Twenty superposes that carry maximum benefit with minimum risk
The term superfood is usually used to describe nutrient-rich food that is especially beneficial for our health and well-being. Certain yoga poses can be described as “superposes” because they also carry incredible “nutritional value” for our bodies.
What makes a pose a “superpose”? Surprisingly, it is not the difficulty or intricacy of body part arrangement, or even the strength or uber-stretchiness that one needs to exhibit to do them. In fact, most superposes are quite simple. What makes them powerful is their incredible diversity. The purpose of any yoga pose is to carry maximum benefit for YOUR body with minimum risk.
A superpose is a pose that:
- Can deliver the benefits for many different body parts at the same time (“benefit-dense”)
- Is accessible to most students
- Can be modified easily to emphasize the effect for a particular area
- Can be adapted easily to accommodate different body shapes, physical abilities, student preferences, and so on.
Below is a list of poses that I consider to be “superposes” because they are benefit-dense, accessible to most students, and offer multiple options. They are arranged in five groups of four and represent a gradual progression from the most foundational to the more challenging. If you choose to build your yoga practice on those instead of chasing after the fancy exotic ones, you will end up having a rich, satisfying, and “nutrient-dense” yoga practice.
You can find all those adaptations in a book. This book covers various adaptations of 20 superposes and our reasons for doing them. It is meant to inspire your curiosity and creativity and facilitate a new type of thinking about yoga poses.
These pose adaptations (and many others) are included in Sequence Wiz yoga sequence builder. You can easily arrange them in a yoga sequence and even modify any pose image on the spot!
This is supergreat, Olga — thanks!
🙂 Thanks Megan!
I love this notion of ‘superposes.’ Very clever! And these poses are all on the top of my list, too. Well done.
Thank you Amanda!
I use these poses on a regular basis too. It’s great to be educated on all the variations they can take as well. Thank you! Love it!
I would love to have a poster of these super poses. Do you have one available or would you consider publishing one?
This is just what I needed, thanks
Love this site
This is great inspiration! Thanks.
your yoga posts help me when i feel like I’m teaching the same old same old…thank you for the inspiration i love your practice 🙂
Happy to hear that Barbara, thank you!
Would love to read the newsletter
Very useful site.