Visvamitrasana using a chair

The chair is one of my favourite props to use in my practice.  Sometimes I use the chair for more support and stability on days when I feel  I have less energy and I find two hours later I am still practising.  I also like to play around a lot with the chair to see how I can use it in different ways to support different feelings and sensations in a variety of poses and practices.  I find in general it helps me to build more strength since it offers me more stability in many poses.  I decided to approach Visvamitrasana with the chair because it was very challenging without the chair and thought perhaps it could give me some of the shape, feelings, actions and sensations that I might eventually achieve in the classic pose.  And….it really did!!  I used the chair for quite a few other challenging poses from the ‘Level 2’ syllabus and then when attempting the poses more classically I found I had a better understanding and somewhere to move forward from in the pose. – Regan Tataryn, Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher