I’m not sure what started my partner yoga obsession - maybe it was finding a way to bring my loving husband, Kenan, into yoga - or the deeper stretches achieved in yoga with a friend - or maybe just trying something new. Whatever reason the Fun began in my life - at least once a year I try to share the fun of Partner yoga with my community. Our next adventure is this Saturday evening - Feb 10th - 6:30-7:30pm at The Forge - check out the event page to join the fun!
You may be thinking - I don’t think I can yoga and certainly not partner yoga! While we will have options for more intense yoga poses - MOST of the partner yoga poses involve creating fun stretching using our partners in a push-and-pull, or creating stability and strength where anyone can find some fun! The first time my husband participated in partner yoga he had not attended yoga classes and was still able to have fun and manage all the stretching involved. With that in mind, if you want to find more intensity in your stretching, you can choose a partner with the same range of flexibility as you to find deeper variations of the poses offered.
(One of the First partner yoga poses my husband and I played with together 5 years ago)
I’ve played partner yoga with my yoga friend, Holly; my sweet daughters Kymber and Kyley, as well as my mom. Each person has unique abilities - and create a different partner yoga experience. Holly and I have a similar range of motion for most yoga poses and can create deep stretches. My youngest daughter, Kymber, was a competitive gymnast - with the ability to stretch much deeper than my body allows. My oldest daughter, Kyley, wasn’t a big fan of deep stretches and was happy to help me with standing poses requiring less bending. When I chose poses with my mom - my goal was just to not hurt her - but she was game for a lot more poses than I would have initially offered. The following pics show some of the fun poses with each of them -
(Playing partner yoga in the backyard with my daughters and mom several years ago)
(Playing with Holly during a yoga teacher training 😊)
Over the years I’ve experimented with various fun poses to offer during the Partner yoga class. Depending on the participants levels and abilities, the poses can be gentle stretches - along with strength building options - or they can be more intense options building upon the less intense options.
Today we played Partner yoga preparing for our adventure on Saturday. Here are some new options, and some returning options from previous partner yoga classes (don’t worry - crazy yoga options aren’t the only ones offered). I also threw in some retro poses from years ago that we played with today from yoga with my husband and Holly -
There are multiple reasons to play partner yoga with me this Saturday. The biggest reason being - it’s fun!!! As adults, we don’t ‘play’ very often. It’s not all play the whole hour - but lots of options to experience laughter and have fun with a friend in a new way. There’s actually research on the ways we experience trust and openness when we allow another person to hold us up or help us be taller - specifically with partner yoga.
If you think Partner yoga is something you can’t wait to try, but aren’t sure who could be your partner - let me know and I will pair up friends to join in the fun. You can message/text me or email me at clarissapyeattyoga@gmail.com
Make plans to join me this Saturday! Let's Play and Have Lots of Fun with Partner Yoga!!!