Kids on toes: Now, quirky yogas to woo them

  • | Friday | 22nd June, 2018

Especially, when they are taught horse and elephant postures – which are integral to kalari yoga – they get very excited," Achariya told TOI. It’s obvious that playful ways of teaching is more effective for children and yoga coaching is no exception to this. "By integrating martial arts and yoga, we’ve been teaching unique postures which children find very attractive. This unique yoga practice is taught by Manoj Achariya, through his centre Mansa Yoga Studio. "Children are more flexible and some of the postures, they do involuntarily or naturally in a very early age, are aasanas themselves.

It’s obvious that playful ways of teaching is more effective for children and yoga coaching is no exception to this. Keeping this in mind, instructors and coaching centres in the city have come up with fun ways of teaching yoga to children.Yoga centres in Trichy now offer quirky programmes, which have gotten thumbs up from both the children and their parents alike. The demand for ‘jogging yoga’, ‘kalari yoga’ and ‘dietary yoga’, which were introduced in the past few years, have attracted many children to the yoga centres.Though these yoga styles are quite experimental in nature, the traditional aasanas and pranayamas are integrated in a seamless way that the children do not find it heavy or boring. Even schools have increasingly started approaching the instructors, who come up with such programmes, to teach their students.Based on Kalaripayattu, the ancient martial art form of Kerala, which is said to be one of the oldest fighting systems, kalari yoga is a blend of the martial artform, yoga and ayurveda. This unique yoga practice is taught by Manoj Achariya, through his centre Mansa Yoga Studio. "By integrating martial arts and yoga, we’ve been teaching unique postures which children find very attractive. Especially, when they are taught horse and elephant postures – which are integral to kalari yoga – they get very excited," Achariya told TOI. He also stated that many schools have requested him to teach this yoga style in their campuses.Contrary to the conventional yoga practice, which is done on a mat, Achariya also came up with ‘jogging yoga’, where one gets to perform aasanas while jogging. "When aasanas are done during movement, they are more effective. Children love this style because they don’t have to sit in one place," he said.On the other hand, feeling that children might not like the idea of sitting for a long time for meditation, yoga instructor P Vijayakumar came up with a programme, which he calls ‘dietary yoga’. "Say the programme is for one month, we design a particular dietary plan – which involves lots of fruits and vegetables – for that period for children and also teach them simple aasanas. Since we also make it a contest-like programme, they find it very interesting," he said.According to assistant medical officer of Yoga and Naturopathy Life-Style Clinic at Mahatma Gandhi Government Memorial Hospital, Dr T Preethi Pushpakarini, yoga effectively reaches children only if it’s taught in a playful manner. "Children are more flexible and some of the postures, they do involuntarily or naturally in a very early age, are aasanas themselves. Hence, we just need to make sure that they are explained about the benefits of doing those postures in a way they could understand," she said. Preethi also added that if simple aasanas and pranayamas are taught to children during their formative years itself, it would help for an ideal balance of the right and the left brain.

If You Like This Story, Support NYOOOZ

NYOOOZ SUPPORTER

NYOOOZ FRIEND

Your support to NYOOOZ will help us to continue create and publish news for and from smaller cities, which also need equal voice as much as citizens living in bigger cities have through mainstream media organizations.


Stay updated with all the Latest Trichy headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.

Related Articles