Embodied Yoga: 3 Tips for Mindful Vinyasa Transitions

When the general public thinks of yoga, they think of “static” poses. In yoga communities, skilled instructors guide students in honing the subtle nuances of movement within poses. Yet modern asana practice, in contrast, often involves a lot of movement. Even so, there’s sometimes a lack of focus on smooth Vinyasa transitions while moving from one posture to another.

To enjoy the fullest, mindful, and embodied experience of each pose and asana practice overall, it’s essential to transition from pose to pose in mindful and anatomically informed ways. Making asana practice sustainable is also important to avoid injury and gradual wear and tear. This all becomes increasingly essential as Vinyasa yoga styles—such as Power and Bikram, which involve much movement from posture to posture—become increasingly popular. Read on for how to keep it flowing!

1. Embodied Vinyasa Transitions: Use breath to Lengthen the Spine

Breath is a powerful driver of movement. As we inhale, we create space in the chest cavity (and into the abdominal area) for the air all around us to enter our bodies. It then fills our lungs. That space creates length through the spine. It also creates a sense of buoyancy that can—along with engaged core muscles—help vertically lift the spine.

For instance, inhaling as you rise from Runner’s Lunge up to Crescent Lunge is helpful. Try inhaling before releasing into a side bend, such as Gate Pose, or curving in the upper spine for a backend, such as Camel Pose. Notice if the inhalation helps you lengthen your spine and engage the appropriate core muscles. See if you can enjoy deeper yet more stable and safe postures from that. That core engagement also contributes to controlling the movement into a posture.

As you exhale, your lungs empty, and core musculature associated with inhaling, including that in the spine, softens. We can use this softening to our advantage to safely achieve deeper postures. For instance, exhale as you fold into Baddha Virabhadrasana (Humble Warrior Pose). Exhale as you release from an Ardha Uttanasana (Half-Way Lift Pose) into Uttanasana (Standing Forward Fold Pose) (pictured above). Observe if using the exhale in these ways assists in entering more deeply into postures in safe and stable ways, even in speedy Vinyasa sequences. Paired with the lengthening and mindful spinal placement that we can find on the inhalation, doing so is a key way to transition amongst postures more fluidly.

2. Embodied Vinyasa Transitions: Add the Power of Drishti

Drishti is key to whether or not we can smoothly transition from posture to posture. This is mainly because the eyes direct the movement of the head. The head is at the top of the spine, so it can be an essential initiator of spinal movement. Also, the head weighs a lot —about eight pounds on average. Working mindfully with Drishti can help you use the weight of your head to your advantage—to have gravity work with you rather than against you. One example of this is in the Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog Pose to Chaturanga Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose) to Urdva Mukha Svanasana (Upward-Facing Dog Pose) (image above) flow.

You want to stack joints in this flow, which often means pulling your body slightly forward. Looking just ahead of you will also help bring you forward. If you look down, that’s just more force of gravity that you’ll have to use muscular strength to resist. That energy is better used to help you flow through the sequence in an integrated and aligned way. Using drishti to help you flow through your asana takes little effort and brings significant benefits. So why not do so?

3. Embodied Vinyasa Transitions: Use muscle Engagement instead of Momentum

Movement occurs in two main ways. The first is through the body with muscular action (intentional or unintentional through reflexes). The second is through natural forces such as momentum, gravity, torque, et cetera. We can transition in asana practice more smoothly, beneficially, and enjoyably when we use more of the former and less of the latter. Doing that contributes control, integrated alignment, and body parts serving in their natural roles. We can then be able to use those natural forces to our advantage.

For instance, when transitioning from Runner’s Lunge to Dekasana (Airplane Pose, Warrior 3 Pose with arms extended outward) (pictured below), lengthen your spine and engage both your core and hamstrings. An alternative, less effective way to transition here, which is an all-too-common tendency, is to use the back leg to launch into Airplane Pose. That creates momentum. With that force, you’ll get up there, but there’s no guarantee that you’ll stay there in an integrated and aligned way. With core and hamstring engagement, you most likely will! Happy flying!

When you get to that next pose, the movement doesn’t end. In beneficial and fulfilling asana practices, one does not arrive at a pose with a burst of “ta-da”! And that’s it. A pose moves and grows with the breath. The inhalation brings length to the spine and perhaps energy through the extremities, while the exhalation brings release and softening.

In a twist, that means a bit more rotation. In a forward fold, that means slightly more depth of the fold. The muscles adjust to what you’re asking them to do, with the help of breath and time, on the body’s terms. Other ways to adjust within postures are with props. While it might not be ideal to transition into a posture with a prop, if its use would be wise, there’s no yoga law that says we can’t start using one at any point in a posture.

Our bodies are our allies in practice. It doesn’t help, in any way, to fight them to get to where we think we should be. Contrary to that misguided way of working is transitioning from posture to posture in ways that work with how our bodies are made. The result can be a graceful flow of energy through our bodies that shines outward long after we roll up our mats.