Sequencing poses is one of the most important elements of a yoga practice. The way poses are organized dictates the level of safety and effectiveness of the practice and influences the overall experience for the student. This new deck of 100 cards helps build your own sequences.

Jillian Bobowicz has introduced a “Yoga Sequencing Deck,” a set of 100 double-sided cards featuring poses and transitions–with variations for all skill levels–to help you build transformative yoga sequences.

This deck of cards is useful to both independent students and yoga teachers.

Yoga Teacher: When I craft a class, I often have a theme or lesson objective. The deck can be an aid to visually put the poses together and determine whether the intended lesson will work. The cards are also great reminders of poses that you can incorporate in the practice. Of the deck, there are 10 cards that I would consider “advanced” poses.

There are a few introductory cards that point out some ways to build an intention in a sequence

• Consider the time of day and year
• Pick a focus pose
• Choose a theme

Independent Student: Often I hear students complain that they don’t know how to put a practice together. They like DVDs but they can feel repetitive after a while. The sequence cards can certainly help break the monotony.

Here is a fun way to use the cards. I took the concept of tarot cards. In tarot, the cards pulled from the deck are there because the universe has deemed that you need to hear a message. You can apply the same concept to these yoga cards. Try shuffling the deck and pulling a number of cards. These cards can represent the poses that the universe suggests you need today.

Let’s try it.

First I removed the cards whose poses I can’t perform. No sense pulling those. I separated the cards into two decks; poses and sun salutations. I shuffled the separate decks of cards and this is what I got.

 

I then re-ordered the cards so that I start the practice with warm-up poses, progressing to sun salutations, standing poses and finishing with floor poses. So now the practice looks like this.

You can pull as many cards as you feel to build a practice session. Or you can use a few cards to be the outline of the practice and you can fill in other poses in-between as inspired. Either way, the cards are a useful aid either to add structure or diversity to your practice.