Yoga Teacher Training Forum

Thank you Dan and Hamed. Very helpful. I guess, to clarify, I was wondering if there were any known benefits to choosing the ashtanga or hatha styles of warm up. Seems it's a simple preference - not withstanding the balance and stamina bonus from the ashtanga style. And regards the "make the warm up as hard as your class can handle" question, your answers make great sense. The answer is: it all depends. I must say in my personal practice, I use the ashtanga warm up, and I tweak it up for me, adding a progression to challenge myself: uttasana, then jump back to wheelbarrow 1, lower to caturanga dandasana (four-limbed stick), then wheelbarrow 1, then lower into caturanga dandasana (four-limbed stick) again, and roll into up dog. (essentially throwing a push up in between.) I do the same, then from up dog, do a push up and back into down dog.

This gets me super hot for the rest of my practice. I guess the variations are endless, and therein is the experiential knowledge of Yoga.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the input!

Cheers!