Hold....Hold...Hold

One of my favorite students recently asked me in an email for how long she should hold her yoga poses.

That, dear readers, is a million dollar question.

Quickly, here, I will try to provide some answers.

In some yoga systems, Bikram and Kundalini to name two, the poses are held and the exercises are performed using a stopwatch or timer. Seconds and minutes mark your practice rather than the more common form, which is counting your breaths.

In most yoga styles, you hold your poses for a set number of breath cycles. A breath cycle in yoga equals one round of long deep breathing, which is a slow inhale followed by a slow exhale through the nose. The number of breath cycles varies from yoga style to style, and is irrelevant in other styles.

In Ashtanga Yoga, for example, the poses are held for five breath cycles, though some of the 'finishing' poses at the end of the practice are held for up to twenty breaths. In Amrit Yoga, the style in which I trained, seven to ten breaths is the standard.

Many Hatha Yoga styles do not dictate for how many breath cycles one should hold a pose. Rather, it is left up to the teacher or the practitioner. This is quintessential yoga: one can mold the practice to suit one's needs, or the teacher can make the decision based on the students' abilities and needs.

Two-legged standing poses and poses you love to do (e.g., Savasana!) you can hold for longer, and when the body is partly ariel in a pose (e.g., one-legged poses), take it easy and know you and increase your hold time through time and repetition. The Sun Salutations (and there are lots of styles of them) suggest you work up to a 'one pose one breath' pattern. This builds up the heat in the body-mind and prepares it for longer holds later on in the practice.

Yoga tip: For those of you who don't want to count breaths (e.g., if it distracts you too much, or you 'get lost' in your counting) try the Bikram and Kundalini method and use a stopwatch or a timer. I often walk around with a stopwatch in my Hatha classes to ensure I am attending to hold time while also attending to adjustments, affirmations, and the like.

Enjoy your hold time, however you decide to mark it! Namaste.