What to Expect in Yoga Class

By Kate Hanley

Balancing poses
Your talent for never letting your bare feet touch the fungi-ridden locker room floor comes in handy here. Poses like Tree and Eagle are all about developing grace under pressure—you have to stay loose but focused to balance. Directing your gaze on an eye-level spot 4 to 6 feet away (“drishti” in Sanskrit) also helps.

Inversions
All that standing has energized your legs, making feats like Handstand and Forearm Balance easier. By engaging and lifting your legs when you’re upside-down, you’ll have better balance and won’t force your arms to do all the work.

Backbends
Because they open your chest and squeeze the adrenals (the adrenaline-producing glands atop the kidneys), backbends are the yogic equivalent of downing a handful of chocolate-covered espresso beans. They may fall before or after inversions—you just need time to come off the high prior to Savasana.

Twists
Although they can be done at any point in class, twists relax the spine after backbends and squeeze your abdominal organs, wringing out toxins like late-night-TV quips after a political scandal.

---