Why the Loop?
Part of the yoga4cancer breathing technique and the Warm-Up vinyasa is to synchronize the five spinal movements into a sequence and execute them in a loop. Alas, the LOOP is tool designed to cultivate breath awareness.
The LOOP is specific to the yoga4cancer methodology in contrast to other ‘exercise’ focused interventions and yoga styles. It can often be challenging to the experienced teacher or therapist and may require ‘unlearning’. However, the rationale for this approach is grounded in three mindful intentions.
- First, matching breath with movement is not easy. Staying present with each breath matched to movement increases breath awareness. For example, to do a side bend on one side three times in a row encourages the movement and breath to become automatic, lacking awareness and maybe even careless.
- Second, doing a single side bend to one side and then immediately to the opposite helps keep the spinal muscles balanced.
- And a third intention is that the breath between is an inhale which allows the spine to elongate and the spine to re-align.
The Loop consists of:
- Executing all 5 spinal movements once
- Each movement matched to a specific breath
- All movements executed in the same sequence.
- And ending position is the start position.