Asanaverse

Phase 3 · The Version You Keep

Part of the 8 Week Yoga Program for Menopause Sleep and Stress

25 Minute Yoga Sequence to Keep Through Menopause

Weeks seven and eight and afterwards. Short enough to survive a bad month, with the tools you actually use.

Menopause is not an eight week event, so the last two weeks are about arriving at something that carries on. Twenty-five minutes, the cooling breath, one long supported forward bend and the wall. This is the version to keep, and the evening sequence stays underneath it for the weeks when the nights are bad.

25 min · Level 1

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Wann hilfreich

For weeks seven and eight, twice a week, and afterwards for as long as it is useful. Twenty-five minutes. A wall, a bolster and a blanket. For perimenopause and after, alongside whatever else you are doing about it. The sleep and mood effects are the ones with the evidence behind them: the strongest single trial found no difference in hot flushes against ordinary daily activity, and a clear improvement in insomnia. If you have or may have osteoporosis, keep twists gentle and leave out deep backbends, and get bone density checked before starting if you have risk factors. Any bleeding after the menopause needs a doctor regardless of anything on this page.

Sleep

The same components as the evening sequence in a slightly fuller form. Sleep is the outcome that responds most reliably here.

Mood and stress

Consistent across trials, and the reason this is worth continuing past week eight.

Cooling breath

By now it should be automatic. That is the point of practising it when nothing is happening.

Standing

Nine minutes upright. Enough to count as weight bearing and short enough to keep.

BerghaltungTadasana
01
2 min

Berghaltung

Feet hip width, standing tall, eight rounds of the cooling breath.

The opening you have done fourteen times by now. Familiar is what makes a practice last.

Mehr über Tadasana erfahren
Gestrecke ArmposeUrdhva Hastasana
02
2 min

Gestrecke Armpose

Arms overhead, front ribs down.

Overhead reach, kept because it disappears quietly if nothing asks for it.

Mehr über Urdhva Hastasana erfahren
Krieger 2Virabhadrasana II
03
1 min each side

Krieger 2

Wide stance, front knee bent, hand on a chair if you like.

One standing pose that asks the legs to hold something.

Mehr über Virabhadrasana II erfahren
Stehende VorbeugeUttanasana
04
2 min

Stehende Vorbeuge

Knees soft, folding from the hips with a long spine, coming up slowly.

The hip hinge, kept in because it is the movement of every ordinary day.

Mehr über Uttanasana erfahren

On the floor

Sixteen minutes lower down, ending the same way as everything else here.

KatzenposeMarjaryasana
05
2 min

Katzenpose

Hands and knees, rounding on the out breath.

The spine, unhurried.

Mehr über Marjaryasana erfahren
Kuh HaltungBitilasana
06
2 min

Kuh Haltung

Chest forward on the in breath, moderate.

And the other direction.

Mehr über Bitilasana erfahren
Einbeinige sitzende VorbeugeJanu Shirsana
07
2 min each side

Einbeinige sitzende Vorbeuge

One leg out, forehead resting on a bolster or cushions. Two minutes each side.

The supported forward bend from the evening sequence. It belongs in the version you keep.

Mehr über Janu Shirsana erfahren
Liegende Hand Fuß PoseSupta Hasta Padangusthasana
08
90 sec each side

Liegende Hand Fuß Pose

Strap around one foot, knee bent as much as you want.

The last thing that asks for anything.

Mehr über Supta Hasta Padangusthasana erfahren

Settling

Seven minutes with nothing to do.

Das Siegel der UmkehrViparita Karani
09
4 min

Das Siegel der Umkehr

Legs up the wall, or knees bent with the feet on the floor.

Four minutes. It has been in every session and it stays.

Mehr über Viparita Karani erfahren
TotenstellungSavasana
10
3 min

Totenstellung

Flat, covered, cushion under the knees.

Three minutes. In week eight as in week one, and for as long afterwards as you like.

Mehr über Savasana erfahren

Integration

Twice a week for weeks seven and eight, then keep it for as long as it fits, with the evening sequence for the difficult nights. The trials with the strongest sleep results ran twelve weeks or longer, so continuing is not a formality.