SUPERPOWERSYOGA® by Robert Powers

SUPERPOWERSYOGA® by Robert Powers is built on traditional Hatha yoga postures (class is 55 minutes). The series is comprehensive but not repetitive. It is safe but challenging, with endless opportunity to transform yourself. After hundreds of classes and thousands of students, I believe this routine does the most good for the greatest number of people. It is an original and proprietary series, but yoga belongs to all yogis.

SUPERPOWERSYOGA® SERIES Sequence & Story

I developed the SUPERPOWERSYOGA® SERIES largely based on 3 events.

1. Teaching 1,200+ Bikram yoga classes.

The Bikram yoga series is sometimes called “26 and 2” because it is the same 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises every time. I started yoga with this series and have always appreciated its completeness, challenge and intelligence. Bikram yoga is 90 minutes in intense heat, which turns many people off. (We got up to 115° a few times.) But the Hatha yoga lessons are solid, and the consistency of the routine allows students to see their own progress over time. The “set series” is smart. It shows we have purpose, intention, a practice, goals. There is experience, science, development and tradition behind what we do. Most importantly for the student, a chance to develop, grow, try, fail, practice, overcome, rather than change the routine to suit a mood.

The biggest problem I saw with Bikram was starting on the feet, with exhausting postures. Most people could benefit from some spinal alignment and warm up of large muscles before taking weight onto the feet, compressing the spine and knees. Yoga should be a cure for modern living, and lying down relieves many common stresses.

2. Two big, consecutive bicycle injuries.

Doing that Bikram series as a student, I never worked so hard, struggled so much, or felt so in shape, even though it is still a lifelong journey to wellness. In that group practice, I saw I had my own strengths and weaknesses, very different from others. Those strengths changed quickly after two big bicycle accidents. The first accident broke a rib. The second one “froze” my left arm, with sprain/strain in every joint. I had a difficult time breathing, sleeping, getting up and down from the floor. I was scared that the physicality I had started to take for granted could disappear so fast.

My own yoga became that of a patient trying to regain the smallest movements. I was a yoga champion, searching for safe, painless ways to move again. I kept teaching, and working on my “home yoga.” My home yoga was the most simple and safe of Hatha postures, much like Yin yoga. As I started to get better, I saw my home yoga as the perfect precursor to the challenges of the Bikram routine. And I saw the simplest movements as essential to an everyday practice. Use it or lose it.

3. Teaching my own routine and failing.

When I moved from a yoga “studio” setting to a gym setting with other activities, they were resistant to Hatha yoga. (They didn’t think I could get a room full of people to lie still, but we did it, you guys!) I had previously taught two different hour-long formats, so I tried to combine them. It was a mess because it was new to me as well as the students. My teaching didn’t have the same rhythm as a routine I knew well and believed in.

Over the first two weeks, I started from scratch to build a better series. With the perspective of the events above, I started with a long list of postures, first ordering them in the most beneficial way, which confidently mirrored the sequence of Bikram. With about 12 extra postures, the end result looks different. This routine is accessible to more people and takes the body before your eyes, takes the body from the most simple movement to the most amazing.

The SUPERPOWERSYOGA® SERIES is in 4 distinct, progressive sections.

1. Face-Up Series and Hands & Knees

One of the most original aspects of this series is to begin on the back. Inspired by Pilates and a desire to start from “square one,” we rebuild the functionality of the body. Postures from the back are safe because body weight is not a burden. Then, from hands and knees we do three postures for more spinal alignment and preparation. Hatha yoga and this series always prioritize breath and spine, your life force and your main energy channel.

2. Standing Series (including Kneeling)

The most difficult postures of Bikram yoga are here, except you get a more substantial warm-up. Half Moon, Awkward/Fierce and Eagle, followed by kneeling positions which test balance and core strength. We return to the feet for One-Legged Balance, which is the biggest omission I see from other yoga programs. One-Legged postures are without a doubt the toughest postures in yoga; you either run from them or you practice.

3. Spine Series

Backbends are the healers of the spine, and we do them from the feet and knees. The Spine Series, however, is our belly-on-the-floor series. We access every part of the spine for strength and mobility. We get a deeper meaning and rhythm to savasana (corpse) as we let go fully between each posture. These few minutes are the most beneficial and healing. Next, Camel and Rabbit (from the knees) are the two biggest movers of the spine, requiring the entire class to warm up and prepare the body.

4. Knee Compressions and Final Stretch

People often avoid yoga because of flexibility issues, instead of seeking out yoga to heal themselves. We will maintain full range of motion throughout our lives by practicing basic stretches repeatedly. Knee compressions require respect and care, but they too should not be avoided because of injury or immobility. We are warm enough at this point to really explore knees, spine, hamstrings. Get to YOUR Yoga Edge™ and breathe!

Please view the following posture list as reinforcement. The oral tradition of yoga instruction puts a teacher's experienced eyes on each student. How and when we do everything is critical. Without such guidance, yoga can easily injure or frustrate. However, we all need a home yoga practice of some kind. Here are the postures that you have all practiced with amazing integrity. Remember, every movement in yoga is intentional. Hold postures in stillness, at your dynamic Yoga Edge (TM) (ever-changing point of resistance, discomfort, peak strength and focus, fear, forgiveness, transformation), and breathe.

Do what you do in class: Think about your nose breathing. Think the breath in the nose; think it out the nose. Lengthen your breath. All the way in; all the way out. Return to your breath over and over. As a meditative practice, your breath is your single, solitary meditative thought. That is the mind-breath connection. It is a challenging practice, but you ease the burden on the mind by giving the mind one thing on which to concentrate. Body postures (asanas) create physical healing and complete the mind-breath-body connection, which is yoga (to connect, unite, join).

Return to stillness (yin) between each posture (yang) to obtain all physical and mental benefits. Let go. Stillness makes it Hatha yoga. Be safe. Listen to your body. Listen to your breath. Come to class.

© 2018 Robert Powers SUPERPOWERSYOGA