Lou's Sequence (click to enlarge)

 [I enjoyed doing the first Behind the Sequence post and thought other yoga teachers might as well, so I'm turning it into an occasional series.]

Lou Asselin discovered Yoga in 1999 at Studio Yoga in Madison-NJ with Theresa Rowland who holds several Iyengar Yoga certifications and with whom she completed her teacher training in 2005. Since 2002 she has been teaching general classes as well as specialty classes. Lou has taught yoga for Athletes (weekend warriors, swimmers, and semi-pro football players), Restorative classes, Power yoga, yoga for Seniors and older adults, Gentle and Prenatal yoga, yoga for kids and teens, Yoga for Backcare, beginners and intermediate classes among others. Her training allowed her to study with many of the great, senior Iyengar teachers from all over the world. Since moving to New York in 2008 she studies with Genny Kapuler.

You can find Lou and take her classes at Yogasana Center in Brooklyn, NY, and also at Yoga Union and its sister studio Yoga Union Center for Back Care and Scoliosis in Manhattan.

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Tags: Behind the Sequence

A Page From My Notebook (click to enlarge)

What style of yoga do you practice and teach?

I am strongly influenced by the Iyengar method of yoga. If you are a student of any other style of yoga and were to take my class, you would probably say it was Iyengar, but over the years my style has become heavily influenced by other disciplines such as the Alexander Technique and Body Mind Centering. Someone coming from a traditional Iyengar background might find the themes and sequencing in one of my classes to be a little off the beaten path.

Where and to what level students did you teach this class?

This was a Level 2/3 class taught at Yogasana Center for Yoga in Brooklyn, New York.

What were the primary themes of this class?

I was working with two lines of inquiry, one about the overall approach to the practice, the other about anatomical action. Instead of having a fixed idea of what each pose should look or feel like, we observed and released habitual patterns of coming into and out of each pose. Staying with the transitions rather than dropping into the poses in the habitual way made the whole process a mindfulness practice. The anatomical theme was about balancing the curves of the spine by pairing them off and keeping them as long and wide as possible. We paired off the cervical and lumbar curves, but also the thoracic curve and the sternum, thinking of them as two parenthetical structures softening and widening around the organs. (more…)