How to Teach Water Yoga

Students will love cat pose in water yoga or yoqua.

Yoga takes on new dimensions when practiced in the water. Some poses that were challenging become easier and others feel completely different from their land counterparts. Try branching from teaching regular yoga formats into teaching water yoga or yoqua classes by using these steps.

Things You'll Need

• 30 minutes of teaching time (most yoqua classes are about 30 minutes)

Instructions

1. Try some yoga poses in the water. Before you agree to teach a water yoga class, make sure that you have practiced on your own in the water, so you have an idea of what your students will feel. Go through any poses you know and see if you can think of a way to do them in the water.

2. Structure your water yoga classes around the same principles of alignment, breathing and being in the present moment as you normally do for land yoga.

3. Warm up your water yoga students! The water will feel cool until they are warmed up. Start your yoqua class with flowing Chair poses, Chest Expansions, Standing Cat/Cows, Sunflowers and Sun Salutations modified for the water (i.e. no Forward Folds of course).

   *Try Cobras and Downward Dogs against the pool wall.

4. Intersperse your water yoga class sequence with Vinyasa styles of poses to keep them warm. Keep arms flowing in Warrior I and II. Warrior II with flowing archer arms is popular, for example.

5. Use the water as resistance to keep heat building. You can use resistance in flowing Chairs, Warriors, Crescent Lunges and Chest Expansions. Any time that your water yoga students would normally be holding poses with arms up as in land style yoga, you can keep their arms flowing through the water - even pushing against it.

   For example: in Chest Expansion, have them open their arms up wide out to the sides (letter 'T' shape), then close their hands together in front of their body. Encourage them to really feel the water against their hands as they inhale to open arms, and exhale to close them.

6. Have fun with balance poses when you teach water yoga. Tree, Dancer, Eagle, Warrior III, Standing Pigeon and even Balanced Half Moon (one hand on pool wall) are wonderful balance poses to experiment with in the water. Encourage students to keep their arms flowing lightly through the water (if appropriate) to help them stay warm and to help anchor them to the floor better.

7. Add spice to your water yoga sequence with arm and hand variations.

8. Get ideas for water yoga classes by using some poses from this list:

   Downward Dog (hands on pool wall)
   Cobra (hands against wall)
   Chair
   Sunflowers
   Standing Cat/Cow
   Prayer Squat
   Warriors I, II, III and Reverse
   Triangle
   Chair, Twisted Chair, Balance Chair
   Crescent Lunge
   Chest Expansion
   Camel
   Pyramid (hands on wall)
   Balanced Half Moon
   Tree
   Eagle
   Standing Pigeon
   Dancer
   Standing Spinal Balance with Big Toe Hold
   Standing Head to Knee
   Cow Face Arms
   Standing Twist (bring one hand to opposite hip - other hand behind back)

9. Remember to open and close with a short meditation. You don't want your students standing stagnant in the water for too long, so keep your opening and closing to two or three minutes each.

10. See resources and related articles to get ideas for teaching other formats of yoga.

Tips & Warnings

• Encourage pranayama (breathing) throughout your water yoga class.

Resources

• OmRepair
• Richmond Yoga Examiner