiasm; you never know what you may be capable of until you try! If you experience any anxiety or pain, gently back off from the asana and ask for a modification or alternate posture.
Attending this class has made me more aware of the beautiful individualities that each person brings to our shared practice. Before class begins, I notice that I am sitting with yogis of different genders, ages, experiences, and body types – it’s definitely not just hyper-flexible instructors! We have all arrived here because of our common love for yoga, and there is a sense of collective energy. As we practice together, each person expresses this energy in a unique way: their own variation, modification, or amplification of a pose. Each is beautiful, and no one is better than any other.
When class ends, I am always more energized than I was when I arrived. Although I may be physically weary from my physical efforts, I feel powerful, refreshed, and clear-headed. I also more connected with my true self and my inner, most heartfelt desires. Most of all, I experience a great appreciation for my body: both what it is capable of today, and what it has the potential to do in the future.
Interested in exploring the Intermediate/Advanced Flow class for yourself? Join Rachel Carr on Thursday at 7:00pm, or Brittanie DeChino on Sunday at 10:45am. Call the studio to register or sign up online today!
