Tree Arms Overhead

Monty Python Tree Yoga Class Theme

You could start your Yoga class with this tongue-in-cheek sentence, similar to the Monty Python skit: “What have Romans ever done for us”.  And then tell your students what trees have done for us.

“What have trees ever done for us?”

Below are nine nifty things that trees have done for us.

If you have a tree peak pose themed class, be sure to talk about them during the class. You can also encourage your students to plant a tree by spending only $1 on this site. They’ll plant the tree for you!

1. Wildlife Habitat
Wildlife use trees for food, shelter, nesting, and mating. These habitats support the incredible variety of living things on the planet, known as biodiversity. By protecting trees, we also save all the other plants and animals they shelter.

2. Clean Air
A study in the Journal of Preventative Medicine found that people experienced more deaths from heart disease and respiratory disease when they lived in areas where trees had disappeared. Trees are often referred to as the “lungs of the planet” because of the oxygen they provide to other living things.

3. Clean Water
Forests provide natural filtration and storage systems that process nearly two-thirds of the water supply in most countries. When you drink a glass of tap water, you’re drinking water that was filtered largely by the forests.

4. Carbon Sequestration
Burning fossil fuels puts heat-trapping carbon dioxide into our atmosphere, changing our climate in dangerous ways. Planting trees can slow down this process. A tree can absorb as much as 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year and can sequester one ton of carbon dioxide by the time it reaches 40 years old.

5. Reduced Crime
Neighbourhoods with abundant trees have significantly fewer crimes than those without. Researchers think that this is because green spaces have a calming effect and encourage people to spend more with their neighbours outdoors, bolstering community trust.

6. Increased Property Values
People are drawn to homes and businesses near trees. The proof is in the prices: property values are 7 percent to 25 percent higher for houses surrounded by trees.

7. Mental Health
Feeling down? Take a walk in the woods. Several studies have found that access to nature yields better cognitive functioning, more self-discipline, and greater mental health overall. One study even found that hospital patients who can see trees out of their windows are hospitalized 8 percent fewer days than their counterparts.

8. Temperature Control
The shade and wind-breaking qualities that trees provide benefits, everyone, from the individual taking shelter from a hot summer day to entire cities. The annual mean air temperature of a city with 1 million people or more can be 1.8–5.4°F (1–3°C) warmer than its surroundings. Planting trees reduces this “heat island effect”.

9. Flood Control
Trees can hold vast amounts of water that would otherwise stream downhills and surge along rivers into towns. That’s why trees are such an important part of stormwater management for many cities.

Balance Poses Benefits

Balance is the ability to control your body’s position, whether stationary (i.e. a complex yoga pose) or while moving (e.g. playing golf).

Balance is a key component of Yoga, along with strength and flexibility poses.

Top 5 Benefits Of Balance Poses

1) Body Awareness – Body awareness is the sense of how your limbs are oriented in space, also known as proprioception. Balance training improves body awareness, which decreases the likelihood of injury.

2) Coordination – Balance poses require your entire body to work in harmony, otherwise you will fall or stumble. Improved coordination during balance poses will be transferred into coordination in everyday life.

3) Joint Stability – Balance poses help to promote stable knees, ankles, hips, and shoulders. This can prevent a multitude of injuries including sprained ankles and knee problems.

4) Reaction Time – Balance poses can improve your reaction time. If you happen to slip or stumble when performing balance poses, your body needs to re-balance immediately or you will fall. This in turn will improve your reaction time in everyday life.

5) Long Term Health – Adding balance poses into your Yoga session helps to maintain or improve your balance, which is needed to prevent falls and fractures. As we age, our balance can deteriorate. Yoga balances will help delay that deterioration.

Modifications

Ankle Hold: Hold ankle with one hand and use the other hand to balance.

Baby Tree Pose: Place insides of soles of one foot near insides of ankles of the other foot.

Chair Hand: Tree with a hand on a chair for balance.

Chair Foot: Tree with the foot on a chair.

Eyes: Close eyes.

Half Lotus Tree Pose: Bring foot higher up your thigh.

Hands: Bring hands overhead.

Hands: Place hands on hips.

Tree Side Bend: Get in Tree Pose and bend to the side.

Tree Partner: Tree pose with a partner.

Wall: Back against a wall.

Variations

Pose variations help your students grow and build further confidence in their yoga practice no matter what their starting ability levels are.

Don’t worry!

Picking pose variations is easy with the Yoga Genie Lesson Planner when you use our “pose filtering” feature.

For example, if you are giving your students a deep backbend pose such as Wheel Urdhva Dhanurasana Pose, you’ll click the backbend filter. With that one click over 100 backbends will be presented to you. All you have to do is single click on a pose to add it to the yoga lesson plan. Easy peasy. You might end up choosing the following gentle backbends: Staff Backbend Pose, Upward Facing Dog Urdhva Mukha Svanasana Pose, Seated Cat Cow Sukhasana Pose, and Heart Opener With Partner Pose.

Picking pose variations is probably the most important job of a yoga teacher. Instead of making it a hard job, use the Yoga Genie Lesson Planner pose filtering feature, to make it easy.

Below are 100+ variations of Tree Pose (Standing Balance Poses) to give you ideas for your next yoga class. 

Airplane Dekasana Pose

Extended Hand To Big Toe Utthita Hasta Padangustasana Pose

Extended Hand To Big Toe Fold Utthita Hasta Padangustasana Pose

Half Moon Bow Ardha Chandrasana Chapasana Pose

Half Moon Bound Revolved Baddha Parivrtta Ardha Chandrasana Pose

Revolved Half Moon Parivrtta Adha Chandrasana Pose

Revolved Triangle Paravritta Trikonasana Pose

Warrior III Virabhadrasana Pose

Click here for 100+ more Balance Poses