When was the last time you took a yoga class that started with something other than cat/cow? Or savasana? Or a sun salutation?
In my 2 decades of taking yoga classes, these are the most common ways to start a yoga class.
And every single time I take a class and the teacher starts with one of these 3 typical warm-ups, I always say a secret prayer to myself that they have a reason for starting this way and I’ll see it revealed as the class plays out.
Sadly, my wish rarely comes true.
To be clear, there’s no snark here to teachers who start class this way.
Cat/cow is a fantastic warm-up.
It’s a fantastic spinal warm up.
It’s simple.
You can modify it a bunch of different ways and in different poses.
You could even teach an entire class using cat/cow as the action you are focusing on in multiple poses.
And that’s the point.
Warm-ups should be specific to what you are going to do in the class.
Warm-ups should not be generic and interchangeable.
The whole point of warm-ups is to better prepare your body for the more challenging poses or more complex sequences you’ll do later in the class.
When I’m planning my classes and practicing on my own, I think first about what I want to build to.
Then I scale it back.
Then I scale it back further.
And then I scale it back even further until I get to what the warm-ups would be.
Want to see an example of what non-cat/cow warm-ups can look like?
You can watch the warm-up sequence from one of my recent live classes in my online studio, MOVE with Naomi.
If you easily get bored with standard, interchangeable yoga/movement classes, check out my online studio MOVE with Naomi.
Classes are created with #momlife in mind.
Quick, to the point, and creative, so you’ll never be bored on your yoga mat.
